So many people are talking about social media these days. But for some small business owners, all the hype can be overwhelming. The intimidation they feel leads them to ignore the fact that, in most cases, social media CAN help them grown their business. Join Tara Alemany, owner of Aleweb Social Marketing, in an examination of why social media IS relevant to small business owners, and more importantly, what all the hype is really about.

1. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The WHY of Social Media An examination of why social media is relevant to small business owners

2. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Agenda What is social media? What does it do? How is it used? Who uses it? How might I use it? Why should I use it? How not to use social media

3. What Is Social Media? Tools and platforms people use to produce, publish and share online content and to interact with one another. Social media tools include blogs, podcasts, videos, microblogs, wikis, photosharing sites… Online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn't allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

4. Popular Social Media Sites Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

5. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

6. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 What Does It Do? “Word of Mouth” for 2010. Use online visibility to promote your company and products. Visual buzz triggers conversations and encourages participation, and these in turn trigger your improvements. Provides transparency so that participants come to know and understand your brand. Think of social media as a telephone rather than a megaphone. Just as in any phone conversation, limit self-promotion to only 20% of the dialogue.

7. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

8. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

9. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 How Is It Used? Listen first! Build relationships. Have a dialogue with your customers. Learn about your competition. Address customer service opportunities. Educate consumers. Use it to treat your customers like partners.

10. Social Media Methodology Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Positive customer mentions Few customer mentions Many customer mentions Observe Engage Monitor and Respond Create a dialogue Negative customer mentions

11. Observe Find leaders in your industry and follow them. See what people are saying about things relevant to you. Find vendors, contractors and perspective clients. Find out what sites are being used. Spy on your competitors. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

12. Monitor and Respond Address customer issues. Help others with problems. Introduce yourself to a competitor’s dissatisfied client. Answer questions. Respond to mentions of you, your company or product. Search for candidates for job openings. Find experts to invite as a guest blogger or speaker. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

13. Engage Share tips related to your business and anything else that appeals to you. Link to news, articles and content posted elsewhere, and comment. Post original thoughts on your industry and business. Give and get referrals. Post discounts, coupons or package deals. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

14. Create a Dialogue Do marketing research by asking for feedback on new services, products and other ideas. Share the results. Get the opinions of those following you. Ask questions. Seek sponsors for a contest or program. Focus on building relationships, NOT on selling. Link to your presentations/videos, and ask for feedback. Use polls to understand your audience better. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

15. Know, Like and Trust Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

16. Most Importantly Remember to laugh and have fun! It inspires you to innovate and be creative. It makes you real and approachable. It draws others to you. It starts your day off right! Don’t sell. Converse! Listen more than you post. Be real. Don’t just post other people’s thoughts and ideas. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

17. SBSI Report Findings Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

18. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Who Uses Social Media? 54% of Fortune 100 companies are on Twitter. Nearly 30% of them are active on Facebook and maintain a blog. Nearly 60% of adults maintain a profile on a social networking site. 70% read blogs, tweets and watch user-generated video. A third post at least once a week to social sites. A quarter publish a blog and upload video/audio they created. Time spent on social networking sites increased 82% in 2009 over 2008 (from 3 hrs/mos to 5.5 hrs/mos).

19. Gender Lines Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

20. Small Business Stats Small/mid-sized businesses only spent 11% of their marketing dollars online in 2009. 77% do not use online video. 83% do not podcast. 82% do not use mobile marketing. In 2010: 74% plan to increase e-mail marketing. 68% will increase their use of social media marketing. 80% are not planning on using TV ads. 73% are not planning on using radio ads. Forrester states that between 2010-2014, the annual growth rate for social media marketing will be 34%. A Duke study shows that nearly 20% of all marketing dollars will go to social media in the next 5 years. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

21. Social Media Revolution Stats 96% of Gen Y-ers have joined a social network. How many years did it take to reach 50 million users? Radio: 38 years, TV: 13 years, Internet: 4 years, iPod: 3 years Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months. 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are linked to user-generated content. 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations; only 14% trust advertisements. Social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

22. Facebook More than 400 million active users. 50% log in any given day. Average user has 150 friends on the site. Average user writes 25 comments each month. >100 million users use mobile devices for access. The fastest growing segment is 55-65 year-old females. Alexa ranking: 2 Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

23. Facebook = 3rd Largest Country Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

24. Twitter Recently hit more than 10 billion Tweets. Average is 50 million tweets per day, as of February (over 600 tweets per second). The activity on Twitter has doubled since August 2009. January 2010 saw more tweets per day than the whole of September 2008. November 2009 through January 2010 saw 17% growth month over month. Alexa ranking: 12 Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

25. Facebook vs. Twitter Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

26. LinkedIn 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees. Used most frequently by people ages 35-44, who are graduate school educated. >60 million users worldwide. People who have 150 connections or more are 7x more likely to earn between $200-350K. Alexa ranking: 35 globally / 16 in US. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

27. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 How Might I Use Social Media? Make your brand more observable, which increases the likelihood of people talking about it. Don’t sell! Tell a story. Involve your customers in it. Invite them to participate in your success story. This creates a “tribe of believers.” Go to any search engine, type in your brand name plus “wish,” and see what your customers want from you. Use status updates to indicate where you are. Search for clients needing what you offer.

28. Strategic Approach to Twitter Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

29. Additional Ideas Be a guest on other people’s social media channels, and invite them to be a guest on yours. Run promotions and discounts. Create a blog. Even a short, 2-minute video blog done once a week is a great way to engage your audience. Use a short and effective e-mail signature that reminds people of what you do. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

30. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Why Use Social Media? “Without ‘Why?’ there can be no, ‘here’s how to make it better.’” Interacting with your audience builds relationships, and improves SEO. Create a buzz about your products and services. Establish yourself as a customer-friendly expert. “The secret to creativity is curiosity.” – Seth Godin.

31. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Benefits of Curiosity Curiosity enables us to: look at everyday things in a new way. find new solutions to common problems. portray your company in a positive light. understand the perception of your customers. gain a better understanding of your customer’s concerns and motivations. improve your products and procedures by gaining new insights into your company.

32. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The 5 Whys Made popular in the 1970s. Used by Toyota. Quickly determines the root cause of an issue. Peels away the immediate and contributing causes. Correcting immediate and contributing causes leaves a high likelihood of reoccurrence. Correcting root causes leaves a low probability of continued trouble.

33. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The 5 Whys Example State the problem:My car will not start. 1st Why? The battery is dead. 2nd Why? The alternator is not functioning. 3rd Why? The alternator belt has broken. 4th Why? The belt was beyond its useful service life, and had not been replaced. 5th Why? I haven’t been maintaining my car properly.  Root cause

34. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The 5 Whys Example 2 State the problem:We need a new forklift. 1st Why? They’re always in the shop for repairs. 2nd Why? They are unreliable. 3rd Why? The tires are always flat. 4th Why? They always get nail holes. 5th Why? There are always nails in the warehouse.

35. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The 5 Whys Example 2 (con’t) 6th Why? The cardboard nail boxes come apart. 7th Why? They’re always getting wet and splitting open. 8th Why? The roof leaks.

36. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The 5 Whys Conclusion Ask “why” the problem exists, and continue asking. Be sure to ask the question of people who know. Consumers, clients and employees vs. management or board members. The answer clarifies the nature of the problem, as well as suggesting a solution.

37. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Acme Backpack Organized in 2005, each year you have brought award-winning backpacks to market. However, this year, your sales of the redesigned Acme 5000 messenger-style backpack are down, and your market share is being threatened. Is it due to the redesign, the new price, competing products, or something else?

38. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 The Power of Social Media Understanding your customer helps you to: develop strategies that suit your customer and market. fix problems. repeat things, if they’re good. prevent problems from happening again, if it’s bad. Side effects Strengthen relationships with the customer and market. Differentiate yourself from the competition. Helps you understand what the market values.

39. How Not to Use Social Media Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

40. Summary Action is the objective. The target audience is the focus. The exchange is critical. Segment markets to enable micro-marketing. Use all four Ps of traditional marketing: enticing Product, minimized Price, reach customers in the Places they are, Promote with creativity. Analyze and beware of competition. Monitor and be flexible. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010

41. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Thank You Questions? Business cards

42. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Contact Information Aleweb Social Marketing Phone: 860-354-3191 E-mail: alewebsocial@gmail.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eandtsmom LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/taraalemany Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aleweb-Social-Marketing/297789159406

43. Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010 Contact Information Aleweb Social Marketing Phone: 860-354-3191 (Click on any of the icons above to connect.)

44. Resources Wikipedia: List of Social Networking Sites Social Media Revolution Alexa Aleweb Social Marketing, March 2010