Social Media & Blogging 101

Agenda

• Social Media 101• Blogging for Success

SOCIAL MEDIA 101

Definition

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.*

*Wikipedia

Popular Social Networks

• MySpace• Facebook• Linkedin• Classmates.com• Friendster• Meetup.com• Orkut

Specialty Social Networks

• TeeBeeDee (baby boomers)• Cafe Mom (mothers)• Black Planet (African Americans)• Good Reads (book lovers)• Out Everywhere (GLBT)• Yelp (restaurant reviews)• SciSpace.net (scientists)

Extreme Specialty Networks

• sjsualumninetwork.com• nurselinkup.com• paganspace.net• firefighternation.com• navyformoms.com• designrelated

Business or Pleasure?

• Both!• Virtual face-to-face• Comscore: fastest growing segment of Facebook was

25-34 demographic• Facebook has more than 100 million users• June 2008 Conference Board report: one out of every

four people online visits social networking sites (update: 35%)

• Business owners can reach customers directly• Targeted marketing• Networking• Career Searches/Recruiting

Linkedin

Six Degrees of Separation

• www.linkedin.com• 16 million users• Search by name, location, company• Get introduced to potential clients by

people who know them already• Online resume or business profile• Recommend and be recommended• Ask questions and answer questions

Facebook

Groups

• Join and meet in groups– Public Relations Society of America

(PRSA)– Rae Waters for State Representative– San Diego Padres fans

• Create your own

Group Pages

Business Pages

• Essentially a visual business listing– Background– Photos/Videos– Links– Events– Discussion Board

Business Page

Doing business

• Set up a personal and business profile• Add content• Invite your friends and associates• Surf around, join groups, offer advice

and make new friends and associates• Meet friends of friends and grow your

network exponentially• Feed your blog to your Facebook page

10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business– Meet your peers– Find business contacts– Instant gate opener– Build relationships– Raise visibility– Develop your personal brand– Target your niche– Get rapid top Google placement– Place targeted ads– No cost marketing Source: Mari Smith, Author, Facebook for Professionals

Twitter

Why Tweet?

• Gain exposure for your blogs…and gain potential readers

• Market work, products, services, etc.• Answer questions/ ask questions• Learn new things from other industry

professionals• Seek out industry colleagues for assistance w/

special projects• Announce events• Share interesting articles• Live event coverage

Who is Tweeting?

• @barackobama• @richardbranson• @ceosunblog• @lancearmstrong• @snoopdogg• @the_real_shaq• @britneyspears

Twitter Tools

• Online at twitter.com• Via Blackberry or iPhone• Desktop applications

– Twhirl– Seesmic– BigTweet

• Auto update Facebook• Ping.fm

– Everywhere at once

Seesmic

BLOGGING FOR SUCCESS

Blogging for Business

• For company leaders to communicate directly with customers

• For employees to communicate with customers• To reinforce your brand• To produce organizational transparency• To keep customers updated on product issues• To serve as a channel to the public in a crisis• To report to a constituent audience on the

company’s positions• To establish yourself as a subject matter expert*Holtz & Demopolis: Blogging For Business

Get More Visitors

Get More Links

Get Indexed

Company Blogs

• Company blogs include:– Delta Airlines– Dell– Yahoo!– Boeing– EDS– General Motors– IBM– Johnson & Johnson– Microsoft– Salesforce.com– Sprint

Just Roughin’ It

Atomic Comics

Valley PR Blog

CEO Blogs

• CEO blogs include:– J. Willard Marriott Jr., CEO, Marriott International– Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University– Marc Cuban, HDNET & Dallas Mavericks– Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman, General Motors Corporation– Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect, Macromedia– Justin Rattner, CTO, Intel– Bob Parsons, President, godaddy.com– Jonathan Schwartz, COO, Sun Microsystems– Mike Critelli, Executive Chairman, Pitney Bowes– David Neeleman, Chairman, JetBlue Airways

Michael Dell

Mark Cuban

Tools for Blogging

• WordPress• Moveable Type• Type Pad• Blogger.com• Live Journal• …and about 1,000 others

WordPress

• The most popular blogging tool• Simple to use• Free• Hosted or application

– www.wordpress.com– www.wordpress.org

A Word About Design

• Built-in Templates– Hosted version has more than 60

flexible designs• Custom Design

– Use templates– Have your web designer build it

• Function Over Form

Keys to Better Blogging

• Headlines are Important– Short Catchy Headlines– Use Key Words

• Keep it Simple– Single Topic Posts

• Keep it Short– Two to three paragraphs

• Have an Opinion– Be a “Thought-Leader” (Have a take, do not suck!)– Offer Advice/Best Practices

• Links• Photos

Links

Photos/Images

Trackbacks

• An acknowledgment sent via a network signal

• Facilitates communication between blogs• Helps grow your audience

Tags

• Search optimization– Internal– External

• Use only a few on each post

• Helps people find your post

PROMOTING YOUR BLOG

The Basics

• Tell everyone you know!• Add link to blog from web site• Include a link to your blog in your e-

mail signature• Put your blog address on your

business card• Announce the launch of your blog in

customer communications– eNewsletters, eBlasts, Store flyers, etc.

RSS Feeds

• Feedburner– RSS feed– e-mail option

Free Blog Listings

• Technorati• Google Blog Search• Bloglisting.net• Icerocket• Mybloglog• Alltop• Buzzerhut

Viral Tactics

• Blogroll– Reciprocal Links

• Comments– Always register and include email AND

blog address– Get a “gravatar”

• http://en.gravatar.com/

Piggybacking

• Read lots of blogs• Write a post on your blog about

something you’ve read– Link to it in your post– Trackback to it

Social Integration

• Linkedin– WordPress module included

• Facebook– Third Party Applications

• Social RSS

Tweet Tweet

Get Social

• Bookmark posts on Delicious• Stumble posts on StumbleUpon• Post a teaser on Linkedin status• Use Sharethis or similar tool• Digg it

Questions?

http://www.slideshare.net/lengutman