2. Presented by Claire Griffiths Director Lighthouse Marketing Ltd Over 15 years B2B marketing experience Professional services/finance sector expertise Offer strategy, planning, implementation Communications, PR, events Traditional and digital/social media marketing
3. Agenda What is social media Social media & marketing Available tools Top tools & some tips Managing digital and social media
8. Popular Digital tools Will depend on your target market Google Tools Website Blogs Linkedin Twitter Facebook Youtube Share buttons
9. Google the Great! Alerts – keep tabs on your company online Analytics – allows you to measure digital tools Adwords – buy keywords and gain SEO BlogSearch - Find blogs on your favourite topics Places– get a Google local listing Ad Sense – earn from your site (where appropriate) Maps – enhance your directions Reader – RSS feeds
17. Blogs Content publishing tool that displays your posts/articles in chronological order Multi media content and excellent SEO Top 3 platforms
18. Blogging guide Online PR, demonstrate expert knowledge SEO essential to promote your blog Use tags/categories Link to other social media Promote your blog Invite Guest bloggers Respond and leave comments on other blogs Diversify content – links, video, slides etc
19. The “professional” social network Launched May 2003 - 43 million users in 170 industries Around 50% of users in UK Create online CV & add connections Also have company profile & services area Great for targeting and business development
20. How can you use it? Develop and promote yourself and your firm Build connections Seek recommendations Promote your knowledge and answer questions Promote upcoming events/seminars Promote other content you’ve created, including webinars, blog posts or podcasts Recruit new staff Targets – Develop relationships with targets Pre-meeting research
26. Share Tweets (RT) and highlight someone/thing (#) Image source: Marketing Tom Media | Digital Marketing Company
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28. How can you use it? Develop and promote yourself and your firm Interact with your customer base Track what people are saying about your company and brand Create buzz around upcoming events/seminars Promote other content you’ve created, including webinars, blog posts or videocasts Develop direct relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential PR placement Track competitive activity
29. Pod/Videocasts Digital media files (either audio or video) that are released and downloaded through web syndication Second largest search engine so great SEO Create your own channel Professional video not necessary
31. Facebook 500 million users 24.2 million in UK 50% login every day Business = Facebook Page
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33. Keeping track of it all... Tools to manage and track social media Can be linked into Google analytics to track conversion rates/effectiveness
34. RSS - the ability to update readers with new content it publishes Set up a RSS reader Keep track of all relevant sites, blogs etc Make time to read your RSS feeds Share what’s relevant – Retweet, blog etc
35. Keeping track of it all... Hootsuite(http://www.hootsuite.com). – Free Manages multiple Social Media accounts Provides statistics & tracking Ability to pre-schedule messages
36. Keeping track of it all... Twitterfeed.com Allows you to feed your RSS/blog feed into your Twitter account and thus keep updated and in sync Tweetdeck Free browser for tracking social media accounts No tracking as yet , so use a URL shortener No pre scheduling of messages
37. Keeping track of it all... URL Shorteners - bit.ly Saves characters vital in Twitter Tracks clicks on URLs
38. Summary Social Media is another marketing tool, don’t forget to promote the channels Choose the right tool The key is engagement 2-way conversation needs interaction Needs time Can be monitored and tracked
40. How can I help your firm? Contact me on: m: 07845 185143 e: claire@lighthouse-marketing.net t: @ClaireGLighthse l: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/clairegriffithslighthouse Fixed hourly, daily, project rates so no surprises!
SM is rethinking the old marketing channels Inbound is the new termIts about conversations, listening and engagement
Social media can influence the Sales/NBD funnel. Taking Kotler’s Rational decision-making model. Lets look at how social media can affect the sales funnel from awareness to loyalty.Awareness stage Firstly you need to understand where your clients hang out online, and be there - join forums, blogs, communities etc. For example use twitter to see whose talking about financial planningLook at competitors, referral networks, local media twitter feeds and follow them. Use advanced twitter search or hashtagsResearch competitors products and services. Sign up to their RSS feedsUse as a broadcast message for your firm/yourself or your services. Make messages interesting, aim to get articles passed on, shared or retweetedInfluence here is highGive your prospective clients something their interested in. Give something away to draw people into your content eg blog, article webcast, etcOnce you have an idea for content, Repurpose it for different channels eg blog article, slides on slideshare, youtube ‘how to’ video etcDemonstrate your expertiseAlso about engaging in conversation, answer questions, join groups ask questionsInfluence here is highWhat can Social Mediado at the evaluation stage when weightingup others against your firmAsk on twitter why your clients use you, retweet then share their comments and use in offline materialsLook at questions being asked and offer answersRun Live Q&A webinar for exampleRefer clientsInfluence at this evaluation stage is medium, Your services need to stand up to scrutiny for potential clients to move down the sales funnelTrial StageAbout quality of service at this stages but SM can help champion good servicePut newbies in touch with existing advocate customersWhen articles downloaded etc contact them for feedback, do they need a case study on how it works, free trial etcInfluence here is relatively lowAdoption StageMainly p2p sellingQuality of sales forceLoyalty StageInfluence here very highCross sell and up sell oppProvide up to date reminders eg key dates, new services, new legislationDevelop 1 2 1 relationships with customers and deepen relationships, improve serviceSupport loyalty by helping customers out tweet links to customers or rewteet content, provide recommendations Deepening relationshipsEncouraging lock-inFantastic opps at loyalty stage for deepening relationship, increasing customer service.
Google blog search will help you find good blogs Then subscribe via RSS feed
Many are free!!
Website tips:Home page so importantDirecting visitors quickly to where they want to goDirect call to actionsEncouraging sign ups to contentSearch facilitySpecific landing pages (with page tags so we can track them are essential)
126 million blogs listed on Blogpost (Jan 2010)Blogs goodWay to establish your firm and people as expertsChance to create your unique content and enhance websiteGreat SEO ranking and therefore awareness toolChance to develop relationship through commentsBlogs badTime intensiveNeed to have regular contentBusy blogospherePersonality and content very important
Use Blogs toPromote your blogEmail signatures
GoodEasy to useConnect to people through existing connectionsAllows you to integrate twitter, blog and websiteJoin groups to develop connections and share knowledgeQuestion and Answer to demonstrate knowledgePost public eventsBadSmallest of the Big Three social networksLess fun and harder to develop personalityJob seekers are more active on the site than those already employedProfessional site, so marketing messages are not always welcome.
Profile pictureGood headlineRegular updates – mine through my twitterfeedPublic ProfilePromote and link to website/blogs/twitter etcTarget 100% completeness
Recommendations - Don’t ask give to receiveConsider other applications such asReading listTwitter feedsEventsRecommendations
GoodPublic and instant = greater SEO exposureOpen forum - build a communityFans can “follow you” without you having to reciprocateQuick way to share links to contentUsers are very vocal, so if they are happy with your firm they’ll say soBad140 characters is challengingBusy with lots of “noise.” Stand-out very hardIncreasing spammersNeeds monitoring , poor customer service etc
Track through twitter buzz
Great way to explain a service, use for client testimonials too
How to videos explaining complex areasMake sure you promote widely and embed into directories etc
Variety of tools that allow you to manage social media
Image to show hootsuite where you can add streams and then statistics
Promote through business cards, email signatures etc