social media for business
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Social Media For Business
How to market your business and reach consumers using social media.
About MeGraduate of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.
Background in multimedia and print journalism.
Owner of Strategically Social, working with clients like:
And many more...
Three Keys of Social Media Marketing
Quality – You can create quality content on an iPhone. Set a standard for your content.
Consistency – Find what works and then duplicate that. And then do it again. And again.
Novelty – The more novel the content, the farther it travels. Aka: going viral. Mark Granovetter’s strength of weak links.
Content is KINGThe golden rule of professional communication is truer now than ever before.
The modern consumer is so desensitized to most commercial messages. Quality content is the key to carving out your niche.
These days you CANNOT appeal to everyone. Your job is to find your tribe and connect with them. (Seth Godin TED Talk 6:51 to 8:45)
Strategy: Fuel for Social Media
MarketingThink about your business’ goals. Who do you want to connect with?
What social platforms do those people use?
Do they use smartphones or computers primarily? Or do they use tablets?
What is your goal in connecting with them?
Strategy cont.What is your budget?
Money – what are you willing to spend?
Time – how much time will you invest?
How can you incorporate your social presence to your physical marketing?
Business cards, signage, QR codes, etc.
Have you done any market research?* *It doesn’t haveto be anything
fancy. You talk to your
customers morethan anyone...
Social NetworksChoosing the right social networks = key to success.
If you’ve properly strategized, you’ll have a good idea which networks your tribe uses.
Facebook is an obvious choice. But don’t overlook other influential platforms like:
Technically a micro-blogging platform, you communicate in 140 characters or less.
Links to outside videos, articles and other content is key to communicating on Twitter.
You can use Twitter to find who is talking about specific topics important to your business and then connect with them.
Twitter is a great place to build your reputation as an expert in your field.
A photo sharing app recently bought by Facebook in which users can filter smartphone photos and share.
Very popular with the young demographic.
Photos can be easily searched through the use of hashtags*.
*Perhaps a short vocab lesson is required?
Popular with the ladies.
Extremely difficult to do well. It is a very unique platform that requires its own style.
Great for connecting with your tribe on a more personal level.
Perfect for artists, artisans, chefs or anyone who does anything arts and crafts oriented.
It’s also great for family dinner ideas...
LinkedInNot for business-to-consumer marketing.
It’s a platform for professionals to connect with one another based largely on resumes.
Great for building a professional network and job searching.
Not something that requires daily checking in.
Recommended for any professional these days.
The #1 social media site, a very good place to start with business-to-consumer marketing.
Let’s talk about PAGES vs. PROFILES.
What and when to post (scheduling posts).
Facebook advertising – going public and the future of the platform...
Tumblr
An app-centric blogging platform
It marries sites like Wordpress and Twitter
Metatagging is key on this platform
Other goodies
Hootsuite
Bit.ly
Flickr
Dropbox
Smugmug
Must-Have Apps
Facebook pages
Typic
PicLab
Yelp!
Trip Advisor
QR code reader
Vine
Snapchat
Convergence
The connection between your real life and digital presence
Integrate your online persona and your marketing materials – business cards, signage, brochures, banners, etc.
Make sure you plug your digital marketing when doing your pitch/salesmanship
Leveraging a mix of real life engagement and digital conversation helps build a fluid bond
SEO
Stands for “Search Engine Optimization”
Search engines rank websites in two ways:
Timeliness and quality of content
If the business is paying for placement
Frequently updating your site with valuable content will make it rise in search engine results
BloggingBlog stands for “web log” and it can benefit a business in a few ways:
Makes your SEO stronger
Keeps your website current and new
Your content stays your own (Facebook owns your photos, if you didn’t know that...)
Can drive traffic to your site via social media
E-newslettersEmail is the original social media
E-newsletters are hard to do well but really pay off when done right
A normal open rate is 16-20%
Common services include Constant Contact and Mail Chimp
Collecting peoples’ email addresses is important data mining...
Suggested Reading
Tribes by Seth Godin
Can’t Buy Me Like by Bob Garfield
JeffBullas.com
Mashable.com
guykawasaki.com
Gary Vaynerchuk