Social Media Pauline Randall

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.

Wikipedia

It’s just that the ways in which we

connect are changing…

Social networking has always been with us

It’s changed…

From the gossip round the campfire

Through chatting over the garden fence

or down the pub…

If a customer loves something they can

share that across the world in seconds…

…to exchanging views at the speed of light

The same goes for the things they are unhappy with…

Most people now have global reach…

Social Media is about relationships…

Main Players

• Advantages – Free to join

– Connects you with lots of people

– Level playing field with large companies (almost)

– Let’s you hear what’s going on as well as broadcasting

• Be aware – Not necessarily where your target

audience is

– Can be a time sink if not managed well

• Advantages – Free to join

– Connects you with lots of people

– Let’s you share your profile/expertise

– Groups

– Company profile

– Many jobs are now advertised ONLY on LinkedIn

• Be aware – You need to spend time on your profile

– Not necessarily where you will sell directly – more about promoting you

• Advantages – Free to create page

– Let’s you create a community

– Can have separate content for people who ‘like’ your page

– Your audience can join in and comment, post pictures etc

• Be aware – Not necessarily where your target

audience is – still primarily B2C (although growing B2B in the USA)

– Can easily become out of date – needs attention

– Need to watch what is being posted - moderation

FITTING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR BUSINESS

You have a plan?

• Social media should be a part of your marketing strategy which should, in turn, be a part of your business strategy.

Will this complement what you’re already doing?

• Social media marketing shouldn’t take place on its own

• You need to connect it to your other marketing activities

– Linking into your website

– Tying it into your ecommerce strategy

– Connecting with your offline marketing

– Being clear about what you expect it to do

What do you expect from social media?

• Increase sales?

• Increase leads?

• Find out what customers think about your business?

• Customer support?

• Increase web traffic?

• Raise your company profile?

• Find out what other businesses are doing?

Who’s going to manage it?

• The time to ‘do’ social media has to come from somewhere

• Do you have multiple departments using social media?

– Sales, marketing, HR etc – is there a policy to connect them?

Business Security Issues

• You shouldn’t be afraid of social media but you need to be aware that what you say stays out there.

• Even when you delete it there is no guarantee that it has gone. In fact it probably hasn’t.

• So, think before you say.

Do you have a policy?

• On what you will publish?

• Who is going to say things on behalf of your organisation?

• Have you included social media as part of your organisation’s acceptable use policy?

Account ownership

• Who ‘owns’ the Twitter account?

• And the Facebook page and the LinkedIn company profile and your Flickr site and the YouTube channel…?

• And what happens when they leave your organisation?

• Or get whisked away by aliens?

• Or fall out with you?

Further reading…

Better safe than sorry

• Be clear about ownership of accounts

• Ensure that more than one person knows the login details

• On Facebook make sure that you have more than one Admin – and match the appropriate permissions to the user.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE?

Male or female?

Age

Employment status

Income

Location

Education

Employment sector

Understand your customer profile

• Who is currently buying your product/service?

• What is the profile of your target market?

• Is there a new market you can reach via social media that you can’t get in other ways?

Question: Please select the social media services on which you have an account and also to which you have actively use or contributed to in the past month. (% of UK internet users) © Global Web Index April 2012

Have account 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 UK Ave

Facebook 96% 86% 74% 69% 50% 71%

Twitter 54% 44% 53% 17% 12% 33%

Google+ 25% 33% 26% 17% 17% 23%

Pinterest 8% 12% 0% 0% 0% 3%

LinkedIn 13% 30% 19% 12% 8% 16%

Have posted 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 UK Ave

Facebook 75% 56% 49% 40% 32% 47%

Twitter 25% 19% 9% 10% 5% 12%

Google+ 0% 9% 7% 5% 5% 6%

Pinterest 0% 5% 0% 0% 0% 1%

LinkedIn 0% 9% 7% 2% 3% 5%

90-100

80-89

70-79

60-69

50-59

40-49

30-39

20-29

10-19

1-9 0

MEASURING SUCCESS

If you don’t know where you’re starting from and you don’t know where you’re going to how will you know when you’ve arrived?

Measurement is crucial

Is your time online profitable?

• If you have a clear plan of what you are aiming to achieve then you should be in a good position to decide whether the time you invest online is worthwhile.

Some methods of measuring success

• The number of visits to your website has increased

• The number of enquiries has increased

• The cost of support has reduced

• The number of complaints have reduced

• Sales have increased

• Brand awareness has increased

• Media mentions have increased

Some tools to help you

• Many measures can be taken using your in-house data – sales etc

• Online measurement tools that you could use: – Google analytics -

http://www.google.com/analytics/

– Social Mention - http://socialmention.com/

– Google alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts

– Facebook metrics (on your Facebook page admin)

– Tweetreach - http://tweetreach.com/

WHAT’S NEXT?

Review your current strategy

• What are you doing now?

• Will any of these tools ADD value and help you achieve your objectives?

• Will any of these tools help you move into new markets and expand what you’re doing?

Watch from the side-lines…

• Lurk for a while

• See what other people are already doing

• If you’re going for Twitter join in a personal capacity and see what’s going on

• Create an account with LinkedIn and look at other people’s profiles, groups (lots are open now) etc

• Check out other business Facebook pages – particularly ones in the same sector

… and don’t forget your competitors

• Do they have a Facebook page? – What are they doing there? – How many friends do they have and who are they? – How often are they posting? – What are they posting? – Are they getting engagement?

• Are they on Twitter? – How many followers/following? – What are they saying? – Are they talking to other people? – Are these people potential/actual customers or other sector members?

• Have they got a LinkedIn profile? – How many connections do they have? – Have they completed their profile? – Are they engaging on LinkedIn? – Do they update their status?

A plan for your business

• If you decide that social media is right for your business: – Take one of the social media tools – Set your objectives for what you want to achieve from

using it – Determine if it is possible to do that (refer to Forrester

tools re demographics) – Take your current measurements (then you have a starting

point) – Do your research (watching from the side-lines) – Get follow-on training if appropriate – Get started!

Website: www.florizelmedia.com Twitter: @florizelmedia Facebook: www.facebook.com/florizelmedia YouTube: www.youtube.com/florizelmedia Slideshare: www.slideshare.net/florizelmedia Email: info@florizelmedia.com