Social Media & Its Role in Business

Presented by

Stephanie Powers, Hagerstown Community College

For

MD Society of Professional Engineers October 12, 2011

  Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    October 12, 2011 

What is Marketing?

“Marketing is everything you do to promote your business, from the moment you conceive of it to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis.

The key words to remember are EVERYTHING and REGULAR BASIS.”

-Jay Conrad Levinson

Author of the Guerrilla Marketing series

A New Economy

Organized by products Organized by customer segments

Focused on transaction value Focused on the lifetime customer value

Shareholder Stakeholder

Marketing by marketing dept. Marketing by EVERYONE

Customer acquisition Customer retention

Overpromise, under-deliver Under-promise, Over-deliver

Old Marketing Process

Product Promotion People

21st Century Market Process

People Product Promotion

Why the change from product to people driven markets?

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  Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    October 12, 2011 

What does this have to do with social media?

Definition of Social Media:

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Why is this important for my business?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Customer Service _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Qualified Leads _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Public Relations _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Targeted Marketing _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

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Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    September 13, 2011 

Determine a Realistic Level of Use

Based on your company’s…

Level of expertise & experience Available time & resources

Expected outcomes

Level 1: Monitor the web for mentions of your company

Set up a Google alert for news, blog posts and online discussions that mention your company

o Google will email weekly, daily or real-time updates of search term mentions o Monitoring your mentions and media coverage allows you to calculate the value

of your social media and public relations campaigns – i.e. What would equivalent advertising cost your company?

Set up a custom Twitter feed for industry/company related search terms – examples: company name, product names, industry trends, etc. (recommend using HootSuite for this function)

Facebook o IF you have a Facebook business page, be sure to monitor it daily

Claim your business on foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Google Places, etc.

Level 2: Create accounts and start promoting your business

Determine which social networks are right for your business – Go to your customers o Google Ad Planner can help you research the demographics of various sites –

use networks who’s user demographics match your customer and/or target audience demographics

Identify goals for each account and campaign – What do you want to accomplish? o Customer service o Promotion o Awareness

o Leads o Web traffic

Set up tracking tools to evaluate success – Use tools like… o HootSuite analytics o Website referral numbers

o Klout score o TwitSprout

Level 3: Establish yourself as an industry expert

Get involved in industry-related conversations o Track Twitter for questions relevant to your industry – respond with expert

information NOT product promotion o Get involved in applicable LinkedIn Groups o Monitor and respond to LinkedIn Answers o Comment on blog posts

Publish informational content

 

Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    September 13, 2011 

Strategies and Best Practices

Social Media Strategies to Boost Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Inbound links – link back to your website often Sharable web content – make sure people can share and interact with all of your web

content

Facebook-Specific SEO Strategies

Choose your Facebook page name carefully – think about how people will find you in Facebook’s search function

Create a custom URL – pages with at least 100 fans may create a unique URL – example: www.facebook.com/nike

“About” section gets the most bang for your keyword buck – Make sure you use quality keywords in the “about” section of your profile

Other “info.” Items of importance o Address – important for location-specific companies o Company Overview, Mission, Products – use product/service-specific keywords

Use related keywords in photo descriptions and events

Engage Your Audience

Post frequently

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Start & participate in conversations

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Promote partners

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Respond in a timely manner

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  Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    October 12, 2011 

Strategies and Best Practices (Cont’d)

Increase Followers

Offer special promotions to your followers, brand champions, and/or best customers o Facebook – contests, landing page offer o Twitter – use hashtags (#) for contests (photo, trivia, etc.) o YouTube – Video contests/promotions o Foursquare – foursquare specials

Generate frequent & relevant content o Blog posts o Webinars o Quora o LinkedIn Answers and Groups o Sharable Email News & Web Content

Censorship, Integrity & Crisis Management

Be careful not to delete negative comments just because they’re negative Set guidelines for deleting posts and reference them when you do so – example:

profanity, slander, etc. Have a plan for dealing with a crisis

Tools to Monitor Networks and Schedule Posts

www.hootsuite.com www.tweetdeck.com

www.ping.fm

Resources for More Information

Mashable – www.mashable.com Hub Spot – www.hubspot.com Facebook Pages Resources Tab – www.facebook.com/facebookpages Recommended LinkedIn Groups

o Social Media Today o Fans of Mashable

o eMarketing Association Network

Recommended YouTube Channels o SocialMedia Today o Social Media Examiner

Industry experts to follow o Mack Collier

www.mackcollier.com o Chris Brogan

www.chrisbrogan.com

o Scott Stratten www.unmarketing.com

 

Stephanie Powers, 240‐500‐2490    Social Media & Its Role in Business sapowers@hagerstowncc.edu    September 13, 2011 

Want to learn more?

Join us on October 20, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for Social Media Marketing.

Designed for small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofits, this course shows you how to leverage platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursquare and YouTube to engage your audience and generate leads.

Course Number: PRD 443 D Fee: $30 Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: Hagerstown Community College, Career Programs Building 214

Other upcoming classes:

Extraordinary Customer Service Course Number: PRD 445 D Fee: $70 Date: Thursday, October 13, 2011 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Location: Valley Mall Training Center

“Grant Writing-Show Me the Money” © Course Number: PRD 459 D Fee: $265 Date: Tuesday-Thursday, October 18-20, 2011 Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Location: HCC, CPB 211

Communication Skills for Managers Course Number: PRD 429 D Fee: $200 Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Location: Valley Mall Training Center

Email Marketing Course Number: PRD 444 D Fee: $30 Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: HCC, CPB 214

Leadership Skills for Managers Course Number: PRD 675 E Fee: $200 Date: Thursday, November 11, 2011 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Location: Valley Mall Training Center

Register online at www.hagerstowncc.edu/coned/register,

or call 240-500-2236.