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Social media and your business
- 1. Social Media and Your Business Steph Marshall Power @steph_m_power #stephsprezi www.tigernash.co.uk
- 2. What will I say? • Practical advice, useable straight away • Why social media does not sit in isolation when it comes to marketing strategy • Who, what, when and how to use it • Examples of #socialmediafails • Some top tips for dealing with social media • The highlight pros and cons of social media @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 3. Get involved • Follow me on Twitter @steph_m_power • Use #stephsprezi to follow our discussion • Get Twitter handles from everyone in the room or create one if you want to • Use this talk and me as practice @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 4. @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 5. Why? @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 6. about.me @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 7. about.me @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 8. In the beginning… @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 9. Why do we go online? • Primarily we go online to: – Learn: educate, research, keep informed – Have Fun: entertainment, escapism – Socialise: connect, share, discuss, community • More than twice as many people go online to socialise (82%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%) • Source: RuderFinn.com Intent Index @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 11. Why use social media in business? • It will become the norm and expected • It allows us to nurture relationships • Know: It gives us ‘virality’ or easy exposure • Like: Interaction with real people is authentic • Trust: Social proof of value Awareness | Credibility | Authority @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 12. WARNING: Scary slides coming up @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 14. Well it’s better than this one…
- 15. Content is still King • Linked-up strategy to direct users to high quality, interesting content • Twitter should not replace a blog or other important online activities • Content needs to be updated regularly across all online platforms • Nothing will happen unless you make it – there is no social media without substance @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 16. Get it? @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 17. #socialmediafails • Nestlé and Greenpeace on Facebook • Kevin Smith and Southwest Air on Twitter • Lewis Hamilton and McLaren telemetry data @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 18. Fastest Formula 1 Tweet Removal… Ever Dearest @JensonButton and @TheFifthDriver I’m so sorry, lots of love @LewisHamilton @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 19. Dealing with social media • Develop a social media strategy • Establish the ground rules for dialogue • Monitor social networks • Recruit allies • Respond quickly • Tailor your response to the situation • People don’t relate to faceless corporations. They relate to people @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 20. Dealing with social media • Direct the discussion • Don’t be defensive • Build bridges • Adopt a sharing mindset • Add value • Be consistent It’s good to share • Be authentic @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 21. Cons of Social Media • Time consuming – tools may be free but the running of them will cost • Managed – Direct engagement with end user needs to be handled properly; timely • ROI – Not powerful way to make sales directly • Brand – dilution; control; negativity • Drain – on productivity in workplace @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 22. Pros of Social Media • Cost – cheap in comparison to other media • Fast – build your target audience quickly • Direct – engagement / relationship • Reach – WOM / viral / global • Creative – more chances to get funky • Crisis – quash crises quickly @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 23. Top Tips for Social Media Use 1. Listen. Learn. Discover. 2. Join in. Be engaging; ask and answer questions. 3. Target. Respond. 4. Be nice. Don’t swear, stalk or argue. 5. Keep it up! @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 24. @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 25. Useful Twitter Tips Handles | Hashtags | Happy | Helpful • Get a @handle: use it, promote it, engage it, manage it – it is part of your strategy • Fill in your bio, pic and background • #SMB | #smallbiz | #marketing | #startups • #eastmidlandshour | #WOW | #SBS | #FF • #longandcomplexhashtagsarerubbish @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 26. Useful Facebook Tips Link | Like | Comment | Share • Have to have a personal account • Groups versus Pages • Room for full info, pictures and a cover photo that is yours • Customisable pages | Apps • Adverts versus Sponsored stories @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 27. @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 28. Useful LinkedIn Tips Complete | Connect | Contribute • Complete your profile and a company page, get employees to join it • Make it clear what you do, what you’re good at and how your business can help • Join groups and contribute to conversations • Update regularly, posting useful information @steph_m_power #stephsprezi
- 29. Thank you Steph Marshall Power @steph_m_power #stephsprezi @tigernash www.tigernash.co.uk http://www.linkedin.com/company/tigernash-ltd https://www.facebook.com/TigerNashLtd
Notes de l'éditeur
- Hi this is me, but more about me in a little bit. First some ‘housekeeping’ ;-)
- I would love for you all to leave here today with a better understanding of social media and it’s place in the corporate world and with a few tips that give you confidence to get started or improve on your current efforts. QUESTION: Now, I know some people are already actively engaged in social media, so for everyone’s benefit, show of hands for those in charge of social media efforts for your respective businesses? Those who are dabbling? Those who haven’t a clue?Who is in charge of corporate communications / marketing / PR around this room today?
- Ifyou are on Twitter, please feel free to tweet during this talk. The hashtag is a way to create and/or follow a topic thread. It’s the ‘discover’ tab on the twitter site so you can see what’s being said already and join in the conversation – but more about that a bit later.A handle is the term for a full Twitter name @ etc. Now if you’re not sure about names or even where to start, a great place is namechk.com…
- www.namechk.com if you would like to check what’s available – remember you have 15 characters on Twitter or less! Namechk is great for listing what is available on what social media platform and making sure you get what you want for your brand or organisation on the platforms you really want or need. Names are important as is brand management, but think about how you use search before getting hung up about names. Even if you are a naysayer about social media – just claim your handles before they go, then at least you own them. *So, why should you bother with any of this?* You may have seen this video I’m about to show (updated version is twice as long with different music, and I prefer this one) so if you have, then have a think about your handles and check them out on namechk.
- Pretty impressive stats aren’t they? But they can also be a bit overwhelming when you need to implement a social media strategy and how you need to get the communications and channels right to reach the audience(s) you want and need to propel your business. Now, why am I qualified to talk to you today?
- About.me for those who don’t already know is like an online business card superstore. So in true social media style…About.me: Associate at TigerNash Ltd, I use social media, marketing and PR to help businesses grow. Chairman at Kaleidoscope Community Music, I help move the charity forward and sing in the community choir. Motorsport loving lady; MotoGP fan; Riders for Health volunteer. Wife; Mother; Daughter; Sister; Friend. Drinker of tea and coffee, red and white wine, beer and whisky. Lover of food in general; rubbish at exercise but enjoy it once I get going. Background image: My dad, Ginger Marshall, in Bowlby at Brands Hatch. On a more serious note….
- Chartered Marketer and PR Professional for over 12 years, I’ve operated at all levels:CEOsof global enterprises to marketing managers at SMEs, directors of start-ups to entrepreneurs. As a regional agency director, I created and delivered training programmes for graduates to director level.Social media is a natural extension to my skill set, beginning with Twitter and Facebook in 2007, ghost writing corporate blogs, as well as managing and enhancing online profiles and presences, most recently BTEC in Social Media for Business. Example companiesI’ve worked with. Mostly b2b and tech related, some more recently b2c. Work ranges from straight public relations activities, press releases and case study creation and media placement, external and internal communications, newsletters, blogs, event management, through to marketing strategy, brand and business development, online marketing activities including social media campaigns. So back to “social media”….
- In the beginning of the‘social networking’ phenomenon there were message boards, forums, blogs and pretty niche/techy things going on. As platforms became more accessible to the average computer user, social media grew. But what do we go online for today and how should this influence your social media marketing strategy?
- Well, primarily we go online to learn, have fun and socialise. More than twice as many go online to socialise than do business.What this reminds us is that social media is about you and I talking to each other, not you talking to CocaCola, Starbucks or Derby Quad on the average day (unless it is to complain!). I don’t login to Facebook to see what’s happening with Argos. The companies using social media successfully are doing so because they understand this fundamental difference in online behaviour. Visually these stats from Intent Index looks like...
- Here is the overall breakdown of all user information. If you look at this diagram online it shows you the split between men and women, youth and seniors. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, women go online more than men to socialise and advocate and men do more work related activities. These breakdowns really help you to understand online behaviours and start you on the road to targeting the right audiences with your social media channel efforts. So, if you’re not getting direct sales out of social media, why bother with it at all, right?...
- As the video at the beginning highlighted, social media will become not just a normal way to interact but an expected way to interact. Just like PR is vital for getting the right messages out to the right journalists at the right time and direct marketing helps your target buyers in a particular organisation, social media’s special skill is in its capacity to allow us to nurture relationships directly with consumers. Long before the prevalence of social media, author Bob Burg (http://www.burg.com) identified which 3 things must be satisfied to have a chance of building a strong relationship. Know. Like. Trust.Know: Social media is perfect for allowing people to get to know us because going viral means they can easily be exposed to us, and easily connect with us or our business to get to know us better whether as our ‘friend’, ‘follower’, ‘connection’ or ‘fan’. Like: Used right, it also provides a platform for people to like us, because we can help them, make them laugh, or expose different facets of ourselves. Above all, it’s when we interact with AUTHENTICITY that people come to like and respect us, just as they would in the real world. Trust: Social media is ideal for building trust. It provides ‘social proof’ of our value – or the lack thereof. Do my friends ‘like’ or follow this business? How many followers or fans do they have? What do their interactions say about them? All these questions can be answered with a few clicks, because social media is played out in a totally transparent environment. These 3 things are not about ‘closing the sale’ there and then – other channels like face-to-face or email will do a better job. THIS is the special skill of social networks – and getting people to know, like and trust you through your genuine efforts has to be your overall aim too.So ‘WHY’ social media cannot sit in isolation from other marketing activities is because it is a complementary channel to help build brand awareness, credibility and authority for long term success. Hopefully you can now start to envisage where it might fit into your existing marketing strategy. So, what is what when it comes to engaging social media…?
- So, what is what when it comes to engaging social media…?Ok, time to take a breath and embrace this next lot of scary slides ;-)
- With your company website at the heart of everything you do online, this radar will help you prioritise what is important in your social media marketing strategy. You don’t have to do everything!1. Social networks – the core social platforms in most countries where people interact through social networks are Facebook for consumer audiences, Linked In for business audiences, Google Plus and Twitter for both. Foursquare and Gowalla are location based marketing services.2. Social streaming - Rich and streaming media social sites - photos, video and podcasting. YouTube 2nd biggest search engine.3. Social search - Search engines are becoming more social with the ability to tag, comment on results and most recently, vote through Google +1.4. Social knowledge – these are informational social networks Yahoo! Answers and similar plus Wikipedia where you can engage an audience by solving their problems and subtly showing how your products have helped others5. Social blogging - a company blog can form the hub of your social media strategy and you can look at tapping into others blogs whether company or personal or through blog outreach / commenting etc.6. Social customer service - sites like GetSatisfaction as well as companies’ own customer support forums are increasingly important for responding to customer complaints. Twitter – Sainsbury’s example – Marsha’s onions. 7. Social publishing and news – nearly all newspapers and magazines, whether broad or niche, now have an online presence with the option to participate through comments on articles, blogs or communities. SUBSET = Social niche communities - these are independent of the main networks. You can create your own community this way.8. Social bookmarking– these are the bookmarking sites like Delicious (www.delicious.com) which are relatively unimportant in the UK except if you are engaging technical audiences.9. Social commerce – not on the radar diagram because it’s mainly only relevant for the retail sector. It involves reviews and ratings on products and sharing of coupons and other details. Amazon / TripAdvisor / eBayetc etc.
- If you thought the previous slide was a bit much, thank your lucky stars I didn’t decide to go through this one ;-)You don’t need to do everything (just own the names!!).Prioritise and most importantly remember…
- Whichever social media you use, make sure you have a linked up strategy to direct users to high quality content. Without content of interest to your users, you will lose people’s attention and your work will not spread. Part of the value of social networking is that other people will do a lot of the work for you, recommending your content to reach a wider audience (if the content is right of course). Creating interesting content that people want to share is easier in some industries than others (like music, toys, clothing) – but you’d be surprised about what gets viewed on YouTube! QUESTION: Heather / @DrakaUK– the video on your website, I can’t find on YouTube, but I really enjoyed it and potentially it I was your target audience I would want to share that content to my friends/followers etc but you need to make it as easy as possible. Are you going to do more and have a YouTube channel?QUESTION: Peter Clare / @TaxGuruMrTax – you’re on everything and it’s nicely linked up and easy to share if I want to, can you talk to us about how long you spend on social media and your experience of from a business relationship angle?QUESTION: For those with twitter handles and no tweets yet (@YorkshireBank, @TecservUK, @SJPWealth, @stjamessplace), firstly do you own the names and secondly have you a plan?Whatever sector you are in, work out your aim and who you want to target and how you let them know this content exists – you still need to be doing the fundamentals such as email marketing, PR, events, face to face. Social media won’t replace your marketing mix, it just adds another angle. Think about who you are targeting and how – will Pinterest be more relevant than Twitter? Will you need more than one channel for your different products or target audiences? Will people want to follow multiple accounts? And, talking of content - What do I say?
- This instagram pic appeared at the beginning of the year, more for poking fun at Google Plus than anything else, but I still like it to explain things in simple terms for the origins of each platform. Note: This is not what I would call high quality content on your social media platforms ;-) But at least it might not lead you into hot water….
- This should hopefullygo some way to answer the ‘who’question. When you’re thinking about who should be in charge of engaging in your company’s social media activities, it is wise to set some ground rules and get some training. You probably already have an email and internet usage policy right? But what’s your social media policy? Would you allow the fresh graduate to run your entire public relations activity? No? So why let them lose on your Facebook or Twitter account? There are some very famous #socialmediafails which you can have a quick google at later (Nestle, Kevin)But one that is dear to my heart is this one from the other week…
- The recent Spa Grand Prix saw some awesome racing,Jensen Button’s immense pole lap and race winning pace, but it was teammate Lewis Hamilton who grabbed the headlines with his Twitter antics. Lewis tweeted confidential information with a picture of his team’s telemetry data from qualifying. Cue the media frenzy, engineers in shock and McLaren’s PR machine hitting overdrive. Throughout the Spa weekend, Lewis posted a series of tweets using colloquial language and acronyms that represented swear words, all of which were subsequently taken down. McLaren said they had asked him to take down the tweet with the telemetry in it but nothing else. Asked why he had removed the other tweets, Hamilton said he wanted to "rephrase some of the things I said". McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarshsaid Hamilton had "misjudged the situation” and “He wasn't thinking clearly obviously.“ So where does this leave the average small company on how to deal with social media?
- None of this is rocket science, but it does need thinking about if you are going to engage in social media. Just like you would do market research before plunging into a new market (hopefully), you should: Develop a Social Media Strategy: Too many companies jump head first into social media without a comprehensive communications strategy, a clear set of policies and measurable goals. Social media channels are great avenues for reaching out and building relationships with consumers, but the expectation is that the company will engage in a two-way dialogue with its followers. This often means dealing with criticisms and possiblyunfounded allegations. So, you should have a plan for engaging online audiences and managing an online crisis.Establish the Ground Rules for Dialogue: Whether it’s a blog, Facebook fan page or other social media channel, a company should state the rules of engagement for people posting on the site. A simple welcome statement outlining the rules governing language, ethnic or religious slurs, personal attacks or comments clearly off topic will set the stage for dialogue. This will enable you to remove offending posts without appearing to be a reactionary censor. However, it does not give the moderator free rein to remove every post that disagrees with or criticises the company. Don’t promise openness and transparency if you’re not going to follow through.Monitor Social Networks: Negative news spreads fast. Establish weekly or if necessary daily social media monitoring to track what being said about your company so you can respond accordingly.Recruit Allies: Before a crisis strikes, identify your online supporters and build relationships. Building positive relationships with supporters can go a long way towards balancing the online dialogue once critics come out of the woodwork.Respond Quickly: It’s critical to respond within hours to a crisis situation, not days. Waiting too long to respond can cause a situation to escalate.Tailor Your Response to the Situation: Train staff responsible for social media and make sure all comments and responses from the company are courteous, respectful and professional. Above all, don’t get into arguments. If the online community is alleging you’re doing something wrong, tell them what you’re doing to fix the problem or address their concerns. If their information is inaccurate, set the record straight and/or direct them to an independent third party who can corroborate your side of the story.People don’t relate to big, faceless corporations. They relate to people: Don’t let an anonymous moderator hide behind your brand. In any crisis situation, people are looking for leadership. If a crisis escalates, don’t let a foot soldier lead the discussion. Get the CEO or Corporate Communications Director online immediately, taking responsibility and directing the response.Good Example: Domino’s: When two Domino’s employees posted an unappetising video on YouTube, the company posted an apology on its website, asked employees to Twitter a link to it and CEO Patrick Doyle posted a video apology on YouTube.
- Direct the Discussion: Any company with an online presence should expect some sort of criticism. If you’re going to invite commentary, set up a dedicated discussion area with designated threads to focus and manage the conversation. Critics will have a forum and your brand will be a less visible target.Don’t Be Defensive: It’s impossible to win the hearts and minds of the online community if you’re in a defensive position. Take control of the situation. Focus on what you’re doing to address the issue and the progress you’ve made. If you’ve made a mistake, own up. In the end, admitting fault, apologising and outlining what you’re doing to ensure the situation doesn’t happen again will go a long way towards re-establishing trust and credibility.Build Bridges: All crises are resolved one way or another. Once the dust has settled, it’s good policy to reach out to your detractors in a less emotionally-charged environment and solicit their ideas on how you can better work together or find solutions to outstanding issues. Reaching out and building bridges will go a long way towards helping the company avert another crisis down the road.Adopt a sharing mind-set: All over the web, you can see businesses who have jumped on social networks, and are very active, posting numerous updates. But they’re failing miserably; they’re known but not liked. If all you do is shout about yourself – YOUR business, YOUR products, YOUR offers - no-one will want to listen. People care about themselves and their needs, not yours. Social media is based on sharing. And people will love you if you will only share material of value. This is reciprocal as well – you help them, they are more likely to help you.Add value: You provide value when you help the other person get what THEY want. This might be information, news, or resources that help them professionally, in their business or job, or satisfy personal needs, interests or desires. The key is to pinpoint your ideal customer, and understand what’s important in their lives. Create your own valuable content around those ideas and share it, and/or collect and share other people’s useful content in the same area.Be consistent: A consistent social media presence says ‘organised, dependable, diligent’ – all great qualities. Of course, a social profile with big gaps, or that’s been abandoned altogether, says the exact opposite. Remember the overarching aim of your social media activities - to make it easy for people to know, like and trust you.Be authentic: Dry corporate-speak was accepted in the age of mass, one-way marketing communication. But it won’t fly on social media (just as it wouldn’t in any social situation). Use your authentic voice. That doesn’t mean sharing every single detail of your life! People still care first and foremost about themselves and will quickly resent a stream-of-consciousness that tells them how you’re going to the toilet now, making a cup of coffee, or going to bed. But a little bit of ‘you’ will go a long way to showing you’re a human being and helping your connections get to know you.So what are the major downsides?…
- So what are the major downsides?…Time consuming – Social media is often described as an ‘online conversation’, so you’ll need to be constantly feeding your pages and profiles with interesting comments and links to keep people interested. Managed - You also have comments to monitor and respond to on a daily basis. Being consistently interesting and relevant all the time can also be difficult to maintain.Long time before ROI – Social media is a long haul strategy. It could be months, or even years, before you start seeing it translating into increased customer loyalty and sales.Brand:Dilutes brand voice – If you have more than one person posting messages on social media sites then this can lead to a mish-mash of phraseology and tone.Loss of control – Anything you publish is open to comment and criticism. Providing an arena for people to post negative comments about your company is the stuff of nightmares for marketers (but aren’t people going to talk about you anyway?).Risk of negative comments – If you use social media clumsily, there’s a risk of a public backlash and damage to your brand’s reputation.Drain – on workplace productivity depending on your staff and policies in place you could see a dip on productivity if not properly managed.But on the plus side…
- Low cost of entry – Creating profiles and pages on Facebook/Twitter/Flickr/G+/FourSquareetc is quick, easy and free to doFast – it’s speed marketing and it spreadsDirect:Relationship building – The one-to-one dialogue you can have in social media makes it a powerful platform for building a closer affinity with customers and brand loyaltyGain feedback – You can ask questions and run polls to gain valuable insight on how you can improve your products and servicesLearn more about customers – By listening and participating in their online conversations you can find out more about your customers’ problems, likes and dislikes and preferencesCustomer service – People don’t rely on email and the phone to get their questions answered anymore. They’re now posting messages in blogs and forums to get them resolved. Engaging with social media enables you to respond to the evolving nature of customer service, and improve loyalty as a resultReach:It’s where your customers are – Facebook isn’t merely a domain filled with teenagers and 20 somethings. It now attracts all demographics and ages. In fact, Facebook’s fastest growing segment is the over 55sWord of mouth/ viral marketing – Social media can spread your offers and messages amongst 1000s of people very quickly. And the best part is that it’s your customers spreading them for youCreative:Give your brand personality – Posting messages everyday can develop people’s perception of your brand’s personality very quickly through your writing style and tone of voiceCrisis marketing – When something goes wrong, your customers want to know how you’re going to put it right. Many aren’t going to wait for a press release or newspaper article before they start forming a negative opinion about your lethargic response. Twitter can be used to get your apologies out fast, and enable you to answer concerned customers’ questionsSo what do I think are things worth knowing?...
- I’ve been on social media platform since 2006/7/8 and as with all things evolving and social, I’m always learning. In my time on the scene and rubbing shoulders with those in the know, here are my top tips which should help you engage effectively:1. At first, just listen. Follow others in your industry, including competitors,suppliers, captains of industry. Search and follow keywords and trends relevant to your business and locality.2. When you’re ready, join in the conversation. Be engaging; ask and answer questions; create a dialogue that provides added value to your followers. People buy from people – personality is good. Fill in your profiles/about sections fully and add pictures where you can. 3. Your followers should eventually become your target customers. Find them by following steps 1 and 2.4. Social media is public and searchable. Be nice. Don’t swear, stalk or argue.5. Keep it up! As with all things social and shampoo, it will only be effective with regular use – it’s a long haul strategy remember!
- Is that the time?!!!!Can we fit a few more slides in? …
- My 4 H’s of Twitter – get a handle on your handle, get handy with your hashtags, always be happy and helpful.(Read slide first points)Hashtags:Seek Business-Specific Conversations #SMB #smallbizetcetcKeep it Simple and Consistent – #longandcomplexhashtagsarerubbish – not search friendly or commonly used. Don’t overuse in tweets. Limit it to 2.Create Your Own Hashtag- great way to generate buzz around a marketing campaign. Domino’s Pizza encouraged followers to tweet with #letsdolunch — once the number of tweets reached 85,000, Domino’s dropped prices by more than half during the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. that day. #alpsgroupOrganize Social Dashboards by Hashtag- Whether you use HootSuite or TweetDeck, you can establish columns by social network, search term, Twitter list or hashtag. Consider adding a small business-themed hashtag column to check whenever you have a moment. Take Advantage of Follow Friday – most successful are ones that have a theme/give a reason to follow#WOW – JacquelineGold#SBS – Theo Pathitis#CharityTuesdayvs #TalentTuesday
- Does your business need a Facebook page? Let’s see. It certainly doesn’t hurt, but it does needs to be linked to an actual person, so make sure admins are set so that at least two people in your organisation have all the necessary permissions to manage the account (choose with care). Great thing about Facebook is that it requires participants to use their real identities. So anonymous trolls / spammers are pretty much gone. Facebook Pages are public—anyone can find and view your page whether they are logged into Facebook or not. All content posted on your Facebook page gets indexed on Google.Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap. Fan pages are unofficial pages that have to declare that they are unofficial and link to the official one. QUESTION: How do you control your Facebook presence? If every employee puts in their profile that they have worked at your place that creates a page, get the name slightly different (Limited vs Ltd) and you have two pages. What’s your policy for your staff and your comms strategy as a marketing tool – do you let all your staff do as they please or do you invite them to join your official company page and create like a company forum? FOR EXAMPLE – in my research, when I typed in one of your company names in Facebook, I clicked on the first match and the profile pic was of a young lad with his mates, beer bottle in hand. Now in my heart I know there is absolutely nothing wrong with that on Facebook, but my head went, oh no, that’s not a very good corporate image. Facebook the platform gives you a lot more freedom than Twitter and some other platforms with more details to fill out, more places for pictures and ‘blog post’ like format – use it like a newsroom for your business. You can customise your landing page – more like a homepage. You can target your posts by location and language. You can add applications to your page, including your own custom content—video, rich text, graphics, opt-in box and more. (Developer section is mindboggling!). You can target potential customers via the Facebook advertising platform. There are loads of targeting options and advanced demographics to choose from such as relationship status, language, education and work. Facebook advertising is an excellent means of directly targeting your audience. Ads are created by you and you select who you want it to reach. Sponsored stories are messages from your friends about them engaging with Pages, apps or events on Facebook—stories that are already eligible to be in your news feed. An advertiser has paid to show the activity as a sponsored story so there’s a better chance you will see it. The key to a successful Facebook page is updating your page regularly with useful and interactive content. You can use your page to connect with the public and showcase your business in an accessible manner.
- LinkedIn Tips. Ok, so there are some things that we may not want to do on a professional networking forum, or may be we do? Picture discussed on a Digital Marketing LinkedIn group – most found it pretty funny, but would you do this? It is actually a picture of Republican politician Karl Rove being taken away for perjury apparently.
- LinkedIn has carved out a niche as THE business social network, with over 150 million professionals registered. Any business owner or professional, especially if you’re in B2B, needs to have a presence there because it’s a massive networking group, online CV (for you and your business) and market research tool all in one. LinkedIn domain ranks high onsearch engines so having a presence on the site offers you great visibility. However recentchanges mean that if your personal profile is not 100% complete, you will not be listed in search results. So complete that profile!!And if you’re looking for a search engine boost – then you of course need a Google Plus account ;-)
- Thanks for listening, any questions? I look forward to reading your tweets ;-)