Social media for the creative industry

What works, what doesn't and why

Farhan Lalji | farhan@adavengers.com | September 2010

The plan• Introductions• An introduction to social media• Working session 1• Sharing work• Working session 2• Closing remarks

Quick intro• Founder, Ad Avengers • Yahoo! EU marketing operations manager• London Business School MBA• Business Development• Communications consulting• Web development and design• McMaster University - Human factors

• Linkedin/in/farhanlalji• Facebook.com/farhanlalji• Twitter.com/farhanlalji

An introduction to social media• What’s so different about social media• Using the right tools for the right job• Be transparent or else• Be benefit driven

04/18/23Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential5

The most important word of them all

People

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

– George Macdonald

7

•

Yesterday

Today

10Always

Trust• People trust brands less• People will always trust people• Trusting people you know is easier than

trusting people you don’t• Trusting people other people know is also

easier than trusting people you don’t• Build trust by participating

How many times do I have to tell you, the right tool for the right job! 

- Scotty from Star Trek

13

14

Know your target audience and where they are

Today and tomorrow

Knowing when and how to use what

Linkedin – purely professional Wordpress – establishing

strategy/thought leadership Twitter – professional / personal

overlap, distribution Flickr – creativity Myspace – creativity and

connections Facebook – personal and connecting,

distribution

18

19

20

04/18/23Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential21

22

23

04/18/23Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential24

25

04/18/23Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential26

Use the right tool for the job Twitter

Search.twitter.com Look up locations PR agencies / Newspapers CONNECT

Facebook Search groups Ads Locations ENTERTAIN

99 Designs / Ad Avengers / eLance / Creative floor Actual jobs, projects Share work Allow potential employers to view

your work GET PAID

Linkedin People Recommendations PROFESSIONAL

Flickr Photographs Comment Groups VISUAL

Behance Portfolio PROFESSIONAL VISUALS

Blogging (blogger/Wordpress etc) | Slideshare When you want to influence Comment on other people’s blogs Build a profile THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

04/18/23Yahoo! Presentation, Confidential29

30

Tools• Who do you want to attract?• What assets do you have?• There’s a lot out there• Take it one step at a time (but try different

things)• Use the right tool for the job!

One man's transparency is another's humiliation.

– Gerry Adams

34What’s the skiing like?

35What’s the skiing like?

36

37

38

39

Transperancy• People want the truth• If you don’t tell the truth, someone else will• Share insights and go beyond the detail• Don’t be afraid to share some personal

moments

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. 

- Albert Einstein

Benefits, think win win

43

Give stuff, make people happyfinance.yahoo.com

One happy FarhanOne happy Farhan

45

Benefits• People know what’s valuable, so give things

that are valuable• Things that are valuable are more likely to

be shared• Don’t think short term at the expense of

long term

Money often costs too much. 

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Money• Invest to make return• Think about packages, offering something of

value to work with other things at a price• Use the power of social media for good

(making money can be good)

What matters• Trust - Build trust by participating• Tools – Use the right tool for the job • Transparency – Tell the truth and be personal • Benefits - think win/win• Money – can be made, but investment is

needed

Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.

– Yoda

Questions?

Appendix – tools and termsTools• Tweetdeck – social media aggregator –

www.tweetdeck.com• Bit.ly – url shortening service – http://bit.ly/• Hootsuite – great for corporate twitter

accounts with multiple users – http://www.hootsuite.com

Appendix – tools and termsTerms• Retweet (rt) – re-posting a message from someone you

follow to your followers, something you believe is of interest to the people who follow you

• @ replies – using the @ symbol followed by the username (eg. @farhanlalji to send me a reply or a message)

• DM – direct message, a private message only visible to the two users, the one sending the message and the one receiving the message

• # - hashtag, to be used in a tweet to ensure that the tweet shows up in a conversation / search for the subject