1. Presented by Karen Porter UM School of Business Administration & ImpactOnlineMarketing.com Intro to Social Media Marketing

2. Social Media Has Business Owners Frustrated!

3. Key Frustration Factors Just one more things small business owners need to worry about / take care of It’s confusing It changes all the time It takes too much time It’s easy to get distracted It doesn’t seem to work

4. Why Social Media “Doesn’t Work” for Business Posts are self-serving Posting impersonal content that doesn’t relate Post erratically and / or infrequently Using the “wrong” social media Trying to post on too many social networks and it becomes hard to keep up Expecting the moon from social media! MUST have realistic goals

5. The #1 Best Practice of Social Media Know your target market! What social media are THEY using? Where are they most likely to follow your business? What do they want to know about your business? What do they want to know that is related? Question: Is (are) the social media you are using now the BEST fit for reaching your target market?

6. Review of Top Social Trends and Social Networks in 2015 Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Google + Instagram

7. 2015 Social Media Trends Facebook post reach continues to decline / paid ads are necessary to guarantee high reach Large brands averaging 2% reach Content MUST go beyond words – photos and video are a huge plus for stimulating engagement Growth in visual social networks : Instagram / Snapchat Google + gaining momentum and will become a significant player in 2014 Over 70% of employers are using social media as a screening tool when considering job applicants

8. Facebook 2015 Largest social network with 1.3+ Billion users 54% male / 46% female; average user age is 41 Posts with photos or video get most interaction Internal scheduling tool works best: Facebook Ads are “hot”! Reach of posts continues to fall Great “effectiveness measurement” tool: Likealyzer.com

9. Twitter 2015 Vibrant social network with 560 million users Limits posts to 140 characters (recommended <120) Hashtags (#) started with Twitter Heavily used to follow news, celebrities, trending topics, “private” conversations 55% female / 45% male; 70% some college Skews younger than Facebook Challengingt to build a “local” audience

10. LinkedIn 2015 Primarily a business network with 330 million users Excellent B2B platform for businesses / consultants, etc 79% of users are age 35 or older LinkedIn updates tend to be best read Company pages can/should be developed Thousands of active groups for relevant participation

11. Google+ 2015 High growth, 2.2 billion profiles (“forced” by Google) Only 9% have ever posted ANYTHING Translates to roughly 200 Million true users Of the 9% active, more than 1/3 are posting only on YouTube Heavily skewed toward males; more educated Tech was early emphasis / focus now much broader Google known to “reward” Google+ users No internal pre-scheduling of posts is currently avail. / must use external tool such as Buffer or Sprout Social

12. Pinterest 2015 70 million users 68% female / 32% male; females 5x likelier to be active Heavy emphasis on décor, babies, fashion, recipes, and weddings Visual in nature – best for visual products/services Need to verify account to access analytics

13. Instagram 2015 300 million active users Users doubled in 2014 Acquired by Facebook Younger demos moving from Facebook to Instagram Users skew much younger – teens through 20s Focuses on photos and 15 second videos Photos & videos can be shared on other networks Just staring to be used by brands / businesses

14. Social Media KISS – F.O.C.U.S. Focus – on 1-2 targeted social media platforms (make sure these are networks used by target market) One in four rule (1:4 “Sales” Rule) Sales – promote products / services directly Storytelling – about customers, people in business, philanthropy, etc Related info – related content of interest “Fun” content – related memes, cartoons, etc. Calendar – plan monthly / quarterly in advance Utility – use tools to make it easier (Sprout Social, Buffer, etc) Social – create content that is “share-worthy”

15. “Share-worthy” is KEY “Share-worthy is NOT:

16. Share-worthy Content Is NOT: Pitch, pitch, pitch Self-serving all the time One-sided communication IS: Interactive – two way communication Involves your fans / followers / customers Engaging

17. What All This Means for Biz Use media that is right for your type of business or organization (must know your audience!) Develop a social STRATEGY (don’t just try a hodge- podge of ideas hoping something will work) Use tools to help plan / post in advance and monitor / measure results Do NOT try to “do everything” – just do one or two really well and you’ll have much better success Focus on what you do best – consider outsourcing (just be sure to outsource wisely)