Social media opportunities

The ubiquitous PowerPoint presentation...

Joel Lumsden – Attacat

What is social media?

• Can you define it?• Where does it begin and end?• What constitutes social media? Does a blog?

What is social media?

What is social media?

Whatever the platform, social media is about:

• Conversation• Engagement• Great content

It’s not about direct marketing – “pull not push”

Long-term developments – building your brand prestige etc.

Success stories

• LittleMissMatched odd socks• Attacat’s very own recruitment campaign

Blogging

• Seth Godin and Tom Peters discussing blogging:

“No single thing in the last 15 years has been more important to my professional life. Blogging is the best marketing tool bar none.”

Tom Peters

Why blog?

• Trust – brand and personal• Humanises the organisation• Promote yourself as an industry expert – comment

on articles etc.• Interactive elements• Telling stories and engaging in conversation• SEO benefits – great, fresh, deep content

Why blog?

Use as a syndication ‘hub’:• It’s all own your own site, so if Facebook disappears

you’re OK! • Benefits tracking – everything coming back to your

site• Link to all of your social sites/presences in one

place

Tips

The best ways to be successful:

• Differentiate yourself and your business• Target an achievable niche and become the expert• Generate great content

Tracking and analytics

• Google Analytics on your blog• Start tagging up your campaigns• URL shorteners• Facebook page insights

Why Facebook?

• Huge user base• Public, searchable presence for your business• Links to your website• Keep connected to your customers• It’s pushed out to a wider audience – interaction is

published in activity streams of fans

Facebook

Personal profiles• Personal profiles are what you are likely to be

familiar with...

Facebook personal profiles

• With a personal profile you can make ‘friends’ with other personal profiles and people on Facebook.

• If you are not a ‘friend’ of a personal profile you will usually see restricted information.

Facebook company pages

• Company pages are very different to personal profiles.

Facebook company pages

• Company pages are always fully visible once published – the content on the page is not restricted and you do not have to be a ‘friend’ to access it.

• It is against Facebook guidelines to use a personal profile as a business presence, and if you do the account can be terminated at any point. It is therefore necessary to set up a company page.

Facebook company pages

Likes of a page • It is not possible to befriend a page; instead you

‘like’. • ‘Like’ to see that page’s posts and updates as if they

were a friend. • One-way, immediate – no need to confirm the ‘like’. • Page largely cannot directly communicate with

‘likers’ – all through updates and the wall.

User profiles and company pages

• To achieve full functionality a company page needs to be ‘associated’ to a personal profile.

• Not linked in any other meaningful way – fans cannot see admins or their personal profile.

Company page

User profileUser profile User profile User profile

User profile

Administrator

Likes

Create a company page

• When signed into a personal profile, visit www.facebook.com/pages and click the ‘create page’ button.

• Then create your ‘official page’ as a local business. Page name cannot be changed!

Edit your company page

Facebook posting

• Post using the ‘what’s on your mind’ box

• Posting links is a rich and useful feature

Link posting

• Link posts will summarise the page text below the page’s meta-title and URL.

• You can also choose a thumbnail image from the page.

• You can also post photos, events and videos!

Plugins for Facebook

• Link pages to Twitter

• Link RSS feed from blog to notes / posts– Dlvr.it

• Static FBML for landing pages

Connecting with Facebook

• Get initial followers/fans using your existing customers!

• Facebook provides options for integrating other web activity with Facebook presence.

• http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box

Like box

• Like box – ‘Become a Facebook fan’ immediately from within your own website

• Like button – apply to individual website pages to help promote particular content

Custom URL

• Once a page acquires 25 fans it will be eligible to claim a username at facebook.com/username.

• Cleaner, shortened URL.

Why Twitter?

• Communication• Telling stories and engaging in conversation• Trust – brand and personal• Humanises the organisation• Promote yourself as an industry expert – comment

on articles etc

Twitter posting

• Just type in 140 characters (including links)!

• Posts are displayed within your ‘timeline’ on your profile. This is a list of the posts that you have made.

Reply, retweet, message

Reply:• Not only be shown in your timeline, but will be

highlighted to the user replied to. This encourages engagement and interaction.

@username

Retweet:• Repost another user’s post to the people who are

following you.

RT @username

Reply, retweet, message

Message:• Messaging will send a private direct message to the

desired recipient; will not show up in timelines.

Hashtags:• Text elements added to posts to indicate they are

about a particular subject. Often spread quickly in Twitter.

Following

• Following people means that their updates show within your Home timeline.

• Following users encourages interaction increases the chance of them following you.

• Find people using Twitter search, Twellow and TwitDir.

Tweet shortening

• To save space in tweets links are shortened.• Using shortening services like bit.ly you can track a

tweet’s ‘reach’ and popularity.

• Twitter client dashboards also have integrated shorteners.

Why LinkedIn?

• LinkedIn is a professional social network – consider it an online business-to-business networking space.

• Great way to keep in contact with colleagues and associates and promote your company.

Why LinkedIn?

• Stay in the minds of your contacts and customers• Recruit• Keep your friends close and your competition closer• Convince potential customers of your expertise by

sharing unique content• Network with peers in your industry for repeat

business referrals• Win new business by answering questions in your

area of expertise• Tap into the experience and knowledge of your

‘peers’ - crowdsourcing

Why LinkedIn?

• Build your industry network• Find the right vendors to outsource services on

which you’re not an expert• Keep in touch with people who care most about your

business• Acquire new customers through online

recommendations and word of mouth• Promote events

LinkedIn

Your profile• 1895 characters to create your LinkedIn profile. Add

past places you have worked, higher and further education, activities and professional memberships.

• Have a good, professional photo – part of your personal ‘brand’

• Professional headline – you job title, but include keywords and make it stand out.

What can I do?

Your activity• Update your profile with your activity, keep

occasional and important.

Get recommendations• Case studies for your business.• Recommend those you’ve worked with.

Connections

Connections• Search for people you have worked with etc. They

will be able to see your connections when connected!

• Import your address book • Send invitations to people met and events and

networking• Use your existing connections to request meetings

with people you’d like to meet face-to-face• Remember to personalise your connection requests

Groups

Groups• Join to extend your range of targeted networks and

contacts within LinkedIn. • Professional bodies• Monitor the activity of competitors? • Set up your own group?• Engage: Q&As, influence as an industry expert

Business pages

Business pages• Setup at www.LinkedIn.com/companies• Gather staff and company info, display your

expertise, blog posts.• Post job vacancies and new starters.• Follow other companies.

Social media clients

• Use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or other clients to manage your posting.

• Hootsuite allows for management of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn posting.

• Search columns so you can see what’s being said• Easy shortening and analytics integration

Posting tips

• Establish guidelines on what content can be posted on a consistent basis.

• Define a publishing schedule for content. Vary update types (status update, links, photos).

• Remember most interaction and comments from users happen within a day of posting.

• Use Hootsuite or TweetDeck to manage your posting across multiple social media platforms.

Posting tips

• Represent the personality of your brand; sound human.

• Get involved with the community – get to know followers, share your passion without sales pitches.

• Share content posted by others to encourage interaction, good will and follows.

• Negative comments? Build a community to defend your brand.

• Encourage users to become fans/followers with incentives.