LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIAFOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

Jonathan Arehart, President & CEO, Cavendo

@jarehart

Cavendo.com

Tons to Cover

• The Business Case• Rules of the Road• Growing Your Presence• Mobile• Analytics• Advertising Options

The Business Case

What the Statistics Say…• 67% of Internet users are using social networks• 59% are on Facebook• 16% use Twitter

• Highly educated; opinion leaders; urban

Source: Pew Internet Project

What It Means for Marketers….

• New pathways to customers• Timeless/searchable• More interactive/dynamic/real time• More linked and social• Conversational model

Rules of the Road

Twitter

• Tweet = 140 characters or less• @= people, businesses, non-profits, products, etc.• #= discussion topics. The list of top trending topics is available from the

home screen in the left column • RT = Retweet. This is a way to share something that someone else has

posted• MT = modified tweet. You have retweeted what someone else has

posted, but made changes.• Reply = reply. You can reply directly to a specific tweet posted by

someone else. The conversation becomes viewable.• Direct messages: You can send direct messages via Twitter. You can use

this if asked a question you feel more comfortable answering privately.• Twitter automatically shortens hyperlinks now, but if you ever need to do

it manually, use www.tinyurl.com.

TwitterHashtag

Retweet

Reply

Engaging biow/links

Variety + interactionImportant to building an audience

Discover new people and topics to follow

Facebook

• There is not a limit to the length of content• There IS a big difference between your profile and the Fanpage

• Profile = personal• Fan page = primarily business/event-related• For your particular business, however, the lines are a little more

blurred• Evaluate whether your Twitter will go to your profile or your fan

page • Recommendation: send it to the fan page

• Multimedia is king on Facebook. • Use the camera on your phone and post the photos. • Facebook is also a great place to post audio/video

Cover image& icon/logo

Standard postw/link

Posts by others

Key info& stats

Most important thing to do:

be responsive!

Photos are much more likely to getHigher engagement

Contests and other activitiesengage your audience and get them to participate

Most importantly: you createchampions/ambassadors(see shares, too)

Photo galleriesare easiest to sharefor your fans and other users

Strong engagementwith tagged photosfrom events/locations

Groups are betterfor actual groups,not for business pages

Growing Your Presence

Twitter

Objective 1: Increase number of followers

•Tactic: Golden Rule: do unto others as they would do unto you. Follow others to be followed

•Tactic: Add content consistently. Tag others’ handles (@) and contribute to conversations (#)

Twitter

Objective 2: Tweet with existing & potential clients

•Tactic: Every time you get a business card, check Twitter and hit follow

•Tactic: Follow & communicate with your current clients (something as simple as wishing them luck on a presentation or meeting they’ve posted about is an interaction you didn’t have before)

Twitter

Objective 3: Capitalize on your affiliations and activities

• Tactic: Follow and communicate with groups you belong to. If they re-tweet you, you have reached more people and likely gained followers

• Tactic: Follow and communicate about/with news and industry outlets you read regularly.

• Tactic: If you do a TV interview, post about it! If you make a presentation, post about it! Volunteering? Post about it!

Facebook

Objective 1: Increase number of friends • Tactic: Upload contact list to Facebook• Tactic: “Friend” current clients and contacts regularly (and accept their requests)

Facebook

Objective 2: Increase number of fans pages

• Tactic: Feed Twitter feed to this page for consistent content updates

• Tactic: Link from your website and marketing emails to this page rather than your profile

Facebook

Objective 3: Utilize Facebook as a place for multimedia content

• Tactic: Upload photos• Tactic: Upload audio segments • Tactic: Upload video

Website

• Are you “responsive?”

• Do you have a plan for mobile?

• 15-35% of most website traffic is now mobile (mostly, Apple iOS)

Content & Upkeep

• Don’t let your sites go dormant• Set goals for content posting and upkeep (e.g., once a week/twice a

month)

• Respond to questions/feedback/interactions• Monitor: setup notifications for pages or email alerts

• Promote your sites!• Website• Email signature• Marketing products

Cautions

Set careful boundaries on access and posts

Example: Posting profane or unauthorized photos/comments on a business account from personal phone

Action: Don’t mix personal and business accounts

Be aware of current events and situations in the world and be sensitive to your posts.

Example: Oklahoma tornadoes; Boston bombings

Action: Unschedule automated tweets/posts

Monitoring/Analytics

Management

Don’t forget mobile

Analytics

Facebook Insights:Demographic& interaction-basedanalytics

Secret Twitter analytics site at: http://ads.twitter.com (use regular Twitter login)

Advertising Options

• Facebook• Geographic targeting• Industry targeting• Demographic targeting• “Likes” = communication

channels

• Twitter• New analytics• New sophistication• Keyword, account and

user specific targeting• Worldwide and by

Device (Platform)

THANK YOU!Jonathan Arehart, President & CEO, Cavendo

jarehart@cavendo.com