Social Media Marketing Boot Camp
Carla Buchanan
Owner Business Brandings (BNI story) 100% referrals
Notable networker
FIDM, a lot about social media and how to use it from my instructor Brian McKinney
Hello Chicago!
Social Media
What to do in Chicago?
Shop the Miracle Mile, Layne Livingston, Little Rock, AR
Take a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Homes, Greg Bryant, Little Rock, AR
Shop, Cubs game, bars around Wrigley, museum,
Deanna Abrahams, Orange County, CA
Second City and Greektown, Jessica Pivik, New Orleans, L
Chicago Style Pizza, Taylor Hawley, Chicago, IL
Social Media for You
“have, should, need, absolute”
Make social media work for you, your life, your company, enjoyable, exciting, personal
We will have a plan, but there are so many new doors that will be opened, it is impossible to map out the exact outcome!
We can connect with each other, we all want to go down new roads, someone has already been down that road!
Consumer Behavior
Social media has changed consumer behavior. Companies used to have to guess, conduct paid surveys to find out what customers what, when they buy, how they buy, why they buy, and who they buy from, and now, customers are telling us, without us even asking, what they want, when they want it, what they like, what they dislike, who they buy from, and why. Don’t you agree this is valuable information? And to take it a step further, they want us to talk to them and interact with them. It is an exciting, and awesome time to be in business!
Agenda for Today
Connect
Secrets of Top Performers
Rookie Mistakes
Carla’s Sandbox
Connect
Who?
Who is going to deliver your social media message? Who would you pick to go into a crowded room and be YOU?
Would they look like you? Talk like YOU? Respond like YOU? Act like YOU? I hear of companies hiring an intern to manage their social media, understand hiring an intern to help with somethings, but not your social media. An intern is so far removed from you. Finally, this is the time when YOU can actually connect with your customers, potential customers, staff, friends and family. So many companies brag that they have great customer service, now is the time to let it shine!
Who is going to conduct your social media? Can I suggest this, YOU!
Connect
Profile
The first step is setting up your profile.
Remember this, people like to do business with people they know, like and trust. Your profile can help move this process along. Use profile images that help people know like and trust you. For example, I read once, and I think this is true, images with people drinking, even if it is non alcoholic, do not strengthen the image of the person in the picture. So, if you are at the gala at an ASI show, someone wants to snap your image, just move away from the water glass. You might want to post friendly, but not too friendly, images on your profile as well.
The profile information can help others know, like and trust you. Do you post personal things? I think it is better to post business experiences, successes, stories, philosophies, practices and business strengths.
Give your profile a little thought, but know that it is a work in progress and you can, and will, change it often.
Connect
Which room do you want to enter?
Comparing social networking to networking, what room would you walk into?
Blogger
I am a blogger. 17 blogs and I am always adding new ones. You can be too, in seconds. I like to blog on Blogspot, as it is owned by Google. Many people love word press. Blogging is fun, and easy. It gives you instant credibility in your field.
My blogs are my hub, the mother ship!
My number one tip: work out loud. Story: posting this speech on my ASI blog. This give your credibility.
working out loud: provide information on products: story: working out loud with a product for one client, why not document this. Work out loud once, the information is there for many more people, not just the client you did all the research for.
connect your groups story ASI Networking group blog story, I started a blog to connect with YOU and provide you with the information that we discussed today. Why? Because I want to make it easy for you to connect with me, get to know me, find the information that we discussed today, stand out among the other great speakers that we will hear at ASI Show Chicago. Help you to remember me and rise above the crowd.Lead by example and not just talk about social media, but to actually use it for our specific purposes: You can too! Blogging for a specific group can take you to a new level of credibility.
Separates you from the herd
Connect with your project partners Lady Like story: saves time for you and other members, serves as permanent record, helps the group find the work at any time of day, helps the leader not have to repeat details over and over, helps when someone drops out of the group, you don’t have to keep looking for their work, and the new member can easily catch up and feel a part of the project.
provide help for others with forms, letters. story: Apparel Manufacturing Management blog Dick’s Sporting Goods buyer letter.
working out loud: provide information on products: story: working out loud with a product for one client, why not document this. Work out loud once, the information is there for many more people, not just the client you did all the research for.
Connect
Linkedin
Do you want to go into more of a business type setting? Try Linkedin. I love the business atmosphere Linkedin has to offer. I love the groups.
Ways to use Linkedin Groups:
Try your local group. story: Yesterday I joined ASI Chicago. Let’s all join this group so we can connect.
I joined a local group in my area, put an request for t-shirt screeners, connected with 10 screeners right off the bat. I had the name of the owners, location, and recommendations in less than 24 hours. Do you know much time it saved me?
Did you know that Linkedin has an ASI show group? I love that group. I have connected with many supplier and distributors, and I am looking forward to connecting with you in the Linkedin ASI show group.
Profiles: Check out the profiles.
Connect
YouTube
And there is Youtube. Did you know that Youtube is the second largest search engine next to google? You can increase your credibility with how to videos on just about anything. Why not start with Youtube?
Instant fun at this workshop, right now! Do you have a smart phone with a camera? You are in business now! You can make a YouTube video of this social media workshop, from your smart phone, and put it on you tube instantly. I did this at a social media workshop once, and emailed the link to the presenter before he was finished with the presentation. Do you think that this separated me from the crowd?
Instant fun at ASI shows: my husband Allen I did this at the ASI Show in San Diego, we found a product for one of our favorite clients, ACCI book keeping, it was a fold out calculator. Because the product was interactive, we knew we needed a video. We made a youtube video and emailed it to her. Not only could she see it, but other interested clients could see it too. My next step: email the link to the supplier too and let them know that we loved the product.
Credibility building: One way to gain credibility is to provide a how to video. Remember when I said that YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google? One of the reasons is that people use Youtube for how to projects. You can too! Just think of the possibilities in the promotional product industry! How contractors can use promotional apparel to get more bids and make more money. How churches can raise funds by selling t-shirts, How sports teams can help their sponsors AND raise money for their teams.
Connect
Twitter
Twitter: twitter in and twitter out: I love using twitter to push my blog news and Linkedin news.
Reweet too!
Connect
Meet Up
Meet up is where you can post meetings that you want others to join. Some examples are Toastmasters, networking groups, Lunch and Learns, Church groups. Meet up is a wonderful place to help clients, as you can post their events and open houses. It is a great place for you to find new networking groups, and groups that you might enjoy professionally and personally.
Connect
Facebook
Pick your room, pick your spot, but just start somewhere. Remember, it is a work in progress, and you really can’t plan on what is going to happen in social media, any more than you can plan what will happen in a room full of people. It is up to you when you get there, but we just have to get dressed up and go!
Facebook is great, it is has 200 million users. If Facebook were a country, it would be the world's fifth-largest, after China, India, the U.S., and Indonesia. That is a big room!
Two of the ways that people use Facebook: Personal Page and a Fan Page.
Try to keep the personal page personal and the fan page business, but, every once and awhile, you can mix them up, as long as the message gives your business credibility.
Pick your room, pick your spot, but just start somewhere. Remember, it is a work in progress, and you really can’t plan on what is going to happen in social media, any more than you can plan what will happen in a room full of people. It is up to you when you get there, but we just have to get dressed up and go!
Secrets of Top Performers
Listen
Top performers in any network arena start by listening.
One way to start listening, is to sign up for google alerts. Google the words “google alerts.” You will be prompted to list something that you want Google to alert you about if someone mentions them on the internet. Start by asking Google to alert you if someone talks about you, your company, or a product of service you provide. For example: Carla Buchanan, and then Business Brandings and then custom t-shirts, Orange, Ca. These are three different alerts
This way, if a customer posts a positive comment I can see it and respond, or, a negative comment, I can see it and respond. I once heard of a company that had a Google alert and heard that a customer was angry because the pizza was late. The owner personally delivered a pizza to the customer and was able to help the customer get what they wanted and save the face of his company.
We compared social media sites to rooms, and going into a social media room is just like going into a room of people, you start first by listening. What if you walked into a crowded networking room and shouted, buy my t-shirts! People not only would not buy your t-shirts, they would think you are weird. It is the same thing with social media. Walk into the room, smile, and listen.
One of the best ways to listen is to go to your groups on Linkedin. Find groups where and find groups where you want to meet people. For example, for a I wanted to meet truckers and understand their business better. I joined a trucker group on Linkedin and connected with truckers. Mostly, I listened to their concerns and needs. They were very helpful and provided the information that I needed.
Go where your customers go, we could really never do that until social media came along. We used to have to guess what our customer wanted, and pay for expensive surveys. Now, you can go the places they go with a click of a mouse. Lets say, for example, that stay at home moms are your target market. You can join a Mother’s of Preschoolers group and find out their concerns and needs. If coaches are your market, you can join a coaching group. This is something that businesses could never do before, you can go where your customers go, and listen!
Comment more than you post
Compare commenting to starting a new conversation. Remembering thinking of social networking to in person networking, you don’t want to interrupt someone so that you can speak. Posting all the time, and not commenting on others posts, is like interrupting an in person conversation. The definition of interrupt is to stop a person in the midst of doing something. Interrupt in computers signals a need for attention. Remember this, by keeping the attention on the other person, they will learn to know, like and trust you more.
Praise more than you criticize
In other words, think of your social media like your in person networking. Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Lift them up with your support. Make a hamburger.
Use lots of images, videos and tags. You have heard a lot of talk about search engine optimization. This means that people, and companies, want to be on the top, or the first page, when searched googled. Here are a couple of little secrets that I discovered at a all day Google Ad Words Seminar: Google loves images. More than that, Google really, really loves images with captions. Captions that are simple for Google to read. An image caption might read: This is an image of Carla Buchanan at the ASI Show in Chicago. In other words, in your blogs especially, use lots of images with easy to understand captions. Google also loves videos. And Google is not picky if the video is high quality, it just loves video with lots of tags, and descriptions. Consider posting videos on YouTube first, then pushing them out by copy and pasting the web address on the Youtube video on Twitter and Linkedin. As far as your bog: post the actual video on your blog.
Use lots of tags. Google is smart, and it looks and reads what your post on the internet, but it really loves when you make this job easier, by posting tags on your blog and YouTube. Tags are the words, that you guess, people would use to search for your video on Google. In other words, the video that Allen will post on this workshop, might contain tags like Carla Buchanan, ASI Show, Social Media Boot Camp, Chicago. He could even put in McCormick Place, or Chicago Hilton. The reason he would do that is, people may stumble upon this video because they are searching for different words!
Think about Flash, Think about white text: You can use Flash all you want, of course, but according the to all day Google seminar that I attended, Google does not read what Flash has created. It is constantly working to improve this, and it can index better than it used to, but why take the chance? Make it easy for Google to read what you have to say, and stay away from Flash. Of course, that is, if getting to the top of the first page of Google is for so many people and businesses.
Think about white text: Again, you can use white text all you want, of course, but think about this: white text is hard for Google to read. So if getting to the top of the first page of Google, search engine optimization, is important to you, why make it hard for Google?
Do Your Own Social Media: Or, at least a good part of it, especially at the beginning. Many times I can tell when someone has hired someone else to be them. One tip off is the grammar. For example, I read a post from a high level executive named Irv, that , John and me are are our way to a meeting in New York. I knew it wasn’t Irv at all, probably an stand in intern.
Follow up on conversations and promises. Because social media networking is different from in person networking, we may tend to
take our promises lighter. For example, I will often promise someone that I will send them a link to something, or that I will keep them informed about something, like an upcoming meeting. These are promises that need to be kept.
Promote others more than yourself: There are so many ways to promote others! In fact, it may be easier to promote others than it is to promote yourself. And they love it! One of the easiest ways, is to retweet what someone has posted on twitter, repost what someone has posted on Facebook. Also, I absolutely love blogging about my customers and networking partners. They love it too! Sometimes I post images and videos of them with products that I sold them. Recently Alps Air Conditioning and Heating bought a huge dream wheel, prize wheel, for the Orange County Fair. The Alps Heating and Air Conditioning Staff loved it when I had them pose for a picture with the dream wheel, and posted it on my blog. This accomplished several things, it improved their staff moral, created excitement about the product, helped promote their business on the internet. For me, it allowed me to create a blog post that demonstrated what type of products I sell, show happy customers, and helped with my credibility with my client, Alps Heating and Air Conditioning.
Frequent Activity: Just like in person networking, the more your show up, the more you will be seen. This increases the changes that people will know like and trust you. Also, just by posting and blogging often, you will increase your search engine optimization, and rise to the top of Google’s first page. Google loves recent activity. It is kind of like, what have you done for me lately? Recently, my friend and client, Lisa Guentert, Mary Kay Cosmetics, came over to our house. For kicks and giggles, we googled her name. We could not find anything for her on the internet. So we had a little fun and performed a little experiment: Recently, we asked Lisa to shoot impromptu testimonial about our company, Business Brandings. Allen used a lot of tags, and posted the video on YouTube. In about 5 minutes, we googled her name again, and, you guessed it, she was on top of the page. Frequent activity plays a huge part in Search Engine Optimization.
Rookie Mistakes
Please help me with my social media workshop, posted on FB by Carla
Bryce Hill, Los Angeles, CA: check ins on Facebook
Sharon Jones Evans, Chicago, IL: profanity, mundane stuff, games
Laura Nuebauer, Orange County, CA: What to eat
Lynne Humphrey, Orange County, CA: event promotions and selling products
Madolyn Dunn, Little Rock, AR: every little thing, like dog business
The real Janet Jackson, Orange County, CA, games
Heidi Hogan Denman, Little Rock, AR: too much to doPaige Buchanan, Fayetteville, AR: TV shows
Carla’s Sandbox
The power of social media. Helping out for free,as an intern, for a clothing manufacturer. Blog story.
Play in my sandbox and make social media be your playmate and friend.
Be transparent.
I recently was very transparent. People love to help. I recently posted, on my blog, twitter, facebook and Linkedin, that I needed help choosing a logo for my company, Business Brandings. Wow, on one Linkedin group alone I got 108 comments. There was buzz all over town about the logo choice. Here is what happened, people in my networking group, some I knew well, others I did not, were coming up and asking me about my logos. They wanted to know all about Business Brandings, what the company does, what it offers, it’s strengths, it’s philosophies, our tag line, etc. What a great way to talk about my new company. I couldn’t have possibly have paid for such interaction.
The interaction spread, literally, all over the world. People, who I had never met, started designing logos for Business Branidngs. I got two logo designs from India, one from Japan, two from Iraq, and one from a college buddy that I have not talked to in over 30 years. I ended up using the one my college buddy designed and now we have rekindled a relationship, and I have a cool logo.
Most companies, and people, think that they have to put out a perfect image. I think that it is the other way around. Your clients, customers, friends, family and staff all love to be involved with your company, and if they feel involved, they will be customers for life.
Don’t be afraid to be transparent.
The great thing about social media, is that it is instant. Make it work for you, now, today, and instantly. For example, I went to an ASI Roadshow in Las Vegas. I wanted to connect with the suppliers, more than just a supplier/distributor relationship. I used my iphone and had my associate take pictures of me with the supplier reps at each both. When I got home, and I wanted to get a quote, or sample, from the supplier I met, I sent them a copy of the image that I took of us. One supplier, said “Oh yes! I remember you! Thank you for the image of us, I printed it and it is on my wall in my office.” Do you think I got great service from then on? Do you think I helped her know, like and trust me?
Another recent example is this: I was asked to speak at the ASI Show in Chicago. I received a list of other new speakers. I used social networking to find out information about the other new speakers and I contacted them through social networking. Two of them responded and I was able to connect with them. About a month later, ASI asked me to facilitate a round table discussion after a speech in Chicago, given by, you guessed it, one of the new speakers, Kevin Knebl, that I had just connected with. See, you just don’t know where it is going to lead, and it is almost impossible to plan. But I can tell you, it is fun to connect through social media!
Another example is this: Many people these days love social media, and it seems like with all the reality shows everyone want to be a star. I have found that my customers, and the friends that I meet in my networking group, love it when I take a picture of them and feature them on my blog. It makes them feel important and it helps them to grow their business. It also helps them to know, like and trust me. Just the other day, I was in a training sessions and the facilitator said, in front of the group, “Carla made me feel so important, after our meeting, she posted my image and company information on her blog.” I posted that over a year ago, and I had almost forgotten about it. But she did not.
Action Items
Write the plan on your calendar
July 29, Set up profiles
August 1, start listening with Google alerts
August 8, start commenting
August 15, start posting
Handouts available (this blog)
Contact Carla
