Ever wondered how bits of social media link together? Ever wondered why you might want to consider using social media for your business. Here's an introductory guide.
2. A quick & dirty presentation:
Social Media
• A social media strategy to marketing should be
considered in line with your business’ strategic
direction.
• If you would like a free 60 minute consultation
with a business coach to find out more about
what should be on your business’ strategic
priorities – call our office on +44 (0) 1252 311 279
and book an appointment
• More about us:
– Suzanne - http://www.johnsonfellowes.co.uk/suzanne-hazelton/
– Angus - http://www.johnsonfellowes.co.uk/angus-lyon/
3. Why set it up?
• Most of us use the internet – and use the search bar to find
businesses and information. Most people pick the link to click
on based on the first couple of items that are displayed
• How easily can you be found by search engines?
• Google yourself – see where on the screen you are. This is about
increasing where you are (so if you’re at the top – you probably don’t
need to read this!)
– NB when setting up new websites, I’ve heard can take up to 7 weeks for them
to be found – all the more reason to start to do this today!
– Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) –is about getting found by the search
engines (e.g. Google) much of it is beyond the scope of my current
knowledge, and therefore beyond the scope of this document.
4. Overview
1. Increase your “find-ability” by
having a “presence” on the
web.
2. Connect separate pieces
together
3. Use (daily / weekly)
• Graphic from mashable.com
• For full size image:
http://www.dreamgrow.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/11/B2B-Social-
Media-Marketing-Infographic.jpg
5. Early decisions
• Decide on a name for Twitter / Blog
– The Twitter name can be changed. Harder to change
the URL (domain name) for the blog – although the
title can be changed .
• Do you use your name, or that of your business?
– There are ‘fors’ and ‘againsts’ for both choices
• Start to think about your strategy for connecting
with people.
– I’ve always used Facebook for friends, LinkedIn for
business – but there are good reasons to have a
Facebook presence for business too.
6. Content is King
• The aim of social media is to be a “sales
person” doing work on your behalf.
• The goal of social media is to pre-dispose
people to buy from you.
• If a prospect came to your store / spoke to you
on the phone you would give them some tips
• Give the prospect some tips on-line
7. Content is King (2)
• When you create content – it’s probably only
seen by people who already look at your website
… but the goal of social media is to reach MORE
people.
• Within Twitter, using hashtags (#) is one way for
people to find content relevant to them (I’ll
describe more detail about Twitter in a later
presentation)
• So create content, and then let people know
about it, whether on your LinkedIn page, FB or
Twitter
8. What have you got already?
YouTube
Blog
Amazon
Affiliate
Website
Naymz Twitter
Ecademy LinkedIn
Facebook
9. Why Twitter?
• Twitter gives you the ability to write short (140
character) updates – and include links (to content on
your website etc)
• Other sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Blog) have the
ability to post a ‘status update’ directly from
Twitter.
• Having regular status updates keeps your name in
front of your clients (new and potential)
– Short (140 character) updates
– Twitter allows you to ‘push’ this status out to these
other sites.
10. Twitter Etiquette
• Social media. It’s about
sharing, not just about
“pushing” your own content.
– I’ve heard people say only 20%
should be your own content.
– Find people who post content
you like / is relevant to your
ideal audience – and retweet
(RT)
• Engage in conversations
– (use ‘reply’)
11. Setting up your Twitter account
1. Allow 20 minutes to set it up and do some initial investigation.
2. Go to Twitter.com
3. Set up your profile (some people decide to follow you based on
these words)
– You will be guided to set up your profile – this is your store front –
whilst not everyone will look at it – some people do judge by the
content.
– As a minimum: include a photo (don’t leave the default egg), and
short description – you can change it later!
– choose people to follow
4. Test tweet – at this time no-one is following you – “I’m delighted
to have joined Twitter”
5. Take time to explore
• Find hashtag groups (eg #leadership) that meet your interests
• Find and follow people (see next page)
12. Who to follow?
• Keep contact with existing customers
• Find potential customers
– Active search your area / keywords
– be available for customers to find you
• Listen to others (influencers) in your industry
– Retweet
• Find people who inspire you
– Retweet
13. Twitter
• You can create lists …. And view recent tweets
from people on your list … this becomes more
relevant if you decide to follow LOTS of
people.
• It’s useful to commit to tweeting on a regular
basis … at least once daily is a good start – and
remember it doesn’t need to be your content
– retweets work too.
14. Why blog for business?
• You’re probably sitting on a heap of
information about your industry – you could
share this.
• It’s a way of establishing your credibility.
• For some industries they say that 7 hours is
needed in pre-sales terms before a prospect
will buy from you. This could be your time
spent in sales calls – or they could spend time
on-line reading about what you do.
15. Blog
• Can you commit to a weekly update?
– (you can write several posts at the same time and schedule
them to update)
– They don’t have to be long blogs
• 7 mistakes people make when buying a washing machine
• 3 things to consider when buying a tie
• 2 reasons to get your shelves professionally hung
• I use WordPress, there are other blogging tools available
(blogger)
• You can have this professionally set up for you, but you can
also do it relatively easily for free – which will give you a
good idea of what you want if you decide to ‘upgrade’ in
the future
– Be prepared to spend some time setting it up – it’s not hard, but
you’ll want to be sure it represents you, and if appropriate links
to other sites (your main web site).
16. Common area of confusion:
Domain Names and Web Hosting
Domain Name Web Host
You need both!
17. Domain Name Confusion
• One common query – and one that I didn’t
really understand is just because you buy a
domain name doesn’t mean that you have a
website. You need ‘web hosting’.
• I use the analogy – you can buy a personalised
car licence plate (domain name) – but you
don’t get the car (the web hosting)
18. Wordpress.org vs Wordpress.com
• NB: other blogging platforms are available.
• There are two ways to install Wordpress which give
different features and functionality
• Wordpress.com is ‘hosted’. This is the easiest
option, everything is backed up for you – there is a
MASSIVE choice of themes, but there are some
restrictions on installing custom themes and not able to
install ‘plugins’
• With Wordpress.org you have to set up the host and
install Wordpress – there are easy instructions available.
You get more flexibility to use plugins to make the site
feature rich and flexible – but you’re responsible for
your own backups (there is a plugin to automate).
19. Blog settings (WordPress)
• Do you already have an idea of how you want
to use your blog? What you want it to look
like?
– Pick a Theme
– Change the headings to work
• Layout of screen: Widgets
– Show your twitter stream (optional)
• Post a short blog
• Set up the ABOUT page
20. Linking things together
1. Now you have a blog and Twitter account. You probably already
have a Facebook Page and LinkedIn in account … you can get them
working together.
2. Make every blog you write work for you! You don’t have to do all of
these for every blog … but consider ….
– Post it on Twitter to engage NEW followers and potential customers
– Post it on your LinkedIn account to let your business aquaintances know
what you’re doing – to keep your name in their mind
– Post it to Facebook / Facebook Page
– I prefer to send updates manually (using hashtags of #FB and #in) – but
you can make all your tweets go to both FB & linkedin automatically.
• Consider the frequency of your updates. Personally I dislike the
same update being repeatedly being reposted over a short
timespan, and I sometimes ‘unfollow’ people where I notice this
happens frequently. You can rotate which blogs you post.
21. A quick & dirty presentation:
Social Media
• A social media strategy to marketing should be
considered in line with your business strategic
direction.
• If you would like a free 60 minute consultation
with a business coach to find out more about
what should be on your business’ strategic
priorities – call our office on +44 (0) 1252 311 279
and book an appointment
• More about us:
– Suzanne - http://www.johnsonfellowes.co.uk/suzanne-hazelton/
– Angus - http://www.johnsonfellowes.co.uk/angus-lyon/