Intro to social media

River Jangda
NSBDC • SCORE

Introduction to Social Media
For Small Business Owners

YouTube Video

Social Media Statistics

Socialnomics
 93% of marketers use social media for
business
 53% of people on Twitter recommend
products in their tweets
 90% of people trust online
recommendations from people they know
 The ROI of social media is that your
business will exist in 5 years

Source: Socialnomics, 2013

What is social media?
Merriam-Webster:
forms of electronic communication (as Web
sites for social networking and
microblogging) through which users create
online communities to share information,
ideas, personal messages, and other content
(as videos).

Or simply:
a collection of online platforms that allow
people to express themselves while creating
relationships, connections, conversations,
interest, and trust.

How can social media help my
business?

Social Media can be used as a:
 Communication channel
 Information channel
 Customer service channel
 Advertising channel
 Referral channel

Information channel
 Inform your customers about your
business
 Provide them with value (as content,
information, etc.)
 Prove to them that you are an expert
in your field
 Best platforms:
◦ All!

Communication channel
 Get to know your customers
 Build relationships (customers, business
partners, professional, competitors, etc.)
 Learn from your customers and your
competition
 Ask questions
 Encourage communication with yourself
◦ You are just a normal person, not a large
corporation
 Best platforms:
◦ Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging

Customer service channel
 Address customer complaints
 Resolve issues
 Promote praise
 Answer questions
 Help your customers out
 Best platforms:
◦ Facebook, Twitter

Referral Channel
 Use social media to drive customers
to your website/store
 Give them information that will make
them want to visit your website/store
 Best platforms:
◦ All!

Advertising channel
 What can you offer your customers?
 Why do they want what you have to
offer?
 Give them deals/discounts, etc.
 Many different advertising options on
social media
 Can be much different from traditional
print advertising, however
 Not free!
 Best platforms:
◦ Facebook, Twitter

Platforms To Cover
 Facebook  Pinterest

 Twitter  Google +

 LinkedIn  Yelp

 YouTube

Bonus
• Blogging • Google Analytics

Facebook
 By far the largest social network (1 billion+ users)
 Fastest growing demographic: 30+ age group
 Facebook helps explain who you are, who you
know, where you are, and what you like
 A great platform to share photos, news, articles,
quotes, and other bits of information that will be
valuable/entertaining for your audience
 You can spend a lot of $ advertising
 Must have a business page

Twitter
 500 million+ users
 A platform that allows users to broadcast news
or information in 140 characters or less
 A great source for breaking news, articles,
opinions, and also connecting w/ people
 Follow your customers and influential people in
your industry
◦ Geo location search: search for hashtags used in a
certain area, i.e.:
“#pizza near:reno within:25mi” will provide all
tweets within 25 miles of Reno that use #pizza

LinkedIn
 The “professional Facebook”
 200+ million members
 2 new members join every second
 Great for networking, making professional
connections and introductions
 Can also help to meet and network with
possible clients/customers
 Can be used to generate leads if you are a
service business

YouTube
 Second largest search engine after Google
 72 hours of video is uploaded every minute
 500 years of YouTube video are watched on
Facebook every day
 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter
every minute
 How-to, DIYS videos, and informational
webinars are very popular

Pinterest
 About 68% of users are women ages 25-45
 Basically a visual bookmarking site that has
a strong social component built in
 Allows users to show the world what they
want, where they want to be, etc.
 Tell your company’s story in visually
engaging ways
◦ Create a stronger brand image
◦ Launch products
◦ Drive traffic to your website

Blogging
 Estimated 31 million bloggers in US
 42 million blogs on Wordpess, 500K posts
per day
 60% of businesses have a business blog
◦ 65% of these businesses haven’t updated their
blog in over a year!
 Blog about subjects that are valuable to your
customers
 Easily broadcast new blogs on your website
and social media platforms

Google +

 400 million+ users (only about a 1/4 are
active)
 Now integrated with Google Places, making
it necessary for all local businesses that
have a physical location
 Features Zagat reviews and reservations
through OpenTable for restaurants
 Important to have a profile for SEO reasons

Yelp

 78 million monthly visitors
 30 million reviews
 Businesses in every category
 Essential for any local brick and
mortar businesses
 Prepare for both positive and negative
reviews of your business

Google Analytics
 Not a social platform, but a tool for your
website
 Allows you to see how many visitors you
have, where they came from, what
pages they clicked on, how they used
your site, etc.
 A very powerful tool that can help your
website, but can take a while to learn all
the features
 If you have a website, Google Analytics
is essential

What social media platform is for
me?

 Choose 1-3 platforms at first

 Platform choice depends on:
◦ Your customer/audience
◦ How much time you have
◦ Your social media goals

Creating a Social Media Plan
1. Decide what your goals are
 Get followers/fans?
 Create business relationships?
 Increase customer engagement?
 Increase sales?
2. Choose a platform that aligns with your goals
and target audience
 What platforms do they spend the most time on?
3. Decide how much time you have to dedicate
 How often will you post/update?
 Can you do it yourself or will you hire someone?
4. Decide how much money you want to spend
 Advertising or hiring help

How to measure social media
ROI
“The ROI of social media is your business will still
exist in 5 years”
-Socialnomics

 ROI depends on your goals and can be
measured in different ways
◦ Amount of new followers/fans
◦ Amount of new relationships created
◦ Amount of new comments/posts/reviews
◦ Amount of new traffic to your website
◦ Amount of new sales

Social media does not create sales, social media
creates relationships that can lead to sales

Next steps
 Where do I go if I need help creating
my social media campaign(s)?

◦ Internet (YouTube videos, articles, guides)
◦ Nevada SBDC (www.nsbdc.org)
◦ Marketing/PR firms (local and national)

Internet Resources
 Hubspot.com
◦ One of the best free resources for utilizing
social media platforms
 YouTube
◦ Hundreds of useful videos for all social
media platforms

 Thousands of other free resources out
there, just do a Google search

Nevada SBDC
 Marketing interns that can help you
with a social media plan
◦ Sit down with an intern for a free
consulting session

www.NSBDC.org
775-784-1717

Marketing & PR firms
 Local or national/worldwide firms
 Can do all the work for you depending
on how much you’re willing to pay

Local Options:
 The Abbi Agency (PR/social media)
 Big Like (Facebook resources/apps)

In Closing…
Social media is not a fad, it’s a
fundamental shift in the way we
communicate.

Please utilize the resources and
videos below for additional
information and training

Intro to social media

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