1. Getting Business
From Social Media
Ian Brodie - JCI Manchester - 15 September 2010

2. Agenda
Different Types of Social Media
Key Principles for
Getting Clients
Twitter
Linkedin

3. Types of Social Media

4. Social Media are media which allow and
encourage user interaction and user
generated content
...and for users to comment, share and
interact with each others content

5. “…infinite
monkeys
now
inpu1ng
away
on
the
Internet…”
Andrew
Keen,
The
Cult
of
the
Amateur
5

6. Six Types of Social Media: Blogs
6

7. The original social media
“Power to the people”
websites
Allow comments and
discussions, polls, forums,
Some Blogs Are Actually
video, podcasts
Quite Good!
Still the most effective way
for most businesses and
individuals to win business via
the web
7

8. Six Types of Social Media: Social Bookmarking
Highlighting interesting
websites and content to
others
Can drive viral traffic to a
website - if topic is in right
field and is “promoted”
8

9. Ian Brodie Social
Media 9

10. Six Types of Social Media: Media Sharing
Makes it easier for your
content to be found
Videos can go viral (but
rarely commercial ones)
Thought leadership in
document sharing sites
sometimes easier to find via
search engines
Links back to home site for
SEO
10

11. Six Types of Social Media: Wikis
Authoritative sources of
information
If you can pull it off - can
establish the originator as an
authority in their field
11

12. Six Types of Social Media: Embedded Social Media
Social media used to
enhance traditional sites
Votes, reviews, polls,
comments, etc.
12

13. Ian Brodie Social
Media 13

14. Six Types of Social Media: Social Networking
500m users
130m users Others:
Bebo – 117m users ??
Orkut – 100m users
75m users AdultFriendFinder – 20m users
Ning – 300,000 active sites
75m users
Source, Wikipedia September 2010
14

15. Key Principles for Getting Clients
with Social Networking

16. Social Networking can be used in two distinct
phases of business development
Meeting new people Building relationships
(Lead generation) (Lead nurturing)
16

17. The Principles of Networking for Business
= x
Network Size Conversion
• Number of contacts • “Quality” and relevance of contacts
• Depth of relationship
17

18. Online Social Networks can Overcome some of
the Restrictions of Face-to-Face Networks
Online Networks:
Make connections visible
Allow you to find people you couldn’t otherwise find
Allow you to connect with people you couldn’t otherwise
connect with
Allow you to manage bigger networks
Sometimes deepen relationships
18

19. Twitter

20. Can you get business value from Twitter?
My Twitter Experiment
• Joined Twitter in mid 2008 on urging of contacts
• Nothing happened...
• In 2009, decided to experiment with what it would
be like to have lots of followers...
• Figured out how to do it...
• Now have 78,000+ followers...
• And have identified two very different strategies for
getting clients via Twitter

21. Two very different strategies
Traffic Model Relationship Model

22. Two very different strategies
Twitter is a Tool
There’s no “one best way” of using it.
Traffic Model Relationship Model

23. The Traffic Model
Logic:
Get lots of targeted followers
Tweet useful, interesting, valuable stuff
Mix in links to articles/blog posts on your site
Capture clicks onto email list
Build relationship with email list
Requires
Automated following
Automated backend to “monetize list”

24. The Relationship Model
Logic:
Laser target small number of potential clients/
referrers
Build “watercooler” relationship - combine value-
added informational tweets with relationship
building chat
Convert Twitter relationship to real world
relationship (e.g. offer to have coffee)
Requires
Relationship building (smalltalk) skills
Time and effort

25. Which model to choose?
The blindingly obvious: both models require a reasonable
number of your target clients/referrers to use Twitter.
The models are largely incompatible - almost impossible
to build deep relationships with 78,000 followers.
Traffic model is less work - if you have a backend already
set up. Relationship model quicker and easier to
implement for most professionals.

26. Linkedin

27. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Building a Powerful Profile
Who are you writing your profile for?
Clients?
Referrers?
Your next employer?
Your soul-mate?
No one in particular?

28. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Building a Powerful Profile
Your profile summary should be more like your introduction at a
networking event than your CV:
Which clients do you serve?
How do you help them?
What problems do you solve?
What results do they achieve?
Your backstory - what makes you credible/different?
It should also get across the essence of your personality - what you
would be like to work with.

29. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Connection Strategies
Linkedin is powered by connections
500+ highly
attractive to
connect to
Value obtained
from Linkedin 300+ “complete”
visibility + high
value suggestions
100+ significantly
increased search
visibility
Number of connections

30. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Connection Strategies
Two contrasting approaches
Open Selective
Networkers Connector
“Fred 6000+ LION Smith”
Connect only to those
Actively build as many Happy they already know or are
referred to
connections as possible
Medium?
“Hands out business “Only talks to his
cards to everyone” friends”

31. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Compelling Headlines

32. Linkedin Fundamentals:
Status Updates to subtly keep in touch

33. That’s all we have time for...
If you’d like a copy of the slides, and some more pointers on using
social media for business: drop me your business card
And if you’d like to ask any more questions I’ll be hanging around
for a while...