Grassroots Marketing Through Social Networking

Grassroots MarketingThrough Social Networking

David Hoegerman

November 2009

Uses

• Focuses on creating, delivering and controlling a message.– Branding– Communicating Promotions– Building Rapport– Customer Service– Market Research – Prospecting

Sites

• Forums

• Facebook / MySpace

• Twitter

• Social Bookmarking

Internet Forums• Modeled after the real-

world paradigm of electronic bulletin boards

• Allow users to post a

"topic" for others to review.

• Other users can view the topic and post their own comments in a linear fashion, one after the other.

Participating in Internet Forums• Signatures • Networking• Branding• Market Insight

• Your aim should be to participate in a conversation, not interrupt it.

• Go to the search engines and type forums plus key words.

Running Your Own Forum

• Customer Service / Support

• Establish yourself as an expert

• Create Goodwill

• Branding

• When users participate in your forum, they are interacting with your brand!

Social Bookmarking

• Users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share.

• These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks del.icio.us

Social News

• Made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet

• Users submit links and stories, and can vote or comment on them

Digg It

• Users submit sites they find interesting

• Others can vote for “digg it” or against “Bury” the story

www.digg.com

Social Bookmarking

• By encouraging users to use social bookmarking, you are making it easier for them to spread the word about your site!

Social Bookmarking – 2008

Easy Implementation

www.AddThis.com www.ShareThis.com

Both sites provide easy setup and metrics!

My Space• Online community that lets

you meet your friends' friends

• Share photos, journals and interests with your network of mutual friends

• See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon. www.myspace.com

Face Book

• Social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.

– keep up with friends– upload an unlimited number of photos– share links and videos– learn more about the people they meet

• Made up of many networks– Company– Region– School

• People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. You can use our privacy settings at any time to control who can see what.

www.facebook.com

Facebook• More than 300 million active users

• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

• The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

– http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Facebook Advertising

Twitter

• Twitter is a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

• Twitter asks one question, "What are you doing?"

• Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.

Twitter - Control the Message

Twitter - Customer Service

Get Creative!

• Best Buy actively encourages consumers to interact with their brand with social media

Integrated Marketing

• Many companies integrate social media into their marketing mix.

• Most social media venues publish an API for easy website integration.

Adding Value

• If you present something of value, your customers will reward you.

– Information– Discounts– Promotions– Entertainment

Who Are You?

• Personal• Person Behind the Brand• Brand

When to post?• Personal:

– A couple times a day to once a week– Whatever you would update on Facebook could go here– This is for your friends and family and the world at large

• Person Behind the Brand: – Two times a day to once a week. As often as needed for the brand– This depends on the goals of your social media campaign

• Brand: – Much less frequently– Event sponsorships, coupons or links to news articles about your

brand

Social Media as a Research Tool

• Ask new customers and potential prospects if they are on Facebook– Establish Rapport– Discover Needs / Motivations– Facilitate Communication

• Investigate Applicants

Prospecting

• Search for potential clients – Demographics– Job title (purchasing)

– Interests

Safety• Never share your password with anyone

• Use up to date anti-virus software

• Adjust your privacy settings to match your level of comfort

• Be cautious about posting and sharing personal information

• Block and report anyone that sends you unwanted or inappropriate communications

Safety• Use unique passwords

– Email– Banking– Anything you don’t want hacked

• Security Questions– Date of birth?– Mother’s maiden name?– High School?

Think Before You Click!

Think Before You Click!

Be Aware of Your Image!

• Make sure any employees associated with your business online maintain a professional image.

Questions

CONTACT INFO:David Hoegermandavid@hoegerman.com

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