using social to grow your consulting business - asca 2010

firebellymarketing.com

Using Social Media to grow YOUR Consulting Business - ASCA 2010

Photo: “my Mind” by emats

Duncan AlneyFirebelly Marketingduncan@firebellymarketing.com317.557.4460

@firebelly#asca2010www.firebellymarketing.com/asca2010

Firebelly is a social marketing agency focused on:

• content creation• conversation development• community management• buzz monitoring• reputation management

Clients include:

Audience Survey

Stats

How people share information online

Social Media is 21st Century “Word of Mouth”

People of Facebook 

More than 500 million active users50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given dayAverage user has 130 friendsPeople spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

* source Facebook

Sixty percent of Americans use social media, and of those, 59 percent interact with companies on social media Web sites. One in four interacts more than once per week.

*These are among the findings of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study.

93% of Americans believe a company “should have a presence in social media.”

85% say that companies“should also interact with consumers via social media”

89% of US online buyers read customer reviews before they purchase.

Facebook tops Google for weekly web traffic in the U.S.

The #1 search engine is Google

The #2 largest search engine is Youtube

50% of mobile internet traffic is for social networking sites - imagine what that does for bad

customer experiences?

Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30.

96% of Millennials have joined a social network.

Social media is popular even among the mature generation (63-75 years): 36% of them had a social

network profile in 2009 vs. 10% in 2007

57% of US Internet users maintained a social networking site profile in 2009 vs. 45% in 2007

89% of US Online Buyers read customer reviews before they buy

A recent survey by PhoCusWright revealed the true power of customer reviews in the travel planning process: 84% of

respondents read a review of a product or service.

Source: eMarketer & PhoCusWright

175 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in September for an average of 14.4 hours per viewer

The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.2 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month

Other notable findings from September 2010 include:83.9 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience

viewed online video

The duration of the average online content video was 4.9 minutes while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes

Video ads accounted for 12.3 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online

30 minutes a day with a high propensity for sharing

Video

Source: comScore

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 brands are links to user generated content.

34% of bloggers post opinions about products or brands.

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.

Only 18% of TV ad campaigns generate a positive ROI.

90% skip ads with Tivo and DVR.

Twitter.com - the 12th most popular website in the world

75 million people worldwide visited Twitter.com in January 2010. That represents a growth of 1,100%

23.5 million of those came from the U.S.

50 million tweets are sent in one day

Impressive, but what does it mean?

Source: comScore Compete.com & Alexa

Facebook reaches 56% of the active US Internet universe with an average usage of

6hrs a month per user

Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older

Social Networking

Source: Nielsen

Who do people trust?

The Opportunity: Be Human

Use your storiesListen & Talk to people

Build CredibilityBuild Trust

Mullets: an easy way to understand social behavior

The 4 ChannelsSearch | Social | Traditional | WOM

Search Social

Traditional Word of Mouth

But first! Are you doing good work

Start with a brutal self assessment

Assess your brandStrengths and weaknesses

Stories are KeyDo you know your stories

Why Social?

Get Found on Search Engines

Get people talking online

How will it work??

Good Stories => Credibility => Leads => Sales

The Search Factor

Get found on Google: web traffic leads to conversion

Search

Text | Audio | Video | Images

1. Use a keyword approach2. Optimize your assets

Fresh Content on your Blog

Blog Content IdeasAwesome treesInteresting jobs

Testimonials

Tip: focus on human element, non-committal is ok, keywords

Build LinksLocal chamber

PartnersClients

Professional organizations

The Social Factor

Why Social

Build CredibilitySocial SearchConversations

Community can be monetized

Customers, competitors, prospects & the media are all listening.

Credibility - blogs, conversations, reviews, tweets, studies, testimonials, photos, videos

Social Search: Ask Peers First

#1 Monitor the web

#2 Respond

People are talking: Are you listening? Will you respond?

Do you know the details

Incentives:

Education1/2 hr consultationVolume discounts

Response time

Should I take part in social media?

Do you have buy in from the top?

Do U / Will U have good content?

Are people involve with your brand?

Can you implement consistently?

Can you measure consistently?

You need all five!

10 things You Can Do

LinkedIn Groups: Take Part

Blog: use your stories

Tips: Blogspot is free.

Wordpress is the most flexible.Use your blog stories in your email campaign

Listen: Use a monitoring tool

Tip: Google alerts to start

Videos: Completed Projects, Cool Trees, People

Tip:YouTube!

Start a Facebook Page: get some people to join

Tip: Make sure you fill out that info page! Use the discussions

area.

Use good questions: to get conversations started

Tip: Act like you’re in a 24/7 cocktail party!

Photos and Videos: Completed Projects, Cool Trees, People

Tip: Flickr and Facebook! YouTube!

Tip: Talk to the haters too!

Photos and Videos: Get them talking. Meet up with them.

Promote: Press, Local Bloggers

Tip: Be excited about your content

Measure: SERPS, Traffic, Reputation

Free Tools

Affordable Tools

premium

Sophisticated Tools

Agency or In-house?

Recap

Use your stories

Listen/monitor

Optimize content

Promote

Listen & Talk to people

Build credibility and trust

Measure

Duncan AlneyFirebelly Marketingduncan@firebellymarketing.com317.557.4460

@firebelly#asca2010www.firebellymarketing.com/asca2010

Examples