Social Media Overview & Business Applications

Keith Feighery: Digital Strategist

Overview of social media

• Combination of social interaction and web technologies to:

• Communicate, engage, develop and be part of communities

– Internally and externally for organisations

• Create and share content and information across networks

• Build and extend networks through interaction

• Listen and participate in discussions, threads and develop ideas and relationships

• Learn from community (crowdsourcing)

Benefits to Individuals

• Develop a digital profile and presence– People Google you– Have a professional profile – and one that can be

found– Be consistent – photo, description, history etc…

• Contribute to areas that are of interest– Twitter, Forums, LinkedIn

• Develop reputation of expertise– Blogs, comment on other blogs, FriendFeed

• Follow people that add value

Relevancy to small business

• Directly engage with existing and potential customers• Reduce media spend• Relative ease of set up and engagement

• Main investment is TIME

• Freely available tools and utilities– As well as proprietary third party tools

• Measurable statistics to gauge impact and success (or lack of)• Facebook Insights, GoogleAnalytics, Twitter Apps, Url

Shorteners etc..

• Social media allows small business to create a presence online that outweighs offline

Business Advantages

• Listening– Crucial to hear what the public is saying about you

• Both positive and negative– The web now operates in real time – Brands need to hear what is said about

them in real-time

• Engage with Customers– Once you know what is being said about you – you can then interact directly

• Community Advantage– Build real communities online and offline– Build long lasting relationships and trust with customers– Instant polling and research opportunity with customers– Reduce customer acquisition costs– Increase customer retentions

Business risks

• Loss of control of the conversation– Two way communication

– Openly negative transmissions

• Using social channel as a marketing or PR conduit• Broadcast as opposed to engagement

• Can be a difficult persona for brands to adopt– Reveal a human voice of a corporate identity

• What it is that voice?

• Starting – and then not following through – Inevitable criticism

What exactly are social media platforms

The Full Spectrum

Social Media Landscape

Key Platforms

Key Platforms

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

• Blogging/Micro-Blogging/Lifestreming– WordPress, TypePad,Twitter, Posterous, Tumblr

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

• Aggregators/RSS Feeds & Readers– FriendFeed, Feedburner, GoogleProfile, Ping.fm

• Bookmarks/Sharing– Delicious, AddThis, StumbleUpon, Digg

• Collaboration Networks– Wikis, Shared Workspaces, Forums, Commenting Networks

(Disqus)

Professional Networking

Blogs

Twitter

Social Networks

Video Sites

Photosharing Sites

Mobile Apps

Bookmarking, Sharing & RSS

Irish Case Studies Using Social Media

The Big Switch

Pat The Baker

SandTex – Ireland Deserves Sun

HairyBaby

International case studies of brands engaging with social media

Evian

Volkswagen

American Red Cross

Charmin “Go” Campaign

Zappos

Ford - FiestaMovement

Coca Cola “206 Expedition”

Skittles

Dell

Starbucks

The Power of Social Media

TSA Agent Took My Son (US)

Stuff White People Like

Tube Worker abuses Traveller

Best Job In the World

Case studies of brands not listening and managing digital crisis

Domino’s

United Airlines

Marks and Spencers

Thank You