Social media

What is it and why should I care?

Technology-enabled dialogue

5 Good Reasons

1. Boosts BIE Group brand: exposure, SEO, awareness

2. Personal branding – visibility, recognition, showcase expertise, signal connections, evidence of knowledge

3. Search is increasingly about ‘social presence’ – inactivity demotes sites in search rankings

4. Generation Y estimated soon to be 75% of the global workforce

5. Others are joining in: 55+ age group fastest growing users of Facebook (source for 4 and 5: Booz & Co)

….and 5 more

6. Begin and grow relationships with people you haven’t yet met

7. Increased recommendations and referrals

8. FTSE 100: 61 have Twitter accounts, 1m ‘followers’, 71% rise in six months

9. 39 have Facebook pages. 14m ‘fans’, 25% rise in six months (source for 8 and 9: The Group)

10. “Engage More” BIE Group 2012 marketing theme – not just a slogan!

What channels do people trust most?

“My customers don’t use Twitter!”

“Useful for finding people and showing off your CV!”

…..but also about Discussions, Questions and Groups

“Quora? Never heard of it!”

“An electronic pin board for curating, sharing and showcasing ‘shiny new

things’. Not for B2B, though.”

Blogs: where you show expertise, POVs, share ideas,

make connections

Crispin will now speak!

Challenges

• Keeping up to date; constant, rapid change • Inexperience / Confidence• Making time• Creating a ‘monster’ – must be fed, and often• Perseverance – quick wins rare• Seen as ‘a marketing thing’ and not my concern• Desire for immediate gratification• Measuring ROI: in £££s and time • Others?

The only question that matters:

“Is it worth doing?”

What can you do?

• Start monitoring, improve audience insight, spot opportunities and gauge the scale

• Focus: a few things done really well

• Invite volunteers: run pilots to experiment, learn and improve

• Incentivise participation

• Show leadership; here’s a thought……..

What’s coming next?

• In five years the smartest companies will build social networking into strategy and operations

• Aim being to spur innovation, accelerate sales, and vault past competitors (source: Booz & Co, ft.com)

• Technology to analyse internal discussions and create automated knowledge repositories for employees’ later use (via Yammer, et al)

What’s coming next?

• Latest IBM study of 1,709 global CEOs found only 16% using social media

• …..but forecast is 57% in 5 years

• Read what IBM has to say about social business