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Social Media:

What Is It and

Why You Should Care?

Presented by: Expansion Plus

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Who We Are:

PRESSfeed is a social media tool that uses RSS feeds to syndicate content that was developed for marketing and PR purposes.

Expansion Plus is a full service internet marketing & public relations agency located in Pasadena, California.

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What is Social Media?

Social Media is a term used to describe websites that let users contribute to the content.

They can save, tag and share content online

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Traditional Media in Decline

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Recommended Reading

http://www.cluetrain.com/book/index.html

Read the book on line for free

• Why Should You Care?

• What Can Social Media Do for Your Business?

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Pull Marketing

The world is fast moving from a push-based information delivery (where you send information via ads or emails) to a pull-based information delivery (where the subscriber accesses your information, as and when he wants).

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Consumers In Control

• Consumers are rejecting obsolete interruptive advertising

• And flocking to interactive engagement marketing

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“A Person Like Me” Now The Most Credible Spokesperson

for Companies

Global opinion leaders say their most credible source of information about a company is “a person like me.”

- Edelman Trust Barometer 2008

What Is Influencing Buyers?

2009 Statistics

• 75% of all US Internet users are active on Social media

• Facebook is the 4th most visited site in the world

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Social Networks: Free-Time Activity

• More than 80% of Americans 15-34 actively use online social networks

• Social networking sites have gained a foothold in the primetime hours

- TRU, TNS and Marketing Evolution

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BtoB

Word of mouth is the #1 influence on business purchase decisions

"Business decision-makers most value communication channels that provide two-way dialog."

Source: Keller Fay Market Research

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BtoB

Top reasons for placing content on social networking sites

• driving traffic (51%)

• creating brand awareness (32%);

• direct selling (25%)

• influencing a purchase decision (15%)

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Boomers Online

The fastest growth in Internet use is being driven by the older age groups, starting at 55.

- The Media Audit

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Reasons for Social Media Popularity

48% said they are having more fun in life in general.

- TRU, TNS and Marketing Evolution

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Reasons for Social Media Popularity

45% said their lives are more exciting as a result of spending time networking online.

- TRU, TNS and Marketing Evolution

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Reasons for Social Media Popularity

57% said they’ve found more people with similar interests.

- TRU, TNS and Marketing Evolution

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Word Of Mouth

Over 25 million US adults regularly share advice on products or services online.

- eMarketer

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Influencing Purchases

58% of consumers prefer websites with peer-written product reviews.

- MarketingSherpa

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1. Listen 2. Set goals3. Create a content strategy4. Choose tools5. Create and deliver content6. Engage7. Facilitate8. Measure

Strategy Steps

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Tools for Listening

Track trends

Find relevant bloggers

Use for a Dashboard

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What Do You Want To Achieve?

• Set goals • What

audiences/verticals should you be communicating with?

• Set up metrics to track the results

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Identify Resources

• How can you reach out to the people you currently communicate with and educate them

• Identify resources and topics for content

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Your Audience

• First look at the audiences you want to reach.

• Start by listing the target audiences you want to deliver your content to

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Social Media Tools

• Optimized press releases & articles• Blogs• Podcasts • Videocasts• RSS (really simple syndication) • Socialize your web content –

tagging bookmarking• Social Networks• Social Media News Sites

Syndicate Your Content

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• Put your content in feeds

• Add Share This Buttons

• Use Follow Me Buttons

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Make It Easy To Share

• Users can post and tag your content on social media sites like del.icio.us and digg.

• These sites allow users to create a page of their favorite sites on a subject - a virtual library. They are showing up high in search rankings.

• If your content makes it onto these well indexed and ranked pages it can bring you lots of traffic.

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Reach Out

Photo www.readytalk.com

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From Dell Hell…

The Dell Community has contributed: 8995 ideas, promoted 612994 times, 69980 comments

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Measurement

• Set measurable goals

• Benchmark your current position

• Measure changes

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• Establish a benchmark of the top blogs that your can measure

• Establish client’s current share of voice in this universe

• How often is the brand mentioned relative to the competition

• What is the current sentiment (positive vs negative)

• How much positive consumer recommendation are they getting – this is the most trusted form of advertising online and this is what drives consumer behavior. 

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• Measure how this increases over time

• Establish a unique URL

• Drive all SM traffic to that URL

• Use in house analytics to measure the # of people who visit this URL

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• House Social Media videos on this URL

• Measure views on the site • Add the videos to YouTube and other

video sharing sites • Measure the # of views on these sites • Measure engagement on this URL –

comments, uploads etc • Track the search rankings of this URL

for the relevant search terms

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Join The Conversation

With the new social media tools powered by RSS - blogs, podcasts, syndication of articles - your options are wide open.

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Additional Reading

Ebooks:• Web Sense by Sally Falkow.

Effective Internet marketing strategies for entrepreneurs.

• The Power of Good Content by Sally Falkow. Lean the secrets of how to write for the search engines and keep your visitors coming back for more. Order online: www.falkowinc.com/inc/ebooks.html

Copyright Notice

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The TIGER Symbol is a trademark and service mark owned by Hubbard College of Administration. L. RON HUBBARD and HUBBARD are trademarks and service marks owned by RTC and are used with permission. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.