How to market your business on Facebook, Twitter & Social

Media

Clayton Wehner

A short arousal video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlSkU0TFL

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What we’re gunna cover today…the scope Quick intro to social media – what is it? The importance of your core website A social media strategy The technologies

Blogging Twitter Facebook Online video

Making money

Quick intro around the table Your name Your business Your website Your social media forays to date

How this workshop works I have structured content But happy to deviate where necessary Ask questions along the way Learn from one another Informal, interactive, fun

Social Media Belongs to the Web 2.0 movement – the

interactive web Social media is ‘media designed to be

disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques’

Blogs, micro-blogging, social networking, video/file sharing, wikis, social bookmarking, community sites and more

Your website and social media Your website should be the central

component of your social media strategy If your website needs work, best to sort this

out first before getting serious about social media…

Many avenues in

Users can engage in the forum that they are most comfortable with

Example website – Random House

POST – a social media strategy People

Who are you targeting? Certain demographic, multiple demographics

Objectives What do you want to achieve?

More sales? Leads? Engagement? Awareness? Strategies

How do your propose to achieve your objectives? Competitions, special deals, provision of information, email

marketing Technologies

Which technologies will you use to implement the strategies? Email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, video, etc.

Source: Forrester Research

Quick exercise Write down a quick POST strategy for your

business

People – who do you need to target? Objectives – what do you want to achieve? Strategies – how might you achieve these

objectives? Technologies – what technologies do you think

would be the best?

Blogs

Blogs in plain English… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXj

XI

Blogging Blog = ‘web log’ In essence, an online journal or diary, ordered

by date Can be setup within minutes online:

Wordpress.com Blogger.com TypePad.com

Blogger – www.blogger.com

Wordpress.org – best choice

What to blog Industry news and views Book reviews Opinion pieces – controversy

creates ‘link bait’! ‘How to’ guides Free e-books and white papers ‘Top Ten’ articles Anything that is interesting and

will attract an audience

How to blog Keep it niche Mix it up Interesting topics Small contributions – 200-400 words Regular, consistent posting – every week,

fortnight, month Write posts that provoke a response Network with other bloggers and ‘comment’

on other blogs Discipline and persistence pays…

Quick exercise Write down 2 blog topics that you would write

about on your blog

Be creative! Share it with the group

Twitter

Twitter in plain English… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax

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Perez Hilton

CNN

Ashton Kutcher

Barack Obama

Kevin Rudd

Let’s open a Twitter account Let’s open a Twitter account (if you don’t

already have one) Go to http://www.twitter.com Hit ‘Sign Up Now’ Complete the online form and select ‘Create

my account’ You are now on Twitter!

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Follow others:

Go to www.twitter.com/bluetrain (Clayton) and hit ‘Follow’

You are now following my tweets Follow others in the room Review your following (people you are following)

and your followers (people following you)

Search for others to follow: Select ‘Find People’ top right Type ‘adelaide’ into the search

bar

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Send your first tweet

Navigate to Twitter home and type a message in ‘What’s happening?’

Hit ‘Tweet’ Your followers are sent the ‘tweet’

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter See tweets from others

Navigate to your Twitter home page The tweets of all the people you are following will

appear in your Twitter stream

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter ‘Retweet’ (forward) a tweet

‘Retweeting’ is simply passing on a useful tweet to your entire followership

It’s good to retweet quality tweets – don’t overdo it

To retweet a tweet, click on the ‘retweet’ link alongside the post – simple!

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Send a direct message (DM)

These are only sent to a single person, not your entire followership

Handy for private conversations, passing private details (phone numbers etc)

Method 1: go to the user’s page – www.twitter.com/bluetrain - and select the ‘message’ link; enter your message

Method 2: in the tweet window, send message with syntax: d <username> <message>

DMs appear on your Direct Messages page

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Send a @reply / mention

Used to reply to a tweeter – eg. @steve thanks for the advice!

Used to ‘mention’ a person or business – eg. I am at the social media conference with @steve

Basically a way to ‘tag’ a tweet so that you can find mentions of a particular person/business

@ messages are sent to ALL followers of the originator – different from DMs

Enter a message with the syntax: @<username> <message>

@replies / mentions are collected together for you on your mentions page (right hand side column)

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Use a # hashtag

Basically a way to ‘tag’ a tweet so that you can find mentions of a particular event/theme/stream of tweets

The syntax is: #<hashtag-name> - eg. #eastsidebec

The hashtag can appear anywhere in the tweet Hashtagged tweets can be found using Twitter

search

Let’s do some stuff on Twitter Settings

Change your profile and bio – make it interesting Change your background Configure your mobile device Configure email preferences

Goodies Embed a Twitter feed on your website

Embedded Twitter stream

Ways that business can use Twitter Networking, partnering and friendships Keep in touch with existing customers Event updates using a hashtag Find prospects using Twitter search on a key term Share info and build credibility Leveraging network to hire people Direct traffic to your website through links to

content Use it as a customer service channel – instant

messaging Use it as an advice line – instant messaging Monitor your brand

What to Tweet Links to you own great blog posts Links to great articles that you found & want

to share Special offers (within reason) Topical issues relating to your industry Questions/polls/discussion items Quirky observations Tips about your industry Quizzes Thought of the day, quotes, etc

How to Tweet Tweet stuff people can ‘use’ – this is the stuff

that gets ‘retweeted’ Don’t spam Don’t write inane, boring things – ‘I am eating

a pie’ Inject some personality Don’t overdo it – 1-2 tweets a

day is OK

Third party Twitter applications There are hundreds of third party applications

that make it easier to use Twitter Some examples:

Tweetdeck – desktop Twitter client Twhirl – desktop Twitter client Twitpic – for sharing images on Twitter Twitterfeed – for converting an RSS feed to a

Twitter feed Twuffer – schedule tweets

Tweetdeck

Facebook

Facebook in plain English… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYK

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Facebook Who doesn’t have a Facebook account? Over 400 million users worldwide! Great for ‘social’ networking Facebook ‘Pages’ for business (not ‘Groups’) Question: is this the right

medium/demographic for your business?

Coca Cola

Nutella

Let’s do some stuff on Facebook Set up a personal account (if you don’t

already have one) Go to http://www.facebook.com Complete the online form and hit ‘Sign Up’ Alternatively, if you don’t want a personal

account, set up a business ‘page’ account by clicking the ‘Create a Page’ link

Let’s do some stuff on Facebook Add Friends

Search for ‘clayton wehner’ Hit ‘Add as Friend’ Do same for others around the table

We’re not going to delve too deeply into the different functions of Facebook

Facebook Pages Create a page for your business

Go to Ads and Pages in the left hand side menu Select ‘Create a Page’ Complete the online form Tick the ‘do not publish yet’ tickbox Hit Create Page Once you have edited the necessary settings,

publish the page and you are live! NOTE: when you get 25 fans, upgrade

to a Facebook vanity URL

Facebook Applications Like Twitter, Facebook has a community of

developers that create applications to extend the functionality of Facebook.

Some great applications for your Facebook Page: FBML – enables you to customise tabs and boxes

in Facebook NetworkedBlogs – enables you to stream a blog

onto a Facebook Page Social RSS – enables you to stream an RSS feed

onto a Facebook Page

Facebook Advertising Advertise using pay per click on Facebook

Go to Ads and Pages in the left hand side menu Select ‘Ads Manager’ Click on ‘Create an Ad’ Facebook ads can be targeted by age, sex,

birthday, education, relationship status, sexuality(!), connections and geographic location

Online Video

Online video Video is the biggest growth area on the web

as bandwidth and online storage increases Over 20 hours of video every minute is

uploaded to YouTube Video can be done cheaply with a handheld

camcorder Viral impact can bring thousands of visitors to

a website in a short space of time

Why video? Grab people’s attention instantly Tell your story in less time Bring your ideas to life Make your site stickier Create a buzz with viral video Bring your website into the 21st century It’s great for Search Engine Optimisation

What videos can you create? Corporate overview Customer testimonials Man-in-the-street interviews Product demonstrations Tour of your premises Staff interviews Job specifications / recruitment videos ‘How To’ videos / tutorials

How to embed a video on your website Create an account on YouTube Upload your video from your camcorder Grab the embed code from alongside the

video page Paste the embed code into your website HTML

code (you may need your web developer to do this)

Bob’s your uncle

Making money

Will I make money? Like most things, it won’t happen overnight 6 months or more of time, effort and

persistence Givers gain Shonks and hard-sellers are ostracised It’s not unlike ‘real’ networking! Meet people, build relationships, listen, share

knowledge, ask/answer questions, build trust, build reputation

There’s no sustainable ‘get rich quick’ option

Here are some ways you can make money… Follower/Friend = Prospect A bigger ‘signature’ on the web results in greater

discoverability and increased traffic to your website – organic traffic, search engine traffic

Maintain engagement with existing clients via social media channels – special offers, new releases, links to new content

Establish yourself as a credible industry player through advice, video, comments, articles posted

Involvement in social media channels creates ‘openness’ and ‘accessibility’

The End

This presentation available at:

www.bluetrainenterprises.com.au/socialmediaworkshop