social media & freelancers seminar
DESCRIPTION
This is my presentation from last year. Since then Facebook added a few 100 million users and more news organizations changed their structure and strategy. Compare this to my other recent ones .TRANSCRIPT
Using Social Media to grow your business
Shashi Bellamkonda
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Domains• Find-a-domain services
− Certified Offer− Backorder− Premium Domains
• Domain Web Forwarding• Private Registration
Domains• Find-a-domain services
− Certified Offer− Backorder− Premium Domains
• Domain Web Forwarding• Private Registration
Communication• Business E-mail• Secure E-mail
Sell Online • E-commerce website
packages• E-commerce Tools
Merchant Account• Do It For Me E-Commerce
Website Design Service
Marketing • Search Engine
Optimization• Pay Per Click Advertising• Optimized Press Releases• Directory Services:
Monster Marketplace & ThinkLocal
• Enhanced Business Listings
• Link Building• Content Creation
Marketing • Search Engine
Optimization• Pay Per Click Advertising• Optimized Press Releases• Directory Services:
Monster Marketplace & ThinkLocal
• Enhanced Business Listings
• Link Building• Content Creation
Security• SSL Certificate• PC Security
Small Business Lifecycle
Websites• Website Hosting• Statistics and Website
tools• Professional Website
Design Services• Professional Logo Design
Services• Mobile Websites
About Network Solutions
PR Measurement SummitJune 20092
• We service over 3 million SMB customers and manage 7.5 million domain names.
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Hi ! I am Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib)• Director: Social Media Strategy at Network
Solutions ( Employees gave me business card title Social Media Swami)
• My team is the Network Solutions listening post in the Social Media
• Helped Network Solutions win
•2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management
• 2009 a Gold Quill Award of Excellence in Social Media from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Speaker - `How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss' and 'Social Media Tools for Small Business at SXSW, IABC, Affiliate summit and others
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Welcome
Outline:
Social Media 101
Social Networks and Communities
Getting Started on Twitter
Blogging Basics
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Online Tools Used by Small Business
•Network Solutions – University of Maryland Small Business Success index http://growsmartbusiness.com
64%
53%
39%
36%
35%
31%
30%
26%
25%
21%
20%
17%
16%
14%
69%
65%
48%
41%
37%
42%
40%
35%
38%
25%
30%
31%
21%
19%
Online customer service by email
Company website
Online advertising in industry/public directories
Shared network
Ability for employees to communicate with each other online
Ability to demonstrate products/services online
Ability for customers to order your products/services online
Search engine optimization plan
Online advertising that places ads on various sites
Security features on website
Ability for customers to pay for products/services online
Social media presence
Online customer service using chat capabilities
Area of website where customers can get info on transactions with your organization
Have now2 Year Potential*
Use of/Need for Various Internet Business Solutions (n=500)
% ChangeHave now
from Wave 1
+4
+3
+1
0
+2
+2
+4
+3
+2
+4
+3
+5
+4
0
Confidential ©2009 Network Solutions, LLC
I: Social Media 101: The Basics
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Social Media 101: Definition and Application
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Social media describes the online tools that establish human connections to share opinions, experiences, and perspectives with each other.
A few prominent examples of social media applications are:
Wikipedia (reference)Facebook (social networking)YouTube (video sharing)Digg (news sharing)Flickr (photo sharing)
These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, wikis, message boards, podcasts, and wikis to allow users to engage and interact with each other.
Photo by: Sean McColgan
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Social Media for Small Business
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Small Business can utilize social media to level the playing field against bigger, stronger competitors.
Out of the Gate, Small Businesses can use social media to:
Create connections and build relationshipsImprove search engine rankings which generates
website traffic, inbound links and leadsEstablish you and your team as thought leaders and
innovatorsManage your brand and reputation onlineGrow smarter and faster than your competitors
In order to achieve this, you must stay relevant and engage in the conversation and contribute to the community.
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Social Media 101: Who will you reach?
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Audience Segments
Customers
Prospects
Mainstream Media (Print and Broadcast)
Social Media (blogs, forums and social networks)
Employees
Committee Members
Suppliers/vendors/affiliates
There are many you can reach as a business. Here are a few:
Key Questions
Their goals and aspirations?
Their problems?
How do they get their answers?
How can you reach them?
What’s important to them?
What words and phrases do they use?
What sort of images and multimedia appeals to them?
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Social Media 101: Ways to Use Social Media
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Listening - using social media as “real time” research and gaining insights from listening to customers
Talking - using conversations with customers to promote products or services
Energizing - building brand stewardship; and identifying enthusiastic customers and using them to persuade others
Supporting - making it possible for customers to help each other
Embracing - turning customers into a resource for innovation
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Social Media Tip #1 – Optimize Your Content to Go Everywhere
Optimizing content is not just about making changes to a site. You should have content that can be portable (such as PDFs, video, podcasts).
Submitting them to relevant sites will help your content travel further, and ultimately drive links back to your site
RSS – allow others to subscribe to your content
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The end goal is to achieve Omnipresence
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Social Media Tip #2 – Create Google Alerts to Monitor Your Brand
Google News AlertsAllows you to keep a pulse on your online brand with email alerts
from Google
Create alerts on keywords:
Company Name
Key Executives
Priority Keywords
Competitors
Events
Product/Service
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Confidential ©2009 Network Solutions, LLC
II: Leveraging Social Networks and
Online Communities
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Social Networks: Explained
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Social Networks leverage the concept of “Six Degrees of Separation” and use technology to connect people.
Online Business Social Networks:
- Facebook- MySpace (Artists and
Musicians)- Twitter- Upcoming- YouTube- LinkedIn- Digg- Del.icio.us- Flickr
Social Networks You Know:
Chambers
Network Groups
Religious
Charities
Organization
Industry Clubs
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Social Networks: Why they work
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• Function like normal networks
• Fast and inexpensive• Require no travel to
connect with tons of people
• Help you stay in contact & up to date
• Could generate leads and referrals at a very low cost
• Create likeminded groups and communities
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Social Networks: Facebook for Small Business
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• 300 Million Active Users• Largest Social Networking
site in the world• Largest Growing
Demographic is >35• Ability to interact with
community and gain customers
Even Chips have their own Facebook page !
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Social Networks: Facebook Buzzwords
Friend: Connect with someone on Facebook
Wall message: Write, draw or post something on someone’s wall
Tag: Add names to photos or videos
Status update: What are you doing?
Public timeline: List of recent activity
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Source: Ogilvy Twitter Webinar
Profile
Page
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Social Networks: LinkedIn for Small Business
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50 Million Worldwide Users
Focused on Business Users
Connect to your connections’ connections
Taps the power of second and third degree of “six degrees of separation”
Eliminates cold calling
Applications bring in other web content
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Social Networks: LinkedIn Buzzwords
Connections: needs approval to become a connection
Applications: Fun widgets / tools to interact and promote brand
Answers: Space to ask / answer questions and polls
Groups: Common Topics
Contact Settings: You can customize what messages you want to receive
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Source: Ogilvy Twitter Webinar
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Social Networking Tip #1 – Your Profile is a First Impression
Share content from your other online presence
Upload pics and videos related to you and your business
Don’t put anything up there you wouldn’t be comfortable with
Add your Web links
Be fun and interesting
Promote activities and events
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Social Networking Tip #2 – Be a Connector
Connectors are the people that introduce you to others
Most powerful in a social network
Give without expecting to receive anything back
Don’t just promote you, promote others and they will promote you which is MUCH MORE powerful
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Social Networking Tip #3 – Go Where Your Audience Is Already
Your audience is already online
Many are on niche focused networks as well
The minute a business gets a website they are global
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Social Networking Tip #4 – Add Value
Do you have any materials like the following?:
Company information, brochures, web site, sales sheetsPut it here: LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook Group Page, Blog
Photos and videos related to sales, training and productsPut it here: YouTube, Viddler, Blip.TV, Facebook, Flickr, Blog
Articles, news and press releases, events, newslettersPut it here: Blog, Newsvine, Digg, Facebook, Fast PItch
Presentations for training, marketing, sales and servicePut it here: Slideshare, YouTube
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Confidential ©2009 Network Solutions, LLC
III: Getting Started on Twitter
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Using Twitter: What the Heck is Twitter?
Interesting Twitter Facts:
Twitter has 27M+ users (as of Aug 2009)
Twitter has 6 million UMVs, 27% of Twitter traffic are daily active visitors.
Usage is 40% in the United States and of the remaining 60%, 39% of that is in Japan
Twitter's largest age demographic is 35-to-44-year-olds who make up 25.9% of its users.
Source: (This is from a March 2009 Nielsen report)
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Twitter is a microblogging platform to exchange short messages with your followers and the world
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Using Twitter: Effective Business Uses
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• Company news in short, manageable pieces.• Special offers or discounts for your Twitter “followers” to drive
sales. • Events to provide real time updates. • Questions or ideas about your business & get immediate feedback • Seek out customers tweeting about good and bad experiences with
your company. • Thank your happy customers.• Your customers might appreciate getting to know you as a real
person, not just a brand.
Share Your Experiences…
And Make a Sale…
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Using Twitter: Effective Business Uses
Other Ways:
Customer Relations
Crisis Management
Corporate Reputation Management
Event Activation
Issue Advocacy
Product Promotion and Sales
Internal Communication
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Using Twitter: Brand/Customer Monitoring
Customer Service
Customer Feedback
Customer Outreach
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@netsolcares
Network Solutions started @netsolcares in Sept 2008 to provide a new customer service channel
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Using Twitter: Buzzwords
Follow: To friend someone (or follow their updates)
Direct Message (DM): Pseudo-email someone following you
“At” reply: Speak to someone directly in the public stream (@shashib)
Re-tweet (RT): Repost content with credit
Block: Restrict access to updates
# (hashtags): a kind of tag or description – great for search
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Source: Ogilvy Twitter Webinar
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Twitter Tip #1: Engage the Audience
You can engage people on Twitter by doing the following things:
SEE what other businesses are doing on Twitter
USE Twitter search engines for keyword searches around brands, products and topic of interest.
FOLLOW folks with similar interests to establish a brand presence within conversation
START a conversation
DEDICATE time to Twitter. Having more than one employee on Twitter will ensure an ongoing company presence.
ASK questions and get feedback from your followers
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Source: Ogilvy Twitter Webinar
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Twitter Tip #2: Getting Followers the Right Way
Retweet content
Talk directly to people
Link to outside content
Live tweet from events
Use hashtags
Avoid using ALL CAPS
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Followers are the people that click the “Follow” button on your page
Confidential ©2009 Network Solutions, LLC
IV: Blogging Basics
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Blogging Basics: ROI of this Module
Learn what a blog is
What business and corporate blogging is
Who and why people are doing this
What to write about
Tips to Great Blogging
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Blogging Basics: Definitions, just in case
A Journal, usually updated frequently, sometimes categorized
Usually links to other sites
Can support comments and some interaction
Provides ability to subscribe to site so reader gets updates without having to visit page.
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Blogging Basics: Reasons to Blog
Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Gain Visibility as a Thought Leader
Generate Real Conversations
Display Brand Personality
Perform Market Research
Improve Customer Service
Share Company Announcements
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Blogging Basics: What to Publish
Commentary on mainstream media articles, other blogs, news, events and relevant trends
Company News
Case Studies
Ideal Blog Topics:
Photos, Videos and PodcastsConference notesBusiness PhilosophyTools, resources, tips, ideas, listsAwards, honors, PR, new employee,
new vendor, new system
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Blogging Basics: Blog Buzzwords
Comment: Respond to blog post
Link Love: Link to other blogs/sites (online currency)
Tagging: Adding words to describe blog content
Troll: Mean commenters (IGNORE THEM!)
Blogroll: Links to favorite blogs
Embed: Copy/paste media
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Blogging Basics: Getting Started
Take 15 minutes a day to write a blog post
Find a topic
Keep it around 400 words or less if possible
Write in short paragraphs. Not more than six lines of text.
Write and embed any content (pictures, videos)
Check copyrights and licensing and give attributions
Preview Your Post
Publish or Schedule It
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Blogging Tip #1 – Increase Linkability
1. Blogging2. White papers3. Thought pieces4. Flash demos5. 2-way dialogue
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Remember, the key is to have content that “engages” others and makes them want to link to your site.
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Blogging Tip #2 – Reward Inbound Links
1. Who is linking to you and what are they saying?
2. Track your inbound links
3. Allow display of trackbacks
4. Highlight people who write about you
5. Engage in conversations on blogs that link to you
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Blogging Tip #3 – Engage Your Readers
Write in an authentic, human voice
Use meaningful titles
Publish on a regular basis. Target once a week at minimum.
Enable and monitor your comments
Link to other sites
Be Passionate
Give credit where it’s due (pictures, text quotes)
Syndicate and re-use text
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Blogging Tip #4 –Tag and Bookmark
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A “tag” is just a word(s) that describe content.
Tags that describe the content
Easy to bookmark and add to Social Media Sites
Adding quick buttons to "add to del.icio.us“
Making sure pages include a list of relevant tags
Adding tags to pages first on popular social sites
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Blogging Tip #5 – Put Policies in Place
Put together some policies and guidelines like the following examples:
– Topics in which The Company is involved in litigation or could in the future: (i.e. policy, customer disputes, etc.)
– Non-public information of any kind about The Company, including, but not limited to, policies and strategy
– Illegal or banned substances and narcotics
– Pornography or other offensive illegal materials
– Defamatory, libelous, offensive or demeaning material
– Private/Personal matters of yourself or others
– Disparaging/threatening comments about or related to anyone
– Personal, sensitive or confidential information of any kind
Understand that when you or someone is talking about your company, not only does this reflect on you but if there are not clear guidelines, you could be at risk.
Great Post on Policies and Guidelines from Raj Malikhttp://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/sxsw-follow-up-corporate-social-media-guidelines/
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Final Thoughts
Listen first
Conversation, not publishing or broadcasting
Be a useful conversationalist
Build relationships - one at a time
Take a Leap of Faith and Jump In!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fwp-dawson/2821182851/
Photo Courtesy Fred Dawson on Flickr freds-take-on-the-world.blogspot.com/
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Your Social Media PlanSetup Alerts
Join and setup profiles in 3 social networks
15-20 minutes a day tracing the alerts and responding
Choose 3 blogs on your field to read and comment
Converse, don’t sell
Answer questions and become an expert in your niche on LinkedIn
2 hours a week - Learn and write about the products you promote
Measure your efforts
How many times were you mentioned
How many people read your posts
Inbounds links
Are your customers evangelizing
Attend one local event a month|Ask for help from the community if you need it
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Thank you
Shashi Bellamkonda [email protected]
Twitter: @shashib
Small Business Success Index : http://www.GrowSmartBusiness.com
Network Solutions Blog : http://blog.networksolutions.com
Women Entrepreneurs : http://www.WomenGrowBusiness.com
Personal Blogs:
Technology & Social Media: http://www.shashi.name
Digital Thoughts: http://readythoughts.blogspot.com
Restaurant Reviews: http://www.carryoncurry.com