Leveraging social media: top tips

Leveraging social media – top tips for success Twitter: @jamescotton LinkedIN: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mrjamescotton

Leveraging social mediaTop tips for success

James CottonCottonRendle


James Cotton

• Background in graphic design & computer science

• Founded two digital agencies - Mousetank & CottonRendle

• Technical & Creative Adviser to Cambridge Phenomenon Ltd

• Expertise in digital ecosystems, strategic planning, information architecture and digital marketing

@jamescotton

uk.linkedin.com/in/mrjamescotton


• What is social media?

• Who are the big players?

• How does social media fit into the mix?

• Top tips for success

• Tools

• Group exercise

Schedule


What is social media?

Wikipedia: Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.


What is social media?

Social media is the digitisation of what humans have been doing for a very long time:

communicating, sharing stuff, trading stuff

Leveraging social media – top tips for success Twitter: @jamescotton LinkedIN: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mrjamescottonEarly blogger


Social networking

There are thousands of ‘social networking’ sites on the web

Many sites now integrate social networking features

The big players are changing/extending their business models to become service providers


Social networking: big players


• The ‘SMS’ of the internet

• Created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey

• 190 million users worldwide

• 65 million tweets a day

• 750 tweets per second

• 800,000 search queries per day

• One of the top ten visited sites on the web (Alexa)


Content of Tweets

(Pear Analytics 2009)

News 36%

Spam 3.8%

Self-promotion 5.9%

Pointless babble 40.1%

Conversational 37.6%

Pass-along value 8.7%


• Launched in 2003

• Professional business networking service

• 200 active countries and territories

• 90 million registered users

• $185 million net income in 2010

• Filed for IPO in January 2011


• Launched in 2005

• Acquired by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion (in Google stock)

• Most popular video has had 280 million views

• 2 billion YouTube videos are viewed every day

• 24 hours of video footage uploaded to YouTube every minute


• Founded in 2004

• 600 million active users

• 500 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every month

• 25 billion content items are shared on Facebook every month

• $800 million estimated revenue in 2009

• The most used social network service

• Now a Hollywood blockbuster


Social media is massive.

Social media is everywhere.

Social media is here to stay.

Get on the bandwagon (but be strategic).


Why should you use social media?

• Because everyone else is?

• Because it’s free?

• Because I can reach more people?

• Because I can create conversations?

• Because I want my content to go viral?

• Because I can monitor my brand?


How does social media fit into my marketing mix?


Digital ecosystems

• All of the online places where people interact with your brand.

• Websites are no longer the only destination.

• Users consume media on their platform/service of choice.

• Platforms share content but use it in different ways.

• Content is king.


Social media campaigns: top tips

1. Plan

2. Target

3. Be consistent

4. Add value

5. Use the crowd

6. Incentivise

7. Listen and respond

8. Drive action

9. Measure and analyse

10. Refine


Tip 1: Plan

• Don’t rush in.

• What resources are available (human, creative, editorial, technical, time, financial)?

• What are the goals?

• What are the steps to achieving the goals?

• How will success (or failure) be measured?

• Use Google Docs to share calendars, guidelines, etc.


How can I reach this guy?


Tip 2: Target

• Who are the audience (or audiences)?

• What do you know about the audience?

• What do they use?

• How can you reach them?

• How can you appeal to your audience?

• Don’t overstretch your resources.


Tip 3: Be consistent

• Design - apply creative consistently.

• Editorial - choose a style, stick to it.

• Frequency - build rhythm.


Tip 4: Add value

• Don’t just spam.

• Find your niche and show you understand what your followers are interested in.

• Build engagement by sharing interesting and complementary content.

• Do contra deals with organisations/individuals in your niche.


Tip 5: Use the crowd

• Facebook integration

• Twitter integration

• Send to a friend

• Pay with a tweet


Tip 6: Incentivise

• You do something for me, I do something for you.

• What can you give away?

• What has a low value to you but a higher perceived value to your audience?

• Prize draws, kudos, pro bono, downloadable content...

• What price would you put on a lead?


Tip 7: Listen and respond

• No automation - keep it human.

• Build relationships through engagement.

• Timely responses and updates.

• Don’t delete negative feedback.

• Respond intelligently.

• Build trust.


Tip 8: Drive action

• Always have your eye on the prize.

• Traffic?

• Awareness?

• Lead generation?

• Recruitment?

• Sales?


Tip 9: Measure and analyse

• Study your results.

• What’s working?

• What’s not working?


Tip 10: Refine

• Be agile

• Try something new

• Segment your audience and your approach to them

• Approach your campaign cyclically.

• Design, measure, refine


Social media campaigns: top tips

1. Plan

2. Target

3. Be consistent

4. Add value

5. Use the crowd

6. Incentivise

7. Listen and respond

8. Drive action

9. Measure and analyse

10. Refine


Tools

• Dashboards

• Mobile apps

• Metrics


Exercise

• Split into 4 or 5 groups.

• Each group picks a social network from the hat.

• Each group will come up with a way to use the selected social network to increase visibility and/or sell tickets for the Cutec 2011 TVC.

• Each group will pick a representative to present their idea.

Leveraging social media: top tips

Technology

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