An Introduction to Social Media for Small Businesses

Prepared by Aimee Carmichael

http://www.easywriting.co.uk

I will Cover

1. Overview on social media

2. Why use social media

3. Who uses social media

4. Common misconceptions

5. Starting Out

6. Intro to Facebook

7. Intro to Twitter

8. Beyond just a presence..

1. Overview of Social Media

Social Media Points Back to YOU

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. The term refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

Businesses may also refer to social media as user generated media (UGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value.

Messages Have Further Reach

2. Why Bother With Social Media?

Business Examples

• By the end of 2010 – Dell had generated over 6 million pounds worth of sales from social media alone!!!

• Starbucks has been busy with a bunch of successful social media campaigns across a range of networks. The coffee giant offered mayorships on Foursquare, give away for tax day via Twitter, and then made use of Promoted Tweets.

• They also enhanced sales of pastries which were not doing so well in store by promoting a free pastry day in all stores across both Facebook and Twitter .

3. Who Uses Social Media

• More than 750 million active users• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given

day• Average user has 130 friends• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on

Facebook• There are more than 250 million active users currently

accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.• There are over 900 million objects that people interact

with (pages, groups, events and community pages)Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

• (Facebook Press Site, 2011)

#tweets3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.

• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last

month.• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a

record at that time).• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New

Year’s Day.

#accounts572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.

• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

4. Common Misconceptions

• You cannot measure social media ROI

• You cannot target

• The more friends/followers the better

• Younger generation and tech savvy are the only users

• Only used by larger brands with huge budgets

• Replaces traditional marketing

5. Starting Out

First decide what you want to achieve...

• Set Goals and Objectives• Listen to what is already happening –

competitor and consumer research• Learn where your audience is and what media

they consume• Decide what social media will do for you (start

one step at a time)• Define goals Short-term and Long-term• Stay active with your initiatives• Integration with other marketing efforts• Personalise your social media brand• Listen, think, and then respond to conversation

Set your base this is where you will direct people back to..

Plan your communication, select your channels and use them to engage and drive traffic and

activity

How to engage

• Ask Questions

• Answer Questions

• Share useful information

• Make existing content easy to share

• Add value, make you audience want to and have a reason for staying in touch with you on social platforms –one way messaging is a NO!

Social Etiquette

• AVOID blatant self promotion – no one likes an arrogant idiot!

• Share interesting info that will enlighten and engage your audience

• Promote others to build connections

• Refer other businesses (you will look good)

• Be professional, yet interesting and inject your personality

6. Intro to Facebook

Facebook – Profile or Page?

Set Up a “Profile” for yourself but only use

this for actual friends, don’t add people

you don’t know its unprofessional.

If you want to build yourself as a BRAND or

promote your business.. You need a

PAGE!

A Facebook Page

BUSINESSES

Create a “Page” for your business and then local community can engage with you!

• With this you can:

• Monitor your Facebook ad campaigns

• Create Facebook pages

• Post updates to the page

• Add photos and videos

• Link your page to the rest of your marketing

• Like other pages – good for increasing business awareness and building b2b relations

Facebook Strategy

1. Secure your company name and place2. Once you get 25 likes you can customise the url:

e.g. www.facebook.com/mybusiness3. Tell people about your page – Word of mouth,

inviting existing contacts from your email database,, add social links to email marketing, and other collateral

4. Use the page to educate and add value – other wise those who have joined will leave

5. Find existing content that you have and share this on Facebook

6. Once you have activity on the page – maintain it7. Start Small8. Facebook Ads are a good way to add likes

What a business page can and cant do

What a business page can do•Communicate updated content and engage community• –Interactive• –Exclusive contentWhat you can’t do• –Cannot see profile of fans, only name & photo• –Do not receive a news feed about what fans are doing• –Cannot send messages to individual fansThe power of a Fan Page• –Promotion• –Custom iframe interface – facebook pages can be designed like

mini websites (www.asos.com) • –Applications• Can direct users to your website or to contact you• Sustain relationships for as long as some one likes the page

Facebook Ads

Why Use Facebook ads?

• An extremely efficient method of targeting a specific• demographic or criteria of individual that your• product may appeal to.• Just by looking at the adverts that appear on your• facebook page you will see that these are in some• way or another relevant to your profile.• This is the real strength of the advertisements• through Facebook.• The Facebook system picks up the information from• the millions of profiles of individuals and places the• adverts in their side bar.• This means that only your chosen niche market see• your product.

7. Intro to Twitter

What is Twitter

• Free micro-blogging platform. Answers the question “what am I doing now?”

• Updates of 140 characters or less• The sharing of content, ideas and data

.

Twitter for Business

• Network and communicate–Build and maintain relationships–Engage customers and share information–Humanize your company• Real time conversation–Communicating and engaging with people–Customer Service, quick responses to user’s

needs–Monitor opinions of your brand• Friend, follow, share, and discover• Market and advertise your business• Recruiting

Strategy• Branding your Twitter account(s)–Business–Personal• Securing your company name• Following other users- Use twellow.com- Use tweepsearch.com- Use Wefollow.com•Tweeting- Develop a schedule and twitter guideline• •Monitoring• –search.twitter.com• -set up searches on nutshell mail• Reacting

Sending A Tweet

Get started sending tweets set a target of 3-5 per day to start with:•Reply to a follower (show interest)•RT someone’s post (show active participation)•Tweet a useful link that others will find interesting•Tweet a piece of news or content (self promotion)

•The Key is to mix up your activity •Many businesses go about twitter the wrong way as they use it as a one way communication tool to push out own messages!

How to write a tweet

• 140 characters• Answers the question: what am I doing

right now• catchy tweets – think newspaper

headlines• (Catchy title or subject matter) with the

(Link)• Want to say more? Use Bit.ly• Desktop applications will auto shorten

or enable you to send longer tweets

Finding Followers

There are many ways to find others

to follow on Twitter.

Tools: twitter.search.com is easy to use. So are twellow & tweepz.

Search by interest, name, location, key words.

Follow competitors to see what they’re doing & saying!

Follow industry related tweeters: automotive news, car reviews, top gear

If you find someone interesting, see who THEY are following. This is a great way to build a network of people.

Building a community on Twitter

Have a strategy

Follow people with similar interests

Look at competitors engage with some of their followers

Set up targeted searches and build conversations from those

Use offline methods to integrate social media – incentivise customers to follow you for special discounts, exclusive news etc

Share existing content from your website or marketing materials via Twitter

Learn how to use hashtags and common twitter etiquette to build rapport

Pay for tools that promise to get you 1000s followers

Send Spammy Auto DM’s

Mass follow (account can get blocked)

Follow people just to get followed back – always think about adding value

Follow too many celebrities

Forget to tell your friends, clients and contacts that you are on Twitter

Tweet things that add no value to your community

Think that having thousands of followers demonstrates effective use – Quality not Quantity!

Useful Twitter Apps

FIND PEOPLE• Twellow: the “yellow pages” of Twitter.

• Tweepz: search for other users by location, bio or name.

UPDATE• Tweetdeck: create lists/columns, update Facebook and Twitter

simultaneously.

• Hootsuite: column functionality, statistics tracking, synch all social networks.

• Ping.fm: Update all your social networks at once.

MONITOR• Tweetbeep: Get Twitter alerts by email.

• Nutshell Mail: Get Twitter alerts by email

Twitter Etiquette

• It is ok to use short hand /txt language – but make sure this is consistent and within your brand guidelines and personality

• RT = retweet, is when you re send out someone else’s tweets to your followers gaining extra exposure for that Tweet.

• #ff on Fridays • Hastags #• Reveal who is updating the company page • Make sure you have a profile pic• Be polite and reply to all @’s• Don’t swear• Read more here: (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/a-

brief-and-informal-twitter-etiquette-guide/)

8. Beyond Just a presence

Going beyond just a page...

Twitter

• Background

• Logo

• Encourage employees to have a personal account and link to company page (again adhere to any social media guidelines and talk to employees about how you want them to use Twitter.

Facebook

• Custom profile image

• Custom landing page to encourage likes/ other interaction

• Combine certain sections of website on facebook through iframes

• Survey customers how they would use Facebook to communicate with you

Thanks..

• Hope you found this presentation useful...

• More coming soon!!

If you are after anything specific email me : aimee@easywriting.co.uk or click the links below: