A brief overview of social media, and why every company/business needs to learn and implement social media into their business philosophy.

1. Social Media and
Southern Technologies
An introduction to social media options, and how to incorporate
them into your corporate philosophy.

2. Social media: The definition
Social media is an web based communication platform that
allows users to:
connect, comment, share, and discuss,
any topic, story, idea, or image,
anytime of the day or night in real time.

3. Social Media: Your options
 Facebook: Started in 2004, currently has over 900
million users, allows private and public chats, photo and
video sharing. (Wikipedia:Facebook)
 Technorati: This search tool is currently tracking over
133 million active online blogs by individuals or
companies. Can be used for real time feedback about
products and customer service discussions.
 YouTube: Allows the sharing of video and music clips
around the globe. YouTube has over 800 million unique
users per month. Over 60 hours of new video is
uploaded every minute. (Wikipedia:YouTube)

4. Social media and corporations
Although these platforms launched between 2003/05, they
were used primarily by individuals until late 06, and early
07. At that time limited corporate activity began, and it has
been snowballing ever since. Zappos.com uses a social
media platform to provide customer service. Customers can
actually chat with Zappos CEO. This builds a bond between
customer, brand, and company never seen before.

5. So who else is using Social media?
 In 2011, only 21% of marketers were “very or fully
engaged” in Social Media.
 For 2012, 32% of marketers were “very or fully
engaged” in Social Media.
 For 2013, its estimated that 53% of these marketers will
be “intensely engaged” with Social media.
 Of those surveyed, 97% will be involved to some extent
in 2013.
 (Hosford)

6. The Benefits
 Social media promotes relationship building with
investors, employees, customers, and the media.
 Social media assists with improved credibility, and real
time communication between invested parties.
 The internet runs 24/7, 365 days a year. Not every
customer can contact/purchase between 9 am to 5pm.
 Promote/share your message across multiple platforms,
to the masses or specific groups/areas.

7. Seeing the benefit
 Traditional marketing uses surveys, interviews, and
content analysis to determine the success of a
campaign. With slight variations, these can be used with
social media as well.
 Since every click is traceable, data mining can be used
to see every bounce, download, click, and purchase.
 Analytical tools can determine where a visitor came
from, which pages were viewed and for how long, what
items were downloaded, videos viewed, the viewers
browser and screen resolution, and create a “visitor
profile” to see if the message is reaching the target
audience.

8. Some examples
 KINSMAN, MATTBOTELHO, STEFANIE. "New Frontiers:
Case Studies In Social Media Marketing." Folio: The
Magazine For Magazine Management 40.9 (2011): 38.
Associates Programs Source Plus. Web. 5 Aug. 2012.

9. Next steps
 Consider the information presented today.
 Explore some of the social media sites, and see what
others are doing.
 Create a free individual account, and explore the site.
 Assemble a list of questions, possible ideas for use, and
even concerns.
 We will all meet again in two weeks, and compare
notes, answer questions, and brainstorm ideas.

10. Works Cited
 Wikipedia contributors. "Facebook." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Aug.
2012. Web. 5 Aug. 2012.
 Wikipedia contributors. "YouTube." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Aug.
2012. Web. 5 Aug. 2012.
 HOSFORD, CHRISTOPHER. "'Btob' Study Shows Surge In
Social Media Marketing." B To B 97.5 (2012): 1.
MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5 Aug. 2012.