SOCIAL MEDIA FOR

SMALL BUSINESS

YMCA Business Centre, Markham, ON

October 19, 2010

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ANYWAY?

• Part of your marketing mix

• A tool for communication

• A two-way street that gives you the ability to engage with your audience

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: 500 M users worldwide

45 M pieces of contents shared per month

5.3 M fans for 1.5 M local businesses

145% Growth in the last year

The 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base.

Largest growth in the 55+ demographic

At least 50% of active users log into the site each day

Twitter now has 156 M users sending out 5.4 B tweets per month

More than 70% of small & medium businesses actively use SM sites like Twitter, Facebook to promote themselves.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A MASSIVE NETWORKING PARTY

Be prepared

Know your message

Remember you are an ambassador of your brand

Join the conversation

Listen, help, support

Take initiative, engage

Give before you take

Be a connector

Don’t spam!

Think beyond ROI

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Brand awareness & exposure

Public Relations

Building your list

Selling products & services

Driving traffic to your website

Inexpensive way of marketing your business

AND THERE’S MORE…

Ongoing communication with your customers

Even playing field: Reach

Market research

Showcasing your expertise

Educating your customers

Competitive intelligence

Building & nurturing customer relations

Addressing customer concerns & questions instantly

Niche marketing

Understanding your customer as a whole

Viral & word of mouth marketing

Find new customers through your friends

Increase your search engine rankings

Connect with vendors, suppliers, partners

Attract media, sponsorship, joint ventures

OH BUT WAIT!Some Challenges to Deal with…

Time consuming

Overwhelming

Creating good content

Providing consistent communication

Privacy concerns

Transparency

Balance between relationship building & selling

Confidence in your message

Know your social media funnel

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

Creating good content

Sharing & Participating

Engagement

Consistency & Focus

FACEBOOK 101

Your personal profile is where it all starts

Have a professional photo

Include your bio & website on your profile

People want to know who you are; let them in

Remember that every post, picture, comment is part of your brand

Check privacy settings

Join groups, fan pages where your customers are

Participate in the conversation

Make friends!

Share (good) content

Invite them to your fan page

Get out to network in real life, connect with them on FB

YOUR FAN PAGE

What’s in a name?

Provide a description, add photos, video, links

Customized landing tab

Get a vanity url

Create content that is relevant, frequent & consistent: Status updates, links, photos, video

Encourage engagement, ask questions

Educate your fans

Make it relevant, interesting & fun

Create events, promotions

Remember the 80 -20 rule: engagement vs. selling

Ask questions - people love to talk

Respond to questions & inquiries promptly

Clean up wall spam promptly

Drive traffic to you page via your website, email signature, business card

TWITTER 101

Have your real name, good bio, professional photo

Include your website

Be consistent

Join the conversation

Balance between 3 types of tweets: Original content Responses/comments Re-tweets (sharing)

Remember the 80-20 rule

Be generous, kind, polite

Learn the rules & etiquette

Every tweet, every DM represents your company and more specifically you as a person.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine

Follow some experts closely to see how they do it

Don’t worry about (un)followers

Tweet like you talk, no jargon

Listen & ask questions

Use Twitter tools

Be patient – don’t get discouraged

Have fun!

“How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” – Seth Godin

“Realize that social media success equation is big moves on the chess board, it’s little moves made everyday that eventually add up to major shift.” Jay Baer

You will make mistakes. If you are sincere about helping the community, the authenticity will show and your mistakes will be forgiven.” – Zia Yusuf, executive vice president for SAP’s global ecosystem and partner group

Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” – Erin Bury, Sprouter community manager

Katia Millar

www.positivefabulouswomen.com