socialmedia.ie ebook 2012

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Your Social Media Partner

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Table of Contents Page

Introduction 3

Authors 3

Social Media Mashup 5

Facebook 8

Twitter 10

LinkedIn 12

Business Blogging 15

Mobile Media 17

Digital Video 19

Online PR 21

Social Events 23

Social Media Tribes 25

Strategy 27

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Introduction

SocialMedia.ie is a specialist social media business based in Dublin, Ireland. We

provide a full range of services including training; consulting; campaigns; social

media management; blog and website design; and digital content development.

This new eBook is a compilation of SocialMedia.ie’s article for the Institute of

Directors in January 2012 and our ten article social media series in the Sunday

Business Post towards the end of 2011.

Authors The Social Media eBook 2012 was written by Conor Lynch, Cian Corbett and Fiona Pope. Conor Lynch

Conor Lynch is founder and managing director of SocialMedia.ie. He has over 12 years online marketing experience gained while working in Asia Pacific, US, UK and Ireland with a wide range of companies including start-ups, SMEs and global brands.

Conor has worked in most industry sectors on award winning projects for brands like Vodafone, Nokia, Coca-Cola, Guinness, Toyota, Canon, Glanbia and much more. Conor has worked in senior roles at RaboDirect, Cybercom and eighty:twenty interactive. Industry recognition includes -

2011 – Winner Irish Internet Association’s Award for ‘Best Use of Social Media’ 2011 – Judge in the Irish Social Media Awards 2011 – Judge in the eircom Junior Spiders 2010/11 – Judge in ’The Appys’ mobile application awards 2010 – Chair of the IIA’s ‘Social Media Working Group’ 2005 – Winner IIA Award for ‘Internet Marketer of the Year’

He graduated with an honours degree in Marketing, gaining the award of Advanced Diploma in Marketing Techniques (DIT) and B.Sc. (Mgmt) award from Trinity College Dublin. He continued his studies at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, obtaining a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Practice.

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Cian Corbett

Cian Corbett is social media trainer and strategist with a Marketing Degree and recently graduated with a Masters in Marketing from DCU. Cian was a marketing lecturer for undergraduate students for the year in DCU.

The Cork native has considerable experience in digital marketing having run campaigns on behalf of clients as diverse as Sage, Fáilte Ireland and performer Jack L. Cian has previous sales experience as a Business Development Representative with Diageo & O2.

Outside of the business world he can be seen playing piano for The Frank and Walters band and hosting The Cork Music Show on Cork FM.

Fiona Pope

Fiona Pope is a junior social media manger with a BSc in Business and Management from DIT. Specialising in marketing, Fiona aimed her studies on the use of social media as a marketing tool.

She has worked in sales for Avon Cosmetics and more recently as a marketing and events assistant for The Social Media Academy in London. During her time in London she assisted in running social media events with delegates attending from brands such as Royal Mail, Disney, Hilton and Kelloggs.

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SOCIAL MEDIA MASHUP - 12 THINGS NOT TO LEAVE BEHIND IN 2012

Social media is about people having online & offline conversations utilising user-generated content (UGC). Social media is online social interaction using computers & mobile phones to turn person to person communication into interactive open dialogues. Social media can take many different forms, including social networks, internet forums, blogs, micro-blogs, wikis, podcasts, digital photos & videos, gaming, customer ratings and social bookmarking. 1. Facebook Facebook is a social phenomenon unlike any before it. An incredible 800 million people around the world use the site regularly, creating a world of opportunities for small businesses to build an online community and engage with potential customers. 2. Twitter Twitter is a micro-blogging service where you can communicate and stay connected with the online conversation. These short messages are called “Tweets” and are composed of 140 characters or less. With over 100 million active users, it presents an opportunity for companies to keep up to date with industry developments, competitor activity as well as interacting with current and potential customers. 3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Launched in May 2003, it is the world’s largest professional network. It has over 100 million members in 200 countries including 600,000 members in Ireland. LinkedIn manages your online professional profile, connects you to trusted business contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and business opportunities with a global network of professionals. 4. Blogs

Blogging should be an essential component of your social media strategy. With almost 182 million blogs worldwide, the size and scale of the blogging phenomenon has resulted in it becoming a consumer communications channel that cannot be ignored. Blogs give you and your company a way to create and sustain a relationship with your customers based on regular communication. There are many platforms available to develop a blog. The top blogging platforms include WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Movable Type and Posterous.

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5. Mobile Media Mobile media is the portability of media through devices such as smart phones, iPods, iPads and eBooks. Media such as music, videos, games and photos can be downloaded onto the device using applications or it can be streamed over the internet. Mobile marketing is becoming an important aspect of social media as it enables organisations to communicate and engage with consumers in an interactive manner through any mobile device. 6. Digital Video

Digital videos are extremely engaging and can often be more effective than text in explaining what you are trying to get across to an audience. Ireland has been slow in the uptake of creating digital video content so building a video presence online today will be a great way to stand out from your competition. There are 5 reasons to use digital video to market your business:

1. The Internet is going video 2. Your consumers prefer video 3. Video is cost effective 4. Video is social 5. Video creates emotion

7. Google+ Launched in June 2011, Google+ is a social networking service operated by Google. The social network was relatively slow to take off as an invitation to join was needed. Now open to everyone, Google + has an estimated 62 million users and is expected to reach 400 million users by the end of 2012. Creating a Google+ business page allows your business to further develop its online community. 8. Social Events

It is becoming increasingly popular to promote an event through various social spaces. In 2009, there were 3 million events on Facebook every month and now only 5% of participants are not using social media to promote their event. According to a survey by Amiando, more than 80% of event hosts are using Facebook to promote their event with 61% using Twitter as a promotional tool. 9. Photo Sharing Photo sharing websites are used to store and share photos. When photos are uploaded to a photo sharing site, they are stored on the server and made available to friends and family via personal web pages. Ofoto was the first photo sharing website which was acquired by Kodak and renamed Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Today there are many photo sharing websites available including Flickr, Instagram, Photobucket, Picasa and Shutterfly.

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10. Influence Measurement Tools Along with the growth of Twitter comes the growth of influence measurement tools. These tools help personal and corporate brands capture how influential they are online, while spotting the key influencers in their industry. The more popular influence measurement tools are Klout and PeerIndex. However, none of these sites is perfect or complete yet and it is likely that more tools will enter the market over the coming years. 11. Social Media Monitoring Tools

Social Media has the ability to facilitate and encourage brand conversations,

capture research data, engage with customers and develop relationships. With

these capabilities and data resources available, brands now have the potential to

get closer to their customers than they have ever been before. Brand

conversations occur on social media platforms every minute of every day driving

the need for social media monitoring tools. The top social media monitoring

tools include Radian6, HooteSuite, TweetDeck, Alterian SM2, Lithium and

CrowdBooster.

12. Strategy Social media can help your company to develop deeper relationships with your

customers and potential customers. However, it is vitally important that there is

a social media marketing strategy in place. Without this, a company will

struggle to implement social media effectively.

Our team use our own unique strategy framework called the “SocialMedia.ie 10C’s Strategy Model”. The aim of our strategy model is to develop online marketing strategies to help companies attract and retain clients via their website, email marketing, social networking and blogging. This step-by-step planning model includes C’s such as Concepts, Content, Connections and Conversion. Conclusion Social Media has been around for five years and its influence is growing. Make sure you become a social media expert in 2012!

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FACEBOOK Facebook is a social phenomenon unlike any before it. An incredible 750 million people around the world use the site regularly, creating a world of opportunities for small businesses to meet and engage with potential customers. To get your business started on Facebook, you need to:

1. Set up a personal page 2. Create a business page

It can be easy to confuse a personal page with a business page. To differentiate between the two, bear in mind that a personal page will have a '+1 Add Friend' box at the top, while a business page will have a 'Like' box at the top. To create a page, log on to http:www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. You will automatically become the administrator of the page, but you will also have the option of making other users administrators once they have become fans of the page. When you, as the administrator, write on the wall of your page, your post will appear as though it is the business itself 'speaking'. Comments from non-administrators will appear with their personal profiles. Branding Branding your business page is important and you should treat it as you would your official website. You can register your Facebook address to include your business name -- for example www.Facebook.com/socialmedia.ie. This facility is available to all businesses once they register a vanity URL at www.facebook.com/username. Choose a distinctive picture for your profile and upload further visuals into an album, featuring along the top of the page, to demonstrate and showcase your products and services. Newsfeed

This is a personalised news stream featuring news from the Facebook friends, groups and businesses you have opted to 'like'. Your aim, as the administrator of your business page, should be to feature as prominently as possible in the newsfeeds of your target audience. Find ways to actively engage your fans -- be it by using special offers and discounts or entertaining them and making them laugh. Ideally, you want to ensure they share your content with their friends. Toolkit

Facebook has an array of tools available to help businesses build their fanbase on the site. These include:

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1. Ads Facebook Ads allows you to use demographic information -- such as age, region and personal interests -- to target a specific audience. 2. Insights This gives business page administrators insights into the demographics of their fan base. Monitoring these insights can play a crucial part in helping to ensure you are talking to the right audience.

3. Places The exponential growth of smartphone technology is driving demand for 'Location Based Marketing Strategies'. Put simply, this means that customers arriving at your premises can 'check-in' online, letting their friends know exactly where they are. Using Facebook Places, you can register your business for the service and, every time a customer checks-in online, you get free and immediate exposure.

4. Apps Businesses can install Facebook Applications to improve the functionality of their Business Page. These apps can include anything from a welcome page to a Facebook store, embedded videos, blog and twitter feeds, data capture services and promotional applications. Here are details on some useful apps for businesses. Pagemodo.com -- allows you to redesign Facebook pages for your business. It is free to create, but does have a Pagemodo footer on the page, which can be removed at a yearly cost of $20. Involver.com -- offers a comprehensive range of free and professional tabs for Facebook business pages, including YouTube, Twitter and Flickr plus 'on page' services, such as RSS feeds, sign-up, coupons, gifts, promotion gallery and store locator. Northsocial.com -- offers a bundle of applications, such as competitions, sign-up, shop and many more. Constantcontact.com -- allows you to maintain regular contact with your customers and clients using targeted e-mail newsletters, invites to offline events and online surveys.

Strategy We recommend integrating all of your digital media channels. You can use both websites and blogs to drive traffic and fans to a Facebook business page by installing a Facebook Connect "Like Box". This will automatically update your Facebook profile and appear in your friends' newsfeeds.

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TWITTER

Twitter is a micro-blogging service where you can communicate and stay connected with customers through the exchange of short and frequent messages. These messages are called “Tweets” and are composed of 140 characters or less. With over 100 million active users, it presents an opportunity for companies to keep up to date with industry developments, competitor activity as well as interacting with current and potential customers. Setting up a Twitter account is an extremely easy process. To get your business started on Twitter all you need to do is go to http://twitter.com, click the sign up button and enter your details. When signing up, a shorter name is ideal due to the 140 character restriction when someone is “Tweeting” to you. Followers: Once you have created your account you can start building your profile by following people and other companies. Define your Twitter media strategy by first searching, following and evaluating existing Twitter content that is best aligned with your business and online marketing objectives. Follow the key influencers in your industry, your competition, your business partners, your customers and new potential contacts and sales leads. Many Twitter users will follow you back once you start following them. Tweeting: By tweeting a particular person or company, you can raise the number of people your profile is visible to. Place the “@” sign before the person’s Twitter name to publicly post them a message such as @socialmedia_ie. When you Tweet a person, you are making yourself visible to a wider community and can potentially gain new followers. A Direct Message (DM) is a private message sent via Twitter to one of your followers. You can only send a direct message to those who are following you. This is the only way to have a private conversation on Twitter, as Tweets can be viewed by anyone. RT stands for “Re-Tweet”. Retweeting is when you re-post other people’s content to your Twitter network of followers. This is a great way to enhance your reputation by associating yourself with relevant content and information. By retweeting other users content, they are likely to return the favour for your Twitter posts which will see your message be communicated to a larger community. Hashtags #: Hashtags or “#” is a really useful tool on Twitter that is used to categorise key words or topics in a Tweet. The # symbol is placed before the keyword – for

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example #SocialMedia. By clicking on a hashtagged word, you can see all other Tweets in that conversation. The Hashtag ensures that you are following and engaging in the right conversations. Twitter Tools: There are a number of free tools available that make Twitter more user friendly, spot opportunities and minimise your time spent using Twitter. These tools allow you to measure the impact of your Tweets and other social media updates, monitor who is talking about you and manage your social media activity. The five tools that we would recommend are Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Pluggio, Socialoomph and Twitterfall. Tips:

1. Integrate all marketing efforts – integrate your Twitter account with traditional media and other social media sites to make your company visible to more people interacting online.

2. Be interesting – it is important to make your Tweets exciting and to post photographs and videos to keep your followers interested. If your Tweets are boring, there is a risk of losing key followers.

3. Engage Communities – it is important to listen to the Twitter community to discover what is being said about your brand online. This will enable you to effectively engage in the conversations.

4. Don’t Spam - spammers don’t survive long on Twitter as they don’t build followers and those that do follow them will quickly change their mind and decide not to follow them any more. Spam, on Twitter, usually consists of a company constantly tweeting to promote its brand. While companies can promote their brand, it should not be all the time.

5. Don’t use poor grammar or spelling - In order to gain as many followers as possible, businesses need to ensure that they write in the correct manner. Twitter is not like sending a text, therefore you should spell each word correctly and not use abbreviations.

This week Twitter announced the launch of a Twitter analytics which will be of great benefits to business users.

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LINKEDIN Make the right business connections LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Launched in May 2003, it is the world’s largest professional network with over 100 million members in 200 countries. LinkedIn manages your online professional profile, connects you to trusted business contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and business opportunities with a global network of professionals. Getting Started 1. Log onto www.LinkedIn.com and select the JOIN TODAY option 2. Complete your name, email & password to create your account 3. Build your profile completing all the relevant sections 4. Connect with your contacts and develop your LinkedIn network 5. Get active, keep your profile up-to-date and utilise LinkedIn’s social media

features such as the “Network Activity” section.

Optimising Your Profile 1. Make sure your profile is 100% complete. Upload a professional, business

style photograph and a well written biography. Spend time writing your LinkedIn summary section. Make sure it clearly explains what you do and highlights your experience. Ensure that it will attract the attention of your prospective contacts & potential customers and makes you stand out above your competition.

2. Create a unique LinkedIn URL and add it to your business cards and email signature, for example, http://ie.LinkedIn.com/in/conorlynch.

3. Add links from your Facebook, Twitter, Blog and web spaces to your LinkedIn profile.

4. Every time you update your status on LinkedIn it shows up on your connections newsfeed. Relevant updates can ensure that you will not be forgotten by your connections.

5. Transfer your offline business contacts to your online LinkedIn database. Update every relevant business card you receive. Make time each week to connect with new contacts on LinkedIn.

6. Build up a number of quality recommendations. Ask every satisfied customer or client to recommend you.

LinkedIn Applications There are many applications on LinkedIn that you can leverage to get more attention, traffic and brand awareness. To add these applications click the ‘More’ button and then ‘Get More Applications’. Three top applications to use are as follows:

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1. WordPress Blog - Link your blog to your LinkedIn profile. Blogging about your market, your products and services or sharing research insights will not only strengthen your profile but it will also help drive more traffic to your website.

2. Slideshare - SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. Through this application, you can share presentations & documents with your LinkedIn network.

3. Twitter – Tweets is a Twitter client that you can use on LinkedIn. Through this application you can access the most important parts of the professional conversation. You can also display your most recent tweets on your LinkedIn profile while having instant access to the updates of people you are following on Twitter and the power to tweet, reply, and re-tweet.

LinkedIn Groups Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups. For example, if you are selling services to IT managers, use LinkedIn to find relevant Groups in that category. You will never get noticed unless you participate in the group. Start discussions, share your blog posts, ask questions and comment on other people’s posts. Demonstrate your capabilities and experience by answering questions posted in the group. Standout as an industry expert and showcase your expertise.

LinkedIn Companies Create your own company profile and showcase your products and services. Click on the COMPANIES button in the main menu. Rename the “My Company” section to the name of your company, e.g. socialmedia.ie. You can also embed your Blog and Twitter feeds into your company page which helps build your followers. Search for and follow LinkedIn Companies relevant to your industry sector. To follow a company simply visit their LinkedIn profile and click the ‘follow’ button. Once you have done so, you will receive updates regarding recent hires and promotions, new job opportunities and company profile updates. LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads are performance based advertising which you can set up to target users of LinkedIn based on their user profiles. Set your daily budgets and who you want to reach, upload an image and text and start your campaign. You should monitor the activity and optimise the ads you set up based on your objectives. What not to do Too many updates can have a negative effect and may irritate the very people you are hoping to impress. The general rule of thumb for updating your profile is anytime you feel you can add value by rewording or adding more information,

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for example, posting a recent PowerPoint presentation using Slideshare. Making connections offline Remember you can use LinkedIn to find business events in your area so you can make offline connections in the real world!

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BUSINESS BLOGGING Blogging should be an essential component of your social media strategy. With almost 173 million blogs worldwide, the size and scale of the blogging phenomenon has resulted in it becoming a consumer communications channel that cannot be ignored. Blogs give you and your company a way to create and sustain a relationship with your customers based on regular communication. What is a Blog?

A Blog (short for web log) was originally a personal online journal by opinionated writers/bloggers which were frequently updated and open to anyone on the internet to read. A typical blog combines text, images, video and links to other blogs, websites and other on-line media related to its topic. Blogs are often arranged in reverse chronological order from the most recent blog ‘post’ (or ‘entry’) appearing at the top of the web page. Blogging creates new and updated content for your website which will improve your overall search engine marketing by providing Google with material to present in search engine results. This will drive more traffic to your website or social spaces. As Blogs are designed to have user friendly content management systems (CMS), they have now been adopted by web designers as a platform for building entire web sites. Getting Started Ideally your blog should sit on your website, for example, http://www.socialmedia.ie. However when starting your blog it may be an idea to experiment with a separate blog first containing URL links to your website. More and more websites are being built using easy to update blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. If you are designing & building a new website, we advise incorporating a blog from the outset. Alternatively a blog can be added to your existing website.

What to blog about? Ok, so now you are ready to blog, what are you going to write about? We advise you look at your target market or audience and think about what interests them. What interesting angle can you come up with that can also include your products or services? On SocialMedia.ie we regularly give away free advice to readers in the form of blogs and eBooks to demonstrate our expertise. What do you want your readers

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to see you as an expert in? You can add in content from other sources like YouTube, Slideshare and Twitter so you have a nice mix of multi-media content on your blog. Blogging Tips Business blogging is growing fast and here are some tips -

1. Be authentic - Blogs are built on the principal of authenticity and honesty and should not be used to just push marketing messages onto customers.

2. Regularly update your blog - Be consistent and commit to a minimum number of posts per month. The more you update your blog, the more traffic you will get from search engines and social media.

3. Engage customers - Encourage readers to join in the conversation on your blog posts, listen to what they have to say and reply to them.

4. Monitor competitor activity – use the blogosphere to monitor what your competitors are doing and what their customers think of them.

Promoting your Blog

1. Allow sharing your posts. To do this use the “Share” button at the bottom of your Blog page to link your post to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This will make your blog visible to more people.

2. Add your blogs RSS feed to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts and add URL links back to your social media sites on your blog.

3. Add relevant tags (keywords) to your blog posts to make it easier for Google to find your content.

4. Include a link to your latest blog post on your email signature. 5. Use your company newsletters and emails to link to your blog posts. 6. Read other blogs - Follow, participate and comment on other 3rd party

blogs and discussion boards as these are great ways to get your name out there.

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MOBILE MEDIA Social media is about people communicating online and offline using the internet. The phenomenal growth in smartphone adoption has been matched by the explosive growth of social networks like Facebook. Today, many of us are using smart phones for a multitude of tasks as they are constantly connected to the internet and with us everywhere we go. Modern mobile phones are used for accessing information and entertainment online and even making the odd phone call! While out and about many consumers are sharing their good and bad experiences of products and services they encounter. Social media is therefore essential for businesses as 90% of people trust product/service recommendations from people they know opposed to 14% trusting advertising. Whether you are a business professional or a business owner, if you’re not using social media and mobile media you're in danger of being left behind. What is mobile media? Mobile media is the portability of media through devices such as smart phones, iPods, iPads and eBooks. Media such as music, videos, games and photos can be downloaded onto the device using applications or it can be streamed over the internet. Mobile marketing is becoming an important aspect of social media as it enables organizations to communicate and engage with consumers in an interactive manner through any mobile device. In Ireland around 700,000 people use the internet on their phone and collectively they have downloaded approximately 8 million applications. It is expected that by 2013, more people will access the internet from mobile devices than computers and by 2012 almost 60% of digital advertising worldwide will be directed to mobile platforms. With statistics like these it is imperative that companies become involved in mobile media.

Mobile Applications to Enhance Your Business There are many applications available that businesses can utilise to improve marketing, increase sales and lower costs -

1. Social networking – There are great applications for popular web sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

2. Digital photos and videos – At its most basic your mobile phone is a great devise for creating high quality digital content like photos and videos for sharing online. Share photographs using Facebook, Instagram or Flickr.

3. QR Codes - QR codes are a two-dimensional version of bar codes that send information to mobile devices using its camera. In order to read the

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codes, users need a QR reader app which will return the decoded text or web URL.

4. Qik – This is an application that allows you to capture moments on video using your mobile phone that you can share with anyone at anytime.

5. AudioBoo – This app helps users to post and share sound files, known as ‘boos’ to Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr and Friendfeed.

6. Wordpress – Use the mobile app to manage your blog as it allows you to stay in touch with your readers by editing posts or replying to comments on the go.

7. Location Based Services (LBS) is a way to send custom advertising and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location. Applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places and Google Latitude allow you to check-in to your current location for others to see. These applications provide a way for peers to recommend businesses to their friends which carries more weight and trust than expensive advertising campaigns.

8. Augmented Reality (AR) – AR is when you super-impose computer generated content over a live view of the world. An augmented reality application is a combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. This concept of AR allows you to share content such as photos and videos with your customers while involving them in the process.

Create your own mobile app Companies must have the technology available to enable them to engage with their customers in real time across the entire customer life-cycle. Businesses now have an opportunity to leverage mobile devices and create or use apps to provide the best customer experience. Mobile apps can create an enriching customer experience while being profitable for their business. Many companies are currently building their own applications for smartphones like iPhones and Android devices. So you can develop your own application but creating a worthwhile app is challenging enough and getting users is an even tougher task. Make sure you have a clear digital strategy before you start investing in apps.

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DIGITAL VIDEO Digital videos are extremely engaging and can often be more effective than text in explaining what you are trying to get across to an audience. Ireland has been slow in the uptake of creating digital video content so building a video presence online today will be a great way to stand out from your competition. YouTube YouTube is a video service that was founded in 2005. Google was quick to spot its potential and acquired the company in 2006 for $1.65 billion. YouTube is the world's most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web. With 3 billion daily views and 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, it is easy to believe experts when they say that virtually every Internet user has visited YouTube at least once. YouTube is quickly positioning itself as a social media marketing site for businesses as it allows them to create viral videos that can spread around the world in seconds.

5 Reasons to Use Digital Video to Market Your Business 1. THE INTERNET IS GOING VIDEO Digital videos are experiencing explosive growth. It is thought that digital video will account for 50% of all consumer Internet traffic by the end of 2012. The web is rapidly moving from text to video, meaning that small businesses need to adapt for consumers who expect to see video everywhere online. 2. YOUR CONSUMERS PREFER VIDEO Video is much more effective than text as a marketing tool. Nearly 60% of viewers watch video before reading text and they are more likely to make a purchase as a result. 3. VIDEO IS COST EFFECTIVE Video production is extremely affordable! Business owners can buy a quality video camera for approximately €500 and with high quality video functionality on smartphones, you can film your digital content wherever you are. Most computers come equipped with video editing software and smartphone applications allow you to edit you product videos anytime, anywhere. 4. VIDEO IS SOCIAL The Internet is going social and video is quickly becoming extremely popular. Both Google and Facebook have recently launched programmes that allow you to integrate video into social media. By incorporating video into social media you can engage your existing and new consumers by offering resources, sharing your expertise, industry tips, product demonstrations and best practices. In doing so, you can build followers and consumers.

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5. CREATE EMOTION Digital video captures the marketer’s imagination and can interact and communicate messages of any length to current and potential consumers. Digital video can be used to show your personality and tell your story. You can create a series of digital videos which will bring your audience back for more.

Getting Started 1. Write a storyboard for your video shoot 2. Decide who will appear in the video, who will film it and who will edit it. 3. Once the digital video has been made, upload it to video sharing platforms

such as YouTube (www.youtube.com), Qik (www.qik.com), Vimeo (www.vimeo.com), Facebook (www.Facebook.com) and Dailymotion (www.dailymotion.com).

4. You can setup a branded YouTube Channel and broadcast your latest vacancies, introduce your team, share the latest industry news and “favourite” relevant 3rd party videos that you think your target audience will watch. Use the embed code to share your videos on as many relevant websites as possible including links from Facebook, Twitter & your Blog. This will help in your quest to you’re your video go viral. YouTube has great analytics so you can monitor who is viewing videos, these can be found under the ‘Insights’ button on your YouTube channel.

5. Broadcast your latest news to the world by streaming “live” on Ustream Broadcast. This video website allows you to send out invitations to your network of contacts before you start broadcasting, field questions via the live Twitter feed and record the show so viewers can watch again at a later date (www.ustream.tv).

As is the case with all marketing efforts, your digital video content should be integrated with your online and offline marketing strategy. Marketing has changed and it’s time to move beyond text and static pictures. Digital video for your business? Click play! Watch our latest digital video on www.socialmedia.ie

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ONLINE PR Online PR sits squarely between PR and Online Marketing as a discipline. Online PR involves activities geared towards influencing media, communities and audiences that exist solely on the Internet using online channels. Offline PR deals with the same things except with print, radio, TV, conferences/events and other “real life” venues. Online PR requires a mix of social, creative, persuasive and technical skills. Benefts of Online PR

1. Enhances brand awareness 2. Provides an avenue for improved customer relations by allowing a

company to directly engage with individuals interested in their brand or product

3. Provides a platform to communicate information and/or company insights to target audiences

4. Positions a company as an authoritative voice in their industry 5. Increases traffic to a website 6. Contributes to search engine optimisation by generating links back to a

website as well as enhancing website authority Research Your Audience It is vital that you research your target audience. You can do this using:

1. Search engines, i.e. Google 2. Twitter influence tools, i.e. Klout, Peer Index 3. Social networks themselves, i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube 4. Online monitoring services e.g Radian 6, Market Sentinel 5. Blog search engines e.g. Technorati, Blogpulse, Google blog search 6. Social Media databases e.g. Social Media Library

Creative Concepts At the core of an engaging online PR strategy is creativity. It must be a new idea and be sufficiently interesting for someone to want to take their own personal time to talk about it. It must be relevant and simple - key messaging must come through instantly. Make it easy to find as online influencers are extremely time poor. Grab attention! Try Humour, Innovation, Risqué Get to the core of the campaign by describing it in one sentence and then build associations.

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Focus first on concepts before considering the best social media platforms, platforms should fall naturally from creative concept. 10 Tips for Online Press Release

1. Meet audience demand. In order to accomplish this you must know your audience and what they are interested in, provide them with relevant content and satisfy customer demand.

2. The most important points of your press release should go at the top as you want the person reading it to be interested from the beginning.

3. Write in the third person. Press releases should be written in the third person. Instead of writing we, us or ours, you should use they, them and theirs.

4. Do not use adverbs and adjectives. This is a press release, not an advertisement, so delete any unnecessary adverbs and objectives.

5. Avoid clichés. 6. Avoid exclamation marks!!! 7. Get your spelling and grammar right. Poor spelling and grammar will

damage the credibility of a press release, and your company. 8. Keep it short. Get straight to the point and do not add any unnecessary

words or phrases, remember it’s quality over quantity. Once you reach 300 words, you should stop and begin to edit.

9. If you wish to use acronyms, place these in brackets after full spelling. For example Sunday Business Post (SBP).

10.Always spell check. Don’t just rely on the spell check on your computer because that does not always spot a mistake. Read through it yourself and ask a colleague to do so too as they might spot something that you missed.

Writing Press Release

The most important online PR resource you can have is a talented PR pro that can research story opportunities and persuasively pitch both online journalists and bloggers accordingly A big difference between online and offline PR is in pitching. For example, before pitching a print journalist, the publication’s editorial calendar is researched to see if there are any planned story opportunities. The subsequent pitch is specific to the upcoming story. Keep in mind your key messages, key media & key timings.

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SOCIAL EVENTS In 2009, there were 3 million events on Facebook every month and now only 5% of participants are not using social media to promote their event. According to a survey by Amiando, more than 80% of event hosts are using Facebook to promote their event with 61% using Twitter as a promotional tool. Before Event

• Promote your event through social networks. Set up event on your Facebook business page and LinkedIn company profile.

• You should also blog about the event. This gives you an opportunity to provide a detailed description of the event while providing links to your events page for people to sign up.

• Share this blog post to your social space through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.

• Use sites like Meetup.com, Tweetup.org and other relevant event listings for your target market.

• Use Google Maps to help attendees find the venue and obtain directions.

• Create QR codes before the event and place them around the venue. This will create intrigue with attendees and get them involved with your brand.

• Use a social registration service like EventBrite, Plancast and Twtvite. These services makes registration easier and more streamlined, while allowing attendees to share their event activity with friends. Most of these services are integrated with social networking platforms and can require attendees to give access to their Facebook wall. This which will automatically check them in at the event and post photos or status updates. This can be a bit of fun but make sure not to annoy people by spamming their wall with information they may not want up.

During Event

• Use Location-Based Services and encourage with apps like Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and Google +.

• Take photos and capture videos and post them to your social spaces throughout the event.

• Write a blog post from the event to entice the people reading it to come along.

• Hand out goodie bags with good contents which will make people want to Tweet, Facebook or blog about it.

• Create interaction between yourself and your guests through Twitter. It is important that you have the right balance of the content of your Tweets. Retweet any content from influential people, post interesting photos from the event, reply to those who tweet you. It is important

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to monitor the conversation about the event. This can be done by creating a # Hashtag before the event. This will enable you to tap into conversations from people around you, as well as contribute to the collective conversation stream yourself. Hashtags also allow people who could not attend to monitor the topics being discussed and take part in the conversation. Create a Twitterwall (Twitterwall.me) which you can be displayed on screens around the venue so everyone to view the conversations.

• Use live streaming with services like Ustream.tv or Livestream.com. After Event After the event you should upload the content to your social media accounts. Edit the videos you captured during the event into one continuous video which can be uploaded the YouTube and Qik. Upload any photos taken to Facebook and Flickr. Tag people in your videos and photos to encourage sharing and interaction. Write a post event blog post, or a series of blog posts depending on the size and scale of the event, with details from the event and thanking attendees for coming. Place a few photos and a video in the post. Photographs and videos are extremely important as they automatically make your content more engaging. This can be shared to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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SOCIAL MEDIA TRIBES In recent years changes in communication technology and growing cynicism of corporate marketing have forced brands to rethink how they send their marketing messages to their target audience. Concurrent with Neilsen research findings that only 14% of consumers trust advertising but 90% trust peer recommendations, brands can no longer rely on traditional one way marketing communication. There has been a seismic shift in the way brands communicate with consumers from brand-to-consumer communication to consumer-to-consumer conversation. So how can brands encourage consumers to share their marketing messages for them? They engage with Tribes. What are Tribes? Marketing guru Seth Godin describes a Tribe as “any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.” Social Media has provided a platform for these users to meet, converse, share and discuss their common interests online. These social media users are connected by these interests forming online communities or Tribes. These tribes communicate with each other through several social media platforms: Facebook groups and business pages, Twitter Hashtag conversations, Linkedin Groups, Internet Forums and Blog Communities. Many brands have expertly identified and engaged with these tribes by sponsoring or advertising in the space where these tribes congregate and communicate. Heineken’s promotion of global music events has earned them considerable brand strength a loyalty with a young and affluent music tribe. Toyota’s sponsorship of the Munster Rugby has ensured their brand is carried with pride by the Munster Rugby Tribe. Carlsberg have positioned their brand by engaging with Comedy Tribes through their live comedy events. Through sponsorship of these offline events these brands are creating branded experiences and shareable Digital Content which are passed between consumers. This effectively positions their brand within the tribe. Engaging with Tribes Social Media greatly complements a brand’s marketing mission to positively influence a tribe online. Through sponsorship of an event or experience brands can ensure their marketing message is at the heart of the tribe’s activities which are then shared through Social Media channels. Companies need to research and identify different tribes to see which are more popular and relevant to their brand. As is common in both online and offline groups, every community or tribe have prominent and influential members who can be identified as tribe leaders or

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influencers. These influencers can be engaged with as a means of communicating a brands marketing message to a particular Tribe. Identifying Influencers

Social Media has made identifying these influencers considerably easier by making their reach and influence transparent by rating and ranking their contributions and influence within these tribes or communities. Followers: A very simple way of estimating a Social Media user’s influence over a Tribe is looking at the amount of followers they have on Twitter. Similarly you can investigate how many visitors or subscriptions there are to their blog. Some Bloggers proudly demonstrate how many visits their blog has earned which can be viewed on their homepage. Otherwise brands can consult websites such as Comscore or IrishBlogs.ie to identify which Blogger is more prominent in a certain sector. Klout: Klout credit themselves as “the standard for influence”. Simply put, Klout measures a users activity on social media and determines their influence from the reaction created by their broadcasts. Brands will typically search for a user with a high Klout rating before engaging with them as a means of influencing the entire Tribe. At this year’s New York Fashion Week Journalists and Bloggers had to have a Klout score rating of 45 or higher before gaining entry into certain events. The organisers realised that engaging with these influencers was the most efficient way of engaging with the Fashion Tribe. Peer Index: Peer Index also seeks to measure Social Media Influence, however, many claim it provides a deeper demonstration on influence by rating Activity, Audience and Authority. Peer Index provides analysis on a user’s influence on certain topics which is very beneficial for brands wishing to influence certain distinct tribes. Engagement through Blogger Outreach Programmes

Bloggers have spearheaded the Social Media revolution by replacing traditional media in many areas of expertise. Many Tribes look to certain Bloggers for information on products and services and their input can carry significant influence over the Tribes purchasing decisions. Brands actively conduct Blogger Outreach Programmes which attempt to engage with bloggers with the aim of influencing the Tribe. In January 2011, Ford engaged with Bloggers from TechSavvyMomma.com with a view to engage with the Tech Savvy Parents Tribe. Bloggers were given VIP treatment at the press preview at the North American International Auto Show to demonstrate their new Driving Green Technology. To conclude, SocialMedia.ie advise that your Social Media strategy include a Tribe engagement identification and engagement strategy. Successful Tribe engagement will lead to more developed consumer-brand relationships and communication.

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STRATEGY The success of social media has helped many companies develop new deeper relationships with their customers and prospects. However, for other companies it has not been as easy due to the lack of a social media marketing strategy. Many experienced marketing managers (digital immigrants) are often not familiar with the tools while the younger marketers (digital natives) are comfortable with the tools but may lack the strategic marketing experience. The resulting trend in companies is that while many managers realise that social media is something they should be involved in, they give responsibility to junior staff. These social media enthusiasts are often left to work away without a carefully planned social media marketing strategy. The importance of having a social media marketing strategy cannot be overstated. It provides a roadmap to be followed as an organisation traverses the social media landscape. Our team use our own unique strategy framework called the “SocialMedia.ie 10C’s Strategy Model”. The aim of our strategy model is to develop online marketing strategies to help companies attract and retain clients via their web site, email marketing, social networking and blogging. This step-by-step planning model includes C’s such as Concepts, Content, Connections and Conversion and here is a quick overview: Concepts Marketing guru Seth Godin has stated that Marketing’s cardinal sin is being boring and this is certainly true when it comes to devising a concept for your social media strategy. Companies need to create innovative ideas to promote their business and get their products/services noticed by their target audience. Regardless of your business sector or product, there are always creative concepts to engage your target audience such as events, awards, stunts, narratives, competitions and partnerships. Content In order for your social media connections to pass on your marketing messages you need to make your content shareable. Shareable digital content can take the form of blogs, digital video, tweets, apps, webinars, podcasts, games and much more. A key consideration here must be that the

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content is actually worth sharing. To assess this, companies should question should ask the following questions:

• Is their content entertaining? • Does it provide value to the viewer? • Will that viewer be moved to share the content?

Many companies have created valuable and entertaining content which viewers have gladly shared with their connections. Carlsberg’s recent digital video of Bikers in a Cinema attracted 9.3 million views and YouTube sharing figures indicated 630,000 Facebook shares, 13,500 tweets and 530 blog posts. Their video was extremely entertaining and the resulting shares made their content into a viral hit. Blogs are often a great way for companies to host their original content and they can enable readers to share that content more easily using social network sharing buttons. Connections Creator of Facebook Mark Zuckerburg noted the importance of connections in Social Media with regards to advertising and marketing.

“In the next hundred years information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have. Advertising will change. You will need to get into these connections.”

A social media marketing strategy will make an accumulative effort to consistently build your friends, followers and fans online and offline in a bid to increase your marketing reach. The chosen strategy should use an optimised mix of

• Bought media – e.g. paid for advertising such as Google or Facebook Ads

• Owned Media – e.g. web site, blogs and email/sms databases • Earned Media – e.g. social media digital content sharing

Earned Media is of particular importance in Social Media whereby the customers and connections you make become ambassadors for the company. A social media strategy must build and engage connections to increase marketing reach from ‘fans’ to ‘friends of fans’. Conversion Management gurus preach that “If you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it” and this is especially true in a social media strategy. You should incorporate a measurement system to ensure that your activity is both relevant and effective.

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Key indicators are web site traffic, the amount of friends, followers, fans, retweets, shares and views etc. The goal is often having shareable content appearing in lots of newsfeeds and you can monitor progress with free tools like Facebook Insights. At SocialMedia.ie we encourage companies to note key performance indicators each month to monitor the progression and effectiveness of their social media activity. In conclusion We advise your key team members are properly trained and armed with a social media strategy. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we are now finished our series of 10 Social Media articles. We hope the sharing of our knowledge will help you on your way to social media success!