2.
Social Media <ul><li>What’s social media and why should I care? </li></ul>

3.
What is Social Media? <ul><li>marketing, customer service, product development </li></ul><ul><li>“ word-of-mouth on steroids” </li></ul><ul><li>a vehicle in which people create and share “their stuff” </li></ul><ul><li>a “conversation” between brands and consumers </li></ul><ul><li>low cost communication channel </li></ul>

4.
“ Sounds Cool but I Don’t Have Time for that...”

5.
“ With 67% of the worldwide internet population visiting, social networks and blogs are now outpacing email in popularity.” -Nielsen Online, 2009 -Nielsen Online, 2009 -Nielsen Online, 2009

6.
Social Media is NOT... <ul><li>blatant advertising </li></ul><ul><li>purely the number of “friends”, “followers” or “fans” </li></ul><ul><li>a flash-in-the-pan tactic to get traffic to your site </li></ul><ul><li>starting various social networking accounts for the sake of having them </li></ul><ul><li>a quick solution to all your problems </li></ul>

7.
Social Media is made up of... <ul><li>blogging (wordpress.com/wordpress.org) </li></ul><ul><li>microblogging (twitter) </li></ul><ul><li>RSS (feedburner, netnewswire, newsgator, google reader) </li></ul><ul><li>widgets (modules with content that are shareable and embeddable) </li></ul><ul><li>social networks (myspace, linkedin, facebook, bebo, hi5) </li></ul><ul><li>podcasting </li></ul><ul><li>video and photo sharing sites (youtube, vimeo, 12seconds.tv, flickr, picassa) </li></ul><ul><li>social bookmarks </li></ul><ul><li>crowdsourcing platforms (uservoice, digg, reddit) </li></ul><ul><li>forums (yours and others) </li></ul>

8.
What’s in it for Me? <ul><li>Social media helps turn your most passionate consumers, fans, brand evangelists and communities into sales. </li></ul><ul><li>Increase relevant traffic to your site </li></ul><ul><li>Engaging with you via social networks is a “micro-commitment”; an important part in the sales process </li></ul><ul><li>People have questions about the things you sell that aren’t being answered. </li></ul><ul><li>People care about what their FRIENDS say. </li></ul>

9.
How Do I Start? <ul><li>Listen to what your customers and community are saying. </li></ul><ul><li>Connect and participate in the conversation. What’s your story? How can you help? </li></ul><ul><li>Enable, inspire and influence your community. How can you contribute to the community? </li></ul><ul><li>Give them something to talk about. Your story. Your products. Your store. Your employees. </li></ul>

10.
Use these Tools to Market Your Store and Your Products <ul><li>Google Alerts (media monitoring your industry, store, name) </li></ul><ul><li>Facebook Fan Page (engage with customers. The secret: syndicate all your fresh pictures, news, updates, videos) </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter (for customer service) </li></ul><ul><li>Yelp (for customer service) </li></ul><ul><li>YouTube (show off new products, tutorials with your URL) </li></ul><ul><li>Flickr (pictures of new products with your URL on them) </li></ul><ul><li>Blog (spotlight employees, new products, updates about your store, customers) </li></ul><ul><li>Yahoo Answers (show your expertise, answer questions related to music & musical instruments with your URL) </li></ul>

11.
Social Media tIPS <ul><li>Don’t treat it as an afterthought... integrate! </li></ul><ul><li>NO SPAM! </li></ul><ul><li>Quick response time </li></ul><ul><li>Be transparent, be relevant and be real </li></ul><ul><li>Fresh updates and news </li></ul>

12.
Integrated Communications <ul><li>Solidify your online efforts with offline efforts </li></ul><ul><li>Don’t forget to leverage your email list </li></ul><ul><li>Don’t forget your store homepage- make it “social”! </li></ul><ul><li>Every effort should point to another (ie: include links to your profiles in your email and invite customers to join) </li></ul><ul><li>Welcome feedback (negative feedback is an opportunity) </li></ul><ul><li>Be a community hub or resource in any way you can </li></ul>

13.
<ul><li>Questions? </li></ul>