Memphis Business Journal, Social Media Crash Course Presentation

1. Strategy, Community & Creativity Growing your Business with Social Media Deborah Crawford

2. RunPee

3. Where are YOU now? What’s your position/reputation/brand? Do you have a website? How’s it doing? Business social media accounts & profiles? Personal social media? Content? Blog, photos, video, etc?

4. Where is your industry? Check out industry leaders Check out your competition (and keep checking) What are they doing that works? How do they interact with the community?

5. Where are your customers, prospects and referrers? Are they using social media? Are they using social media to interact with brands? How do they use SM? For Business? Purely personal? Not at all?

6. Strategy – Part One Your Business Plan/Brand Promise/Mission/Values Your goals—revenue, customers, markets, communications Your customers—who are they? Your prospects—who might be a customer? Your referrers? Who can send you business?

7. Strategy – Part two How can social media HELP you? What types of social media fit best? What resources can you allocate —people, time, money? What do you have that can be adapted to social media? Collateral, content? Work social media into your plan—not vice versa!

8. Social Media Goals Set some! Steal from your business plan. Write social media goals and a marketing action plan. Goal or Objective, Action steps, Measurement, Target Date, Results

9. Community Find them & help them find you Start with the community you already have – friends, colleagues, networks Seek out your target markets, prospects & referrers Join the conversation Listen & learn

10. Be a good citizen “Me, me, me” is NOT being a good citizen BUY FROM ME is even worse Be personal, even on your business pages Not THAT personal! Build trust Build relationships

11. Community Building Tools Respond! It’s social media gold. Retweet Share Favorite Comment Recommend Refer

12. Creativity Keep your brand & goals in mind Have fun Brainstorm STEAL ideas Then, modify them – no plagiarism Promo calendar so you can always have fresh ideas – holidays, questions, Get your community involved!

13. Creativity Tell your stories. Educate your community about what you know best Engage & connect with people Causes & current events Good connection points Good for the community

14. Measure & Evaluate If you set measurable goals, measurement is easier. Give it time to grow. Things you can measure—friends/followers, conversations, comments, traffic, leads, sales Evaluate—what works, what doesn’t Tweak—what can you do better? What’s a waste of time? What gets the best ROI?

15. Recap Take time to do the ground work Integrate social media into your business plans Have a strategy, but be ready to respond to results Build your community and be a good member of it Keep putting good, unique content out there

16. Deborah Crawford Contact Info: Twitter: debcrawford Facebook: Deborah Crawford LinkedIn: Deborah Crawford Bellaonline: Small Office/Home Office Email: debocrawford@gmail.com