CONTACTAndy at furthr andy@furthr.co.uk

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS: ONE DAY COURSE OUTLINEWhat is Social Media?The “two way web.” Passive versus active participants. Relationship building. Connect individual voice to community.

What does it do best?Blogs, Podcasts, Social Networks ,Social bookmarking , Social software, Social news sites.Platforms: Skype, Wordpress.com, Blogger, Vox, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn, Google, Wikis.

ListeningTwice as important as speaking. Listening tools include Tweetdeck/ Followerwonk/adwords traffic estimator/ Google trends/ Hootsuite/ Google Reader Exercise: let’s look at these in more detail.

What are your business goals?Make sure they are measureable. A Guide to Google Analytics.

StrategyContent is the cornerstone of a social media plan. Use Facebook and other social networks to point people towards your primary media. How best to achieve this?

BlogsRegular entries, it’s dynamicHow regular? Content frequency for traffic versus social media optimizationReverse chronological orderCommentary and opinionYahoo labs survey on engagementLinking/likingGood linking structure explainedComments/ interactiveExercise: comment on site of your choice.

Writing for online25/50 rule, F shaped Heat Mapping, Eyetrack studies, Jackob Nielsen, active versus passive language, optimizing copy. Exercise: writing web-friendly headlines.

TwitterWhy it’s a “gate-jumper.” Value of real time search. Business case for Twitter. Proving ROI.

Setting Up a Twitter AccountThe update, the @reply, the @mention, the retweet, the direct message.How to Follow. Your profile and picture. Formulists. Twitpic. Tweetdeck.Optimising Twitter: best time to tweet for replies, retweets and click throughs. Hashtags and lists. Twitter’s golden rule. 12: 1 rule. The awesome value of search.

Twitter Best Practice for BusinessHow to use Twitter to:1. Build Brand Awareness 2. Make Customer Service Personal with Social Media 3. Add Events to Social Media Programs 4. Embrace Social Media to Build Your Sales Pipeline (What is a conversion for you?)5. Activate Your Community to Take Action

Developing a scheduleHow to organize your social media and how measure, tweak, repeat.

FacebookDemographics. The business case for Facebook. Basic apps to add to your page.

How to create a killer timeline for your business.Your profile, the importance of your profile picOptimizing apps: turning potential customers into subscribers.Displaying your content : creating a landing page, clear calls to action, custom interfaces, list services, large product image, offer incentives, twice daily updates. Be localized.

Making Facebook Your Social Media HubProminent links, integrate social media apps, a page for each product.

Testing and MetricsImpressions, feedback, comments, traffic, Facebook Insights etc. Test and refine.

Hints and tipsSearch optimization basics, giving contact details, tagging images, posting an ad, keyword rich text and links, fan page widget, F- commerce explained.

What does success look like?Are your numbers as good as you want them to be?