Mining Relationships for Gold

Editor's Notes

• #2: Social media has changed the way we do business. Not just a new THING. Not even a new phenomena . Social networking with all it’s changes at the speed of light, new technology, new language, upgrades, platforms and channels has ushered in a new era of communication. For business, that means marketing products and services in ways never done before. That exciting – challenging and also a bit intimidating. Unless you think it’s just small business – Google story. That’s what Tracy and I discussed last spring at café@407 when we were trying to find a way to do a presentation on social media marketing that left people feeling inspired and encouraged by what they are doing with social media marketing. click
• #3: presentation with a lot of information but will focus broadly on three things - . Perspective - on social media, global and local, in surprising ways you may not know and will be encouraged by . Examples - real world examples of people just like you using social media to grow relationships and business, that you will encouraged you to go out and try something new Encouragement - practical tips to help you leave here Feeling strong and equipped to take the next step with your on-line social media marketing to grow relationships – and eventually sales. In your business.
• #4: As I said, Social media is ushering in a new era of how to think and act, how we spend our time, and how we spend our marketing budgets This era, in my opinion, is a lot like that the American west in the middle of the 1800’s. like the Gold Rush
• #5: 10 th grade American History It’s 1848, St. Louis Missouri and settlers are hearing “There’s gold out west!” People curious, interested, wanted to go there. It sounds great.
• #6: But first had to take a trip challenges - unknowns. much to learn an uncertain payoff No roadmap – no roads actually But there was opportunity waiting. And, as we all know, tens of thousands of people headed west and found “gold” and other treasures. .
• #7: Well, fast forward to 2010 Just like St Louis was beginning of gold rush, we are at the beginning of a new era – the social media era. With tons of opportunity and a lot of unknowns. But that’s really the good news. Because there is much yet to be discovered. Applications will be developed. Industries will be directly addressed with new platforms. it’s all going to get easier as the road is paved by others who are smarter, faster, richer, younger and connected to the right sources to bring about change.. Some of those people may be you. So really we can relax as long as we get in the wagon and know one thing –
• #8: That goal in all this is building relationships . It’s getting people to know you by putting yourself out there on-line. Relationships that can increase awareness,, loyalty and advocacy Not direct sales, at least not in the beginning or for quite along time. So, how should we approach this? How can we get in the wagon, head west but keep our sanity and integrity in the process?
• #9: Well, let’s start with perspective I am NOT as a social media expert. no one is a social media experts yet. small business marketer with a point of view, and some experience. I have a website, I blog a bit, I have posted on FB and created status updates on LinkedIN, I have tweeted more than 50 times, have 49 followers, am following 44. I have learned not to say ‘I twittered. ‘
• #10: I, like you, am on a path learning to use social media tools to grow my business, and businesses of others.
• #11: Perspective … why should we care about social media marketing for our businesses? Can’t we just keep doing what we’ve been doing?
• #12: The days of one way marketing are history! People are talking to each other on-line and influencing when deciding what to buy. more and more. It’s all about the conversation
• #13: Make no mistake – we are in a new era. defined by internet usage on-line relationships 6.8 billion people in the world 2 Billion of those people are on the internet – 87% of those use social media. That’s just under as–all the people china and India combined.
• #14: In the US, since most of us are not marketing globally – yet - Here’s the breakdown 344 million people in the US 2/3 of internet regularly 266 million and a whopping 75% of those are engaged in some form of social media use. Close to 200 million men, women and children posting, tweeting, connecting, poking, friending and viewing each and every day.
• #15: In the past year, social networking became the #1 on-line activity for all internet based tasks, beating out on line games and email by a large margin. Social sites are where people are going when they grab their mouse. – Neilson Wire
• #16: 2009 On line networks most influential source in helping consumers make purchasing decisions 63% of on-line shoppers in US made an web purchase in 2009
• #17: Quickly, for perspective let’s look at the top well known social media platforms and just how many people are using them
• #18: More than 500 million active users 150 million in US. 75 million people log on to Facebook in any given day Avg users spends 7 hours/month or 14 minutes/a day FB has not taken over TV watching in terms of time spent per day…. Average user has 130 friends how many of you in this room have more than 130 FB friends?
• #19: YouTube right behind FB; with almost 500 million viewers 2 billion + views / day; Majority70% outside the US; More videos are uploaded in 60 days than all 3 major networks created in 60 years. just in case you were wondering – Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga top the charts at all time most watched videos just over 300 million views each Source: website monitoring
• #20: Wikipedia is 5 th most visited website, with 360 million unique visitors; started in 2001 grandaddy 32 million articles compared to 32,000 pages in the 15 th edition of Ency Britannica, still available in its’ 15 th edition on Amazon.com .002% for $740 dollars 90,000 active editors, lending credibility of wp articles
• #21: Twitter now has more than 105 million users. New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day. That’s the same as all the people in the greater Syracuse area. tweeting 55 million times/day. Tweet spam a problem twitter, the top 10 Tweeters - five pop singers two talk show hosts, a reality TV star and the president of the United States. Lady Gaga, Britney, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry,
• #22: LinkedIn has over 75 million members in over 200 countries. 38 million in US or about 11% of the US population new member joins every second Executives from all Fortune 500 companies Bill Gates, technologist, philanthropist and co chair of the Gates Family foundation is on linked and has 129 connections. Warren Buffet Ceo of Berkshire Hathawy has 93 connections. There are two Barak Obama’s on LinkediN - neither one are the president.
• #23: There’s more – much more... the numbers are real and compelling and overwhelmin g Everyone is on social sites, right? – Well, yes….but not exactly…here’s where I hope to shape your perspective a bit
• #24: Pareto Principal in place – you know 80/20 rule 90% of users are lurkers i.e., read or observe, but don’t contribute. 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time. 1 % heavy contributors
• #25: Looking at it from another perspective, 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions Blogs have even worse participation inequality than is evident in the 90-9-1 rule that characterizes most online communities. With blogs, the rule is more like 95-5-0.1.
• #26: small business persons ’ recent one Citibank Survey 2009 of social media usage Small bus stats from Chris brogan blog post 81% not using social media to full advantage 47% don’t think Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn are beneficial to their business 40% of small businesses don’t have a web site 84% don’t doe-commerce 62% don’t use email marketing
• #27: review in June of 250+ WomenTIES members listed 80% have websites, 30% are blogging, another 30% send out e-news about 25 %of all womenTIES members are on Facebook 11% tweet, less than 10% each engaged with LinkedIn, on-line selling, YouTube What ’s the take away? We’re all just getting in the wagon and beginning to use social media for the opportunity making tool it is. most of us just need to keep moving and keep growing. Herr are some examples to help with that.
• #28: Interviewed Ten WT members using social media figuring out what works best for them. Wanted to highlight them not to necessarily teach you new things but to see what they are doing, and to be encouraged by your peers – both successes and struggles You’ll see patterns Making Choices , wrestling through process how to do social media.
• #29: Laura Ponticello is a master at creating viral buzz around events and book launchings in her business Laura's List: Books for Women. Her first and best advice is to have a Solid website that becomes your base for social media operations. Make sure it reflects you, your services and products and makes it easy for viewers to find you and learn about your business.
• #30: Make it easy to link up to social networking sites . No searching required. How friendly is that? Laura has been phenomenally successful grown Facebook following from 0 -5000. In two years,
• #31: e-newsletters to get your Message out quick, relying on contacts to move message viral way. – inexpensive and very friendly when you send it no more than once or twice /month.
• #32: Sarah Galvin is an up and coming songwriter and musician at E3 Music Solutions. Sarah is not a huge fan of social media. rather talk to people face to face, yet sees the value of social media marketing for her company and others. Sarah uses Linked In to build her credibility as a music writer, and as a business owner.
• #33: FB perfect for posting events and for promoting word of mouth advertising; One night this summer, she posted an Open Mike night on her FB page, a guy came and booking a performance for her band.
• #34: Chris Belna of Ala Carte Business Services new b2b Business Service company. Key Time Saver link all her social media platforms to her website and make posting seamless Chris’ Best Tip : “keep it simple”
• #35: Linked In terrific to extend network another way get in front of potential clients after meeting face to face at networking events Chris’s best practice: bus cards collected, go into LinkedIn to connect with them Linked In is a terrific way to give potential clients more information about you and especially the connections you have that can lend to your credibility. zeros in on your business and what you are promoting
• #36: Lori Mullen is a State Farm agent, owning a franchise. Her experience with social media is one that has to interact step by step with her corporation, in a highly regulated industry. Because of that, she hasn’t done as much with Social media marketing as she would like to. Right now , She is building awareness with her website, using corporate educational tools and videos to help drive people to make e-mail contact.
• #37: For now, her goal is to add a Face Book page, recently approved by State Farm, to build awareness of her company and potentially bring younger customers in to her insurance practice. Her main concern is keep up with the activity, She is waiting for permission to allow younger staff members post to help keep the content relevant
• #38: Linda Erb of Oh Goody Goody.com just loves Constant Contact. Her on-line gift certificate business is only 3 months old but she has had success sending out e-news to advertise, and to promote events where her company and partner companies have been featured. .
• #39: Why CC? is easy to use, understand; reaches her target audience one direction with a targeted message permission based e-mail people can opt in or out, So comfortable with e-news contracts with merchants’ requiring them to pass on her e-news to their list.
• #40: when it comes to social media asked herself “What makes sense for me?”. ”what fits my business’
• #41: Her answer - Wednesday Wisdom each week, so blogging makes sense for her. Then she streamlined her time further by linking blog to FB and LinkedIN profiles
• #42: fan of LinkedIn. As Professional tone and helps her find speakers. Shows all her activity on one page, giving quick picture of who she is and connections snapshot of her business activity
• #43: Susan Atkinson of Java-Gourmet and Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters opened her company in 2003 retail foods, success marketing products on-line with e-commerce plans to expand using coupons and special offers to spread virally with other social media platforms.
• #44: -facebook have been useful to her in developing Cross marketing opportunities. Vending partners to help market her products in their stores - Found managing two Facebook pages – personal and a company profile were too time consuming consolidated to only a company page -
• #45: Ophelia’s Place, a Not for profit in Liverpool serves young women and their families suffer from eating disorders. Mary Ellen Clausen relies heavily on volunteers to maintain her website and social media activities Volunteer set up her FB page.
• #46: FB valuable for promoting events at Café at 407, the retail coffee shop started last year to support Ophelia’s Place operations.
• #47: ODX Fusion is a web and search engine optimization company co-owned by Julia O’Donnell and Patrick Shaughnessy. ‘Experts’ Their advice, Have a goal – whether that is to build awareness, highlight products/services; to become known as a thought leader, to connect with many; Don’t think of direct selling first..
• #48: Now this iSomething new on Facebook has come FBML– like HTML for facebook so you can do custom applications on facebook with a tab for your website or anything you want to add . This is example of how smart people are working hard to create new and easy ways to make all these social media tools work for you.
• #49: Powerful tool for professionals, B2B business Develop business credibility better than any social media – join groups and using Q/A section to ask and answer questions
• #50: Pepino’s Pizza added specials to its facebook page to engage customers and encourage activity. Also to build awareness of a new company sister catering company.
• #51: Becky’s Graphic Design Becky Bayne Graphic designer moved to Nashville last year; found social media helpful to her as she set up new connections
• #52: software for monitoring social media, tweet deck Hoot suite keep tabs on all my SM accounts and update them all at once or only ones choose monitor WHO is mentioning you on Twitter, or if I have any direct messages (tweet mail)
• #54: EventBrite on line registration give direct links to social media for passing on these events when you register. Helped triple attendance at ycf event So I hope you gained something new in listening to what all these WT members are doing. One thing you can know, all are in the wagon headed to opportunity.
• #55: BREATHE Finally, we’re at the point of pulling this all together - social media presents an opportunity to touch your customers and for your customers to touch you . Connecting over time and engagement using the technology available.
• #56: Start thinking conversation
• #57: Contact someone you heard about here See what others are doing in your industry and similar industries Whatever you do, stay focused on the core of your business – what you’re in business for. The applications for social networking will get easier in time, making your process of deciding what to do and when to do it less stressful.
• #58: Find a fit and get good at it. Whatever social networking works best for you – FB, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube – pick one and just do it
• #59: take little steps. You’ll never be sorry as long as you keep moving .
• #60: Find a group of friends to go with because …….It’s all about relationships .
• #61: Connecting and engaging on social media is like taking the journey west to mine for gold. You may never get to the mine or stream, but on the way you’ll meet interesting people and develop relationships you never would have, find the journey well worth your time Those relationships have the potential to lead to gold. With social media, the whole world becomes your partner and customer.