Social Media Tips and Ideas The National Concierge Association ©2013 By Corey Gasman Gasman Design www.gasmandesign.com

After Webinar The webinar will be recorded Write questions during the webinar as you think of them or post comments. You will be muted for today’s webinar until the end Q&A or share your social media successes after Resources will be posted on this NCA web page: http://www.ncakey.org/social-media PDF files of Best Practices Guides

Social Media Ideas & Tips

#1 Tip - Engage Your Audience When it comes to social media, you want to do two things: engage and get people involved. Share content that resonates with your audience. Reward your loyal followers/clients by letting them be the first to know about new services or events. Be useful, give valuable input, answer questions. Solve problems – be helpful to your clients. Become the expert and share your knowledge.

#2 Tip - Be Social! Be Active & Participate Find 15 minutes a day to post Write comments or offer your advise Contact others, especially on LinkedIn Get noticed with creative posts, videos and images Have fun with it and share your knowledge Keep it interesting Develop on going relationships with your customers

Lead Nurturing Show expertise Become an expert in your industry Help Others Post helpful articles on FB, LinkedIn, Twitter Research and find content to share Answers questions, respond to comments Don’t promote yourself Build relationships and trust Lead nurturing is a marketing term for building relationships with potential clients even if they are not currently looking to buy a product or service.

Complete Profiles On LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter Who you are? Where you are located? What you do for a living? Profile photo (use a photo of yourself) Use Tags & Keywords Contact info Reviews/Recommendations Share what makes you an expert Link to your blog or business website

Make Connections Increase your network Pyramid effect: one person knows three people, who knows 10 people. Find out where your people are! Find key influencers in your industry and connect with them.

Low Cost Marketing E-mailing with links to website or social media channels Adding content to your website or blog Enhance your reputation and services Use social media for customer service Add social media links to your e-mail signature Add social media links to your website or blog

Keep a Social Media Calendar Establish online goals Develop a plan and have a tactic, give it thought and time Brainstorm content ideas Schedule social media posts Create a calendar (Events & News) When making a plan ask yourself: “What is your audience looking for?”

Join LinkedIn Create a LinkedIn Profile and Company Page LinkedIn is a great professional network Connect with other professionals Easy to use Make more connections through people you already know Follow up with LinkedIn e-mails

LinkedIn Company Page Take Advantage of the New LinkedIn Profile Layout

Join Online Groups Join like minded groups within your industry Find your intellectual equals Connect with people within your groups You can join up to 50 groups

Start a Group on LinkedIn Create a bigger network You have control over the group Share your expertise (expert status) Get know ASAP Plan events Gain prospects or contacts faster (gain business) Add discussions, news, jobs , etc… Send announcements Build your Reputation Associate your company

Start a Group Continued… If you start a group: Think of topics, keywords, interests, group focus, name of group, what will the group discuss, who you will let into the group, etc… What will your group discuss? Interesting topics, show knowledge, share ideas, keep discussion going, add polls, and surveys. Respond to postings and get the conversation started! Stay active! Get People Signed Up! Advertise your new group on social networks you already belong to and/or in LinkedIn groups.

What not to do on LinkedIn Posting to a group more than twice a week Starting a discussion in same group Promoting yourself (sales pitch) Post to inappropriate areas Post irrelevant information Don’t spam the group It’s not a one way communication channel!

Create a Blog A blog is a type of website Post regular entries, commentary, events, graphics, videos, articles, photos, own content, business info, etc… Provide news and interesting articles Write your content to the target audience Let users comment and respond to them Add Subscribers with a RSS feed RSS feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically.

Create a Blog…Continued Do: Ask for permission; add links back to their site. Comment on other blogs and add links back to your site. Spread the word through your social media channels and e-mail lists. Don’t post: personal stories, job issues, and politics.

Blog Options If your company website doesn’t have a blog: Blogger – for small business and/or personal and easy to set up (Run by Google) www.blogger.com (create a blog. It’s free)   Wordpress – for professional blog sites www.wordpress.org

Finding Photos and Graphics “A picture can say a thousand words, and great images help make the difference between an average looking page and a really engaging one.” Search Google images www.123rf.com www.vectorstock.com www.freedigitalphotos.net More expensive: www.istockphotos.com www.shutterstock.com

Twitter Though technically a micro-blogging service, Twitter does play in the social networking space. Tweets are, essentially, the same as status updates or links on Facebook; they're just limited to 140 characters. You can follow anyone and anyone can follow you, and you don't have to do anything to make this happen (unlike Facebook, where making "friends" requires approval from both sides).

Twitter Do… Create a user-friendly Twitter ID (@yourname) Your Twitter ID is part of your personal brand. Plain and simple. Your first choice for a Twitter ID should be your name. There is nothing stronger for creating your personal brand. If your name is taken find a way to keep it as close as possible.

Twitter Do… Search for people to follow It’s completely normal in Twitter culture to “follow” people you’ve never met. In fact, it’s encouraged. Begin by looking for people with common interests, hobbies or professions. I also like to follow people who are experts in areas I know nothing about.

Twitter Do… Learn the lingo. You’ll want to join the crowd. Trust me. As with any new network there is a learning curve. Twitter has a quirky lingo all its own. But don’t let that hold you back from interacting. If you don’t understand something, ask someone.

Twitter A few of the essentials: DM = Direct Message @ = Use to reply and always include proceeding a Twitter ID in a reply RT = Retweet Tweet = Sending a message on Twitter # Using hashtags to categorize Tweets by keyword

Twitter Hashtags, most frequently used on Twitter, serves as a link between conversations from different users of the network. Start using the hashtags # at events or when you want to share a tweet Tweet advice and knowledge, ask questions, give answers, engage your followers.

Facebook Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking website. It makes it easy for you to connect and share with your friends online. Facebook has even helped the web become more open and social. Facebook says it now has 1.01 billion people using the site each month!!! 25% of users visit the site 6 times a day! Go where your customers are.

Facebook Status Ideas 1. Ask questions 2. Post games and trivia 3. Interact with fan engagement 4. Incorporate relevant photos (with text) 5. Relate to current events 6. Incorporate videos (embed from YouTube) 7. Post content for time-sensitive campaigns 8. Include links within posts 9. Include an explicit call to action 10. To learn more, add downloads or links

Facebook “Like Us” Ask customers to like your page on Facebook Ask customers to share to your Facebook wall Post more photos, embed videos, articles, etc… Add call-to-action graphics Involve your customers Join or create Facebook groups Have something of value, “like us” to get something. Give them something for liking your page…offers, tips, deals, contests, giveaways, etc…

Social Media Management Tools www.hootsuite.com www.sproutsocial.com www.crowdbooster.com www.tweetdeck.com www.bufferapp.com Social Media Examiner: Your Guide to Social Media www.socialmediaexaminer.com Enhance your social media management with HootSuite, the leading social media dashboard.

Improves Search Engine Rankings Search engine spiders will find articles and content Link to company pages Use your blog space and update regularly Add Keywords & Geo Targeted (location) Content is King! The more the better. Google awards social media interaction Google indexes videos

Benefits of Using Social Media Creating connections, increase your network Provide a service or answers to your clients Build a online reputation Gain peoples trust Low cost marketing Better SEO for blog or company website Closes the gap between you and your customers Keep in touch with your clients 

Social Media Checklist Make sure all your social media profiles are completed Post messages and articles that make you an expert Post to all groups with a link to your website Ask questions, answer questions and start generating leads Address their comments and give feedback Create a conversation! Don’t talk about yourself Give tips and advice (focus on what they want) Give them simply answers

Now, please share your social media successes! For the Concierge Concierges can keep clients up-to-date with related news, events and services with social media. If you begin to integrate your social media efforts with your services and concierge operations, you can find new and exciting ways to please your customers and leverage technology. Suggestions via Facebook, Twitter, or even text can drive real value for you customers. Now, please share your social media successes!

Thank you! ©2013 Gasman Design, Inc. www.gasmandesign.com corey@gasmandesign.com