connecting with customers

Connecting With Customers

Des WalshSocial Media Strategist

Elanora Branch Library16th December 2009

Some Facts

• 78% of Australians look to the Internet for marketing information about products and services

• 60%+ do business transactions online

Sensis® e-Business Report, Aug 09

So?

“The conclusion for most businesses has to be if you are not online, you are off the planet.”

Peter Switzer in The Australian, 12-13 Sept 09

Before We Go On

• How would a free website sound?

• If that sounds interesting, hang in

Just Being Online Won’t Cut It

What use is your being online

if I can’t find you?

How Findable Are You?

“In the 21st Century, successful business

will be focused on findability, about

creating an online and offline presence

that helps your customers find you.”

Dave Taylor, author,

Growing Your Business with Google – The Complete Idiot’s Guide

Back to the Future

“Marketing in this era is no longer about

crafting messages, but participating in

communities. You have to be in it for the

long-haul.”

Paul Chaney, Conversational Media Marketing

The New Customer

Connection Generation

Finding a Hairdresser

Tools for Connecting

It Can Get Complicated

Conversation Prism – Brian Solis & Jesse Thomas

How It Looks to Some

Social Media = Tools + Culture

1. online tools people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself

2. democratization of content and how people read, disseminate, create and share content

Adapted from Brian Solis, June 29, 2007 (see links)

Social Media – the Smart Way

•People•Objectives•Strategy•Technology

http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell

$200 -> $40,000

Byron Food on Posterous

Insider Tip

• Optimise for Local Search

– Keywords

– Images and Videos

– Google Business Centre http://tinyurl.com/mcwpmr

Tools & Tips - I

Tools & Tips - 2

• Check your profile

• Find out what they’re saying about you

• Get a blog – Google loves blogs

• Make videos

• Get on Twitter

Going Solo Won’t Work

http://tinyurl.com/smcgc1

Des Walsh

Social Media Strategist

http://deswalsh.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/deswalsh

http://XeeSM.com/deswalsh

On Twitter: @deswalsh

+61 5536 5658

+61 413 089 355

Links - ISensis® e-Business Report, Aug 09http://www.about.sensis.com.au/small_business/sebr.php

Internet Café – ninanord via Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ninsvims/2939288082/

Tools for ConnectingPosterous - between a blog and a Twitter account (and free) – http://posterous.comDelicious - bookmarking sites and blog posts you like – http://del.icio.usFriendFeed – social networking – http://www.friendfeed.com Digg – bookmarking and ranking for blog posts – http://digg.comFacebook - social networking – http://www.facebook.comLinkedIn - professional social networking – http://www.linkedin.comReddit - bookmarking – http://www.reddit.comFlickr- the leading site for uploading images – http://www.flickr.comYouTube - “Internet TV” – http://www.youtube.comRSS - syndication: read “What’s RSS” http://deswalsh.com/whats-rssStumbleUpon- favouriting and ranking site – http://www.stumbleupon.comWordPress.com- the one they host for you – http://www.wordpress.comWordPress.org - the one you host on your server – http://www.wordpress.orgSkype- “Voice over Internet” – http://www.skype.comTwitter “what are you doing?” – http://www.twitter.comTechnorati- blog ranking – http://www.technorati.comXeeSM all your social web links in one place (see http://XeeSM.com/deswalsh) – http://XeeSM.com

Links - IIThe Conversation Prism - http://theconversationprism.com/

Longleat Hedge Maze - Howard.Gees via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyberslayer/952153409/

$200 -> $40,000 Signs Never Sleep – http://www.signsneversleep.typepad.com – a Typepad blog maintained by J.D.Iles of Lincoln, New Hampshire: he identified 10% of his 2005 sales as being attributable to his blog: rounding the figures for a Typepad Pro blog and his turnover that year of $350,000 and adjusting for Australian dollars gives you the figure in the slides. Source: The Corporate Blogging Book, Debbie Weil, 2006, pp91-92

Tools & Tips

Cluetrain Manifesto http://www.cluetrain.com

Trevor Cook & Lee Hopkins: Social Media White Paper http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/files/CookHopkins-SocialMediaWhitePaper-2008.pdf

Brian Solis: Brink – A Social Media Guide from the Edge

http://www.pr-squared.com/2009/02/ebook_on_social_media_marketin.html

Deborah Micek & Warren Whitlock: twitter Revolution – Xeno Press 2008

Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff: Groundswell – winning in a world transformed by social technologies – Harvard Business Press

Notes: As I mentioned at the end of the event, I’m in the process of posting some supplementary and explanatory material on my Des’s Posterous site – http://des.posterous.com – for example an explanation of domain names and why it is a good idea to pay some attention to them in relation to your business and your professional profile online.