1. Week 3: Microblogs and Personal Branding

2. Social Media: What’s In It For Me?
New Clients
Your potential customer base is using social media - why not meet them there?
Easy Referrals
Make it easy for your current clients to send you business
Continued Engagement with Current Clients
A way to be in contact with them daily/weekly - stay top of mind
New Revenue Opportunities
Current/new clients can learn about what else you offer - you don’t have to “sell” them or “create” a need
Customer Service
Find out about/quickly resolve issues
Name Recognition/Credibility as an Expert
Let everyone see that you know what you’re talking about!
Creation/Expansion of a Digital Footprint
An online archive of your organization’s work/contributions
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Help new clients find you through Google - not your competitor

3. Making an Educated Decision About Social Media
Social Media Requires a Strategy - BEFORE you start
What content/areas of specialty?
Who will manage?
What is the tone of the dialogue with your audience?
How to promote your social media presence?
Are you going to encourage consumers to engage w/ your profiles?
What is your digital footprint going to look like?
Which social media sites make the most sense?
When will you launch them?
How often will you update?
Are you aware of the challenges?
Give up some control - allow consumers to say what they want on your page?
Mistakes made can be bad - there are no do-overs
Do you have the time to invest in maintaining healthy profiles for the long-term

4. The Social Media Toolbox
Blogs
Social Networks: Facebook
MicroBlogs: Twitter
Wikipedia
Video-Sharing: YouTube
Your Own Website

5. Social Media Ecosystem (Oversimplified)

6. For discussion
How do you use technology such as , Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or another digital tool?

7. The Social Media Toolbox: Blogs
Content Updates
Frequent updates needed
Can offer more info about products & services than a static website
Build a loyal readership
Become a trusted voice
Two-Way Interaction
Reader comments create a conversation
Comments can be moderated
Conversational Tone
The ‘voice’ of the company
Syndication Technology
RSS allows information to move quickly across blogs, like a a wire service
Readers can subscribe to the “feed” to get real-time updates delivered to their desktop

8. Social networking community with 100+ million active users
Social networking community with 100+ million active users. Attractive demo: 17 million users age The 30+ segment is the fastest growing on Facebook
Usage and engagement is phenomenally high; Brands eager to capitalize on that audience
Tends to be an “Opt In” community; compare this with MySpace, which tends more towards “Opt Out”
Opened platform to developers last year; this provides new ways for Brands to interact with customers in more meaningful ways than simply “more banner ads”
Simple and powerful mobile photo upload

9. The Social Media Toolbox: Social Networks
Facebook - a peer-to-peer social network
Allows customers to engage with your organization on a “personal” level
Gives your company a ‘human’ voice
Allows ‘fans’ to easily share your information with others
Allows you to educate your consumers where they spend time online
LinkedIn - A business social network
Serves as your online resume; demonstrates your company’s expertise and body of work
Allows contacts to ‘recommend’ you
Offers Q&A area for you to demonstrate your knowledge & expertise

10. The Social Media Toolbox: MicroBlogs
Twitter - a ‘microblog’ limited to 140 characters per post
Allows for two-way; real-time conversation; the exchange of news & information (URLs); Q&As; updates of content on other social media profiles

11. The Social Media Toolbox: Wikipedia
A free online collaborative encyclopedia
One of top 10 sites on Internet; often returns in top three Google results
Frequently the next place consumers look for information after a Google search and visiting the company website

12. The Social Media Toolbox: Video-Sharing
YouTube is the #1 online video site
Allows you to broadcast relevant, useful information to those who learn best visually
How-tos; Workshops; Presentations; Speaking Engagements
Makes your other profiles more interactive and entertaining

13. The Social Media Toolbox: Your Website
Your website is a crucial element of a social media strategy
Offer links from your website to your social media pages
Connect your blog, YouTube page, Twitterstream or Facebook Fan page to your website
Your website should promote your social media profiles - announcing new blog posts, asking for visitors to follow you on Twitter, marking milestones
“We’ve reached our 1,000 fan on Facebook - Are you a Fan Yet?”
“Did you miss our Webcast today? You can watch it here:”
“Follow our tweetchat today at 7pm on Tax Benefits for First-time Homebuyers”
“Did you see our blog interview with Mr. So-So From the IRS?”

14. Your Strategy: Is It Working?
Blog
Blog traffic - Google Analytics
Blog Comments
Subscribers
Facebook
Number of Fans
Numbers of Interactions
Comments, Likes, Shares
Use Facebook Insights
Twitter
Number of Followers (Twitterless
Number of Retweets of your info
Use bit.ly to track all of your URLs
YouTube
Number of views, comments

15. For discussion
What are the benefits for such communications? What are the risks? Are there any negative consequences?

16. For discussion
How do you use these tools for professional communication?

17. Social Media - Who Is Using It?

18. Social Media Campaigns - Who Is Using It?
Vanguard has a strategic social media campaign

19. Social Media Campaigns - Who Is Using It?
AICPA has a well-planned social media strategy for Financial Education

20. Additional Questions
How should companies be thinking about Social Media?
How should you as an individual be thinking about Social Media?
Unit 4 Project: Targeting an Audience Demographic:
Select one microblogging site (Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.) based on your research and discussion from Unit 2.
In a 200 – 250 word essay, compare the various sites available for both social networking (Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.). Start a NEW microblogging account.
Make your first microblog post.
Subscribe to the instructor’s microblog and those of at least four other students.
Attach a screenshot of your microblog to this project.