Giving a talk on Social Media

[Pot Bellied Fool]

Hi All.

Being a bit cheeky here

As part of the business network group I go to (a small friendly one, not BNI style), we each give talks on various stuff every so often. Interesting & stimulates discussion).

As the IT guy there, I've been asked to do one on social media & business. I'm not getting paid for this (otherwise I'd be a sight more prepared), I'm a support type guy but of course it all gets labelled as 'techie stuff' - I can run everyone through setting up a Facebook business page & LinkedIn quite happily of course.

What I'm after is some anecdotes on how real business (that'll be you lot then ) have made use of FB, LinkedIn & Twitter. It's just a gentle introduction to persuade people to dip their toe.

(And if anyone happens to have any powerpoint visiuals I can pinch then I'd be even more chuffed!)

(And at least doing this has kicked me into getting round to sorting out a twitter feed of special offers & the like with an RSS feed back onto our home page - so that's one case study sorted!)

Cheers.

[softtop]

I have no case studies to offer though wanted to focus on what the overall options are, business to business, business to consumer and then social networking such as Linkedin, is that consumer to consumer? My use and perception on this is that recruitment agencies use it to find people in organisations they want to target and I use it to find out about prospects and their employment history which helps build a picture of their potential direction in decision making.

If you google you will find some case studies, for the right companies this has increased their sales and ability to reach consumers, bit vague but have seen some amazing stats on the power of this new marketing tool.

[JohnnyPanic]

Here's a handy little Social Media Cheat Sheet that gives an overview on the different types of social media and where each is good for business.

The key word is "social" regardless of whether you have "network" or "media" after it. As such, engagement is key.

A little case study on how Nestlé got it wrong

And another one for Habitat's twitter spamming

[An Oasis]

JohnnyPanic said:

Here's a handy little Social Media Cheat Sheet that gives an overview on the different types of social media and where each is good for business.

The key word is "social" regardless of whether you have "network" or "media" after it. As such, engagement is key.

A little case study on how Nestlé got it wrong

And another one for Habitat's twitter spamming

roflmao Great links JP, made my morning!!

[MentalSarcasm]

Pretty much everyone on handmade marketplaces such as Etsy and Folksy use Facebook fan pages and Twitter as forms of advertising. For some it works, for others it doesn't, I'm not sure if it depends on the product or the kind of Fan News/Tweets they send out.

Here's one person that claims Facebook and Twitter have helped her (the "What are the most effective ways you have promoted and marketed your Etsy business?" question):

http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/quit-your-da...

And there are other people in the "Quit Your Day Job" articles that say it works.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

JohnnyPanic said:

Here's a handy little Social Media Cheat Sheet that gives an overview on the different types of social media and where each is good for business.

The key word is "social" regardless of whether you have "network" or "media" after it. As such, engagement is key.

A little case study on how Nestlé got it wrong

And another one for Habitat's twitter spamming

CHeers JP - I'd forgotten about Habitat's SNAFU. That's great!

[Simpo Two]

JohnnyPanic said:

A little case study on how Nestlé got it wrong

Fascinating. Nestle are of course right regarding their logo and the use of it, but don't the little keyboard warriors get upset about not being able to have everything their won way! It descends into a literate but utterly pointless argument, which is then picked up by another website and descends again into another literate but utterly pointless argument.

Nestle should stick to making chocolate and the keyboard warriors should get out and cut the grass.

[JohnnyPanic]

Simpo Two said:

JohnnyPanic said:

A little case study on how Nestlé got it wrong

Fascinating. Nestle are of course right regarding their logo and the use of it, but don't the little keyboard warriors get upset about not being able to have everything their won way! It descends into a literate but utterly pointless argument, which is then picked up by another website and descends again into another literate but utterly pointless argument.

Nestle should stick to making chocolate and the keyboard warriors should get out and cut the grass.

Nestle have a pretty negative brand image amongst some quarters (something to do with powdered milk IIRC).

What they should have done, IMO, was use the social channels to open a dialogue with these people (who I agree should get out more). You take the concerns and issues on board, you listen to what they have to say, and you answer them. It could give a unique chance to get the issues out in public and get your position across unfiltered, presuming you have nothing to hide of course. It could be a good chance to publicly apologise for past misdemeanours.

Ultimately, if you're going to open social channels you need to be open and social. If people don't like you, draconian measures to silence those voices aren't going to win them over, it just fuels the fire reinforcing your negative image. As an aside, you can bet that Nestle wouldn't mind if the use of their logo had been in a positive way.

This isn't something that was just picked up by another website, it essentially went viral across all the social networks as a glowing example of a bad strategy. Nestle ignored the fact of the negative brand value they have, where they should have been honest and strong enough to be upfront about it and tackle it head on.

Or, as you say, they could just stick to making chocolate.

[Chris_w666]

JohnnyPanic said:

Nestle have a pretty negative brand image amongst some quarters (something to do with powdered milk IIRC).

Promoting Formula in third world countries as better than breast milk, despite the fact that the water used to mix up the formula was more often than not contaminated.


In response to the OP the guy that runs this site http://www.fundraising.co.uk knows quite a bit about how charities use social networking sites and a lot of the principles cross over to business.

[miniman]

Have a read through some of our blog posts.

www.siftgroups.com/blogs/all

Sorry to say, though, that as an IT person you are the wrong person to be talking about social media IMHO.

[Engineer1]

Nestle have had issues with the student comunity for ages, I can remember the debate on banning nestle products from the students union, so a social media site may not be ideal as an advertising media as it opens you up to people with an issue.

[Dick Dastardly]

In my view the important thing to get across to the businesses is the need for a strategy. So many small businesses start Tweeting or spend time creating a Facebook page just because other businesses do or they heard about it at a networking event (is 4N the one you are speaking at?) but they don't think it through so it often doesn't work and doesn't last.

Start with the basics. Who are your target market? Where do they go online to find out about products/suppliers? How can you become a valid member of this community?

Social media is more about interaction than sales. Think of it as relationship and brand building rather than sales lead generation, as if you go on sites and blast your latest offers all day, you'll soon find yourself with no friends. Contribute to each community and the sales wil take place later.

One thing to remember about social media marketing is it's a lot more than just Twitter. The list of social media work we do for some clients incudes:

- Profile management of sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc.
- Forum participation on industry specific message boards
- Blogging and microblogging. Topic creation as well as commenting
- Q&A site participation, such as Yahoo! Answers
- Article, news and press release distrubution

Some of these work wonders for certain industries but are a compete waste of time for others. Have a look at the type of people who use each site and what competitors are doing that seems to work and then have a stab at it yourself.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

miniman said:

Sorry to say, though, that as an IT person you are the wrong person to be talking about social media IMHO.

I hear what you're saying But we don't have a marketing bod in the group so it defaults to me because 'it's online geekery innit"

It's only a taster that I'm doing, handholding the less IT literate in how to make a FB business page for example. I know there's a LOT more to it that that to do it well or properly but just want to open people's minds a loittle as to what's possible.

[rpguk]

That's a great post Dick Dastardly.

It doesn't take much technical skills to use social media. The communication skills however are much more difficult to master.

However if you want a great example of using social media for business then you have to look no further then JamieBeeston and his promotion of register1 on here.

Now if Jamie had come on here just to promote his business without otherwise engaging with the community then people would object. You can see this anytime someone comes on to spam their business, it backfires and has a negative effect on the brand. The same is true of all social media.

At the same time if he were to handle a situation badly there is a large customer base able to communicate outside of his control.

For social media to be effective businesses need to be relaxed in losing some control of their brand, take the rough with the smooth and genuinely be honest and caring to their customers.