Connecting the Pieces of Social Media

Mike Lazarus – GL Computing

The Business Need for usingSocial Media

• Power of Information in users’ control– Get their information from others on on-line

forums rather than vendor sites – Need to meet users where they look rather

than hope they will come to you

• The Millennial Generation (b1982-2002)– Becoming a significant market segment– Driving the need for marketing to change

• Protecting your Brand Reputation– Searching and responding– Protecting and Enhance the Brand

The aims and benefits ofSocial Media for business

• It is NOT about sales• It is NOT about conventional marketing• It IS about building relationships

– Conversation not Presentation– Engaging and Informative content– The New ROI: Return on Involvement

• Enhance PR and press releases• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Web 2.0 and Social Media• What is Web 2.0• What are some types of Social Media

– Blogs– Community Sites– Social Networks

• MySpace• Facebook• LinkedIN• Community Forums and Discussion Groups

– Micro blogs• Twitter• Facebook/LinkedIN status

– Other• Casting, Collaboration, Reviews

The Risks

• Marketing messages not cleared by senior managers or PR

• Cultural Objections• Legal concerns

– Confidential or NDA material– Staff posts about competition– Public complaints

• Undetermined metrics for success– How much staff time is constructive?– IT costs?

Community Sites and forums

• Web and RSS Vs NNTP• Peer based and staff content• Support and idea sharing• Relatively controllable• Requires getting users to the site

Blogs

• Needs Regular updates and review of, response to comments

• Content needs to be informative and useful to current and potential users

• NOT conventional marketing• More details improve SEO for blog AND

corporate site with links• RSS feeds

– Validating– Publicising

Social NetworksMySpace and Facebook

• MySpace– Typically a younger market– Less important with respect to the market of

this presentation

• Facebook– Social/friendly content– Status and comments– Blog Network to promote Blog– Product Page

Social NetworksLinkedIN

• LinkedIN– More business-like– Status and comments– Adding Blogs/Twitter/etc to Profiles

• BlogLink• Company Buzz

– Utilisation of LinkedIN Groups– Questions Area– SlideShare

Micro Blogs• Short message (typically <140 chars)• Include URL to Blog or web (shorten)• Most common:

– Social Network Status Updates (FB/LI)– Twitter

• Engage and discuss– Facebook Comment– Twitter Reply @– Twitter Direct D– Twitter ReTweet RT– Twitter Hashtags #

• Search

Tools and applications

• Twitter on desktop– TweetDeck– Twhirl– Seesmic– TwitterFox

• Twitter Web Tools– Widgets– TwitterFeed– HootSuite– Ping.fm– TwitterAnalyzer.com

Corporate Tools

• TweetFunnel• CoTweet

Mobile Tools

• Blackberry– TwitterBerry– Twitter FaceBook– SocialScope (Twitter and Facebook)

• iPhone– PocketTweets– Facebook– TwitterFon

• Windows Mobile

GL Computing on the web

• GL Computing main site• GL Computing Blog• Facebook Blog• LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group• Mike Lazarus on LinkedIN• GL Computing Twitter