social media for small business

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Karen Pelletier Marketing Consultingwww.marketing-consultant-k-pelletier.com

Twitter: @kjpelletier

Facebook: kjpelletier

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenjpelletier

My Background

30 years experience in marketing; I am NOT a programmer

Karen Pelletier

Marketing Consulting

Housekeeping

• Turn cell phones to vibrate

• Slides available by going to

− Twitter.com > Search on #scoresocmedsem > click on link OR

− Go to my homepage and download the pdf file OR

− Text 90210 / scorecv

How Many of You…

• Are B2C marketers? B2B?

• Use social media personally?

− Checked out online reviews before booking a hotel or trying a new restaurant?

− Have read reviews of a product online before purchasing?

• Use social media for your business?

What I want you to get out of this seminar

• Why you need to embrace social media

• A feel for the social media universe

• A basic understanding of The Big 3 and what they can do for business

• An understanding of how to evaluate alternatives given your business’ objectives

What Is Social Media?

• Web and mobile based sites that people are using to participate, create, share, discover, bookmark, argue & debate

• Powerful communication channel that values authenticity and useful content

Why Should You Be In Social Media?

1 - Reach

Your Customers Are There

12 - 17 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 +

% of the age group that currently has a profile page on a social networking site

76%

15%

31%

45%

63%

68%

80%

Source: Arbitron 2011

2 - Opportunity to Engage with your Fans!

3 - You can be very targeted

Fashion

Music

4 - Ratings & Reviews Matter

This Holds for All CategoriesCategory Purchased Number of information

sources used by the typical shopper

% of shoppers influencedbefore the point of purchase

Automotive 18.2 97%

Technology / Consumer Electronics 14.8 92%

Voters 14.7 95%

Travel 10.2 99%

Over-the-Counter Health 9.8 78%

Consumer Pkg Goods, Grocery 7.3 61%

Consumer Pkg Goods, Health, Beauty, Personal Care

7 63%

Quick Serve Restaurants 5.8 72%

Banking 10.8 91%

Insurance 11.7 94%

Credit Card 8.6 81%

Investments 8.9 89%

Source: Google Shopper Sciences, Zero Moment of Truth Industry Studies, US, April 2011

5 - Search Engine Optimization

• Both Google & Bing use social mentions (FB & Twitter) in their search algorithms

• Your website will be displayed right next to blog postings and reviews

6 – It’s Effective for Lead GenerationBoth B2B and B2C

HubSpot: 101 Marketing Charts & Graphs

7 - Reputation Management

• People are talking about you online, whether you are there or not

• Being involved in social media gives you the opportunity to respond before there’s a crisis

Domino’s Pizza Crisis

If you do nothing else…

Monitor what’s being said about your company or brand

• Set up FREE Google Alerts

• Do periodic searches on YouTube & Twitter

• If you have a restaurant or hotel monitor the review sites

− Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.

− Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon, Open Table, etc.

8 - Market Research & Opportunity for Customer Involvement

9 - Competitive Research

Why Jump In Now?

• Learn now… future changes will only make things easier and more intuitive

• It’s an opportunity to connect with your customers

• Cost effective (though time intensive) way to market your business

Overview of the Social Media Universe

• Blogs

• Sites like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

− There are millions of SM sites

• Geo-location & Deal Sites

• They all interact− Choose your HUB (social media page or website)

− Drive traffic to your HUB

− Create strong CTAs

Content is the Magnet!

Source: Angela Maiers

• What you want is for people to spread your message or content by “sharing”

• To encourage sharing, your content must− Be useful, entertaining

or both!− Answer questions

your readers may have− Be clear & concise− Be EASY to share

“Repurpose” your content in many forms

• Blog articles

• Videos

• White Papers

• Webinars

Promote your content in social media

Blogging Drives Leads

Always include an Image in your blog post

• If you include an image in your blog post, when it’s shared it will show up with the thumbnail of your image

− Makes it more likely that people scanning their page will read it

The Big 3

750 MM Users

350 B Tweets/Day

130 MM Users

Why Facebook?

Facebook includes

• Pages -- a place to engage

• Ads & Deals

• Apps

• E-commerce

• Analytics

It’s like a parallel universe to the Internet, only it’s• focused on your brand• more customer oriented• all info in 1 place

A lot of ways to engage!

Your Goals on Facebook

Be found by people searching for your product/service

Promote your business by

• Getting “fans”

− Get people to click your “Like” button

• Getting your “fans” to interact with you − That spreads your content to your fan’s friends

− Enables you to build a community around your brand or company

− Promote your content and events

Generate leads for your business

FB Fans are customers looking for Deals, News, Exclusives and Community

FB Profile vs. Page

FB Profile is Your Own personal page

• You must have your own Profile page to set up a business page

FB Page is a business page

• 6 business “types” to choose from

• The “type” you choose dictates the content in the info section

Components of a FB Profile

Source: Hubspot, How to Use Facebook for Business

Avatar

Sample Profile

To Create your FB Page

• Choose a name that your customers will recognize− Search to see if the business name you want is available

• At the bottom of your personal profile page click on “Create a Page”

Select the Type of business

FB Page

180 x 540pixels

Can have multiple administrators

Tabs

Key Branding Opportunity

Importance of Fans to Sharing

Discussion & commentary increases the probability that it will show up in your fans’ news feeds

Landing (Welcome or Reveal) Page

• This is what your visitors see BEFORE they Like you• Purpose is to convert visitors into Fans• Incent them to click “Like” by offering exclusive

content! • Use a strong CTA

Another Great Call to Action (CTA)

Info TabThe Info shown here is determined by the “Type” of business you chose

The avatar is consistent throughout all pages of your site

Reviews

Tabs

Other Tabs

Be as creative as you want! You can create any type of tab

• Our Team with photos and names

• Upcoming Events

• Your Opinion Counts (polling or review apps)

• Videos: demonstrations or your customer’s videos

Programming

• Facebook uses iFrames to organize the elements on the page

− The content of the frames

resides on your website server

− You can do it yourself or use a web

development firm to create your branding

element and set up your pages for you

− If you use a content management system

to manage your website you should be able

to use it to update your FB pages

Post as yourself or your business

• By going up to Account you can go around FB and post as your self, or as your business

• If your goal is to promote your business and get fans, post as your business,

− Just make sure it’s not spam (too self promotional)

• You can “Comment” on others’ posts

Your Content

• What content does your target market want?

− Inside peak

− Information that’s of value

− Exclusive deals

• The goal is to make it content that your fans will want to share

• Try to adhere to the 80/20 rule helpful content/promoting your product

Create an Editorial Guideline

• How frequently are you going to post

• What types of media you are going to use

• Will you post 3rd party content that you think is of value

• Create Signature Experiences that your target will value

− Zappos’ fan of the week

− Social Media Examiner’s Expert Friday

• Reply policy

• How you will handle negative posts/comments

• Ratio of helpful content to promotion (80/20)

Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the NY Times

Social Plug-ins

• Use Twitter, LinkedIn & your website to drive traffic to your FB page

• Go to http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/to copy code to place on your website

FB for Business

FB Ads

• You can target− Fans

− Your Fans’ Friends

− Interests

− Geography

− Even your competition!

Hilton example

Facebook Deals

• Clicking on a deal shows up in your friends’ newsfeeds

Why should you pay for an Ad?

• You can always post “deals” on your wall for your fans

• If you pay for a FB ad, you get the ability to

− Target your ad to people beyond your fan base

− Target by interest, geography, demographics

− Get robust Analytics

Facebook Insights

Best FB Video Tutorial

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/fbvideo/

Questions?

Tw

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v

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• Called a micro-blog− 140 character limit

• Like a Headline News service− You scan it quickly

− Post only if you have something of value to share (via a link)

− If there is something that peaks your interest you click on the link

• No one wants to know what you had for breakfast!

Ways to Use Twitter for Business

• Drive people to your Hub (website or FB page)

• Use Twitter Search to monitor your brand, industry, competition

• Use your Twitter “Favorites” as a list of testimonials

− http://twitter.com/USERNAME/favorites

• Build relationships by providing info that’s of value

• Promote your blog, content, specials, sales or events

• Customer service

− User Twitter Search to respond to mentions of your company

− Speed really impresses the customer!

What Type of Account Should You Set Up Personal or Business?

Represents your company as a whole• Keep your customers up to date on events• Promote sales, specials, etc.• Promote recent blog articles• Update customers on products and services• Provide customer service

User name = Company name

Avatar = your company Logo

Establishes your personal brand• Network, build relationships• Promote blog articles, content, events,

etc.

User name = name; namecompany; nameindustry; companyname

Avatar = your picture

To Use Twitter

• Go to Twitter.com

• Set up a FREE account

• Select your user name & upload your avatar

• Fill out your profile. Describe who you are so that people will want to follow what you have to say

− Include links to your website, other SM accounts

• Your Twitter feed will be empty until you write a tweet or select people to follow

− Their tweets and your tweets will show up in your feed

• Find people to follow

• Get people to follow you

− Put Twitter buttons on your website and all your marketing material

Manage your interactions

Twitter Page

Promoted Tweets

Search

Components of a TweetHash tag

Link to web page, URL shortener. Twitter also will automatically shorten your links.

An @mentionWhen used at start of message it’s like an address

140 Characters

Ask for the RT

User name

AvatarMake it consistent across all SM accts

Other Twitter Resources

• How to Use Twitter for Business: An Introductory Guide,

HubSpot

• Twitter For Beginners, Social Media DIY Workshop

• Twitter Grader (free)

• Tweet Deck (free)

Questions?

A great source for B2B

Social Media for B2B

Business people are using social media

• 86% of Technology Buyers engage in some form of social activity for work purposes.

Source: It's Time For Tech Marketers To Go Big With B2B Social Media Strategies, by Kim Celestre on July 20, 2011

How to Use LinkedIn for Business

• Establish a network− Upload contacts from Outlook, hotmail, gmail, etc.

− Invite them to become a part of your network with a personalized invitation

• Search for your target customers

− People with the job title & company you want to target

− Save your people searches by creating alerts

− Browse your networks’ networks

− Join Groups

• Make direct contact with key people

LinkedIn Profile

• Fill out your Profile completely− Compelling headline & summary

• Optimize your profile to be found− Use your keywords to describe your website links

• Marketing Consultant for marketing-consultant-k-pelletier.com

− Link to your other SM accounts

• Apps− Travel & Events

− Amazon reading list

− SlideShare

− Blog links

− Polls

LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn’s “Groups” are a powerful way to grow your network and spread a message.

Like Facebook, LinkedIn now has a wall that drives “likes” and comments (as well as traffic).

LinkedIn Business Page

Create a LinkedIn Business Page

http://www.linkedin.com/companies?trk=hb_tab_compy

You must have

a personal profile

Join Groups in your industry

• Follow the discussions

• LinkedIn Answers

− Answer questions, add value where you can

− Become a “go to” source in your field

• If there is no relevant group you can create one

Some final observations on thesocial media world

New Apps and Sites Emerge Daily

Google+

• Clean design interface

• Integration with other Google products including search, gmail, docs, Picasa

• Circles

• 10-way video chat

• Will be rolling out business pages shortly

Daily or Group Deal Sites

Use Extreme Caution

Groupon Example

Revenue Cost

Consumer pays $25

50% off dinner for 2 Retail Value $50/person

Restaurant gets $12.50

Groupon keeps 50% of the revenue

The consumer will judge the value in terms of the retail price

When Does A Group Deal Make Sense?

When you are looking to

• Generate trial

• Clear out old inventory

• Schedule the timing of a deal to eat up excess capacity, and you can net ≥ your marginal cost

• Capitalize on upsell opportunities to make the total transaction profitable

• Capture names for email or social media marketing

Which Site to Use?

Do some research to determine which ones offer the best terms and ability to reach your target market

• Terms, economics, and control vary by site− As the space becomes more competitive you will be able to get

better terms

− Put time constraints on your offer to protect yourself

• Some sites may be very targeted to your niche or industry

− Daily Gourmet & BiteHunter for foodies

− Yuupon & TripAlertz for travel

− Doggyloot

− RapidBuyr for B2B

Deal Site Checklist

• Understand what your objectives are− Bring in NEW users

− Reward current customers

• Who’s your target market and what would interest them

• Run the numbers

• Make sure the “fine print” protects you

• Think about the impact on perceived value for the money− Are these deal customers likely to come back and purchase your

product at full price?

• Track the results

Track

• How many buyers are new customers?

• Did they spend more than the voucher or coupon amount?

• How many of these new customers came back and how much did they spend?

• What was the breakage (people who bought the deal but didn’t redeem it)?

Summary

When creating your social media plan

Figure out what’s right for you and your business

• B2B or B2C?

• What is your marketing objective?

• Who is your target customer?

• Where are they (geographically)?

• Where does your customer hang out online?

− Find them and listen in on the conversation for a while

− Follow influencers, blogs

− Participate when you can be helpful

− Are there any Industry vertical networks that would enable you to most efficiently reach and engage with your target market?

• Brainstorm on how best to engage with them

Homework

• Log onto Twitter.com and create an account if you don’t have one.

• Do a Twitter Search #scoresocmedsem− Download this presentation

• Create a Tweet: How helpful was this seminar to you? Rate it on a scale of 1 – 5.

− 1=not helpful at all; 5=extremely helpful.

− put the hash tag, #scoresocmedsem in your tweet

• Do a couple of Twitter searches on your industry. Find 5 people to follow.

Questions?