Social Media Seminar at Illinois Entrepreneurship and Small Business Growth Association Conference (IESBGA) May 29, 2014

1. SOCIAL MEDIA
PRINCIPLES
FOR SMALL BUSINESS

2. #IESBGA
Illinois Entrepreneurship & Small Business Growth
Association Conference (IESBGA)
twitter: @carlcatedral

3. WHY?

4. WHY USE SOCIAL
MEDIA?

5. WHY USE SOCIAL
MEDIA?
Build Relationships:
• With Your Community
• With Your Customers
• With Other Businesses

6. WHY USE SOCIAL
MEDIA (CONT.)
Return to the good ‘ol days

8. WHY USE SOCIAL
MEDIA (CONT.)
Extension of real life
relationships

9. WHY USE SOCIAL
MEDIA (CONT.)
An opportunity to be
helpful

10. HOW?

11. HOW TO BUILD
RELATIONSHIPS ON
TWITTER

13. SOCIAL MEDIA
GOLDEN RULE
Tweet others the way
You want to be tweeted

14. DESIGN
TWITTER IS DESIGNED FOR RELATIONSHIPS

15. HOW TO BUILD
RELATIONSHIPS ON
TWITTER
1. Identify needs
2. Provides solutions to needs

16. HOW TO BUILD
RELATIONSHIPS ON
TWITTER
Create Conversation:
Listen // Ask Questions // Respond //
Add something meaningful

18. WHAT?
WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT?

19. THE
PRACTICAL
SOCIAL MEDIA IN ACTION

21. KNOW YOUR
AUDIENCE
"THE CHALLENGE FOR [SOCIAL
MEDIA] MARKETERS IS NOT
KNOWING EVERY PLATFORM BUT
KNOWING YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC.”
- @CHAMBANALAURA ON #SMLIVEECI

22. LISTENING
WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT

23. GOOD WAYS TO
LISTEN
Follow the right people
• Community Leaders
• Industry Leaders

24. COMMUNITY
LEADERS
• @chambanamoms
• @chambanalaura
• @CHCEDC
• @CUMTD
• @colaburbana
• @cityofurbana
• @champarks
• @smcchambana
• @smilepolitely
What about industry leaders?

25. GOOD WAYS TO
LISTEN
Use + Follow the Right Hashtags
Community
• #chambana
• #livemerge
• #techCU
My Industry
• #socEnt
• #STEMtoSTEAM

26. THE ANATOMY OF A
TWEET

30. RESPONDING
WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT // CONVERSATIONS

35. HOW TO RESPOND
WELL
• Have conversations with others
• Begin your conversations and Reply with “@”
• Reply to others who mention you as soon as you can (within 24
hours)
• Retweet what’s relevant to your community or business by selecting
a tweet and clicking “Retweet”
• Favorite other peoples tweets
• Turn your notifications on – phone or email so you know when
people interact with you

36. RETWEETS

41. CREATING
TWEETS

47. WHAT DO YOU TWEET
ABOUT?
Be A Leader
1) Be a hyperlocal community leader
2) Be an industry thought leader
3) Provide value to your followers
• Create unique content – photography, videos, blog posts
• Curate quality content related to your industry
• Call to Action: guide people to a landing page on your
website, to sign up for a newsletter, or to claim a special
offer on social media.

48. BE A LEADER
THROUGH
SERVING
WHAT DO YOU TWEET ABOUT?

49. HYPERLOCAL
"SOCIAL MEDIA IS AN
OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN LOCAL
FLAVOR TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES."
#ATMW @CHAMBANALAURA

50. TIPS FOR WELL-
COMPOSED TWEETS
• Mention your information source (where you found the link,
image, etc.)
• Use hashtags that give information about your tweet and
promote your brand (i.e. #passivehouse #passivebuilding)
• Make shorter tweets – aim for 120 characters or less to
increase the likelihood of retweets

51. ELEMENTS OF A HIGHLY
ENGAGED POST
1. Good visuals / images that stick out on people’s
newsfeed
2. Mentioning other users on Facebook
3. Interesting material curated from around the web
that serves as a resource for your Facebook likers
4. Posts that engage people to comment (i.e.
questions or provoking content)

52. OTHER BEST
PRACTICES
• Create unique posts for each social media platform
• The best times to post depend on your audience, but here
are some recent stats:
Facebook
Best times: Weekdays 6:00-8:00am and 2:00-5:00pm // Saturdays
(early afternoons and after dinner)
Worst times: Weekends 10:00pm-4:00am
Twitter
Best times: Weekends 1:00-3:00 pm
Worst times: 8:00pm-8:00am

53. CASE
STUDIES

76. BENEFITS TO YOUR
BUSINESS
• Allow customers to have direct access to you
• Chance to know what potential customers want
• New ways to build long term relationships with business
and customers
• New ways to build trust as a reliable source and
transparent business
• You can do better business based on real community
needs
• If it’s good for your community, it’s good for your
business.

77. ROI
"THIS IS WHAT MOST BUSINESSES
WANT, BUT IT OFTEN IS VERY
DIFFICULT TO MEASURE. SOCIAL
MEDIA IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
NOT SALES.” - @CHAMBANAMOMS

78. QUESTIONS FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
• Why do you exist as a business? –
Mission / Values
• Who are you serving? – Target Audience
• What is the message you want to share?
Brand
• How are you you communicating your
message? Marketing

79. BRANDING AND
MARKETING
Good branding creates a clear, cohesive and consistent identity
for your business.
The best social media strategy comes from clearly communicating
your brand through a comprehensive marketing strategy (social, web,
print).
• Does your business communicate a clear, cohesive and
consistent message? /Do your website, social media platforms
and print advertisements reflect brand consistency?
• Do you have a marketing budget? / What are other companies in
your industry spending on marketing?
The answers to these questions can help you know how to spend your resources
wisely on social media advertising and content creation.

80. CLOSING THOUGHTS
• Be authentic. Remember why you are in business in the first
place and keep in mind that at the end of the day social media
is all about relationship building.
• Take risks. Rules were meant to be broken. Social media is
constantly changing. Experiment with new ideas and concepts.
• Own your brand. No one can care as much about your
business as you. Take steps to invest in communicating about
your brand and be proud about what you do.

81. www.carlcatedral.com/IESBGA

82. THANK YOU