Social Media Tools for Small Business

Cuba Chamber of Commerce | October 18, 2010Presented by: Andrew CareagaMissouri University of Science and Technology

www.slideshare.net/andrewcareaga

What’s your digital IQ?

Social media is…

● Wikipedia: ‘a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content’

● user-generated

● ‘architecture of

participation’

Social media is not…

● another marketing channel ● a substitute

● merely an option

● a completewaste of

time

Social media is…

social!

2010 Social Media Marketing Industry report, reported in Inc. online, April 23, 2010 (www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/04/how-social-media-helps-small-business.html)

‘One in three business owners say that social media helps them to close business.’

• Increases web traffic• Opens opportunities to build new partnerships• Generates good sales leads• 73 percent reported a significant rise in search

engine rankings• 48 percent said social media reduced their overall

marketing expenses

2010 Social Media Marketing Industry report, reported in Inc. online, April 23, 2010 (www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/04/how-social-media-helps-small-business.html)

Marketing isn’t going to go away. Nor should it. But it needs to evolve rapidly and thoroughly, for markets have become networked and now know more than business, learn faster than business, are more honest than business, and are a hell of a lot more fun than business.

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos on Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/Blendtec

Amazon’s mp3 music stream on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amazonmp3

vitaminwater on Facebook: www.facebook.com/vitaminwater

Old Spice Man on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice

Jack Dorsey: St. Louis native, Missouri S&T alum, Twitter co-founder

Jack Dorsey has more followers on Twitter (1,586,915) than The New York Times has subscribers (951,063)

@jack followers on Twitter as of July 2, 2010; New York Times subscribers as of March 31, 2010

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1,586,915 Jack Dorsey fol-lowers

New York Times subscribers

Diving in …

‘Like skydiving, a lot of learning comes from doing.’Brad J. Ward, co-founder, BlueFuego.com, “Skydiving Into the Social Web,” Squaredpeg.com, Jan. 6, 2010

But before you dive in…

Are you ready?• Research• Planning• Resources

Cartoon courtesy of @debrasanborn

Research

Who are your customers?

What are they doing online?

Research: Socialgraphics

1. Where are your customers online?2. What are their social behaviors online?3. What social information or people do

they rely on?4. What is their social influence?5. How do your customers use social

media in the context of your business?Adapted from Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, Social Strategy: Getting Your Company Ready,” April 14, 2010(www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-strategy-gettingcompanyreadyapr14final)

The social media audit

• What is your business currently doing in social media?

• Who are your internal experts? (Identify and involve them.)

Planning: 4 steps

1. Develop a plan Integrate it Know what’s

already working

2. Beware the bandwagon

3. Understand your audience(s)

4. Feed the beast

Integration: what’s already working?

• Campus visits/summer camps– More than 70% apply– About 61% enroll– 26% of 2009 freshmen attended

at least one summer program

• Tele-counseling– Increases attendance at high

school visits, receptions, etc.

• Consistent, frequent Communication

• Relationship building

Spacebook: Sandra Magnus’ blog from the International Space Stationhttp://spacebook.mst.edu

Integration: what’s already working?

• Missouri S&T magazine– 84% read every issue– 50% “very satisfied”– 35% “satisfied”

• Strong campus traditions

• Consistent, frequent communication

• Relationships

The best ever blog: http://bestever.mst.eduSt. Pat’s Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/stpatsbestever

140 years of campus history in under 4 minutes (www.youtube.com/MissouriSandT)

A four-step approach

1. Develop a plan Objectives Measures (metrics) Management Resources Content (type and

source) Promotion

Objectives Measures

Extend university reach and influence online by connecting and building relationships with key audiences (prospective students, current students, alumni, influentials)

•number and types of followers•social media referrals to web content (campaign-based and not)•feedback from friends, followers, etc.

Provide additional channels for audiences to communicate and interact with the university

•volume and quality of feedback •Comments•“likes”•DMs, RTs, @s

Objectives Measures

Provide additional channels for audiences to receive official university information

•number and types of followers

Monitor online reputation of the university in the social media sphere

•number of interactions•qualitative analysis of comments

Management and resources

1. Who is the social media “owner” in your business?

2. How do you allocate time and staffing?

Social media content

1. Type Official? User-generated? Tone? Frequency? Interactive! Responsive!

2. Source Feeds? Personal? Combination?

Guiding principles• Empower employees to use social media to

further your business goals• Make it easy for them to use social media for

that purpose• Reinforce or expand on existing policies to

make sure your business is protected

5 keys to social media success

1. Listen2. Add value3. Respond4. Do good things5. Keep it real

Adapted from Aliza Sherman, “Revisiting 10 Golden Rules of Social Media,” Web Worker Daily, Jan. 5, 2010,http://webworkerdaily.com/2010/01/05/revisiting-10-golden-rules-of-social-media/

A four-step approach

1. Develop a plan Integrate it Know what’s

already working

2. Beware the bandwagon

3. Understand your audience(s)

4. Feed the beast

Missouri S&T’s limited presence

• Facebook – www.facebook.com/MissouriSandT• Joe Miner on Facebook – www.facebook.com/JoeMiner • Twitter – www.twitter.com/MissouriSandT• YouTube – www.youtube.com/MissouriSandT• Flickr – www.flickr.com/MissouriSandT• St. Pat’s on Flickr – www.flickr.com/stpatsbestever • Delicious – www.delicious.com/MissouriSandT

No MySpace.No LinkedIn.

The social media cheat sheet

www.thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media-cheat-sheet/

The social media cheat sheet

www.thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/03/07/the-social-media-cheat-sheet/

Create a social media listening post

• Google news/blog alerts

• Twitter search• Active

monitoring

Listening tools: Hootsuite

Listen + respond + add value + do good

Twitter saves the day!

Source: Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, “Social Strategy: Getting Your Company Ready,” April 14, 2010(www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-strategy-gettingcompanyreadyapr14final)

4. FEED ME, SEYMOUR!

What’s next?

Social media goes mobile

What’s next?

Social media goes mobile + local

Nearby tweets

Location as platform

“In a perfect world, these location-based social networks would act like browsers, able to see and post interoperable location-based data from and to any platform.”

Marshall Kirkpatrick, “Foursquare Launches Location Layers – This Is Big,” ReadWriteWeb.com, July 6, 2010

Location as platform

• Rewards for Foursquare “check-ins”

• Special offers to social media users

• Create “tips” to highlight history, unique features

• Virtual tours as games

Tech’s future, according to kids

An “Internet of Things.” Objects connected to the Internet via RFID tags, sensors, barcodes), optimized for everyday life.

Action, not just information

True interactivity

Source: Latitude Research, “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet,” July 2010. Summary: http://www.life-connected.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Latitude-Research-42-KidsTech-Study-Summary.pdf

Thank you!

Andrew CareagaDirector of CommunicationsMissouri University of Science and Technologyacareaga@mst.edu

Twitter:@andrewcareaga orwww.twitter.com/andrewcareaga

Higher Ed Marketing blog:http://highered.prblogs.org