This aims to give you the information you need to choose which of the big 3 social media sites you want to promote your business on, some do's and don'ts for each and a brief introduction to blogging.
2. Why Social Media Marketing is Important It’s a free and simple way to communicate with existing customers/clients and access new ones There are simply millions of people using it! There are more than 500 million active Facebook users globally and 11 million LinkedIn users across Europe * If you’re not there, your competitors will be! * Taken from Facebook’s own stats and http://econsultancy.com 20+ mind-blowing social media statistics revisited
5. Twitter What it’s good for doing Connecting you directly to your customers and potential customers Customer Care Finding peer support Asking questions – and getting responses! Meeting like minded people Having fun
6. Don’ts Do’s Be there! For it to be effective you need to be on it every day for people to pay attention Be varied in what you tweet Share interesting things Think about what image you are projecting and who you want to attract before you tweet about some things! Direct Sell!!! Have a constant stream and not interact with anyone – the point is to get talking to people If you’re there for business, don’t swear (too much) or be abusive Get hung up about follower numbers
7. LinkedIn What it’s good for doing Helping to maintain business contacts after networking events Demonstrating your value through client recommendations and endorsements Showing your expertise clearly though your profile and experience Helping you access services/expertise/product and sometimes funding through your connections. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM
8. Do’s Don’ts Update regularly Endorse other people Link it to your blog Get introduced to other people on LinkedIn that you don’t know through a connection Treat it like your twitter feed – that is too much noise for most people on LinkedIn Include every job you’ve ever done on your profile!
9. Facebook Pages What they’re good for Connecting with existing clients in a very interactive way Great for running polls or surveys, asking for feedback on new products or ideas etc Running competitions or special offers that are exclusive if they ‘Like’ your page Showing pictures Inviting people to events Linking to your website or blog
10. Do’s Don’ts Add videos, pictures etc Ask your fans opinion on things Start discussions Share interesting articles written by other people Respond to people when they post on your page Spam other people’s pages with links to your page Just talk about what you are doing Solely post about your company
11. Blogs What they’re good for Providing information to your customers New products or services Articles that may help them with their business and get them coming back to your site i.e becoming a resource Promoting Discussion Asking for opinions on products or services Running surveys and sharing your findings Telling people your news Have you just won an award?? Have you appeared in the local media recently? Got a newsworthy story? Then put them up on your blog with links!
12. Some top tips Frequency – best practice is twice a week but only update if you have something to say Ask people you know or admire to guest blog for you Remember who you are blogging for – your clients, not you! When you get stuck… Have you read a blog post recently that you really liked/thought was useful – write a response Read through your recent Twitter feed – is there a topic there? Revisit your old posts – have you written something previously that needs updating?
13. A few good examples!! Twitter – For advice: @MarkShaw Example: @Starbucks Bad example: @CostaCoffee LinkedIn Example - Heather Townsend – The Efficiency Coach’s profile http://uk.linkedin.com/in/heathertownsend Facebook Example – The Internet Marketing VA http://www.facebook.com/#!/internetmarketingva Blogs Social Media for Small Businesses Www.socialmediasmallbiz.co.uk
14. Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions please ask me!!! To download a free Twitter Basics Workbook please go to my website:http://www.rrva.co.ukand click on the buttonBasic workbooks for LinkedIn & Facebook Pages coming soon
Notes de l'éditeur
My name is Rebekah Harriman and I Set up R&R VA Services, a virtual assistant business that specialises in working with creative businesses, 18 months ago, after returning to full time work after the birth of my second child. I initially set it up alongside my day job which is where my love affair with social media for business began!Social media allowed me to network, find my peers, gain support and indeed some of my first clients whilst working the unorthodox hours running a business alongside a day job and children meant I had to do!As my business and my reputation has grown the differing social media have served me with different purposes and are now allowing me to spread my reputation more nationally through LinkedIN with more traditional businesses and showcase other aspects of my business to a wider audience. I’m not an aspect on any of the social media or blogging that I’m going to talk about today but someone who is a an avid user and consumer of these mediums. They are always changing and there is always something to learn
So why use SM to market your business??3 million tweets are posted on Twitter per day5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day1 billion items of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, phots) are shared on Facebook each weekIf Facebook was a country it would be the 8th most populated in worls, just ahead of Japan73% of all web users read blogs
You don’t have to be on all of them! You need to be where your customers are….
An important feature to note is that Twitter can be indexed via Google. If you search for RRVA or Rebekah Harriman in Google the first entry to appear will be my twitter profile.
Also brand your background, add a photo to your profile – it is both excellent PR and makes you and your company recognisable but it also makes it more serious that you have spent a bit of time on how you are presenting yourself.Twitter is a 2 way conversation – you are inviting people to talk to you not just be talked at by you!
allows users to build their business and professional contacts in an online network and see them visuallyYou can create and join groupsHas applications for linking to blogsfind you via your location and expertiseYou can find out who people you know are connected to – and ask for an introduction!
Anyone got any other examples??
• Pages are quickly indexed by the Search Engines based on the keywords used in the Business Page Title (Ie. VAClassroom - #10 in Google) • Able to set-up multiple business pages based on different services or niches in your business (Consulting Services, Products, etc....) Remember you can have a facebook page for your business that people can ‘like’ but they still can’t see your personal profile! Well unless you friend them that is..
Any other ones
This is a massive topic!!! So these are some very basicsBlogging requires passion and authority – these can be hard to maintain!