SOCIAL MEDIA 4 SMALL BUSINESSFinding your Core Story

WHO AM I?

• Connector. Communicator. Curious as hell.

• As editor of the liveBooks RESOLVE Blog, and before that as senior editor at American Photo Magazine, I both observed and experienced the recent reordering of worldwide media. While this has scared and confused some people, it excites me — my goal now is to instill that excitement in people who might otherwise be confused and scared.

WHAT I’M NOT

• A social media evangelist

• Constantly plugged in

• An “expert”

WHAT I AM

• Paid to be online

• Curious about communication (and people)

•Doing something I really love

WHO ARE YOU?

•What is your business?

•Who are your clients?

•What are your goals?

• How much online experience do you have?

•Why are you interested in social media?

•What worries you about social media?

UNDERSTANDING THE ONLINE LANDSCAPE

WHAT IS THE INTERNET?

• A place

• A tool

• A state of mind

• THE REAL WORLD

WHY DO YOU NEED TO BE THERE?

• Your customers are there.

• It looks bad for you not to be there.

• It’s a way to connect with new customers.

• It’s a way to get more from existing customers.

• It helps people find and trust you.

• It’s a way to start a conversation.

A MAP TO ONLINE NEIGHBORHOODS

WEBSITE: YOUR SHOP

• Customers find it by recommendation or stumble upon it

•Want it to be clean, well organized, easy to move around

•Want it to answer any questions quickly and kindly

•Want customers to be able to make purchases

BLOG: YOUR HOME

•Make them feel like you’re chatting in your living room

• Pictures, books, daily planner, diary: Who you are

• Can always find you there, but always evolving

• Traffic generator vs. extended bio + SEO

FACEBOOK: SCHOOL UPDATES

• Check in on people you know to varying degrees

• Updates and recommendations from colleagues/friends

• Reconnect with people

• Let colleagues follow you on their own terms

TWITTER: COFFEE SHOP

• Snippets of different kinds of information

•Quick catch-up, TV news, longer articles, humor, art

• Great for listening as well as getting work done

•Where you meet someone before you know them well

VIDEO: TV

•One-way communication, but with some feedback

• Like a commercial, but more personal

• People connect with faces, voices, gestures

• Viral potential

RATINGS SITES: WATER COOLER

• Hey have you seen that new __________?

•More about cumulative reviews than any individual one

• People trust other’s opinions more than business’s

• Help people find you

SEARCH: YELLOW PAGES

• They don’t know who you are, know what they need

• How would you search for what you do? (Keywords)

•Why would they choose you from a list of results?

•What is the information you want them to see first?

NEWSLETTER: PHONE CALL

• Fewest distractions

• Catch up on what you’re doing, new developments

• Chance to hear from them and remind them you’re there

• Chance to ask them to recommend new people to you

• Chance to offer deals, increase customer loyalty

• Totally trackable

WHICH NETWORKS WORK BEST FOR YOU?

WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER?

•Demographics: Age, income, employment, education

• Are all of them online? A specific segment?

•Where are they most likely to be online?

CREATE A CUSTOMER PROFILE

•Who are they?

•What do they do online?

• How will they find you? (Search, press, recommendations, org.)

•Which 3 networks have most potential?

ONLINE DO’S AND DON’TS

MY ADVICE

•USE THE INTERNET

PAY ATTENTION TO...

• How you find things

•Why you leave sites

•When you find yourself drawn in

•Why you decide to trust certain people online

• How you contact someone online

•What kind of personality you identify with

HOW MUCH ARE YOU LIKE YOUR CUSTOMERS?

FIVE COMMON MISTAKESBlogging, Facebook, Twitter

BLOGGING

•Not linking, ugly links

•Not providing clear path back to main site

•Not looking at analytics

• Bad comment system, not responding to comments

• Too much self-promotion, not enough self

FACEBOOK

•Not explaining why you’re friending someone

•Not tagging people

• Tagging people too much

•Not sharing enough info with non-friends

• Too much self-promotion

TWITTER

•Not shortening URLs

• Posting lots of updates all at once

•Not creating lists/streams

• Too many @conversations

• Too much self-promotion

FINDING YOUR CORE STORY

WHY A STORY?

• Easy to remember and share

• Human’s crave stories (so does the press)

• Somewhere between your brand and personal voice

• It will make it easier for you to talk about yourself

EXAMPLE: MY STORY

•As editor of the liveBooks RESOLVE Blog, and before that as senior editor at American Photo Magazine, I both observed and experienced the recent reordering of worldwide media. While this has scared and confused some people, it excites me — my goal now is to instill that excitement in people who might otherwise be confused and scared.

MY BIO

• As the Social Media Editor for liveBooks until April 2010, Miki Johnson ran the RESOLVE Photo Blog and managed social media for the photography website company. Previously, Miki was Senior Editor at American Photo Magazine in New York City, where she also launched and edited the first year of Pop Photo College Edition. She currently works as a social media and online branding consultant, a photography writer, and a creative facilitator, all under the heading of "personal publishing strategist." Details here: http://mikijohnson.com/hire-me/

MY JOB DESCRIPTION

I’m a Personal Publishing Strategist. Ok, so “Personal Publishing Strategist” is a term I invented, but hear me out. You might not realize it, but you are a publisher. From your emails to your Tweet Stream to the  photos you share on Facebook, you are distributing a huge amount of content every day.

Like any publication worth subscribing to, it’s important that what you put out be valuable, genuine, and coherent. That’s when people really pay attention to you — that’s when people you’ve always wanted to work with but have never met email you out of the blue. (Seriously, it happens.)

If you were starting your own magazine, you’d need to research the market, define your editorial mission, formulate a business plan, publicize, advertise … but you, you’re a “personal publisher,” you just want to continue to do the work you love. You just need a little bit of guidance, let’s call it “strategy.” That’s where I come in.

MY GOOGLE PROFILE

Although most of my special powers involve talking to people and turning that into stories of one kind or another, I went into journalism because it allowed me to become a mini expert in a huge range of topics. I think learning things is fun, and I'm always down to help convince more people of that...especially if they're learning about awesome photography projects and how important written and visual journalism is to our basic understanding of the world.

YOUR CORE STORY IN THREE SENTENCES

•Who you are

•Why you started your business

•What you love about it (and promise you’re making)

MIKI JOHNSON

•MikiJohnson.com

•miki@mikijohnson.com

• Google me :)