Using Social Media to Drive Sales

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Infographic courtesy Inside Views

Infographic courtesy of Ecreative Internet Marketing

The biggest barriers

of C-level executives cite the Internet as the most influential and important source for business information.

67%

Traditional Marketing (Push)

Social Media(Pull)

Social Media Lead Generation is About Inbound

Marketing

You want people to choose you because you are interesting.

You have lots of opportunities to be interesting.

What can social media help you do?

• Research and development

• Enhance relationships

• Scale connections

• Customer engagement

• Lessen complexity

• Expert positioning

• Tell your own story

• Enhance SEO

Social media is about relationships.

Social networking is more than socializing.

177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011

31,017,254. Unique visitors in the past 6 months

1 week. The time it takes for users to send 1 billion Tweets

Quick Twitter Facts

The Golden Rules of Twitter• Add value

– Link to interesting content: articles, trends, videos, white papers

• Listen – Follow clients, industry associations, people, news relevant to

you– Monitor and act on relevant conversations

• Engage– @reply and RT

• Promote your content– Share white papers, news articles, videos, etc.

Choosing a @Username

• Use your real name– Transparent – Increases your ranking in Google

• Keep usernames consistent• Keep it short• Avoid using hyphens, uncommon

spellings, nicknames and symbols

Setting Up Your Profile

The BasicsTweet

– Noun: A message posted via Twitter containing 140 characters or fewer

– Verb: The act of posting a message

Twitterer/Tweeter – An account holder on Twitter who posts and reads

tweets

Twitter handle– Used to identify you on Twitter for replies and

mentions

The Basics

Follow– Subscribe to the tweets of another Twitter user

Unfollow– To cease following another Twitter user

The BasicsMention

– Including the @ sign followed by a username– Tweets in which your username was included

The Basics

Follow count

The numbers that reflect how many people you follow and how many people follow you

The BasicsSearchA box on your Twitter homepage that allows you to search all public tweets for keywords, usernames, hashtags or subject

The BasicsPromoted tweetsTweets that selected businesses have paid to promote at the top of search results on Twitter

The BasicsTrending topicA subject algorithmically determined to be one of the most popular on Twitter at the moment

The Basics

Protected/Private Accounts– Twitter accounts are public by default– Choosing to protect your account means that your Tweets will only be seen or approved by followers and will not appear in search

What Can I Tweet?• An observation: what you are doing or thinking

about a situation• What you are reading or watching: link to a

relevant industry article or video• What events you are attending• Promote someone else’s content: make a

comment and link to it• Promote Fathom’s content

EngagingRetweet

– Noun: A tweet by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow

– Verb: The act of forwarding another user’s tweet to all your followers

Engaging@Reply

– Tweet posted in reply to another user’s message, usually posted by clicking the “reply” button next to the Tweet in your timeline– Always begins with @username

Engaging

Direct message (DM)– Private tweets between the sender and recipient– Tweets become DMs when they begin with “d username” to specify who the message is for

What is a Hashtag?

Hashtag (#)– Used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet – Created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages

Using Hashtags• People use # before relevant keywords in their

posts to categorize tweets to display easily in Twitter search

• Clicking on a hashtag in any message shows you all other tweets in that category

• Hashtags can occur anywhere in a tweet• Popular hashtags are often trending topics

Hashtag Best Practices

• Use short hashtags• Recommend using no more than 2 hashtags

per tweet• Use hashtags only on tweets relevant to the

topic• Before using a hashtag, always do a search to

see how other users are using it• Hashtags.org offers an overview of popular

hashtags on Twitter

Recommended Hashtags

Social media• #socialmedia• #socialmediamarketing• #blogs• #blogger

Technology• #tech• #business• #technology

Recommended HashtagsMarketing• #marketing• #contentmarketing• #storytelling• #CMO• #infographic• #b2b• #b2c• #communications• #brand

Events• #virtualevents• #hybridevents• #event (often

used with #marketing)

• #eventprofs

How Often Should I Post?

• At least 3 – 5x per week• Share an industry news article or piece of

content 2x per week• RT a relevant tweet from a prospect, customer

or colleague 2x per week• @reply 1x per week to a prospect, customer or

colleague

Twitter 2.0Lists

– Curated groups of other Twitter users – Tie specific individuals into a group on your

Twitter account– Displayed on right side of menu of your

homepage

More About Lists…• Twitter users can organize others into “lists”• Clicking on a list will show you a stream of

tweets from all the users included in that group• You don’t need to follow a user to add them to

a list• Adding someone to a list will show you their

tweets in the list, but you will not see their messages in your main timeline everyday

How to Create a List

• Visit the profile of the user you would like to add to your list

• Click the list drop-down• At the bottom of the drop-down menu, click “Create list”• Enter the credentials of your list and set the privacy

settings

Using Twitter to Generate Leads• Position yourself as a thought leader with the

content of your tweets– Links to industry articles– RT relevant tweets– Links to content

Using Twitter to Generate Leads

• Seek out your prospects and customers and follow them– Create a list to keep them organized

• Monitor the Twitter feeds of your prospects and customers to gather insight into issues of importance

• Engage with your prospects or customers– RT interesting content (only do this 1-2x per week)

• Add a comment or additional insight to the RT

– @ reply to prospects and customers with a link to an article or piece of content that relates to an issue he/she tweeted about

• Shout out to others – Mention them in a #FollowFriday or #FF– #FollowFriday is a hashtag that was created to

introduce people to the Twittersphere– Make sure to leave room for a retweet

• Link to other social conversations– Link to questions on LinkedIn and add

@username of author– Tweet interesting blog posts with the author’s

@username

Using Twitter to Generate Leads

Valuable Content

Who is Using LinkedIn?

100 million+ global users

20 million+ groups

LinkedIn usage peaks between 9 a.m. & noon PT

Average age:  44

49% of users are business decision makers

Grow Your Network

• Add your personalized LinkedIn URL to your email signature

• Connect with people shortly after meeting them• Send personalized connection requests• Reply with a personal note when accepting a

connection request to start a conversation

Grow Your Connections

The “People You May Know” widget in the upper right corner helps you find contacts you might not otherwise have thought of

Join a Group

Search LinkedIn’s Groups Directory to find industry associations and networks to take part in

Engage in a Group• Join the groups and post an introduction to

yourself and your business• Respond to questions with valuable insight• Avoid the direct sell• Share valuable content

Be a Thought Leader• Update your status regularly

– Share links to interesting content relevant to your followers

– Link to content– Let people know what you are working on

• Consider syncing your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts

Be a Thought Leader• Use the many forums on LinkedIn to share the

knowledge you’ve gained in your area of expertise

• Avoid the direct sell• Offer valuable insight• Link to content

Recommendations

• Increase referrals by asking your happy customers to write you a recommendation to publish on your profile

• Personalize your message in the Recommendation form

• Be clear on what you want a recommendation for

Research• Research the people you are meeting with to

learn more about their backgrounds, interests, and skills

• Identify potential connections that you may share with them

• Monitor people changing titles and companies in your News Feed

Applications

• TripIt allows you to let your network know when you will be in their city– Set up meetings with prospects and customers– Find relevant events

Applications

• SlideShare application allows you to share content

• Link to your SlideShare page

Applications

• Reading List by Amazon allows your connections to view what you are reading and provide a recommendation on the book once completed

Applications

• Events by LinkedIn helps you find professional events to discover what events your connections are attending

Should I Upgrade My LinkedIn Account?

• Access to InMail• Additional introductions• Access to OpenLink network• Additional search opportunities

• Identify 5 industry blogs relevant to you and your customers

• Check at least 3x per week• Use Google Reader to make it easy to

manage

Blog Monitoring Made Easy

Getting Started

The Rules

No client names unless approved

Keep it professional

Show a little personality

Keep confidential information confidential

Avoid speculation

Be transparent

Never be deceptive or misleading

Use common sense

Don’t comment on anything to a reporter or analyst

Making it Easy• Use a social media dashboard to manage

all your accounts in one place• Hootsuite.com

– Free!– Easy to manage multiple accounts– Analytics to measure success– Cell phone apps to make it easy to update on

the go

Social Media in 10 Minutes a Day• Scan one or two industry blogs/enewsletters for a

relevant article to share• Write one tweet and/or LinkedIn update

OR• Reply to comments posted by members concerning

your previous status updates/posts

OR• Scan your news feed and respond to a post• Check in on one of your LinkedIn groups and respond

to a question

OR• Respond to a LinkedIn InMail or connection request

Social Media in 5 Minutes a Day

• RT a post

OR• Share a piece of Fathom Business content• Scan your Twitter/LinkedIn news feed and

make a comment on an update

How Can I Measure the Success of My Efforts?

• Engagement – comments, @ replies, RTs

• Social connections • Behavioral change (e.g.

increased inquiries)• Increased awareness of

you/Fathom when you make a sales call

• Volume of conversations• Conversations in new places• Increase in dialogue vs.

monologue

The Golden Rules B2B Social Media

Be interesting

Add value with helpful content

Focus your efforts

Engage in the conversation

Think long term

Keep your information current

Thank You

Larry Holdren

e: lholdren@pure-brand.comt: @lholdrenf: www.facebook.com/lholdren l: www.linkedin.com/in/lholdren b: www.purethinks.com/purethinking

Shannon Danitz

e: sdanitz@pure-brand.comt: @stdanitzf: www.facebook.com/shannon.danitzl: www.linkedin.com/in/shannondanitzb: www.purethinks.com/purethinking