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What is Social Media

and How Can It Grow Your BusinessPresented By: CEO/Founder of .Com Marketing, Hillary Bressler

2008 Webster's Dictionary Word of The Year is…

OVERSHARE

OVERSHARE(verb): to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast

interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval.

4 New Rules for Marketing

1. Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them.

2. You can’t hide the corporation behind the brand anymore or even separate the two.

3. PR is a primary concern for all marketers. If they are not together, break down that wall.

4. Social Media is not a Strategy.

Ad Age 2009

• With 200 mm Facebook users today and 900% growth in Twitter, its dangerous to ignore the potential of social media for getting traffic, audience, and customers.

Epsilon-Roper poll

What is Social Media

• Facebook• YouTube• Myspace• Twitter• Del.icio.us• Digg• Etc…

• Social media is about the relationships.

• When there is a passion around an interest or an idea, social media can work well. 

Getting Started…• Don’t start a social media project just because you feel

like you have to …Think of a strategy that makes sense for you and your content

• Know your audience and know yourself

• Find online spaces -- like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter -- where people passionate about similar content are already congregating

• Set realistic expectations, it takes time to do this well

Challenges

• It should not be done instead of proven fundamentals.

• It is not “free”

• It is difficult to monetize

Why You Should Care

• It’s not just for kids– In 2008, 43% of the U.S. adult population

used online social networking at least once a month. That figure will rise to 49% in 2011.

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Beyond Facebook

CommunicationBlogs- Blogger, WordpressInternet Forums- vBulletinMicro-blogging- Twitter, Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpaceSocial Network Aggregation: FriendFeedEvents- Meetup, Upcoming, EventfulDiscussion Groups- Yahoo! Groups

CollaborationWikis- WikipediaSocial bookmarking- StumbleUponSocial News- Digg, Reddit, Mixx

Opinion sites • Epinions, Yelp, Trip Advisor

Multimedia• Photo sharing- Flickr, SmugMug • Video sharing- YouTube • Art sharing- deviantART• Livecasting- Skype • Audio and Music Sharing- The Hype Machine, Last.fm

Reviews and Opinions• Product Reviews: Epinions.com, Mouthshut.com • Q&A: Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers

Entertainment• Virtual World- Second Life, The Sims • Online gaming- World of Warcraft, EverQuest • Browser Games- OGame, Hattrick • Game sharing: Miniclip

Blogs

Bill Marriot and CEO Blogs

• Mr. Marriott doesn’t type his posts, but he records them and they are transcribed

• The blog has received over 500K visits since January 2007, generated nearly $4 million in hotel sales.

(NOTE: he was asked how he was able to track this and played the card, claiming he didn’t understand the technology)

And a couple of choice Mr. Marriott quotes:

• “I would recommend blogging to any CEO. It’s worth it.”

• “Whether we like it [social media] or not, we have to get on board.”

• “Stories are the things that people remember.”

Facebook

Facebook stats• 200,000,000 - active users• 100,000,000 - users who log on to

Facebook at least 1x each day• 170 - countries/territories that use

Facebook• 100 - friends the average user has

Business on Facebook

• Create a fan or group page:– Promote your content and interact with over 20

million people who visit the site each month– Send messages to “Fans” of your organization– Tools such as links in news feeds promote viral

growth• Invite People to Join• Post Interesting Content• Market your Fan page everywhere

Twitter

Twitter stats• 3,000,000 - number of Tweets/day(March

2008) • 165,414 – followers. Most popular Twitter

user (@BarackObama)• 86,078 – followers. Most active Twitter

user (@kevinrose)• 63% - of Twitter users that are male

http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/

Twitter• Real-time way to instant message groups of people

who are following you• Microblogging service, each “tweet” is only 140

characters• There are over 2.5 million Twitter users• Go to search.twitter.com to find people talking about

what you’re talking about and reach out to them• To find out who’s talking about you, go to

tweetscan.com

Profile/Twitter Handle

• Once you sign up you will get a home page/profile page.– http://twitter.com/hillarybressler– From your home/profile pages, you can find

others Twitter streams to follow and post your own messages.

• Your Twitter handle is how others know you on Twitter.– @hillarybressler– @commarketing

Your Domain Space1) Run an audit of where your brands are. 2) Prioritize the usernames. Sal's Ristorante but it's known as Sal's

Pizza, so salspizza (which is also easier to spell and type) would be the preferred name.

3) Use a site such as usernamecheck.com or knowem.com to enter see if your usernames are taken across scores of sites.

4) Prioritize sites. If you're at a total loss, use Compete or Quantcast's free tools to see how much traffic the sites get, and pick a threshold.

5) Fill in the minimal information required, post a link back to your homepage or the hub of your social marketing program, and adjust the privacy settings (where possible) so that's they're visible to the smallest audience.

6) Check where competitors are. 7) Don’t find opportunities to undermine competitors throughout this

process. Be one of the good guys. Try believing in karma.

David Berkowitz

Who to follow

• With Twitter, who you follow is everything • First figure out who is important to you:– People talking about your brand or industry– Prospects– Customers– Influencers– Experts

• Resources exist to help you find them

Finding people to follow

• Summize.com, Tweetscan.com – search Tweets for company/industry keywords

• Twellow.com, Socialbrandindex.com – Twitter business directories

• Dossy.org/twitter/karma – see who’s following you so you can follow back

Following the right way

• Don’t start following 1,000 people right away

• Follow those who follow you • Follow others in proportion to who is

following you

Hotels/Resorts

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts twitter.com/fairmonthotels

Heavenly Ski Resort (South Lake Tahoe) twitter.com/skiheavenly

Marriott International twitter.com/marriottpr

MGM MIRAGE twitter.com/VegasConcierge

Case Study: Alaska Airlines

• Alaska Airlines has a team dedicated to their social media policy.

• Their company Twitter goal is to listen and help customers with their questions or issues.

• They can reach out to distressed customers.

“we’re making ourselves available to help and make travel easier. I love that I’m only a tweet away from customers while they travel. You don’t get more accessible than that.”

• In terms of measuring success, Alaska measure follower growth and interactions with customers as well as clicks via Bit.ly (short webinks).

Southwest Airlines• The social media team includes a team of 3 people.

• For example, when a traveler complained recently about Southwest's check-in process, he received a quick, public response from an airline employee saying,

"So sorry to hear it! What don't you like about the check-in process?

Did your flight get off okay?“

• "We monitor those channels because we know these conversations are taking place there, and we can either watch the conversations or take part in them," said Southwest spokeswoman Christi Day.

Hawaii Big Island Babymoon: A Twitter travel planning case study

How did Twitter play a role in Travel Planning?

• Booked trip through Orbitz. • Went to Twitter to get travel recommendations.

@fairmonthotelsMike Taylor, who manages the @fairmonthotels Twitter account, contacted me after I shared that I had booked at the Fairmont Orchid on the Kohala Coast of the Island of Hawaii. 

• @nathankam I also got some excellent advice from

Nathan Kam aka @nathankam, who works for, the PR firm serving Hawaii Visitor and Convention Bureau.   

• @govisithawaiiI also connected with Sheila Beal aka @govisithawaii of GoVisitHawaii.com, who is passionate about Hawaii and had incredible and detailed advice about creating a great romantic experience. 

• @nerdseyeviewI also spoke to Pam Mandel aka @nerdseyeview at Nerd’s Eye View.  She made a number of suggestions, but her best advice was where NOT to go:  the Volcanoes.

How Do I Brand & Promote My Business?

• Grab branded Twitter name NOW– Even if not ready to use it, scoop it up

• Generate website or blog traffic– Showcase your website link in profile– Tweet to promote new blog posts (yours and

others of interest)– Feature “specials” for Twitter followers– Don’t over-promote, but do share links and

information related to your business

• Answer questions, offer advice– Provide tips and info related to your brand,

company or industry– Showcase your expertise and gain credibility– Be a good Twitizen – respond to queries

about more than just your subject area– Add value to gain and keep followers

• Be a human voice for your brand

Best Practices

• Attempt to leverage an existing social networks.– Examples: Facebook: Target, RedBullU, PINK, NBA

• Avoid creating your own network surrounding your brand:– Examples: mycoke.com,

• Experiment with creating networks catering to specific audiences or special interests, not brands

• Listen and study the community before you enter the discussion

• Be prepared to relinquish control of the brand• Be honest and transparent about your involvement• Experiment!

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Tracking the ROI

• For External blogs and other Consumer Generated Media (CGM) – Share of positioning– Share of preferred types of conversations– Share of desirable vs. undesirable– Share of visibility– Share of quotes– Optimal content score

• For your controlled social media program– Traffic– Repeat visits – Engagement

Tools you’ll need

1. A way to monitor your reputation: – Google News/Google blogs– Technorati, Sphere– NewsTrak, Cyberalert,

CustomScoop, e-Watch– RSS feeds– http://search.twitter.com

Trends

• 12seconds.tv is like Twitter, but it’s for video status updates. Like Twitter, you’re limited in the amount of information you can convey. The idea is to keep it short and sweet, so you get 12seconds.

• Dopplr is actually an itinerary service that helps you stay organized while you travel, but it’s social in that you can see where your contacts will be as they travel as well.

• Ping.fm allows you to do is send out updates and messages to a variety of social media sites from one central location.

• Try Social Media!• It is a tactic, not a strategy.• Experiment!• Don’t forget about the proven online

tactics.

How To Reach Me1. bressler@commarketing.com ( email) 2. 407.774.4606 ext 203 ( office)3. 321.356.4769 (cell)4. @hillarybressler ( Twitter)5. Hillary Bressler ( LinkedIn)6. Hillary Bressler ( Facebook)7. 400 N. Wymore Road, Winter Park (mail)8. 407.774.9959 ( fax)9. In person ( lunch ;-))