Transcript Integrating Social Media Into Your Company Culture

Integrating Social Media Into Your
Company Culture
Scott Allender
8/27/2009
Scott Allender
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Web Software Developer for TricorBraun
(www.tricorbraun.com)
Involved in the St. Louis Social Media
Community for two years
Have been involved with IT for nearly 10
years
Outline of Topics
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What is Social Marketing?
Why is it important to my company?
How can I take advantage of it?
Some advice you may want to consider.
What is Social Marketing?
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“... the act of using social influencers, social
media platforms, online communities for
marketing, publication relations and
customer service.” Wikipedia
Why is This Important?
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It's a new (also rapidly changing) medium to
connect with your potential customers
You can find all sorts of information about
your potential market that isn't readily
available through other means
Those reasons lead to…
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Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy = $$$
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Michael Masnick (www.techdirt.com)
Basically, connect with your audience, and
at the same time give them a reason to buy,
and you will see a return on the investment.
How can I Start Doing This?
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Get Excited!
What are your goals?
– More profits?
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Publicizing your intelligence?
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Entering new markets?
Keep in mind that achieving your goals will
be greatly influenced by how you are
connecting with people
More stuff to do...
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Decide what your message will be when
you connect with people
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Do you want them to buy your
product/service?
Recognize you are a thought leader?
Give you assistance in establishing new
ideas?
Figure out how committed you (or others)
will be to communicating with your
customers
Decisions, Decisions
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Choose your social marketing platform, or
how you will start connecting with people
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Twitter
Facebook
Meetup
Blogging
Flickr
YouTube
Social Platforms Explained
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Twitter (www.twitter.com)
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Have a conversation with the rest of the world
Great for promoting new promotions, marketing
promos and other things to the world at large
Power is in the potential audience you may converse
with
More Social Platforms
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Facebook (www.facebook.com)
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Communicate with people who have explicitly
sought you out.
Gather some massive personal data on people
who become your fans
Excellent for connecting, and refining your reasons
to buy
More Social Platforms
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Meetup (www.meetup.com)
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Start or Find a topic that pertains to your
product/service/industry and see an online
community turn into a physical contacts.
Use the opportunities to pick the brains of interested
people
More Social Platforms
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Blogging
– Write and elaborate on complex ideas that
are not suitable for most
micromessaging/status updates.
– Good topics for blogs include conversations
started in micromessaging services.
More Social Platforms
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Flickr (www.flickr.com)
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Share and mark uploaded photos
Great for displaying products, or calling out specific
details of a product.
An easy way to provide a reason for customers to
buy
Final Social Platforms
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YouTube (www.youtube.com)
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Service to upload/promote custom videos
Great for showing manufacturing processes or
educating users on specific topics
A good method to explain difficult concepts
Track Your Progress
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Once you start using social marketing as a
tool, track your progress.
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Some marketing tools limit your message,
use bit.ly to shorten urls.
Use analytic tools on your web site to track
which platforms/messages are making the
most impact.
Things to Keep in Mind
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Unless you're comfortable letting personal
thoughts intrude, keep your social
marketing content business related.
Use existing tools to display your social
marketing content on your own web site.
Social Marketing, by its very nature, is
always changing. Do not hesitate, nor be
afraid to seek help.
Things to Keep in Mind (cont...)
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If you're not connecting or interacting with
new and different people, then you may
very well not using this new platform to its
fullest capability.
Be creative.
HAVE FUN!
Questions/Comments
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www.scottallender.com
[email protected]
twitter.com/n3bu1a