MKTG 1550 - Social Media for Business

What is Marketing?

Marketing is creating relationships built on trust.

Traditional marketing was based on a bunch of principles:

• Power

• Control

• Cause and effect

• Solving problems from the top down

• Certainty and stability

• Separation of personal and professional

• "Having" and "doing"

Traditional marketing

• High impressions, low conversion (quantity-‐based): if you bought a billboard or a TV spot, you knew that your ad would be in front of thousands, maybe millions of eyeballs. It didn't matter that the conversion rate was less than 1%. Less than 1% of a million is still a lot of sales.

• Controlled: You put out the message you thought was what people wanted to hear, and the best message to sell your product. You didn't really care about the consumer, as long as they bought the product.

• Hierarchical: As a business owner, you were telling people they should buy your product. The business itself was also very hierarchical: decisions were made from the top down. Often front-line workers were not consulted. They were simply given a script, a telephone and a list of phone numbers. High converters were rewarded, low converters were punished.

• Protective: Your call list or email list were highly protected commodities. Your way of working and creating your product, also highly protected. • Ignore the bad stuff: if someone said something negative about your product, you'd mostly ignore it. Until it became such a huge issue that you had to deal with it.

• "Push": You are the one "pushing" the marketing. Clients are not coming to you, you are force feeding them the advertising.

The principles of New Marketing

• Creating relationships based on trust: people purchase things based on the recommendations of trusted advisors. • Niched/targeted: companies are now focusing their messages on target audiences. This means getting the message out to a smaller population, but one who is already likely interested in what it is you are selling, so the rate of return is much higher.

• Is about creating ambassadors for your business: People like to feel important, and that they are helping others. When they find a product or service that they like, they want to share that information with their friends and family.

• Openness, transparency, authenticity: We are no longer taken in by false claims in advertising. If something is not true, we find out. Very easily. And we won't stand for it. Businesses are beginning to open up and let people see the real people that work behind the corporate façade, and that is creating positive public relations, rather than being seen as a huge, evil, faceless corporation that is destroying the earth and treating its employees like chattle.

• Collaboration, communication and conversation: Instead of hierarchical, top-‐down advertising, many companies are now going to their clients and customers and asking them how they can help, what's the best way of serving them, and going to the front line workers and getting their collaboration and input.

• "Pull": increasingly, instead of putting out advertisements that tell their clients how to think, companies are creating interesting and proactive campaigns that "pull" their clientele in. A really great example is the recent Old Spice campaign.

What is a touchpoint?

A touchpoint is any way that your consumer, or end-‐user, comes in contact with your work. It could be a webpage, an e-‐newsletter, a poster or flyer, or an ad in the newspaper.

What is the minimum number of touchpoints that are required before a consumer will even consider making contact with your company?

Marketing theory says that it takes, on average, between 6-‐8 exposures to your marketing materials, or touchpoints, before someone will even consider making contact with you.

Effective ways to market yourself and increase your touchpoints

• Recommendations: Word-‐of-‐mouth is always your number one form of advertising, and a personal recommendation from someone has a higher chance of translating into a sale.

• Business Cards

• Posters

• Postcards/Flyers

• Webpages

• Social Networking: Creating and maintaining profiles on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and MySpace are all excellent touchpoints.

• E-mail and E-Newsletters: a great way of keeping in touch with your end-‐user, or even your potential end-users.

• Brochure

• Leave-behinds: this is something that you leave with your client after the work is done. I know a closet-‐installer who leaves a half-a-dozen nice wooden hangers (with his logo on them) in each closet he finishes. A nice touch, and a good way to spread word-‐of-‐mouth.

What is one of the biggest mistakes people make when they are trying to market their small business?

Trying to sell to everyone.

"Who's your market?" I ask people, and if they say "Everyone!", that raises a red flag for me. Unless you are Google, you are much better off practicing niche marketing. Why? Because it means that, even though your message is not reaching as many people, the people it is reaching will be more likely to buy, because they are already interested. Also, in this day and age, I think consumers are suspicious of businesses that claim to "do it all." There is the assumption that if you can do it all, you're probably mediocre at most of it. Pick 1-‐3 things that you do really well and focus on those.

Spray and Pray

Getting a whole bunch of marketing materials made up (postcards, posters, etc.) and putting them out there in as many random places as possible can also be referred to as spray and pray.

The spray and pray method has what we call in marketing, a low Return on Investment (or ROI). You spent a lot of money creating the marketing strategy or advertisement, and the return, in terms of sales, is low. There are more inexpensive, and more successful, targeted ways of selling, giving you a better bang for your buck.

Hook, or Unique Selling Point

What is it that makes you and your business unique? This is your Unique Selling Point or Hook. You should be able to define your USP in one sentence.

Branding

Your USP or Hook informs all of your marketing and advertising decisions. In marketing, this is called branding.

Your USP or hook is the thing that will inform all of your marketing and advertising decisions, from tagline to logo or graphic. Touchpoints can only work if they are consistent, across the board. So, if a potential client sees your poster in one location, your postcard somewhere else, views your website, receives your email -‐ you've hit them four times with the same message. You are starting to make inroads.

Values-based Marketing

There's an old expression that goes: "You don't buy a drill because you need a drill. You buy a drill because you need a hole."

What are you selling? A product or a service? Or are you really selling something else?

• Peace of Mind

• Time

• Family memories

• A more pleasing environment in which to live

• "Coolness"

This is called your business' benefit, and should be a part of your marketing material.

The Golden Rule of Social Media Marketing

Always provide value

Number of Facebook Users

1.6 Billion

Number of Twitter Users

313 Million

Number of Youtube Views Per Day

4 Billion

Number of LinkedIn Users

100 Million

Number of Pinterest Userts

100 Million

Number of Instagram Users

500 Million active monthly users

Number of Snapchat Users

200 Million

Number of Blog Users

6.7 Million

Why You Need a Website

• A website is your digital business card

• A website may make you money

- Selling products and services (directly or indirectly)

- Selling advertising

•A website can affect your brand

•A website can do research for you

•You need to have one corner of the internet that truly belongs to you (owned media)

Basic Website

•About page (company history, etc)

•Biographies of main players (with photos)

•Services offered (and how to buy them)

•Contact information

•Lead capture

•Social media

•Media

Your website should immediately and simply answer three questions:

- What product or service are you selling?

-Some basic info about the product, i.e. price, size, shipping, etc

-How do I purchase?

Traditional Forms of Marketing

- Public Relations

- Word of Mouth

- Advertising

Traditional Advertising

•Paid ads: Newspaper/TV/Radio/Busses

•Pay-Per-Click ads

•Mailout/E-Newsletters

•Posters

•Postcards

•Billboards

What is a blog?

The term "blog" is an amalgam of two words: "web" and "log." The very first blogs were online journals, or diaries. Today, blogs have become much, much more, but they still are primarily written from a frst-person point of view, using the "I" perspective.

What does RSS stand for?

"RSS" stands for "Really Simple Syndication."

Each and every blog has a built-in RSS Feed. This allows people to subscribe to your blog, in the same way that you'd subscribe to a newspaper, for example. After you subscribe, every time they publish a new post, that post magically shows up in your inbox, or in your blog reader.

What is Web 2.0?

We are currently in the second generation of the internet. The first generation of the internet was static websites—they simply pushed out information, and there was very little reason to ever go back to them.

Blogs changed that, and pushed us into the era of Web 2.0. They did this because now, instead of having a static website, we can have a two-way conversation via a blog. Instead of just reading a website, you can now engage in a conversation with the person who is writing the website. This is a very powerful way of creating relationships and engagement. It's social media.

When approaching bloggers, though, here are some things to keep in mind:

- Craft a personalized pitch.

- Read the blogger's work.

- Offer them free stuff.

Why would you want to start a blog?

- To give your 'fans' a behind-the-scenes look: putting a face to a business.

- Interactivity: the ability to communicate with your audience.

- Educate your audience: showing your process, allowing people to see how you got to the final result, builds value for that particular product or service.

- SEO: blogs are great for search engine optimization.

- Help create "expert" status: if you consider yourself to be an expert in your field, writing and sharing from your field of knowledge will help to create "expert" status. You will remain top of mind to anyone who follows your blog.

- Could stand in for a website

When starting your blog, you'll want to incorporate at least some of these elements:

- Header Image

- Sidebar

- About Me/Profile

- Comment section

- Archives/Categories

- Tags

- Blogroll

- Photos, videos or graphics

- Links

- Interactivity:

Blog Best Practices

- Post 2-5 times per week

- Post on consistent days to build audience

- Keep it short

- Tweet each post

- Post to Facebook

- Create a blogging schedule and book the time

Advantages of E-Newsletters

•Double opt-in gets you through spam filters

•List management

•Ease of sign-up

•HTML formatting

•Stats, follow ups, opens, click-throughs

•CASL

e-Newsletter Best Practices

• Send your newsletter once a month, or whatever you've agreed to.

• Keep your e-newsletters fairly short

• Set up a template and re-use it every time

• Send your newsletter on a consistent date

• Include images and links.

• Include social sharing buttons so that your readers can spread the love.

How to Build your e-Newsletter List

•Make it easy to sign up

•Offer something of value in return for their e-mail address

•Make sure your e-newsletter offers value •Publish your e-newsletter to FB & Twitter

•Make it visually appealing

•Send it consistently

You have three options on Facebook

• Personal Profile (Timeline)

• Business Page

• Group

Advantages of a page over a group include:

+ Indexed by Google, available outside of FB

+ Able to add "like" button everywhere

+ Supplies you with metrics

+ Updates come from 'the page'

+ Scheduling

- One-way: people have to "like" it

- Algorithm

Facebook 'Like' Function Operates two ways:

1. Adding a 'like' box to your website (allows people to 'like' you without leaving your website/blog)

2. Adding the 'like' and/or 'share' feature to each post/page on your website

Types of Facebook Links

• Internal: Tagging (in posts and photos)

• External: Links

How to Get Facebook Fans

• Make sure FB URL is on:

- Website/blog

- Email sig

- Printed propaganda

- Other social media

• Personal pleas

• Buy ads?

• Offer contests

• Offer quality content

Facebook Best Practices

• Post daily-ish

• Mix up your posts: text/photo/video

• Plug other people's pages

• Ask your fan's opinions, ask questions, or to

tell stories about their interaction with your brand/company (creates engagement)

Facebook Ads

• Facebook is now basically pay-to-play

• There are a variety of different ads you can buy:

- Post boost

- Drive traffic to website

- Get fans

Twitter Overview

• Twitter is micro-blogging: maximum 140 characters

• 310 million monthly users

• High rate of recidivism

• Facebook is about connecting with people you already know, Twitter is about connecting with people you didn't know you needed to know.

Twitter Facts / Numbers /Stats

• % of tweets sent via mobile: 78%

• # of tweets sent per day: 500 million

• % of users who have never tweeted: 44%

• % of users who tweet at least once a day: 46%

Twitter Terms

• Tweet

• Re-Tweet

• @ Reply

• DM

• # Hashtag

• Favourites

Re-Tweet

is when you repost someone else's Tweet. A retweet is the highest form of compliment on Twiter, as it means you think that what that person has to say is so great, you want to share it with your followers.

Getting your own tweets retweeted is excellent marketing, because you never know where your tweet will end up. Theory says that you should try to keep your tweets (if you want them to be retweeted) to less than 120 characters so that

they won't go over the 140 character limit when they are retweeted.

Retweets are always preceded with RT, and the username of the person you are retweeting, followed by the @ symbol. (eg: RT @rebeccacoleman). You can automatically RT something by pushing the RT button. You will not, however, be able to modify the tweet.

@replies

To reply to someone and have everyone that you are following see it, type an @ symbol before their name, with no space. (eg: @rebeccacoleman:) This is how we have conversations on Twitter, and conversations are probably the most important and valuable part of Twitter. Check yours often.

DM

Direct messages will not be seen by anyone other than the person to whom you are

sending. This is for stuf that is of a more personal mater, that you don't want everyone to see.

(eg: d rebeccacoleman).

Hashtags

assist with searching for subjects that are currently being talked about. People will write a tweet, and hashtag it with the appropriate theme, say #canucks. When you do a search in the search bar of Twiter for #canucks, you'll fnd all of the people all over the world that are currently using that hashtag, whether you are following them or not. It's a great way to connect with other people who are passionate about the same things as you are.

Twitter Lists

you can organize people you follow into thematic lists.

Types of Tweets

• Personal

• Link tweets (direct business)

• Link tweets (tangential business)

• Link tweets (fun)

• Re-Tweets

• @Replies and Conversations

• Help! or Ask Tweets

• Photo Tweets

• Music Tweets

Personal Tweet

These types of tweets are important, because they help your followers to get to know the 'real' you. You can tweet about what you're thinking, what you're doing, or if something interesting just happened to you. These types of Tweets would be most like a personal Facebook status update. Don't do too many of these.

Link tweets (direct business)

Because space is limited to 140 characters, many people use Twitter to drive traffic to websites or blogs. Every time I publish a blog post, I drop the URL with a teaser into Twitter. 47% of the traffic to my blog comes from Twitter in that way. Simply write a brief introduction, then copy/paste the URL to your blog post into Twitter. Twitter will automatically shrink the link down for you and make it shorter. Alternately, you could use a link-shrinking service, like tiny.url or bit.ly or snip.url. You may also want to add an appropriate hashtag.

Link tweets (tangential business)

I also post links to interesting websites or blog posts (usually from blogs I subscribe to through Google Reader) that I think people who follow me might be interested in (because I was!). Some of these blogs may also link back to my own blog.

Link tweets (fun)

This is the latest silly YouTube video, etc.

Re-Tweets

ReTweeting is great because each time something is re-tweeted, it reaches a different audience. In the world of Twitter, the retweet is the highest form of compliment.

@Replies and Conversations

This allows you to respond to something someone has said in their tweet, and begin a relationship with them. Conversations create engagement, and Twitter is rapidly becoming an excellent customer service tool for that reason.

Help! or Ask Tweets

Asking people for help--from where to find a good restaurant for lunch, to technical questions, to questions about your product or service is a great way to create relationships.

Photo Tweets

Upload and share photos directly to Twitter. You can also stream your photos to Twitter from Flickr, Instagram, or many of the other smartphone camera apps.

Music Tweets

If a certain song is defining your mood, you can tweet it. Use a service like Grooveshark, Blip.fm or Spotify to do this.

How to grow your Twitter numbers

- Put a "follow me on Twitter" icon that is linked to your account on your website and in the sidebar of your blog. Make sure it's also on every e-newsletter that you send out.

- Install a Twitter app on your Facebook Page

- Put a link to your twiter username in the signature of your email.

- Tweet good, useful, interesting content.

- Take advantage of #FollowFriday. Every Friday, Twitter users 'endorse' Twitterers that they find particularly helpful.

- If you do have multiple accounts (ie: a biz account and a personal account) you can retweet one account with the other, especially if one account has more followers. However, don't do this all the time, because it'll get old, fast.

Twitter Best Practices

- Tweet at least 1-3 times per day, spaced out.

- Three times a day, morning, noon and night, check your @replies & DMs and respond to them

- Post something new (at least once per day): a blog post you've written, a blog post you enjoyed, or a musing about your day.

- Scan your main Twitter feed to see if you want to respond to something or retweet something.

Youtube Facts / Numbers /Stats

• 3-4 billion views per day (1B mobile)

• 1 Billion users

• 6 Billion hours watched/month

• 100 hours of video uploaded each minute

• 2nd largest search engine in the world

Instagram How-To/Best Practices

• Download app

• Find your friends and follow them

• Take photos and upload

• Donʼt bleed the feed

• Take interesting/good photos

• Be part of the community

• Hashtags

• Algorithm

• Instastories

LinkedIn Stats

• 100 Million Active Monthly Users Worldwide

• Average user:

- 41 yr old

- $109K/yr

LinkedIn Best Practices

• Get an account

• Fill out your profile

• Upload address book, find people to follow

• Participate:

- Join groups and comment/answer/ask questions

- Recommend/ask for recommendations/endorsements

- Books?

- Post links to your Blog

- Check out the competition

- Use your connections to get in touch with people to work with/hire you

GeoTagging for Business

• Offering discounts/special deals (ie: Joe)

• Reward loyal customers

- Badges

- Mayors

• "Specials nearby"

Klout

• Klout seems to be the main way that people can measure their social media influence.

• Algorithm measures influence across 10 social networks, and then assigns a score from 1-100.

• Recent redesign to include scheduling and aggregate posts.