Web 2.0 for Businesses How You Can Use Social Media to Bring in Money & Promote Your Brand Kimberly L. Sanberg Director of Online Strategy, Ignitus presentation for
Social Media Is Not A magic bullet for increasing sales Just a way to push out information Something to dive into without a strategy Just for teens and 20 somethings A fad that will go away
Social Media Is A way to Talk to customers & get feedback Engage in conversation Try out product ideas Promote events Share resources Increase customer loyalty
Popular Tools At-A-Glance Flickr: photo sharing YouTube: video sharing Blogs: website content, engaging customers, casual conversation MySpace & Facebook: social networking, video sharing, photo sharing, events LinkedIn: professional networking Twitter: short messages, rapid networking
OMG! No way. She said that?
Check out our new product! What do you think?
Social Media: How It Works You talk about new products/projects Comment on customers’ ideas Customers ask questions You answer questions Customers tell friends about new product Sales increase
What Your Customers Expect Online: It’s Changed To have a voice To have their questions answered Transparency Honesty Ability to give feedback To engage in a conversation
What Your Customers Expect Online: How It Helps You Test product and marketing ideas Engaged customers are more loyal Your product and brand can spread virally via social media Increased sales Greater brand recognition
Twitter: What Is It? A microblogging site Combination of AOL Instant Messenger, text messaging, & a blog 140 characters per tweet
twitter.com/Ignitus
Twitter: Who’s Using It Largest age demographic is 35-to-44-year- olds, who make up 25.9% of its users 1 Every day, 5-10 thousand Twitter accounts are created 2 It’s still growing 1 Time Magazine, August ComScore, December 2008
4.5 million unique visitors in December 2008 Compete 2009 siteanalytics.compete.com
Twitter: What It’s Good For Rapid networking Building relationships with customers Finding new customers Engaging in conversations about news items Staying on top of trends Getting feedback on products or ideas
Measuring Success on Twitter: Metrics to Monitor Number of followers Direct replies Retweets Tools to measure influence, eg TwitterFriends
Facebook: What Is It? A social networking site Where your customers are connecting with family, friends, and organizations Join groups, become come fans of businesses, donate money, send event invitations, share photos
Facebook: Who’s Using It 150 million active users Over half of Facebook users are outside of college Fastest growing age group is year old demographic is fastest: 276.4% growth rate in 6 months 55+ not far behind: 194.3% growth rate Source:
Facebook: What It’s Good For Creating an online community around your business Promoting events & products Engaging customers & getting feedback Promoting online contests Sharing videos & photos Building customer loyalty
Measuring Success on Facebook: Metrics to Monitor Number of fans Number of wall posts Number of photos and videos added by fans “Likes” What fans are saying
LinkedIn: What is it? Social networking site for professionals Join networking groups Ask and answer peers’ questions
LinkedIn: Who’s Using It 60% of LinkedIn users have high incomes and hold executive-level or consultant positions 6% of adults use LinkedIn, 72% use other social networks (MySpace and Facebook) Average age: 41 64% male
LinkedIn: What It’s Good For Answering questions Professional networking Joining and starting groups Recommending colleagues Publicizing events Posting job opportunities
Measuring Success with LinkedIn: Metrics to Monitor Connections Number and quality of recommendations Best answers Event RSVPs Number of people in your group Job applications
In Conclusion
Decide Which Social Media is Right for You
Think About… Your marketing and sales strategies Long-term plan and goals Time available to commit Staff involvement needed Your audience: Where are they? What do they want? Ask them.
Remember… Engaged consumers are loyal customers A stellar presence doesn’t happen overnight Social media is about conversation: give and take Be prepared for criticism Everyone is new to social media It’s not going anywhere but up
Kimberly L. Sanberg Ignitus, Inc View this presentation: