Piecing a Life: Notes from Social Media for CEOs Bootcamp

Social Media Bootcamp for CEOs

John Larson

Westin – San Diego

Jan. 19, 2011

500 million people on Facebook alone. 62% of people using social media are between 25 and 54 years old. 71% are employed, median age is 33, 47% married.

Point of using social media for business is to build relationships with large groups of people. A two-way conversation with your target audience. Leverage technology. Customers listening to each other and tuning out marketing messages. There is always a conversation going on about your industry. At least use social media to protect your brand.

“Turn strangers to friends. Friends to customers. Customers to evangelists.”

Old School	New School
Telegram	Twitter
Yearbook	Facebook
Rolodex	LinkedIn
Television	YouTube
Newspaper	Blogs
Encyclopedia	Google
Yellow Pages	Google

In using social media, don’t:

Tell friends about bad food
Beg people to buy from you
Carry on a monologue. Instead, build relationships
It is not just setting up environments and not doing anything with them

Large, Fortune 500 companies: 65% use Twitter, 54% use Facebook. On average, they post 27 Tweets and 4 FB posts per week. They post 10 videos and 7 blogs per month.

How to use social media to the best advantage

Develop your strategy first.

Define:

Goals, objectives, target audience, conversion activities (what you want people to do), budget, and resources.

Measure:

Performance goals

Branding goals

Cost per lead

Cost per acquisition

Refine:

Make changes for improvement

Create new objectives

Manage by exception i.e. Why?

If You Regularly	Your Profile
Blog, podcast, tweet, video	Creator
Write reviews, post replies	Critic
Update your profile	Joiner
Watch videos, read blogs	Spectator
None of the above	Inactive

You need to be a creator and a critic. Figure out and engage with people already having a conversation about your industry.

How to make informed decisions and “Lead with value.”:

Use archived knowledge such as spec sheets, technical data. Write blog articles using that knowledge.
Use real-time knowledge to influence buyers’ decisions
Use humor (check out Old Spice videos on YouTube)
Use products

Don’t be a narcissist.

There is a time commitment – resources and manpower needed

Ask questions and for opinions. Stay relevant

Focus on your niche.

Educate – train customers to buy. Use key words and phrases on your website.

Tactics in a nutshell – short overview

Listening: to identify who you want to build relationships with
Build community – grow social media environment i.e. friends and followers
Broadcast – post stuff. Drive people to your content
Content – if people want to share
Convert

Tactics – long version

Listening:

Key phrase research, include misspellings.
Google Alerts. Set up on Google so they will alert you when people use your key phrases, etc.
Twitter – search bar, hash tags (# in front of key word or phrase)
SocialMention.com – it will search through media environments, real time.
Industry sites and blogs. For example, websites listed in industry mags.

Build Community:

Use “Follow” buttons on website
Email-blast customers and prospects, under guise of customer service.
Tweet, blog, post. People will follow you.
Leverage search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM)

Broadcasting:

Begin engaging with target audience
Link social sites together to push content across multiple channels. Can use: One tfor Twitter – I can’t read my own writing but available on Twitter home page. Also Ping.fm and Hootsuite. Only need to type a message once. One click of a button will post to many sites.

“For every nine non-commercial broadcasts, you earn the right to one promotional one.”

Content:

Define tone/voice. Do you want to be humorous, serious, just facts, personal, etc.? Have the company voice.
Leverage content across media types using videos, blogs, etc.
Make your content more than valuable: Make it remarkable (people will remark about it).

Content ideas:

Success stories/case studies
Product comparisons
Top 10 lists
Write something controversial i.e. maybe write an opposite opinion in a blog.

Convert – to get leads, etc.:

Enable people to request a catalog.
Offer free consulting – do a service for someone, help solve a problem
Promotional products – to get contact information
Offer an online webinar/workshop

To maximize conversions:

Enable people to know what’s in it for them.
How to take the next step. Be very clear and specific about this. If you’re not mailing anything, don’t ask for a mailing address. People don’t like this.
Send follow-up thank you by email
Invite people to follow you on other sites.

Monitoring:

Use Dashboard software

Aggregate view
Real time

Analytical data

Use Google Analysis (free)

Social Media Cornerstones

Twitter:

Be human. Let your personality shine through. (Check zappos.com CEO Tony)
Tweet 3-7 times per week at a minimum. For example, Dell Computers tweets coupons.
Always personally reply to new followers
Build a professional-looking profile

Facebook – 500 million people:

Set up a company page
Post 3 or more times a week – each business day
Add “Like” feature to page
Add video from YouTube

LinkedIn:

More business oriented than Facebook or Twitter. Google loves LinkedIn
Update personal status 3 – 5 times per week
Create company profile with key words in mind
Connect your blog to your personal profile and company profile
Start a group tailored to your target audience with lots of links

Blog:

This should be the central command post for all your content.
Blogs never go away – they last forever and can be found.
You can aggregate other things like Twitter, FB, etc. Optimize with key phrases and words.
Should have a professional appearance
Post a blog at least 4 times per month and/or once a week.
Post the blog headline on FB, Twitter, LinkedIn to let people know it’s there
Post a related video on YouTube

Link to sign-up for email newsletter
Link to embedded video
Social environment links (buttons) should be at the top in plain sight for easy use

YouTube (This is the main thing right now):

Post one new video a month.
Not the place for amateur hour. Should be professional, TV-quality video
Keep it short and optimize. People have short attention spans. Approximately 1-3 minutes
Post videos on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Videos are 53 more times likely to get on the first page of search engines
YouTube is the second most favorite with search engines. 2.6 billion visitors per day.

Read “Business Week”, July 15, 2010 article about social media.

Social Media Professionals: