Social Media Applications and Case Studies

Overview

• Introduction to each of the key platforms• Case studies and examples of platforms being

used• Live demonstration of each platform• Hands-on Labs• Review• Q & A

Platforms

Key Platforms for Customers

• Social/Professional Networks– Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace (Main ones in US and Europe)

• Blogging/Micro-Blogging/Lifestreaming– Wordpress, TypePad, Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr

• Video, Audio & Photo sharing– YouTube, Vimeo, Blip etc.. – Flickr, Photobucket, TwitPic, YFrog

• Mobile– Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp

• Bookmarks/Sharing– Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, Google Profils

Facebook and LinkedIn

Irish Political Parties

UK Political Parties

Professional Networking

Blogging

Blogging

• Most effective way of building community and improving SEO

• Common Blogging Platforms– WordPress, Type Pad, Bloggers, Blogspot

• Excellent way of engaging with readers – Inform followers what is of interest to you

• Can use an informal style – Show human face of organisation

• Participate in wider conversations – Leave comments, interact, generate interest, etc..

• Search Engines – Love regularly updated content

• Now MNCs are encouraging employees to Blog and engage with social media– IBM, Dell, Intel and Cisco

Blogs

Blogging Tips

• Connect to your most important keywords.– Important for Search Engine Optimisation

• Grow the number of influential referral sites. – Critical to get authoritative inboubnd links to your site

• Don’t forget the outbound links. – Be generous with links to other blogs and websites and others will return the favor

and build your traffic for you.• Understand the location of your audience.

– Comparing the geographical distribution of your blog to your company’s website should give you a sense of whether your blog is hitting with the same areas of the world as your website. It could also reveal potential new areas of focus for your salespeople.

• Measure endurance. – Measure return visitor and length of time spent on site

Blogging Tips cont.

• Find and nurture your VIPs. – Make sure you respond to key people – thos who subsribe and comment

• Use Twitter for blog PR.– If Twitter isn’t one of your highest-ranking referral sites, you’re not using it

properly.• Use URL shorteners to gauge subject interest.

– UseURL shortener like bit.ly within a Tweet, you can track how many people click on the content link you offer in your tweets.

• Build cross-referencing across social media tools. – No social media tool is an island. All tools should cross-reference each other – don’t

necessarily re-publish the same content on each platform • Embed and measure calls to action. If we can get people to a landing page, we should.

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Twitter

Twitter

• Excellent B2B and B2C networking tool• Great potential for building relationships

– Directly with customers– Good examples Beaut.ie, Blacknight.ie, kogibbq

• Good listening tool – What is being said about you and most importantly are you hearing it?

• Easy to engage with customers– Reach out to them and resolve issues and improve service to them– Opportunity to convey a personal dimension rather than marketing

speak• Has become mainstream over 2009/2010

– 1400% growth over past 12 months

Twitter

Video Sites

YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv

Video Sites

• Very useful marketing tool– Old Spice, Tippex, Blendtec etc..– User-generated content

• Run competitions for customers to build content (see Pat The Baker example)

• Best Job in the World etc..

• Extending digital footprint and brand-building purposes– Create engaging content, tag videos with keywords and

distribute on a wide network– Post all content and video blogs on your website and

distribute on free video sharing sites

Video Sites

Social Bookmarking & RSS

• Add Bookmark Buttons to sites– Sociable, AddThis, Share are widely used

• Link all social profiles from website – Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, GetSatisfaction.com,

YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Slideshare.net etc.• Ensure that RSS is enabled

– Feedburner, GoogleReader, MyYahoo, NetVibes• Add rating and individual bookmark buttons

– Digg, Technorati, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious• Yahoo Pipes

– RSS and Lifestream aggregator

Social Bookmarking, RSS and Sharing

Bookmarking, Sharing & RSS

Photosharing Sites

Mobile Apps

Mobile PhotoApps