Essentials of Social Media

By Yusuf Chowdhury

About Yusuf Chowdhury Online Marketing for 6 years.

Managed multiple blogs and social networking sites.

Partnered with other digital marketing consultants & web developer agency.

Founder of Online Business Owners.

Worked on 2 board games & released two short films.

1st educational iPad/Iphone app

TopicsWhat is Social Media?

Why Social Media?

Social Media Platforms

Social Media Etiquette & Strategies.

Q&A

What is Social Media?Social Media is an internet and mobile based applications and communication tool.

Its sole purpose is to create interactive dialogue, online communities and to generate content that can be delivered by users who interact and update in real time.

People can connect with friends and family, make new friends, and interact with organizations locally and globally.

Why Social Media?

More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at

least once a day!

Dell made $6.5 million in sales using Twitter”

Major Corporations Use it...

• High-end budget• Able to experiment• Established Brand • Marketers in-house• Leverage media and PR contacts

TRADITIONAL MARKETING(Outbound)

• Telemarketing, Direct Mailings, Radio, etc...

• Broadcast, one-way

• Interruption Marketing

• Expensive

NEW MEDIA MARKETING(Inbound)

• Focused on building relationship

• Permission based rather then selling

• Social Media, Opt-In emails, Blogs, etc...

• Interactive, immediate, accessible, constantly evolving

• Requires consumer engagement for success

• Requires time and discipline

• Anyone can participate and generate word of mouth

Case Studies

Curbside Cupcakes

CoffeeGroundz

Family Wine Company

CASE STUDY #1:

CURBSIDE CUPCAKES- INCREASED REVENUE- INCREASED BRAND EXPOSURE- EXPLOSIVE EXCITEMENT

Curbside Cupcakes, a mobile gourmet cupcake vendor in Washington, DC, used Twitter and Facebook among other online platforms to build a significant customer following. They built up over 3,100 Twitter follower and over 5,600 Facebook fans by posting a Cupcake Calendar with their locations for the month. They also had “Wildcard Spots” days in which they revealed their destinations via Twitter and Facebook. They engaged their following by tweeting with them, and fans posted photos of their cupcakes and their interactions with the mobile van on Facebook. This generated excitement in the shopping process for their customers and increased the business’s exposure, following, and revenues.

CASE STUDY #2:

COFFEE GROUNDZ- INCREASED REVENUE- DOUBLED TRAFFIC- INCREASED PR COVERAGE

A cross between a coffee house and a lounge in Houston, TX, they were potentially the first to place and receive a “to-go” order via Twitter. The company started taking to-go” orders via direct message on Twitter, and a whole new sales process was born. The café’s business demand doubled as a result of this strategy, coupled with good press coverage that increased others’ awareness of this convenient way of ordering.

CASE STUDY #3:

Gary VaynerchuckMore Money!!!!!Constant InteractionIncreased Media Exposure

Gary Vaynerchuck grew his family business from $4 million to $60 million in five years using social media. What Gary found is that:

$15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new Customers

$7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers

$0 Twitter = 1,800 new customer

Visiting social sites is

now the 4th most

popular

online activity,

ahead of personal

email.

97% of consumers

use online searches

when researching

products or services.

78% of consumers

trust peer

recommendations.

Only 14% trust ads!

Those members seek and make recommendations for products, services & experiences for friends & followers.

Truth: Marketing has shifted from a one-way broadcast to a multi-point conversation.

The new “word of mouth” is online social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook & Twitter

have 1400,000,000

members combined!

The fastest growing demographic among Facebook users is...

35 to 65 year-old women.

YouTube is now the second

largest search engine

People go there to look for videos to answer their questions,

show them how to do something, or review a product or business.

gets >300,000,000

visitors a month who

watch more than

2,000,000,000 videos

There are more than

200,000,000 blogs!

People are more likely to visit blogs that align with their interests because blogs are non-selling environments.

Whether you know it or

not, your prospects &

customers are using

social media.

Are you still spending money on:

Yellow Pages, Newspaper inserts & other old-school

media?

24 of the 25 largest newspapers experienced

record declines in circulation in the

past year.

Why are the Yellow Pages like Nursing

Homes?

Because they’re shockingly expensive and few people under

70 use them!

According to Yahoo!92% of all business searchers

start looking online, either at

home or on their mobile phones

Marketing online isn’t

an option anymore —

it’s a requirement!

It’s where your prospects &

customers are searching to find

businesses they can trust to buy

products or services or get their problems

solved.

Marketing online is no longer just about having a

Web site where people come to find your

business.

It’s about going where they are online and

connecting with them in those locations.

Are you regularly monitoring and enhancing your

reputation online?

Are you active in all the places where your

target customers hang out online?

Get Out There & Get Found!

But it’s not“set and forget.”

You need to stay fresh!

Social media are like big grocery stores

Get Out There & Get Found

Get Out There & Get Found

There’s a “sell by” date

on every message --and it’s today!

Get Out There & Get Found

If you’re not delivering

something new on a regular basis, other messages

are going to replace yours on

the shelves.

Engage Once you get found,

engage with your prospects on their terms.

Engage Get them to follow you on

Twitter, friend you on Facebook or subscribe to your

YouTube channel.

Engage Then start offering

more insightful information, expert perspective,

recommendations, news, coupons, and

membership privileges…

Engage

Build relationshipsEarn their trust

Earn their business

Follow Up Continue to

engage & follow up

Follow Up Provide valuable

information Respond to

comments and questions

Integrate all the elements so they amplify each other—

•Search engines

•Video

•Social media

•Mobile marketing

Do it with zero extra work on your part.

SocialMediaPlatforms

Social Media Type PlatformsBlogging & Micro Blogging Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr and Twitter

Social Networking Facebook, Google +, Linkedin

Social Bookmarking Delicious, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon

Social Communities Ning, Meetup

Photos/Videos Flickr,Picasa, photobuket, Youtube,Vimeo, Blip.tv, Daily motion

Reviews Yelp, Amazon, Flixster

Education Howcast, Lynda, WonderHowTo, eHow

Shopping ebay

Geo-location FourSquare, Facebook Checkin, Gowalla

Wikis Wikipedia, WikiHow

A Closer Look at the Big Five

Facebook700 BILLION minutes spent on Facebook

900 MILLION users worldwide

70% live outside of the US (Facebook is available in 70 languages)

50% of users login on any given day

Average user connected to 80 Pages, Groups, events and 130 friends

Over 71% of 206 Million US Internet Users on Facebook

Most visited Website in 2010

2 MILLION + websites integrated with Facebook (including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites & over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites)

FacebookPersonal profile: connect with friends and family -

share news, photos, videos and to play games

Business page:

build an online community surrounding your business where people can interact with you,

make suggestions on products and services, and

feel like they're the “insiders” because you show them pictures, offer them special deals, and let them see behind the scenes.

Twitter• 400 MILLION users on Twitter

• # Increases by 300 THOUSAND every day

• Over 55 MILLION tweets sent daily

• 82% of Twitter users now provide a real name vs 33%

• 73% provide location details vs 44%

• 45% of users include a website URL vs 22% a year ago

• Nearly 96% of users - follow less than 500 people

TwitterProfessionals who use Twitter are not tweeting

about their dog or their latest meals. Instead they're:

listening to their market connecting with potential customers and engaging in authentic conversation about relevant

topics. interacting with others in 140- character posts in

real time by sharing content, posting questions, responding to others and learning from industry leaders.

LinkedIn• 90 MILLION registered users – world’s largest

professional network

• On average, 1 new member joins every SECOND of every day = 1 MILLION new members every 12 days

• More than 1 MILLION companies have LinkedIn Company Pages

• Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn Members

• Nearly 1,000 groups created on LinkedIn every day

• 100,000 members joining daily

• More than 50% of LinkedIn members located outside the U.S.

LinkedInBuild a network of professional

colleaguesand connections

to build relationships that boost your success and reputation.

YouTube• Over 2 BILLION video views per day (double the prime-time

audience of all 3 major US broadcast networks combined)

• M o b i le U s e r s = 1 0 0 M I L LION + views/month Every Minute 24 Hours of Video is Uploaded

• YouTube is in 23 countries and 24 different languages

• 70% of Registered YouTube Users are Outside United States

• YouTube is Fastest Growing Search Engine (currently ranked 2nd)

• Video is Part of Googleʼs Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

YouTube• Video on your website drives 36%

• 55% of viewers who see a branded video on a third party site like YouTube visit the company website

• 30% will visit the store and

• 24% will purchase something

Wordpress More than 125 million people read blogs monthly, which account for 77% of all Internet users.

Blog readers more likely to purchase from and/or refer the bloggers they trust.

14% of blogs owned by corporations

25% of bloggers are non-college graduates

11% say that blogging is their primary source of income

81% have been blogging more than 2 years

38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews

Wordpress - The most common blog updating frequency rate is

2-3 times per week

• 53% of bloggers spend between 0-3 hours per week

• 22% of bloggers spend 3-10 hours per week

• 13% of bloggers spend 10-40 hours per week

• 2% of bloggers spend 40 hours or more per week

Let’s get startedright now with

Five Simple

Strategies!

Social Media EtiquetteBe real, honest, authentic

and transparent.

Provide valuable content, conversation, help and information.

Be accessible.

Listen to other people and their opinions.

Ask questions.

Generate conversation that others can join.

Help other people including your competition.

Put other people 1st.

Listen to your community and learn.

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.

Research and Listen

Google Alerts at www.google.com/alerts

Google Blog Search http://www.google.com/blogsearch

Yahoo Answers at http://answers.yahoo.com/

Technorati at http://technorati.com/

Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com

Keyword Research using http://googlekeywordtool.com/

Find Out What People Are Already Saying About Your Product, Services or Niche and

Learn What They Want

Define YourSocial Media Goals

Use SMART Goals.

Grow your personal or business brand.

Target your niche audience.

Inform people.

Find business partners.

Enhance your Google ranking

Define how you will measure accomplishments.

Increase traffic to your website.

Increase revenue.

“If you are going to go there (Social

Networking site,) you had better go for the

right reasons. And if your reason is to sell

more stuff, please don’t bother. It’s not

going to work. People don’t care about you.

They just don’t!”Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being

Remarkable, Seth Godin

Define Your StrategyHow will you implement your Social Media plan?

Which platform is best for your organization?

What other Social Media Tools could you use?

Podcasts, Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube

Pick one or many

Create your accounts and optimize.

Note: Don’t expect a fast return.

Build a Checklist to Launch Social Media Sites.

Blog:www.wordpress.org- Write Effectively to Blogging Audiences- Dress it up with videos, images, etc.- Tell a story.- Make it easy to post comments and share- Read other blog posts and participate.- Establish long-term relationships with bloggers.- Provide ample content on your blog before promoting.- Promote your blog by adding the site to relevant blog directories.• Technorati (www.technorati.com)

Facebook page:

- Don’t pitch the company, products, or services.

- Make fans feel special.

- Provide information, deals, or contests.

- Customize the look and feel.

- Add engaging content and opportunities for interaction.

- Promote the page to get more fans.

- Regularly update content and respond to posts.

Build a Checklist to Launch Social Media Sites

Linkedin:

- Get the Most Out of Participation on LinkedIn

- Create Groups in your niche

- Join Others groups to start conversation

- Be proactive and answer questoins

Build a Checklist to Launch Social Media Sites

Twitter:

- Offer exclusive deals for Twitter followers.

- Follow what real customers are saying and get involved in the conversation to educate and inform.

- Download a free guide at http://business.twitter.com/twitter101.

Build a Checklist to Launch Social Media Sites

YouTube:

- Post videos on the site for free.

- Create videos that are humorous, offbeat, and personal to encourage viewing.

- Take good care of customers.

Build a Checklist to Launch Social Media Sites

Plan to Measure Your Success

Can users interact with the content?

Can visitors share the content easily with others?

Does the site encourage collaboration?

Is the website SEO optimized?

Use Web statistics like Google Analytics

Increase Web site traffic

Drive sales or new business

Monitor brand awareness

Plan to Measure Your Success

Improve customer relations

Manage reputation

Establish credibility

Create buzz

Listen and engage

Tap Into Measurement Tools

Track your Facebook engagement (http://edgerankchecker.com/)

Track real-time Twitter conversations:

Twitter Search (search.twitter.com)

Monitter (www.monitter.com)

TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com)

Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com)

TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com)

Timely (www.timely.is)

Buffer (www.bufferapp.com)

Hubspot Twitter Grader (tweet.grader.com)

ManageFlitter (www.manageflitter.com)

Tap Into Measurement Tools Measure and analyze traffic on a Web site for free. Google Analytics

(www.google.com/analytics)

Receive free e-mail updates when a topic is mentioned on the Web or in a blog. Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)

Learn of Web search trends around certain key terms. Google Trends (www.google.com/trends)

Manage feed subscriptions. FeedBurner (feedburner.google.com)

Utilize blog search engines with tools for rating.

Technorati (www.technorati.com)

Have a question or

two?

Now’s the time to ask!

Resources

Resources Social Media Examiner

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Social Media Todayhttp://socialmediatoday.com/

Mashablehttp://mashable.com/

End of this presentation

Contact Yusuf Chowdhury here:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/yusufchowdhury

Facebook Page: OnlineBusinessOwners

https://www.facebook.com/onlinebusinessowners

https://www.twitter.com/yusufchowdhury

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