Turning Online Networking into Real Business / Clayton Hotel, Galway, Ireland / 11th November 2010

1. Social media: making it work for you
John Breslin, NUI Galway
www.johnbreslin.com / @johnbreslin

2. Lecturer, Electronic Engineering
Full-time lecturer from 2000 to
2004, tenured in 2008. Director of
Engineering Innovation course.
Associate Researcher, DERI
Leader of the Social Software Unit
in the worldʼs largest Semantic
Web research institute. Co-author
of “The Social Semantic Web”.
Who?
A little bit about me.
Founder, Social Media Ltd.
Publisher of daily tech articles.
Deciphering new technologies and
promoting Ireland as a web hub.
Campus company at NUI Galway.
Co-Founder, boards.ie Ltd.
Irelandʼs largest discussion forum
website, 1.9 million visitors/month.
Began as a gaming forum in 1998.

3. Getting Onboard
Joining In
Keeping Up
What?
Quick overview of my talk.

4. Choose Your Platform, Carefully
Depending on your audience, do
you need to be on social networks,
discussion forums (e.g. Google
Groups or boards.ie), or something
else entirely?
Spread Too Thin?
Donʼt waste time on a platform if
your customers just arenʼt there.
Part 1: Getting Onboard
Pick what services should you be on.
The Social Network Choices
Twitter: Whatʼs happening? Info streams.
Facebook: Everyoneʼs here, eek!
LinkedIn: The business network.
MySpace: Only if youʼre selling music...
Bebo: Nearly kaput, even for 13 year olds.

5. Create Your Identity
Try and get a common brand that
you can use across one or more
platforms of your choice.
Pick Your “Forever” Username
Have a consistent username for your
Twitter account or Facebook page.
Promoting Your Identity
Make sure you tell people about
your social media identity where
appropriate, e.g. in your e-mail
signatures, on your website, in
presentations.
Part 1: Getting Onboard
Decide exactly who you are.

6. Part 2: Joining In
Be part of the conversation.
Respond To Others,
Meaningfully!
Thereʼs no point being a
standalone broadcaster on
social websites. You must
engage with others, not just via
your own channels.
Does
anyone know
[...]?
Hello!
I think I can
help...
Choose Who You Are Talking To
If you want to be a person of influence
using social media, then the way to do it
is to acquire engaged followers who are
themselves active on the service: http://
scl.md/twinfluencer

7. Part 2: Joining In
Tell the world about your company, your services.
Marketing Your Brand
If you donʼt already have a sufficient
community of interest around your
company that you can leverage into an
online community instantaneously, you
may want to think about using targeted
advertising, if available on your platform
of choice.
Use An Integrated Strategy
View this great video from Deanna
Lee (Marketing VP at the New York
Public Library) about how social
media is just one part of your
communications strategy: http://
scl.md/leevideo

8. Part 3: Keeping Up
Stay up to date with your interests and competitors.

9. Think about whatʼs coming around the corner.
The World Is Going Hyperlocal
You may need to think about a web
where oneʼs geolocation is strongly tied
to their activities online: Facebook
Places, Foursquare, Layar, and more:
http://scl.md/hyperlocality
The Semantic What?
The next generation of the Web,
encompassing the notion of “Linked
Data” whereby itʼs not just pages
that are linked on the Web, but
rather data with an associated
meaning: http://scl.md/ldintro
Part 3: Keeping Up

10. Ask John
Thanks for listening.
Oh, and thanks to Tom Murphy for his great images.
socialmedia.net