Social Media for Business by Warren Knight - HTML preview

LET’S PREPARE TO FIND OUT

THE INTERNET STORY
What is social media all about and how did it start?

It all started when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World-Wide Web in 1989, while at CERN, in Switzerland. The WWW is NOT the same thing as the Internet; it RIDES on the Internet (the Internet was started after the 2nd World War, the first project was called ARPANET). This was known as Web 1.0 The Dot.com where investors got involved and experiments were put into action.

Mosaic web browser launched on April 1993 which was the first browser to run on the Windows Operating system. Microsoft Hotmail launched on July 1996 and Google¼s first office opened in September 1998 in a garage.

"Web 2.0" refers to the second generation of web development and web design. It is characterised as facilitating communication, information sharing, user-centred design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking and video-sharing sites like Facebook and Youtube.

The term is now closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software developers and end-users utilise the Web. Thank you Wikipedia

One of the most influential socialisation projects to date, Web 2.0 brings local and global together in a relationship of information. People will have more interactions but with less control.

So now we are at web 2.5 and we have arrived on the final frontier. Services like twitter.com now take the experience of blogging to the next step. It tries to join up the messaging capability of mobile phones with the web, and Instant Messages such as AIM. Add to this, services like twittermap.com, and what you arrive at is a 24 hours daily kaleidoscope of events as they happen.

Admittedly, most mobile phones are still limited in their messaging capabilities, so Twitter is a text oriented service for the time being. However people do understand the power of linking to events, and live bookmarking with services like tinyurl.com is a great way forward.

Add to that the capability of RSS, or maybe a follow-up protocol that will enable pushing syndicated live content to browsers (which would be a logical next step, I am sure is in the making somewhere), we will arrive at Web 3.0 Everything, everywhere, live and real time.
So as you can see, social media is not really new anymore, but many people still struggle with the subtle things that might help or hurt success within the top social communities.

To put things into perspective, it took 89 years for 150 million homes to have TV, it took Steve Jobs from Apple 7 years to sell 150 Million Ipods and it¼s only taken Facebook 5 years to have 150 million subscribers.

The first question business owners often ask: Why should you use social networking?

 

Because the best online marketing techniques are the ones that help you reach your target market.

Even though social networking has been around for years, it ¼s only over the past few years that it¼s become a buzz phrase with over 250 million people now on Facebook! Ashton Kutcher has nearly 3 million followers on Twitter – so the power of connection is undeniable! With over 350 social networking sites available for you to join and connect, the potential target market is forever widening, whilst you search for the next best platform via which to communicate.

What this means is your target market is jumping in and starting to use Facebook and Twitter etc and since the current global economy is not at its strongest, people are more mindful of what they spend their money on.

In this ebook you will learn how to build your profile, achieve brand awareness, connect with your target market, build your database and ultimately make sales that are measurable in terms of your ROI (return on investment) for both for your time and money.

• First of all the customer must learn about YOU. If they don¼t know your business exists how can they buy?

• Next your task is to convince them - by providing enough information - to subscribe to your newsletter or by offering them a free report in return for leaving their details with you.

• And then you aim to keep them interested and provide an opportunity for them to invest in your product or service.

 

Simple huh? Read on and see just how logical this all is.

 

Here are my top 10 tips to marketing online:

 

1. Build a website that positions you as an expert

 

2. This website should include a home page, an “About the Company” page

 

3. You should also have an “Articles Page” where you post articles you have written on your area of speciality.

 

4. Write a short special report or white paper on your area of expertise, and make this available to people who visit your site.

5. Consider also offering a monthly online newsletter, or “Ezine.” People who visit your site can subscribe free if they register and give you their email address.

6. The more “content” (useful information) on your site, the better.

 

7. The model is to drive traffic to your site where you get them to sign up for either your free report or free ezine.

 

8. The bulk of your online leads, sales, and profits will come from repeat email marketing to this “house” elist of prospects.

 

9. Use all the online marketing options, which can drive traffic to your site. These include: free publicity; email marketing; banner advertising; co

 

10. The key to success is to try a lot of different tactics in small and inexpensive tests.

 

BUILDING YOUR STORY

Have a clear message that you want to get across. You can do this by keeping your business and personal identities separate and positioning yourself as an expert in your niche area.

So where do you start?

When you establish a brand that is emotionally stimulating in a positive way, you have a very powerful advantage. Small business branding is not a good logo, special font or catchy tag line it¼s the owner.

So create a profile for your business by being true to yourself

 

Here are 7 steps to create your desired profile:

1. Choose a name, image and have strong profile visibility: Developing Brand Recognition
2. Active Participation: Maintaining a Continuous Presence
3. Share information by practising reciprocity: Seek Win-Win Outcomes
4. Effective Communication: Conversations are Important but becareful who you link to
5. Support the Community: Putting the Collective Before yourself and don¼t be too friendly
6. Provide Value Above All: Gaining Trust and Attention and be a good user statistically
7. Be natural and always demonstrate Integrity

Once you have built your profile and you are ready take your first steps, having a strategy before you start your campaign is very important.

 

Social Media Strategy

• Set it to build the social media foundation for all other social media efforts, so what tools are going to be used and how are you going to use them?
• Set a short and medium term goals for your campaign, so you grow and learn and then analyse and target.
• Include specific objectives, strategies, tactics, and metrics
i.e. social media for pr/marketing/sales/product development
• Integrate into existing marketing efforts for your company
• Clear analysis of your target audience
• Seeking to solve client/customer pain
• Map and plan out your allocation for resources through research
• Provide and creating content as instead of looking for immediate results from a community
• Focused more on longer term ROI/impact, not just a financial metric but building and strengthening a brand

Once you have the Strategy in place you can now start your campaign

 

Social Media Campaign

• Shorter term:
• run your campaign before your product or service is launched
• promote products/events/services which usually takes around 1-3

months (can be longer)
• Build upon audience research with data collected from the strategy

• Build upon the tools being used for the strategy
• Promote the campaign through channels identified in the strategy
• Looking to drive a specific targeted response?

• Increase page views
• Increase sales for a new product

• Look at shorter term ROI (Return on Investment) and impact
• Looking at the financial return and the short term impact
• Not looking at the brand as a whole

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

So let ¼s take a look at just a few of the 100¼s of networking sites, go through some simple set-up procedures and how they these sites can both work for and against you.

www.LinkedIn.com has over 43 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

www.Ecademy.com is a Business Social Network founded in 1998 now with millions of users of the site each year worldwide.

www.Facebook.com
Build your profile based on the true person or persona you want for your business. Start a Group and invite your network to join.
Set up a Fan Page and get all your friends and friends of friends to join.

Start a Group and invite your network to join.

 

Set up a Fan Page and get all your friends and friends of friends to join.

www.MySpace.com comes in a close second. Mostly because they're so big that they have a lot to offer. The MySpace music and MySpace video sections are my favourite MySpace options.

www.Hi5.com offers a lot of options for a social networking site that doesn't get a lot of mention.

 

www.43things.com If you have things you need to get done, but need social help getting it done, then 43 Things just may be what you need.

www.Twitter.com (Microblogging)
Create an account, it only takes minutes and it¼s free to join. Simply complete a profile, including uploading a picture. Link the newly created account to your web page, or instant messenger program, which allows the user to receive and send messages to and from others. An update that is sent to friends is called a “tweet."

Do you know what blogging is? For the best platform, try WordPress:
www.wordpress.org is a free, open-source publishing platform, which is used by hundreds of thousands of people around the world to create blogs.

 

Have a good reason to blog, is it to build traffic to your website, become an expert and let the world know, earn money or talk about your niche market

www.YouTube.com
YouTube has had over 5 Billion views and is a video sharing website on which you can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google.

NOW however, there is a new medium that has exploded on the internet over the last few years; Social Bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to rank and store websites, blogs, articles, videos and other types of website content. It is also a way for people who make money from websites, blogs, and affiliate marketing programs to increase their visibility and earnings.

Use Social Bookmarking Sites

First off, you need to find a social bookmarking site and register as a user. If you participate in affiliate marketing programs, your best bet is to choose one of the more popular sites, such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit or StumbleUpon. These social bookmarking sites have the most traffic and allow you to submit and bookmark websites and blogs.

Now let ¼s put all this information into practise but before we do this, you must ask yourself; “How ready am I to convert all of this information into qualified paying customers?”

THE JOURNEY

So you now have clarity around your profile, you ¼ve decided upon your strategy and campaign. You¼ve signed up to all of the relevant social media websites, after doing your research for your target market (based on your niche) and so it¼s time to begin.

Connecting with the audience.

Deliver great content and always be creative by understanding your audience and by being consistent. Consistency is the key to people wanting to know more, so make a decision around when and for how long you are going to give time to each social media website and how many times you send out a newsletter, broadcasts etc even if its once a month …be consistent. Feedback can be a great source of information for you, on both a positive and negative level. I often test my audience by making mistakes to get interaction and to let them know I’m only human. It also helps me to know that what I’m doing is right and to find out how much they are enjoying my content.

TEST CASES

I would like to share with you 2 test cases, so you get a better understanding of how 2 products using the same techniques to very different audiences, both achieved great success.

www.cheekybeach.com Luxury swimwear for D-J cup. Target audience? Well I will leave that up to your imagination.

Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes for them to purchase from your website. Twitter is OK but a better use of time has been spent connecting with the high end social media sites, like »A Small World¼, »Decayenne¼, »Qube¼ (by Quintessentially), along with »Nikki Beach¼ who have their own online community where you can start discussion. »Knickers Weekly¼ also offer this. So as you can see by doing your homework,
understanding your target audience you can connect with the right person at the right time to buy.

www.TheFulvicAcidCompany.com The Fulvic Acid

Company provides human, plant and animal health

products based around organic ingredients called Fulvic Acid.

Setting up a profile, fan page and group on Facebook is a great idea, as you can offer special loyalty discount codes for them to purchase from your website. YouTube has been a great method for Video testimonials and TV appearances for people talking about how taking this product has made a difference to them, their pets, garden what ever it may be. Twitter has been an excellent source of information sharing, community building and ultimately sales globally. Peter Gouge an expert nutritionist and cofounder, blogs and gets into conversations on forums in various communities by adding value and sharing his knowledge. He can also be seen doing talks up and down the country sharing his passion for a chemical free environment. Having a profile on LinkedIn,
changents.com, BT Tradespace has also been a real benefit.

Thank you for downloading this ebook and if you would like to download the full version please go to www.warrenknight.co.uk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

To all the Internet guru¼s that have been so kind, to share their expert opinion and to Mashable for being a real time source of information.

The content of this e-book has been constructed by using the tools and techniques of 2 individuals who have learned their formula for success through study and experience. We learned our trade through many other teachers and individuals and we have included some of their work for you to appreciate. They have been duly recognised at each point.

Thank you for choosing this document, which we hope, will bring you much success.

 

WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?

Warren Knight, with nearly 2 decades of selling in to over 40 countries and having consulted for the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon products selling globally, achieving sales of $1 Million in 1 month. Growing UK business and selling their products globally using proven strategies.

For more information about me, please visit www.WarrenKnight.com

Andrea N Smart, has injected some interesting research into this project, and has brought forth over 10 years of specialist knowledge and experience in Marketing the companies she has worked for, as well as now, her own. In addition to Marketing, Andrea is an accomplished Writer, Copywriter, Newsletter Editor and Proofreader. The flow has been created by Andrea who has a particular warmth and style that we hope you have found enjoyable and easy to read and digest. The typeset and content of this e-book aims to create a worthy and exciting strategy for everyone.

CONTACT DETAILS

 

Reach Warren Knight at: warren@warrenknight.co.uk Reach Andrea Smart at: andrea@opentoclose.com

 

Further information on additional business guides is available from: www.warrenknight.co.uk
ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS

 

Further information on additional business guides is available from: www.warrenknight.co.uk
Available to Purchase:

• Full version of Social Media 4 Business (ebook Guide)
• Business Start Up (ebook Guide)
• Open to Close - Proven sales strategy (ebook Guide)
• Sales - Strategies, Training and Seminars
• Mentoring Program (Telephone or Face to Face options available)
• Consultancy - A process tailored to your needs