Intro to Social Networking Or, “It sounds like a ton of time to me, why bother?” and other points we can cover in an hour or so! 1© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

The First W (what?) What is “Social Networking”? – Basically, joining “on-line” communities, introducing yourself, your business, and joining the conversation. – We will explore this from the point of view of: Extending your “BRAND” on-line, aka Globally Putting your business “on the mind” of visitors considering or planning to come to Angel Fire. 2© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Social Media Tools Twitter Facebook YouTube LinkedIn Blogs 3© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Here’s a Test…… No, no worries. See if you can answer this question: (write it down and I’ll get to it soon) – How long has Facebook been in business? – Twitter? – YouTube? – LinkedIn? – How long have blogs been around? NO FAIR CHEATING AND LOOKING IT UP ONLINE! 4© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

“Join the Conversation” or, The 2 nd W The 2 nd W: “why bother?” – Facebook has more than 400 million active users – 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day. The average user has 130 friends – What does that mean to us in Angel Fire? Increase credibility Grow your Brand Increase sales 5© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Put your business in Front Do you know your customers? Do you know what they want? How can you find out? Why does it matter? 6© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Put Your Business in Front (cont’d) Many of our existing customers, don’t live here full time. They want to stay in touch…and so do you, if you want them to buy from you again, and again, and again Most of those people that are likely to find you online, are people looking for what is in Angel Fire. They will make their plans and their buying decisions, before they ever get here, based on what they find on-line. 7© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Choices, Choices, Choices Let’s recap what we said about Facebook, and explore a few of the other social networking opportunities. – Twitter – YouTube (no, it’s not just for kids) – LinkedIn – A bit more about Facebook – Blogs 8© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Twitter Twitter now has 106 million users It's adding 300,000 per day It gets 180 million unique visitors 75% of Twitter traffic is outside Twitter.com Its search engine gets 600 Billion queries every day. 9© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

YouTube YouTube Celebrates Two Billion Views Per Day (May 17, 2010) This occurred on the 5 th anniversary of this online business. Need I say more? (oops, there’s a hint) (We’ll talk more about this, NEXT week!) 10© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

LinkedIn First, LinkedIn, is a social network for Professionals. Serves Engineers, Attorneys, Accountants, Business Owners, and Artists. LinkedIn has just added its 60 millionth member, according to a Tweet issued by the company this afternoon. (Tweeted on February 11, 2010)Tweet 11© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Facebook (more) To reiterate, Facebook has more than 400 million active users 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day. The average user has 130 friends A June 2009 report shows that the average age of the Facebook user has gone up with those between 25 and 44 years old, now making up more than half of the social network's user base, growing from just 32 percent a year ago. This information from the “Softpedia” blog 12© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Blogs Blogs are more difficult to quantify in statistics. How many blogs are out there? Apparently, nobody knows. The last known data is from 2007 at million. So, how does your blog get noticed in all those millions? Well, that’s another class, but here are a few tips. (next slide) 13© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Getting your blog noticed..a few tips For starters, rambling about local gossip is not interesting to, well, anyone. Write what you know, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If your blog is about your business, say so, and keep it on topic. Want to rage about politics? Get another blog, and make it all about politics. 14© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

More on blogs Did you know: – You can make your blog post appear on your facebook page? – Make Twitter tweet that you made a new post? – Have it show up on Squidoo (egad, did we not talk about Squidoo?) 15© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Squidoo A few fun facts (from Squidoo.com ) as of February 2010 Squidoo has well over 1,400,000 hand built lenses. That's more than a million pages. They call their pages "lenses" because each is one person's focus on something that they’re interested in, something that matters to them. Squidoo was founded in (oops another hint.) Squidoo grew 91% in % in © 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Test Answers – How long has Facebook been in business? Since February 2004 – Twitter? Since March 2006 – YouTube? Since February 2005 – LinkedIn? Since sometime in 2004 – How long have blogs been around? Roughly Since © 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

The 3 rd W: Where do we go from here? Action items: 1.Sign up for Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, or at least two of the three. If you already have, add another. 2.If it looks easy, proceed with setting up your profile. If not, we’ll do that together next week. 3.Come Next week for more, including more on websites. 18© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

THANK YOU! 1.So, these are just a scant handful of social networking opportunities. Do you need to do them all? More than one? Hopefully, you can see how all the connections relate and put your business in front, and on top. Thank You! – Consulting Available. 19© 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace

Top 10 Reasons Social Networking Helps Your Business Increases Exposure Increases Visibility For Your Website Increases Traffic to Website, Increases Foot Traffic to your Physical Store Increases Positive Word of Mouth Defends Your Reputation Encourages Positive Conversations about You & Your Business Increases Credibility Increases Trust Increases Sales © 2010 Angel Fire ArtSpace20