5. The Benefits of Social Media (psst: it’s all about the consumer)
6. Just the Facts, Ma’am 660 million registered users 200 million users Delivering 2B streams/day, 100 million members
7. 17 million Facebook members 3 million Twitter users 17 million YouTube users 57% of online Canadians use social networks at least once a month; 82% of Gen Y consumers use social networks each month
8. 17 Million Canadians….. ….are in the workforce ….have a pension plan ….own life insurance ….have access to recycling ….use wireless services ….have a passport ….filed their taxes online in 2008
Before we get started, here are the ground rules. First, questions: If you have questions, free feel to ask me at any time during the workshop. We’ll also take a break half-way so you ask me then, or you can wait until the end. As well, there will be a hand-out when you leave with my contact info.Third – let’s have fun. While I’m sure you’ll be hanging to every word I say over the next two hours, I can also appreciate it’s a long time to be sitting, which is why there will be prizes.
Before we start, let’s clear up a couple of misconception. Social media is exciting and has lots of potential but it is not the greatest thing since sliced bread.
The benefits of social media are driven by meeting the needs of consumers.
Top Facebook countries: U.S., U.K., Turkey, France (source: checkfacebook.com)
Let’s put 17 million in context because a number is just a number unless it’s put up against other numbers.
For example, Margaret Atwood is using Twitter. One of Canada’s most decorated authors has succumbed to writing 140-character messages. I imagine she has just finished whipping off a tweet in this photograph.If you can believe it, Atwood has 118,000 followers. Now, that’s impressive.
Another example of the Obama Affect: Queen Elizabeth II is also on social media. She’s got her own Facebook Page, although I’m not sure how many updates she is doing personally, although Prince William’s upcoming wedding to Kate Middleton would provide offer a lot of great Facebook updates.
What’s amazing about Justin Bieber is not how well he uses social media but how many people are into Justin Bieber via social media. He has seven million followers on Twitter.
Social relevance is more than social media buzzwords such as engagement, conversations and relationships. Not to suggest these buzzwords aren’t important but they’re a part of social media relevance.
The confusion and uncertainly about what to do with social media makes it more important for companies to embrace what I call social relevance.
Social relevance is about aligning a company’s business goals and objectives with its social media activities to drive sales, profits, brand awareness, customer service, etc. Pretty fundamental stuff.It’s about harnessing social media to serve the business as opposed to doing social media because it’s cool or that lots of other companies using it.I believe that social relevance drives strategy, tactics, content, influencer outreach and monitoring. It sets the stage for everything you do with social media.
How will social media be integrated into your communications, marketing and sales activities? What social media services make the most sense and why? How will you reach your target audience? What tools are the most appropriate? What’s the budget? Who has ownership over social media? What are your social media guidelines and policies?
What’s your goal:Higher salesMore leadsStronger brandImproved customer serviceCompetitive edgeMore buzzFeedbackR&D
Who do you want to target?What are they saying about your event/product/service/brand?
Who do you want to target?What are they saying about your event/product/service/brand?
Who’s going to do it, how much time/resources will be devoted to it, how are you going to measure it? What services and tools should be used?
How much resources should you commit?Internal?Freelancers?External agencies?
How much resources should you commit?Internal?Freelancers?External agencies?
How much resources should you commit?Internal?Freelancers?External agencies?
At the end of the day, engaging content is one of the most effective ways to drive social media programs.
There’s No Lack of Choice
But only a small number of social media services matter.
Any guesses on how many tweets there have been since Twitter started in 2006? Answer: 20 billion
Nearly 11,000 followers
You can use Twitter using Twitter.com, which doesn’t have a lot of frills.
96.7% vs. 98.9%, first drop in 20 years, according to The Nielsen Companyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/business/media/03television.html
In the B2B marketplace, Cisco is doing an excellent job using social to engage and build relationships with customers. They even have some fun with social media as you’ll see in this video, which offers some Valentine’s Day tips for the men in the room.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pffeMdDSoY
Facebook Pages: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pagesHow To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans - http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/03/facebook-page-strategy/
Facebook Pages are an effective one-two punch with a corporate Web site.
They are great ways to build and engage communities.
And deliver engaging content such as polls, menus, news about product launches and even e-commerce…all within Facebook.
A Facebook Page for Gold Passport members
7,500 Facebook fans.The company has also started a partnership with coupons site Mobile Spinach to offer coupons for the group’s restaurants. And the company has partnered with Foursquare to offer deals for check-ins at its various restaurants.
Make sure to fill out your profile. It’s become your online resume.
Geo-location sites let you set up a page with rewards including badges, coupons, specials, or gifts. These location based services are easily integrated with other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, so checkins will be shared with larger networks. When attendees come to your event, you can reward them for checking in at different stations, panels, or activities. Rewards such as free ice cream, a gift card, or other small incentives can be redeemed after the show.
So I want to show you a few examples of companies that have embraced the idea of social relevance.
Anyone use IdeaPaint? It’s a simple but brilliant concept. Instead of buying a whiteboard, you paint a whiteboard on a wall.
A big part of IdeaPaint’s success – other than it’s a really cool product – is how it has leveraged a variety of social media services to drive its brand and build strong relationships with its customers, many who become evangelists. Imagine that, an evangelist for a painting product. IdeaPaint uses a blog, Twitter and a Facebook Page to delivers it message, build the brand and engage with existing and potential consumers. Here’s a video featuring Marcus Wilson, IdeaPaint’s chief marketing officer talking about how the company uses social media to drive sales.
And then we’ve got Conan O’Brien, who lost his gig as host at NBC last year. Now Conan was out of work in a competitive marketplace. So when he got hired by TBS to host a late-night social, Conan embraced social media flying under the flag Team Coco. How well has Conan done? He has 1.7 million Twitter followers, while his arch-rival Jay Leno has 90,000.Here’s a video that illustrates how Conan is using YouTube to reach his fans.
To promote the show, flew a giant orange blimp around the U.S. for the entire month of October.
Rather than just hover above baseball stadiums, Team Coco has hooked up the craft to GPS, enabling fans to follow it in real-time on Google Maps, check out a live cam on the blimp, and check out high-res images of it on Flickr.
A key to success within social media is the three E’s: entertain, educate and enlighten. Within social media, you need to do at least one E; if you can two or more, that’s even better.