social media for business january 2010

An Introduction to

Social Media for Business

1. Introduction

2. What is Social Media?

3. Introducing the Technology

4. Case Studies

5. Planning your Approach

6. Getting Started

7. Measuring & Analysis

8. Next Stages

Social Media for Business

1. Introduction

My Background

Introduction

With…

• 60%+ of online European consumers now engaging with social media on a regular basis.

And

• 64% of UK companies saying they have experimented with social media

There’s three important questions that businesses needto ask…

Is it just a fad?

Where do I start?

Where’s the money?

1. What is Social Media?

“Media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highlyaccessible and scalable publishing techniques.”

Wikipedia Definition

or

“...it’s how people read, discover and shareinformation.”

• Many to many

• Real time

• Community

• Authentic

• Conversational

• UGC and CGM

Aspects & Terminology

Why Now? – Is it just a fad?

• Sociological & Technological

• Generation Y

• Computing Power

• Broadband Access

• Customer driven

Who’s using Social Media?

Graphic created using http://www.wordle.net/.

3. Introducing the Technology

Blogs, Micro-Blogs & V-Logs

Some Statistics

• 77% of active internet users read blogs• 133m+ blogs indexed by Technorati• Websites with blogs achieve 55% more traffic

Blogs, Micro-Blogs & V-Logs

Latest Statistics

• 66m Worldwide Unique Visitors

• 550m Visits 5.5m UK Members

• Micro- blogging now the most widely adopted social media tactic, used by 78% of company respondents

V-Logs

Social Networks

What is Facebook?

• Launched in 2004 as a college network

• The largest social network with 350m users.

• 27% are between 25-34

• 23% are between 35-49

Latest Statistics

• 50% of active users log on in any given day

• 35m+ users update their status each day

• 55m+ status updates posted each day

• 3.5bn+ pieces of content shared each week

Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

An Average user…

• 130+ friends in their network (1st Degree)

• Spends 55+ mins per day on Facebook

• Writes 25 comments on content p.m.

• Becomes a fan of 2 Pages p.m.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Professional Networks

What is LinkedIn?

• A ‘Professional Network’ founded in 2003• Over 50 million members in over 200

countries and territories around the world.• Executives from all Fortune 500 companies

listed

Some Statistics

• Gains one new user every second

• Average earnings of members is £68,000

• 46% of those listed are decision makers

File Sharing Sites

File Sharing Sites

File Sharing Sites

What is YouTube?

• Founded in February 2005

• 20 hours of video uploaded every minute

• Allows millions of people to discover, watch and share originally created videos.

Latest Statistics

• 85m Unique Visitors Worldwide (November 2009)

• 517m+ Visits Worldwide (November 2009)

• 52% of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues

• 51% of users go there once a week or more

Demographics (Age)

• 3-17: 19%

• 18-34: 35%

• 35-49: 24%

• 50+: 19%

Forums

Wikis

Live-Streaming

4. Case Studies

Tonick Media

Business Cornwall

Case Study: Business Cornwall

UKNetWeb

Where’s the money?

Case Study: Tonick Media

Case Study: Tonick Media

• Market leader in Cornwall

• Developed strong client base regionally

• Strong growth in turnover

• International interest & partnerships

• Low management costs

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

Visits

New Visitors

Page Views

Case Study: Business Cornwall

Case Study: UKNetWeb

Case Study: UKNetWeb

• 500% increase in new business enquiries through social networks

• 2/3 of all enquiries through social networks

• Higher average order values

• Increased reach

More Examples

• Dell– $3m Sales attributed to Twitter

• Twestival– £2,644 raised locally

• Surfers Against Sewage– Hundreds of new members, increased activity

5. Planning your approach

Planning an approach

Identify your community

Define your objectives

Decide your approach

Allocate resources

Link to technology

6. Getting Started

The Golden Rule

Visibility + Credibility = Profitability

Practical Exercises

• Sign up to relevant networks

• Start building your networks with the people you know

• Explore social media content around subjects of interest (Real time)

• Identify interesting sources & people – what makes them worth listening to?

• Try participating through comments, messaging etc

• Consider writing a blog, answering forums threads, LinkedIn questions to demonstrate expertise.

Some tips

• Set up alerts

• Think “Why would someone care?”

• Keep your audience in mind

• Be ethical and respect etiquette

• Define your objectives

• Don’t overstretch

• Quality over quantity

7. Measuring & Analysis

Measuring and Analysis

• Google Analytics

– Visitors

– New vs. Returning

– Time on site

– Keywords

• Google Alerts

• SocialOomph, TweetBeep & Twitter Search

– Mentions

– Sentiment

8. Recap & Next Stages

In Summary...

• It’s not just a fad – but it is.

• Plan out your approach

• Monitor and tweak regularly

• Don’t start with the technology

• Remember it’s Social Media

• Quality over Quantity

• Think ‘Why should they care?’

Get it right…

• Cost effective marketing

• Brand trust & credibility

• Increased customer loyalty / retention

• Wider reach

• Insight into market opinion

• Improved collaboration

• Bottom Line: Increased sales & profitability

We can help get you started…

• Advice, Guidance & Mentoring

– Best Practice

– Policy

– Saving time & Resources

• Bespoke Training

– Technology or Approach Based

– One to One

– For Teams

• Research, Planning & Strategy

More information

• Message me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social network you find me on

• Check out the blog at www.tonickmedia.com/blog

• Give me a call – 01209 718688 / 07501 259000

• Send me an email - aren@tonickmedia.com

www.tonickmedia.com