How do i start using social media for business - july 2018

How do I start using
social media for business
Neil Infield – Manager Business & IP Centre
neil.infield@bl.uk - @ninfield (twitter) -
www.britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/business

http://www.slideshare.net/infield/
How do I start using
social media for business

3
The British Library is for anyone who wants to do
research - academic, personal or commercial

A bit about you…
7 out of 10 for social media

Three hours to cover all of Social Media?
•I can’t cover everything in three hours
•A canter through key areas
•Start on your Social Media Strategy
•My top tips for success
•Question Time with ‘show & tell’

Social Media Stats to blow your mind…
• 7.6 billion world population
• 3 billion active on social media
• A new user every 15 seconds
• 100 billion Google searches a month

Source - http://www.sxc.hu/profile/garwee
A history of Social Media in six slides
• 2600 BC - Egyptian hieroglyphs

• 1455 - Gutenberg Bible

• 1969 - ARPANET

• 1969 - ARPANET
• 1989 - World Wide Web starts

• 1969 - ARPANET
• 1989 - World Wide Web
• 1997 - Social Media begins
with SixDegrees.com

• 1969 - ARPANET
• 1989 - World Wide Web
• 1997 - Social Media begins
with SixDegrees.com
• 2004 - Facebook launched

Why all the fuss?
http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2018/01/01/uk-social-media-statistics-for-2018
Active users in the UK
•Facebook – 30 million a day
•Twitter – 12.6m active accounts
•LinkedIn – 21m less active accounts
•Instagram – 16.7m monthly
•Pinterest – 12m estimated
•Google Plus – who cares?

Why all the fuss about Social Media?
http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2017/01/03/uk-social-media-statistics-for-2017/

Lots of people + lots of activity

What will Social Media do for you?
•Find out what your
• Customers
• Critics
• Fans
…are saying about you online
•Spot trends in your market - industry
•Monitor your competitors

What will Social Media do for you?
•Allow you to engage with your
• Customers
• Critics
• Fans
…in a transparent manner
•Measure your impact
•Crowdsource your products and services

Developing your Social Media strategy
What are your business goals?
• Increase brand awareness
• Develop brand credibility
• Build a relationship with your audience

What are your goals?
• Increase website traffic
• Increase conversions (sales)
• Improve customer retention
•Define your audience – and find them online

Which platforms should you use?

Work with your
neighbour to
complete pages
1 and 2 of the
hand-out

Social Media Marketing is Content Marketing
Content Marketing is King because:
• Leads are eight times more likely to convert
than outbound leads (Hubspot)
• Dramatically lower cost per lead than
outbound marketing
• Build a trusting relationship with your
customers - no hard-sell

Content Marketing via Storytelling
We all respond to a good story:
• Your brand story is not a sales pitch
• What makes you and your staff special
• What makes your customers special
• What makes your product-service special

Content Marketing via Storytelling
• Keep the story simple
• Mistakes you made along the way
• Lessons learned
• Success stories

Why you should blog
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34209/93-of-Companies-Using-Inbound-Marketing-Increase-Lead-Generation-New-ROI-Data.aspx

• To be found by Google
• Your social media hub
•Build trust in your brand
•Be seen as an expert
•To be safe…
http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Kurhan
Why you should blog

0
1000
2000
3000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Millionsofdollars
Twitter Income and Profit
Income

-1000
0
1000
2000
3000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Millionsofdollars
Twitter Income and Profit
Income
Profit

How you should blog
• With passion… and patience
• For your audience
• On your own, or in a team
• Always about things related to your business
• Include a ‘call to action’ if possible
• Always inlcude links to other content

Always
Ronseal
your
blog
titles

Put the
‘good stuff’
in the first
paragraph

• In combination with your other social media
channels
• Using your web domain
E.G. www.yourwebsite/blog
• Measuring using built in tools or Google
Analytics
• Using this information to guide your future
content
How you should blog

How often should you blog
http://blog.hubspot.com/

But does it really work?
Yes it does

My original post
My follow-up post

Time for your “About Me” page

“The time has
passed when
Facebook was a
"good idea" for
businesses to try.
It's now essential
to your inbound
marketing
strategy.”
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5492/How-to-Create-a-Facebook-Business-Page-in-5-Simple-Steps-
With-Video.aspx#ixzz2NMs3aw5H
Facebook for Small Business

Crowdsource your
products and services

Daily status updates – but no hard sell
• Peeks ‘behind the scene’
• Photos and videos of your company at work
• Show a keenness to interact – polls, quizzes
• You are allowed to have a point of view
e.g. yoga trainer on diet and exercise
What content should you post?

Persuade your
customers to
do your
social media
marketing for
you

• Use tools to save you time
- Buffer or Hootsuite
• Use Facebook Insights to measure
• Shares are most important
• Followed by comments
• Least useful are Likes
Manage and keep track

• What content has the biggest impact?
- do more of the same
• Are people actually spending money
on your website?
• Vanity metrics aren’t good for business
- only your ego
Manage and keep track

• Facebook for Business - tips, and best practices to
help meet your business goals
www.facebook.com/business
• 5 Facebook Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
www.socialmediaexplorer.com
• 14 Essential Tips for an Engaging Facebook
Business Page
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing
Facebook tips

Please accept my resignation.
I don't want to belong to any club that will accept
people like me as a member
Groucho Marx(109 chars)

Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for
the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor
Bill Shankly (95 chars)

I can resist everything except temptation
Oscar Wilde (41 chars)
Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for
the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor
Bill Shankly (95 chars)

What can you fit into
140 characters?

• Micro blogging – character limit
• A technology without a purpose or vision
• The ‘Marmite’ of Social Media services
• Love it or loath it – it works
• But will it last?
What is Twitter?

• Smaller numbers than Facebook
– but bigger spenders
• Unparalleled access to celebrities
and decision makers
• An opportunity to ‘go’ viral
• 0 to 10,000 followers in one week
is possible
Why Tweet?

• Short term promotions and special offers
• Invite feedback / market research
• Enhance your reputation
• Improve your customer responsiveness
• Build good relations
• Remember to protect your profile name
How to use Twitter

• Find trending topics and experts
• Find evangelists for your brand
• Make sure you separate work and play
• Be careful when re-tweeting (libel laws apply)
• Internal BBC advice:
“Never tweet when you're pissed… or pissed off”
How to use Twitter

His first
customer was
Lady Gaga,
who bought 17
outfits for her
world tour!

• Create a tweet button on your web pages
• Create and use lists to clean your stream
• Learn the twitter lingo
• @reply - Direct Message (DM) - Follower -
Hashtag - Retweet (RT) - Trending Topics
• Use tools to manage –
e.g. Tweepi, Tweriod
TwitterCounter
Twitter top tips

Spot and use
Trends
Trendjacking
opportunities

• Customize your page:
• Change default profile picture
• Use 140-character BIO space, using keywords
• Install twitter on your mobile
• Be careful with hash tags
• How it was posted #susanalbumparty
• How it should have read #SusanAlbumParty
• How it was read #SusAnalBumParty
Twitter top tips

• Tweet throughout the day
• Spread your tweets - up to 10 a day
• Don’t ignore complaints
- they are a test
• Switch to direct message (DM)
instead of email
• Follow key tweeters including your rivals
Twitter top tips

• The ‘grown-up’
Social Media channel
• Your virtual CV
• Hubspot survey showed LinkedIn is 3 times
more effective than Twitter or Facebook for
converting website visitors into leads
LinkedIn for Small Business

• Good for consultants, trainers and professions
• Great for B2B businesses
• Separate personal profile from business page
• Research and engage with potential customers
• Check out your competitors
• Get recommendations
LinkedIn for Small Business

Is Ben a clueless hippy
or an industry expert?

• Twitter for photo sharing
• No pushy sales messages
• Use it to showcase your brand and
customers
Instagram for small business

• Research
- then use the best hashtags
• But don’t overdo it
- 10 to 15 hashtags max
• Aim to get the best quality photos you can
• Encourage your customers to share their photos
Instagram for small business

Instagram pros and cons
Pros
• Lots of users
• Lots of millennials
• Lots of engagement
• Created for mobile
devices
• Does now integrate well
with other social media
platforms
Cons
• Links don’t work
• Limited advertising
• Not many ‘golden oldies’

• Used to create theme-based image
collections
• Browse other pinboards for inspiration
• 're-pin' images, or 'like' photos
• Relative recent… but very rapid growth
Pinterest for Small Business

Pinterest pros and cons
Pros
• Images can be linked
to your web pages
• Users can ‘repin’ your
images
• Pin It button makes it
easy for your fans to
share content
Cons
• 80% are women
• So only 20% are men
• Not very
conversational

• Never managed to compete with Facebook
• But is incorporated in search results
• So definitely worth adding your presence to
improve your Google ranking
Google Plus for Small Business

http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-google-plus-2015-4

Video is taking over social media

• People love moving images
• Google loves videos
• Demonstrate how things work
• Share your knowledge
YouTube for Small Business

• Hootsuite, Buffer or Tweetdeck to manage
your posts
• Google Analytics and Facebook Insights
to measure activity
• Sprout Social software
• HubSpot Blog
• SocialMediaToday.com
Tools and information to help you

Hootsuite for monitoring content

The
new
standard
for
websites
...

…
build-in
your
social
media

• Aim to limit to 30 minutes a day
• Keep it professional – no bad virals
• Look out for new services
• Measure results and cull
• Posts with photos are viewed 75% more
• Posts with videos are viewed 57% more
My top tips for Social Media success

• Engage emotions
“Emotional validation is a key reason why
British social media users post and share,
according to new research which shows that
interactions with a post provoke feelings of
engagement, happiness, and acceptance.”
https://www.warc.com/NewsAndOpinion/News/Why_Brits_share_on_social_media

• Have a consistent brand / name
across your social media platforms
• Don’t just lurk on social media
• Make sure you contribute valuable content

Join - or create a
community of interest

• Be a person online
- but not too personal
• Aim to be ‘marketing lite’
- avoid spamming
• Have fun with it

How do i start using social media for business - july 2018

How do i start using social media for business - july 2018

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