Social Media & You

29th April 2010Grimsby

Welcome, thanksand introductions

About Social Media

"a group of Internet-based applications thatbuild on the ideological and technological

foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow thecreation and exchange of user-generated

content (UGC)”

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein

So, what IS the currency of Social Media?

• Share• Comment• Transmit• Rate• Create• Iterate

Your Personal Social GraphWho uses what and why?• Blogs• Facebook• Twitter• Linkedin• Myspace• Flickr/Picassa• Youtube/Vimeo• Google Buzz• Others

What is Social Media?

How does Social work?

Simple….like people do

Video: Social Media Revolution

How to build a successful blog

Why Blog?

• Build a reputation• Demonstrate your knowledge• Give love• Find a voice• Cultivate a personal brand

Things to consider: Subject Matter

• What do you know?• What can you add to the debate?• What matters to you?

Things to consider: Tone of voice

• What are you trying to do?• Who is your audience?• How do YOU feel comfortable?

Things to consider: Platform

Hosted or Self Hosted?

Things to consider: Platform

Developing Social GuidelinesDo....1. Be transparent. 2. Be true.3. Be clever. 4. Be respectful. Don’t...1. Disagree without qualification.2. Neglect to check the facts. 3. Blog or discuss anything that is a crisis.4. Blog or discuss anything that is in litigation.

Building your "Braintrust"

My Braintrust:

Turbocharge your blog

• Use your connections• Build new ones• Comment on others• Blog on topical issues

.rss

• Allows users to subscribe using feedreaders and via email

• Analyse your traffic• Use .rss tools to link your blog to other

services

Facebook

• Link your blog to Facebook, use the network you have

• Friends, family, colleagues are important connectors

• Advanced: Link #fb comments back to blog

Twitter

• Great for building your networks• Succinct and public communication• Great for content sharing • Great for identifying new content• Great for identifying popular content

Linkedin

• Your existing contacts need to know what you are up to

• Build your network• Great tool for prospective employers • Use suggested users function

Analyse

• Understand your traffic• Link spikes and troughs back to events• Remember what subjects get Trackbacks and

Pingbacks• Understand why

Case Study:

Case Study : icanhascheeseburger

• Started in 2007 as a Wordpress site (icanhascheeseburger.wordpress.com)

• Just a site for silly pictures of cats (“LOLCATS”)• 6 Months in: 8m page views

Case Study : icanhascheeseburger

• Moved from blog to web2.0 component (“LOL Builder”)

• “LOL Builder” One weekend. One part time developer

• Unleashed pent up creativity• Simple site, beautifully done• Appears simple, guidelines are 800 pages!• Within a year, 36m pageviews a day!

Case Study : icanhascheeseburger

• Launched a network 14mths in• Now has 8000 user submissions a day across the

network!• Over 2 years in and 180m pageviews a day!• So how have they done what they did?• They lowered the barriers, lowered the bar for

content creation. Made it easier to have fun.

Lessons from this?

This world moves faster, you have to beprepared to find solutions to problems you never knew existed.

Your user is royalty, treat them well and the world is your oyster.

Add me at…

• www.totaal.co.uk • Twitter: @benmckenna & @totaalco• www.facebook.com/thebenmckenna• uk.linkedin.com/in/benmckenna