Overview of the importance of embracing Social Media into your business, with examples of companies what have made it work for them, including actions you can do today to start your Successful Social Media Strategy today !

1. A Get Focused Webinar Social Media for Business 101 by Clodagh S.Higgins Inbound Marketing & Social Media Strategist May 2010

2. Get Focused Consulting Pty Ltd We connect you and your organisation with the people you want to reach, online! http://www.getfocusedconsulting.com.au

3. So what is Social Media and why should I care? Social Media is an “umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, Social interaction and the construction of words, Pictures, videos and audio”* *according to wikipedia

4. why you should care is because . . . 2/3’s of the global internet population visit socialplatforms

5. Visiting social sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email.

6. Social Media is like Word of Mouth – except on Steroids - word spreads to many people – very quickly

7. This simple premise is to create two – way communication between you, your company, your existing clients and your potential clients.

8. Traditional Marketing

9. How are we tuning out these messages?

10. Think . . . Attract not Force

11. Inbound Education – Learning about your industry and other industries Outbound Education – Teaching your prospective clients about new topics Creating connections with industry peers Customer Experience – Positive Conversations and Negative Feedback Competitions - Offering special promotions to Social Media Followers How can Social Media be useful in your Business.

12. How can Social Media be useful in your Business. Specials – Giving Social Media followers discounts on products or services Recruitment – Finding Talent for your company Public Relations – Self Promotion and handling negative PR Market Research – Before you launch new products / services Inbound Marketing – Attracting new clients to your website/business

13. Why is Google important for your online marketing efforts to be successful? 65% of Australians go togoogle and search for products and services You need to make it easy for those people to find your business online.

16. Google’s Mission . . . . . . . . Is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Is your website and search strategy:- 1. Accessible? 2. Valuable? 3. Well Organised?

17. What is SEO ? Search Engine Optimisation This is the process of improving ranking in search engine results for your website by ensuring all the keywords that are being searched for by people are appearing on your site and helping your business to be found more easily. Mostly people type in problems and you have the solution. For example Customer “professional plumber north shore” Business “we provide quick repairs to your taps on the north shore with a smile”

19. What is a blog? A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog.

20. So I need to email my blog out to my database, right? No Share by using RSS feeds RSS feeder (Really simple syndication) – this is a family of web based feed formats that are used to publish frequently updated works such as video, news, blog entries and audio podcasts.

22. A great blog in Action 22 A blog with latest news utilising different mediums (e.g. video) Interesting information, company insight 1st on Google Search results (for their company name) working on higher ranking for general related searches Profiling different channels

23. Action Do a search for blogs in your industry http://blogsearch.google.com/ Write down what you like about them and what you could do better. Get your web designer to set up a blog with RSS Feed on your website.

24. What is Linkedin? Linkedin is the world’s largest professional network with over 65 million members and growing rapidly. http://www.linkedin.com

25. How can LinkedIn grow your business?

26. Action Create a LinkedIn Account for yourself Then go to the Questions section and answer some of the queries that are there which relate to your business.

27. What is Twitter? http://www.twitter.com Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send/upload messages known as ‘tweets’ – text-based posts only allowing 140 characters to be displayed on a profile.

28. Café Doubles Clientele & increases Profits within months with Twitter Using Wifi Twitter Elite Tweet Ups Online ordering

29. Action Open a Twitter account Find out whole the major twitter players are in your industry and follow them

30. What is Facebook?http://www.facebook.com . . is a free social networking website launched in 2004 and today has more than 400 million active users. Individuals or businesses can create a profile and join networks that are organised by city, workplace or educational institutions and then they can start adding friends and send messages.

32. 12,000 fans (now likes) in 2 months Resulting in double online sales

33. Action Open a Facebook Account and create a page for your business

34. What is YouTube?http://www.youtube.com YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos It is now the largest search engine in the world meaning now people go to you tube to see videos about things they are looking for instead of reading text.

35. YouTube It’s like having your own tv station for your business Over 100,000,000 videos watched on YouTube every day ! My Business TV

36. Example for Personal Trainers . . . Create your own video Get on the front page of Google !

37. Action Open a free google account and create your own You Tube Channel for your business.

38. Basic Rules of an effective Social Media Strategy Rule #1 – Listen Action - Set up Google alerts – www.google.com/alerts Tweet Deck – create searches and lists Social Mentions – were are your tribes? RSS Subscriptions (in Google Reader)

39. Basic Rules of an effective Social Media Strategy Rule # 2 – Engage Action - Answer Questions on Linkedin Post valuable comments on relevant blogs Ask questions on your blog Search for conversations about your industry on Twitter Look at competitors videos on You Tube

40. Basic Rules of an effective Social Media Strategy Rule # 3 – Measure Action - Set up Google Analytics on your website Analyse Sentiment – www.socialmention.com Return on Influence NOT Return on Investment Re-Tweets – What topics are hot Conversions – They should be going up!

41. Action Summary List Blog Do a search for blogs in your industry http://blogsearch.google.com/ Write down what you like about them and what you could do better. Get your web designer to set up a blog with RSS Feed on your website. Linkedin Create a LinkedIn Account for yourself Then go to the Questions section and answer some of the queries that are there which relate to your business. http://www.linkedin.com

42. Action Summary List Twitter Open a Twitter account for you Find out whole the major twitter players are in your industry and follow them http://www.twitter.com Facebook Open a Facebook Account and create a page for your business http://www.facebook.com You Tube Open a free google account and create your own You Tube Channel for your business. http://www.youtube.com

43. Additional Actions in Creating your Social Media Strategy Rule #3 – Measure Sentiment – www.socialmention.com Return on Influence Re-Tweets Conversions

44. Bringing it all together . . . Simply! Your Blog

45. Small Business Owners Who Successfully Use Social Media 1. Commit weekly resources of time and budget. 2. Understand that social media activity will have an impact on business results. 3. Regularly generate content using blogs, Twitter, Face book or other social platforms. 4. Don’t try to do use every platform, instead focusing time and resources on the social media channels that drive the best results for their business. 5. Use social media to drive participation in offline events.

46. Small Business Owners Who Successfully Use Social Media 6. Set clear expectations for customers regarding frequency and types of social media interactions their company is willing to provide. 7. Leverage social media to position their company as an industry expert. 8. Provide clear calls-to-action and opportunities to generate leads. 9. Use information and data from social media to drive overall business strategy. 10. Balance paid and organic search engine traffic.

47. Have the knowledge, time and resources to do this yourself? Great ! If not . . . Hire or outsource a specialist and get your Online Social Media Strategy happening today!

48. Social Media is a journey, not a destination, enjoy what becomes of your participation.

49. Special Thank you to . . . Hubspot Slideshare Google Ed Dale For making this presentation possible

50. See you Online !