Can U Be Social? Defining Social Media For Your Organization

Diana Eastty, Eastty Marketing

Marty Foltyn, Channel Chargers

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved. 2 2

Abstract

Are you weighing the pros and cons of integrating social media into your organization? In this session, learn about the strengths and shortcomings of popular social media tools. Examine how companies have attempted to implement social media strategy and policy in their organizations and better understand their successes, common pitfalls, and roadblocks. Learn how to define your strategy, and gain tips and techniques to get started. Learning objectives: 1.Better understand how to define a social media strategy and tactics (or not) for your organization 2.Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of social media tools that business can use in their social media strategy 3.Better understand the opportunities and risks involved in an organization’s social media implementation via case studies of organizations in a variety of vertical markets who have considered social media implementations for their organizations

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Agenda

Social Media Today Why Use Social Media? Moving Toward Acceptance Within an Organization Social Media Outposts Putting It All Together Resources

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Source: squareoak.com

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

The State of Social Media Today 350M million websites

150K new URLs added every day – 21% uptick since 2009

>2B Internet users (>5B mobile) 477M – PRC 338M – EU 245M – US 100M – India 75M – Brazil 43M - Nigeria

171M Blogs1 - up 20M from April 2011

75% reach active users in 10 major markets

21M Twitter users 360M signups (Aug 2011)/460K signups/day

Facebook 30B pieces of content shared/month 750M people on Facebook (July 2011)

20M # of installed Apps each day

In the US2 – Social networks and blogs reach 80% of active US internet users 70% of active online adult social networkers shop online 40% of social media users access content from their mobile phone 25% of Americans’ online time is social networks and blogs

4 1. BlogPulse August 2011 2. Nielsen Social Media Report August 2011

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Y B Social ?

Promote yourself as a thought leader Research Improve customer service

Internal External

Learn from others Expand your company’s footprint

Marketing and promotion Community building Transparency

Meet the challenge to collaborate and engage with peers around the world in real time

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Can U B Social ?

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Can U B Social ?

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Moving To Acceptance – Step 1

Build your internal strategy Listen

Who is talking about topics related to your expertise and what are they saying?

Learn What are your goal(s) for using social media?

– Awareness? Loyalty? Find new customers?

Pick One

Identify A Cross Functional Team Only include those who WANT to participate

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Moving To Acceptance – Step 2 Build your external strategy

Who Determine who is your audience Create persona(s) for who you want to engage with – no more than 3

How Figure out how they use social media and where they “hang out” online

Be Real Put a human face on - connect on a personal level

Build Build a comfort level with Social Media It’s a process – set milestones Success doesn’t happen overnight

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Moving To Acceptance – Step 3

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Blogging (Your Writing Desk)

Why blog? Build thought leadership Stand out from the crowd Demonstrate your knowledge An outlet to show who you and your company are Raise your brand and profile

Blogging pitfalls Commitment Content

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Blogging Best Practices

Establish editorial policy Find your voice Write engaging content Use keywords in your copy Post on a regular schedule Mix it up with video blogs Include a photo of the author(s) Link from your company’s homepage Engage with your readers Make it easy to share your content

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook (Your Living Room) Why use Facebook?

For socializing and networking Can be authentic – show your human side Personal and professional lines are blurred Real time discussions/ feedback Advertise events Conduct polls

Facebook Pitfalls Personal and professional lines are blurred Commitment

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook Best Practices Claim your name: www.facebook.com/(YourNameHere) Understand the difference between a profile, a page and a group

Profile = describes you Page = describes your business Groups = targeted community of like interests

Know your audience Carefully select your privacy settings Make your profile searchable Mix your status updates with professional and personal information Participate in relevant pages and groups New! Use the subscribe button to manage your newsfeed

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Twitter (The Water Cooler)

Why use Twitter? Learn from others Get information in a timely fashion Easy to connection with large numbers of people Increase awareness – personal or company Boost your ego with lots of followers

Twitter Pitfalls Motivations are mixed TMI Commitment Content

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Twitter Best Practices

Claim your name – @(Your Name Here) Create a short bio Add a photo Edit/brand your twitter background Learn the lingo Start following the followers of the people you follow Use hashtags (#SNWUSA) Use search.twitter.com

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Mix up your tweets! All about you Ask questions – poll the public Answer questions Be a citizen journalist Forward links Spread the word

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Linkedin (Your Business Card)

Why use Linkedin? Network with past and present colleagues Build a community Stay top of mind with your customers and prospects Locate potential customers Find your next job Hire your next employee Attract more business

Linkedin Pitfalls Linking to anyone and everyone who asks Commitment “True” bios

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Linkedin Best Practices

Find people you know & learn advanced search Claim your name www.linkedin.com/in/(Your Name Here)

Include your new URL in your email signature Add a photo to your profile Send connect requests regularly

Set weekly/monthly goals Join groups in your areas of interest

Fill in profile completely, use keywords, don’t hide Update your profile often Use Linkedin apps – SlideShare, BlogLink, others 18

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

YouTube (The “Big Screen”)

Why use YouTube Brings your message to life in ways that text can’t Refreshing way to engage with your audience Visitors who watch video are more likely to purchase IT professionals watch videos to research technology decisions C-level execs prefer video format over text Video is easy to share

YouTube pitfalls Production Quality R U Camera shy?

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

YouTube Best Practices

Create content that addresses your audience’s needs How-to’s, Answers to FAQ’s, Expert interviews, screen captures, and more… If you can blog about it, you can create a video

Make your video findable Use keywords in your title Include your video URL first in your description – and don’t be stingy with your description Tag your video

Create a YouTube channel and brand it Use annotations as clickable calls to action Post a bulletin to draw attention for your subscribers

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

How 2 B Social

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Putting It All Together – B2C

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Best Buy.com • Online company-wide storefront • Offers landing pages for other

engagement choices

“Geek blog” • Technology news and tips from

the Geek Squad www.facebook.com/bestbuy

• Community discussion • Product reviews & promotions

@twelpforce • Best Buy employees addressing

technical questions using twitter Also use YouTube, Idea exchange, Forums, local store pages

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

The B2B Dichotomy

Mobile transforming social network use – for work and play Search/collection/analysis of data not just confined to internal databases Sharing compelling stories tied to expanded forms of social communications Continued success of competitors will open up access to employees

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Putting It All Together – B2B

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IBM Internal 17K individual blogs 15M downloads of employee-generated videos/podcasts 29K communities

IBM External >25K IBM employees actively tweeting >300M IBM employees on Linkedin >198K IBM employees on Facebook

IBM Social Community guidelines - http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Being Social - It’s Time

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Resources

Social media resources www.igoogle.com - manage your activity from one place www.mashable.com - The Social Media Guide www.copyblogger.com - great resource for blogging tips www.blogpulse.com - automated trend discovery for blogs www.linkedintelligence.com - all things Linkedin www.socialmediaexaminer - guide to the social media jungle http://www.facebook.com/help/ - How to use facebook http://twitter.com/help/start - How to use twitter

Top storage bloggers – do a google search, there are many to pick from - from vendors and others

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Storage Resources

LinkedIn Groups you may want to post to Storage Networking Industry Association (10,984 Members) Backup & Recovery Professionals (4,398 Members) Storage Experts Group (5,462 Members) The Storage Group (12,990 Members) Data Storage Professionals (25,289 Members) Cloud Backup (312 Members) Cloud Storage (11, 215 Members) Cloud Computing (82,854 Members) Cloud Computing Standards Forum (2,517 Members) The Virtualization & Cloud Computing Group (19,237 Members) The Green Data Center Alliance (8,097 Members) SSD: Solid State Storage Innovator's Network (1,736 Members)

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

Our Contact Information

Diana Eastty, Principal, Eastty Marketing

Email: diana@easttymarketing.com Website: www.easttymarketing.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/dianaeastty Twitter: @deastty Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dianaeastty

Marty Foltyn – VP, Channel Chargers Email: mfoltyn@channelchargers.com Website: www.channelchargers.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/martyfoltyn Twitter: @martyfoltyn Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/martyfoltyn

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Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved.

The Reality

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gt62uAasE

Leveraging Social Media in Your Organization © 2011 Storage Networking Industry Association. All Rights Reserved. 30 30

Q&A / Feedback

Please send any questions or comments on this presentation to SNIA: tracktutorials@snia.org

Many thanks to the following individuals

for their contributions to this tutorial. - SNIA Education Committee

Diana Eastty Laura Garcia Marty Foltyn Matt Harvey Val Bercovici Kristin Hauser Kellye Crane Michael Meleedy Roman Diaz Sunshine Mugrabi