The document discusses using social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, for small business marketing. It provides examples of different types of social media and best practices for using Facebook and Twitter to build brand awareness, engage customers, and see a return on social media efforts over time. The key aspects are listening to customers, responding promptly, and focusing on engagement and connections rather than direct sales pitches.

1. Social Media for Small Business Southeastern Oklahoma State University Center for Regional Economic Development

2. Page 2 Technology is Changing the Communications Market 35 years 26 years 15 years 13 years 6 years Broadband

3. What is Social Media? Wikipedia defines social media as media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

4. As a marketing tool, Facebook is here to stay. Many people give up as they don’t get the desired result immediately, i.e. a huge increase in sales. However, consider marketing on Facebook as a step by step process: you first build trust, traffic and eventually – sales.

5. Examples of Social Media Communication Blogs: Blogger, ExpressionEngine, LiveJournal, Open Diary, TypePad, Vox, WordPress, Xanga Microblogging: FMyLife, Foursquare, Jaiku, Plurk, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, Qaiku, Google Buzz, Identi.ca Nasza-Klasa.pl Location-based social networks: Foursquare, Geoloqi, Gowalla, Facebook places, The Hotlist Social networking: ASmallWorld, Bebo, Bloomfire, Cyworld, Diaspora, Facebook, Hi5, Hyves, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Orkut, Plaxo, Tagged, XING , IRC, Yammer Events: Eventful, The Hotlist, Meetup.com, Upcoming Information Aggregators: Netvibes, Twine (website) Online Advocacy and Fundraising: Causes, Kickstarter Wikipedia

7. It took 3 years to sell 100M iPods

8. The iPhone sold 1M units in just 74 days!If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest on Earth (est. 2004)

9. More Examples Collaboration/authority building Wikis: PBworks, Wetpaint, Wikia, Wikimedia, Wikispaces Social bookmarking (or social tagging): CiteULike, Delicious, Diigo, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, folkd Social Media Gaming: Empire Avenue Social news: Digg, Mixx, NowPublic, Reddit, Newsvine Social navigation: Trapster, Waze Content Management Systems: Wordpress, Drupa, Plone Document Managing and Editing Tools: Google Docs, Syncplicity, Docs.com, Dropbox.com Collaboration: Central Desktop Wikipedia

10. More Examples Multimedia Photography and art sharing: deviantArt, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Zooomr Video sharing: sevenload, Viddler, Vimeo, YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, NicoNicoDouga, Openfilm Livecasting: Justin.tv, Livestream, OpenCU, Skype, Stickam, Ustream, blip.tv, oovoo Music and audio sharing: ccMixter, Pandora Radio, Last.fm, MySpace Music, ReverbNation.com, ShareTheMusic, The Hype Machine, Groove Shark, SoundCloud, Bandcamp,Soundclick,imeem. Presentation sharing: scribd, SlideShare Wikipedia

11. More Examples Reviews and opinions Product reviews: epinions.com, MouthShut.com Business reviews: Customer Lobby, Yelp, Inc. Community Q&A: Askville, EHow, Stack Exchange, WikiAnswers, Yahoo! Answers, Quora, ask.com Entertainment Media and entertainment platforms: Cisco Eos Virtual worlds: Active Worlds, Forterra Systems, Second Life, The Sims Online, World of Warcraft, RuneScape Game sharing: Kongregate, Miniclip, Newgrounds, Armor Games Wikipedia

12. Overwhelmed Yet??? Don’t be! There are NO reasons for you to apply every social media outlet to your business – with new social media programs emerging everyday, it isn’t possible.

13. How do you decide which social media outlets will work best for your business? Research Determine where your customers are networking and utilize that social media to your advantage You may need to join several networking sites to reach as many customers/clients as possible Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site, but if your customers aren’t there you are wasting your time

14. The Keys to Social Media Marketing In order to have the most success with social media, you have to understand that you cannot apply your typical sales strategy to social media. LISTENING & CONNECTING are the keys to social media marketing success.

15. How do you begin? You’ve already done your homework and have decided which social media outlets will benefit the most customers…… Now it is time to register and begin your prosperous journey through the world of social media.

16. Two Most Popular Social Media Sites Facebook Twitter

17. Facebook Facebook pages can: Create brand awareness Strengthen and create loyalties Build marketing efforts Generate and manage events

18. Facebook Facts about Facebook: More than 500 million active users 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day Average user has 130 friends People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook Facebook Statistics

19. Five Steps to Build a Facebook Business Page Assign an employee to manage the page Determine a social media procedure and messaging structure Create compelling and interesting content that isn’t always about you Engage and interact with fans Publicize the page Hernandez

20. Twitter Twitter connects businesses to customers in real-time. Businesses use Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influential people. From brand lift, to CRM, to direct sales, Twitter offers businesses a chance to reach an engaged audience. Twitter

21. Twitter – Best Practices Build your following, reputation, and customer's trust with these simple practices: Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them! Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening. Respond. Respond to compliments and feedback in real time Twitter

22. Twitter – Best Practices Continued Reward. Tweet updates about special offers, discounts and time-sensitive deals. Demonstrate wider leadership and know-how. Reference articles and links about the bigger picture as it relates to your business. Champion your stakeholders.Retweet and reply publicly to great tweets posted by your followers and customers. Establish the right voice. Twitter users tend to prefer a direct, genuine, and of course, a likable tone from your business, but think about your voice as you Tweet. How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter community? Twitter

23. Twitter – From 0 to 90,000,000 tweets/day in 4 years

24. Common Mistakes Businesses Make with Social Media No Consistency – be consistent, present and responsive, or don’t do it at all No Plan or strategy for social media It Takes Time to see a return on your social media efforts Permanent Ink – everything you write on social media sites are public and may be searchable forever Response Time – customers expect a response to a query within a short amount of time. Do not be slow to respond or not respond at all Fry

27. Share via social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)

28. Vote up at social news portals (Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Mixx, Propeller)

29. Link to from Blog posts and comments

30. Discuss at forums and groups

31. Spread via word-of-mouth directly to colleagues and contacts

32. Link to on their websites

33. Broadcast via multimedia (video, podcasts)

36. Facebook + Business = Success Innovative Uses with FaceBook Set up your FaceBook Page