Getting started with social media

Editor's Notes

• #2: This presentation as well as the links to the videos will be available on our website tomorrow.
• #3: Who are Arnoldi McPherson? Arnoldi: McPherson is Janice Arnoldi and Robin McPherson. Janice and I have been designing and developing websites and online communities for over 12 years. We’ve worked with large corporations and organizations – Hydro One, Canadian Mental Health Association and The Ontario Soccer Association to small local businesses and organizations – Conrad Cowherd - Chiropractor, OUT Niagara and Niagara Gallery Players.Do we still design and develop websites? Yes and no. We believe that websites just aren’t enough anymore. We are often asked – is there a Social Media Revolution?
• #5: Facebookas of February 2010 – 400 million users50 % active users log on every dayCanada 13,424,180 users / US 111,212,840 users100 million active users access Facebook through their mobile phonesSecond most popular website – Google is first. Had nearly 134 Million Unique Visitors in January 2010-05-03Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and olderTwitterTwitter question is now “What’s Happening?”105 million registered users.30,000 people a day are signing up to tweet
• #6: Mobile 91% of the people with mobile phones are using them to socialize compare to 79% of desktop usersSocial Media Users31% of people using social media and social networking tools are involved in conversations “with a civic or political focus”people under the age of 35 make up just over 70% of those using social networks for political activityA from November 2009 found that a business can lose 30 customers for each negative comment on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.That last stat can frighten people but, these conversations are already happening. If you’re not participating you can’t fix it.
• #7: This may sound shocking but the websites we know today won’t be around for much longer. A single online presence isn’t enough, people want and expect more. Social media gives you that.As Tara Hunt – author of ‘The Whuffie Factor puts it, ‘we need to turn the bullhorn around’. It is no longer about talking at people, telling them what to think, pushing your message on them, it is about engaging, listening, connecting and paying attention to your customer, client and member.
• #8: For all our clients, the main goal of their online presence is to connect and engage with their customers, clients or members by providing information and getting feedback.
• #9: Essentially it’s about relationship building.
• #10: In the past, there were limited ways to connect – discussion groups, guestbooks, message boards. These methods of connecting were often expensive, took time to develop and quickly became out dated. Clients also often found them difficult to manage, found the tools were clunky and sometimes confusing.Social media has changed all that. Social media makes it possible to connect directly with your customers and members and engage them in open and instant conversations. – If you want to ask a question – you can do that immediately via Twitter, Facebook or Survey Monkey.
• #11: Social media has changed what your customers expect when connecting with you online. Customers expect you to be available to answer questions, take complaints, to LISTEN.
• #12: Social media has shifted the control from the company that develops and designs your online presence back to you, the business or organization. You know your business better than anyone and your customers can be your best advocates. Remember YOU are the best advocate, salesperson and champion of your business or organization. The second best advocate is a happy, enthusiastic, passionate customer, supporter or member.
• #13: It can be an overwhelming landscape. There are so many tools and new ones are being launched it seems every day.
• #14: There are lots of people out there who will tell you need to be on Facebook, should be on Twitter and must have a Blog. It’s in fact NOT about the tools. It’s about Listening to and having conversations with your customers, clients and members. The tools should always come second. They come after you have determined your goals and objectives. Knowing why you are using the tools is as important as knowing how to use the tools.You don’t have to use all the tools. You need to learn about the many tools, try them out and then choose which ones work best for you and your business or organization.
• #15: The big 5 as we’re calling them are the most popular social media tools. You’ll probably recognise the names and have heard a lot about them. For each of the tools we’re going to look at: What are they?Why would a business use them? What can you do with them? What is the most popular one? We will also feature local businesses and organizations who are doing a really great job with their Social Media marketing.
• #16: Social Networking - The interaction between a group of people who share a common interest online. It may be geographic, it may be a product, it really can be anything.Most popular social networking site – Facebook Facebook is a constantly changing site. The Facebook folks are always adding functions and moving buttons on the site. And it can be frustrating. But the power of Facebook is that it can be used in many different ways to connect with people. It’s more than Farmville & Mafia Wars.
• #17: For businesses the Fan Page is the way to go. Fan pages like profiles, have a Wall for Fans to write on, they allow you to add videos, photos, events and they also allow you Fans to upload photos and videos. You can also have a Discussion groups allowing conversations to happen.The other big benefits to a Fan Page are that: when someone “Likes” your page it gets listed with a graphic on their profile; you can feature other Fan Pages; you can obtain Insights or statistics about Fan demographics, user engagement and impressions and you can get a vanity URL, so instead of the very long confusing URL you can get something like: www.facebook.com/cocacola -which makes it so much easier to add your Facebook URL to marketing materials.
• #18: Coca Cola – Fan Page – started not by Coke, but by 2 guys who loved Coke and now they work for Coke running the Fan page.
• #19: Pat Burns in the Hockey Hall of Fame – Group – Grassroots movement to get Pat Burns into the HHF - close to 70,000 members
• #20: Fielding Winery – Fan Page – Lots of up to date info about what’s happening, regular Fan posts and quick replies from Fielding
• #21: BMW – Fan Page – over 10,000 Fan Photos and 203 Fan Videos – sharing their passion for their cars.
• #22: Why do we consider these examples successes? It’s not the number of Fans that make these examples successful, it’s the interactions and the connections with the Fans.
• #23: BlogA blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.Successful blogs share your knowledge and passion. Also the blog site allows for easy integration of all kinds of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.By using blog software to build your site, like WordPress or Blogger, you also get a content management system. More and more businesses are turning to the open source blog software to manage their sites allowing you to have control over your site and means that you are not tied to custom build proprietary Content Management System.
• #24: Wine Library TV – Video – All video blog by Gary Vaynerchuck - http://tv.winelibrary.com/ - Gary puts his own spin on wines and wine tasting. One of the favourite episodes is What Wine Pairs with Cereal? The video blog also promotes his bricks and mortar wine store.
• #25: Southwest Airlines – Nuts About Southwest – staff blog - http://www.blogsouthwest.com/ - goal is to provide an insider point of view of the airline and it is written by South West staff from Corporate Community Affairs to the Culture Activities Representative.
• #26: Open Forum – sponsored by American Express – http://www.openforum.com/ - OPEN Forum is a community of business owners like you. And it’s part of the new chapter beginning for small business. OPEN Forum gives businesses the tools to connect and collaborate. – You don’t have to be an American Express customer to use the site. Information is provided by experts across a wide range of topics and areas.
• #27: Why do we consider these examples successes? These blogs are not about directly selling a product. They’re about providing people/businesses with a value added service. They are about: showing your passion, giving you an insider’s look and sharing expert knowledge. These blogs put these companies in the forefront of consumers’ minds, not because of the ads, but because they give me something more.
• #28: Micro-Blogging – AKA TwitterA micro-blog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller.While there are other tools out there that fall into the microblogging category, Twitter is by a wide margin the most popular and widely used.Small/Medium sized businesses are a natural for Twitter because they already rely on more personal relationships with customers and it’s free. It can be used a variety of ways: build brand awareness, special offers, customer service, fundraising or share information.
• #29: @cremebruleecarthas a street cart that sells crème brulee that travels around San Francisco and the only way to know where he’s going to be next is via his tweets
• #30: @virginamerica– A medical graduate was flying to England for a holiday and tweeted about it. Virgin saw it and they tweeted out asking anyone on the flight to buy the girl in seat 4B a drink and several customers did
• #31: @ S_SylvesterGLEE – For all the GLEEKS out there whomissed the show while it was on hiatus, the various twitter accounts kept us everyone up to date on what our favourite characters were doing and saying.
• #32: Niagara Wineries are at the forefront of using Twitter in Niagara. Two very active Tweeters are @RickWine & @MBosc– MBosc – Chateau des Charmes recently had a Twasting, which was a Twitter invite only tasting.
• #33: Why do we consider these examples successes? These Tweeters not only engage in conversations, but often the information provides insight into the business owner, gives the followers a sense of knowing someone and that the customer is important to them.
• #34: Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (whether publicly or privately).Most popular – Flickr
• #35: National Preservation Trust – This Place Matters - http://www.flickr.com/groups/thisplacematters/Why do we consider this example a success? The goal of ‘This Place Matters’ campaign by the National Trust was to get people thinking about the places in their community that matter. “Start conversations about the past, the future, and how people can work together to define what really matters.”
• #36: How did it work? Visitors to the site were asked to download the ‘This Place Matters’ sign, take a picture of you, the sign and your place and upload it to the ‘This Place Matters’ Flickr account. There are currently over 2,500 photos that have been uploaded. The Flickr account is just one way to connect and be a part of the campaign. There is the blog, a Facebook Fan page, a Google map that marks all the places that matter and a new YouTube channel with people talking about why their place matters.One thing to add is that during the first few months of the campaign, visitors to the site wanted to have signs in their native language. So the Trust created signs in Spanish, French, Dutch, Japanese and a blank one to add your own.
• #37: Video sharing refers to websites or software where users can distribute their video clips.
• #38: T-mobile – Life’s for Sharing – Liverpool Station - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM & Trafalgar Square sing along - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orukqxeWmM0For the T mobile campaign, it’s not about showing you their products, it was about having fun and doing something completely unexpected. While Flashmobs had been done before, the T mobile dance started a flurry of dance mobs across the world. The second flashmob, was a sing along of Hey Jude in Trafalgar Square. Over 13,500 showed up to join in, even PINK was there. It had a lot of buzz leading up to the event, but again, it was NEVER about selling phones. It was about what you could do with the phones – Share!
• #39: BlendTec – Will it Blend? - http://www.youtube.com/user/blendtec BlendTec sells blenders. So how do you show your Blender is better than any other one? They asked Will it Blend? Four over 4 years BlendTec has been taking common and some not so common items, dropped them in and blended. While it has a certain appeal our more destructive tendencies, what better way to show just how great your blender is by blending everything from Silly Putty, a Wii Remote, marbles and even an iPad!
• #40: Geo location is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor or other. What? Geo location takes advantage of your mobile phone or computer’s GPS – current location. In the case of something like a Google search, the results you get from a search are based on your current location. Why is this important? If I’m downtown searching for a restaurant, the results I get will first list the restaurants closest to me. In very simple terms Foursquare and Gowalla let you tell your friends where you are via your mobile phone. But that is only the start.  Using your phone and the phone app, you can “checking in” at locations, earning badges, mayorships, items and points. It is part game and part marketing tool. They are fun way to explore your city.  Users can also add tips to locations, letting others know what to order or what’s on sale. With Gowalla you can add photos to your checkins and both businesses and individuals can create tours. With Foursquare Tips you can provide visitors to locations additional information about that location as well as letting people know what other businesses close by are offering. The other aspect to both Gowalla and Foursquare is that it can be used as a customer reward system. Instead of having loyalty cards, provide rewards for regulars, who check in to your business or provide the mayor a free drink or a discount. A pizzeria near Ottawa offers a free slice and drink on your 10thcheckin and on your 20th you get a free large pizza with one topping.
• #41: Gowalla - Chippewa Historical Tour & The Upper Niagara River Walk – user created The Chippewa Historical Tour - http://gowalla.com/trips/4072 - created by Bill Wilkie – Get Out Niagara
• #42: The Upper Niagara River Walk - http://gowalla.com/trips/4293 - created by Adam White – JMR Software Systems. These regular outdoors men have used the Gowalla Trips function to create two great walking tours with detailed location info and photos.
• #43: Foursquare & WSJ - http://foursquare.com/wsj , History Channel - http://foursquare.com/historychannel , City of Chicago - http://foursquare.com/explorechicagoFoursquare has partnered with the Wall Street Journal,
• #44: The History Channel and
• #45: The City of Chicago to create these tip lists and badges encouraging users to check into specific locations and once they’ve check in get tips or facts about that location.
• #46: Why are these successful? While the Gowalla trips are user generated, as a business you could create a walking tour of your neighbourhood or partner with other businesses to create a tour that rewards visitors who check into all the locations on your tour. The Foursquare partnerships allow the businesses and the city of Chicago to provide extra information about locations and with the game feel of earning badges it makes it fun to explore your city.
• #47: In closingThere are lots of people out there who will tell you need to be on Facebook, should be on Twitter and must have a Blog. The tools should always come second. They come after you have determined your goals and objectives. Knowing why you are using the tools is as important as knowing how to use the tools.It’s about Listening to and having conversations with your customers, clients and members.
• #48: Remember YOU are the best advocate, salesperson and champion of your business or organization.
• #49: The second best advocate is a happy, enthusiastic, passionate customer, supporter or member.