This presentation provides examples of how social media tools such as blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter can be used to market/sell your business. But social media has implications beyond marketing and sales. It impacts PR, HR, IT and more.

1. Are You Ready for Social Media?
Presented by: Sandor Kiss
June 11, 2009
TeamThink Inc.
kiss@teamthink.ca (E)
www.teamthink.ca (W)
403.809.3488 (M)
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2. Today’s Discussion
• Overview of Social Media
• Social Media Tools (Blogs, LinkedIn & Twitter)
• Marketing Case Study
• HR Considerations
• Self Assessment & Taking Action
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3. You will be able to take action after today’s meeting.
1. Framework to conduct a self-assessment on your social
media readiness.
2. You will be provided with suggestions on next steps you
can take to address social media for your organization.
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4. Social Media Can Chuck Nasty
Curveballs @ Your Business
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5. Dominos employees making you think
twice about eating there.
• The situation:
April 15
Two Dominos employees video themselves
doing disgusting things to food
The videos are posted to YouTube
Nearly 1 million people viewed the video
within 24 hours
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6. You’re the President of Domino’s –
What Do You Do?
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7. The Response
• Dominos didn’t issue a press release or respond online just a small
statement on their web site
• Concerned that a strong response would only raise awareness
• Next day they posted a YouTube video with a President’s message
and how they were addressing the situation
• Set up a Twitter account to begin influencing discussion
• Employees were fired and this was noted in their communication
• Pending Actions:
Have talked about removing video cameras from its store to prevent this
Filing criminal charges
Considering civil suit for brand defamation Sources: Marketing
VOX, Web Pro News
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8. So what’s the potential damage?
Source: Read
Write Web
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9. The Good vs. The Bad: Domino’s Handling of the Situation
The Good
• Didn’t project a stuffy image
• Made themselves “smaller” with a personal message
• Delivered a message that would resonate with the public – focused
on 160,000 employees impacted by the company
For Improvement
• Needed to move even faster – they were not prepared
• More authentic response, less scripted
• Influence the conversation on Twitter more quickly
Didn’t have an active account to wade into discussion
Didn’t have experience with the tools
• Utilize all tools at their disposal – offline/online.
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10. Social media cannot be ignored by business leaders.
“Nearly 3 out of 4 adults currently participate
on the social web compared to 57% in 2007.”
Source: Forrester
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11. Social media should not be confused with social networks.
• Social media relies on information created by people
using popular, low cost technologies
• Often referred to as user generated content (UGC)
• Popular tools include:
Wiki’s
Podcasts
Blogs
Video & photo sharing
Tag Sharing
Social networks
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12. Social Media is not just about marketing.
Marketing
Customer PR/
Service Reputation
During our discussion today,
think about the implications
Social Media to your business beyond
marketing.
Sales HR
Knowledge
Transfer
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13. Tools you should become familiar with.
• Blogs*
• LinkedIn*
• Twitter*
• YouTube
• Facebook
* For review during today’s discussion
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14. “The blog is the Swiss Army knife of social media.”
LinkedIn
Twitter Facebook
Blog
• Demonstrate thought leadership
using text, video, audio, images,
presentations
Email RSS
• Blogs can be the focal point of
your marketing activity
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15. If you think blogs are passé think again.
They are not even mainstream.
Hurdles
• Conservatism
• Companies cutting
costs
• Unsure how to
measure ROI
Source: Forrester
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16. Blogs may not seem that sexy– but they
carry a lot of weight.
• Credible among business and IT 57% of business and IT
professionals rated blogs
professionals equally or more credible
than vendor white papers,
• Creates communities of interest – news outlets, industry
associations and analyst
buyers more willing to listen to reports.
peers than sales reps
• Can improve natural search
results 32% of 273 decision
makers said that blogs
• Generate insights for corporations were 1 of 3 top resources
to support decisions.
• Shortens sales cycles & generates
leads
Source: Forrester
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17. Success Story: Network Appliance
• Industry: Data Storage Results
• Competition: HP, EMC
• Challenge: Seeking non-traditional
methods for PR • 4600 visitors during first
month of blog launch
Solution:
• C-Level Blog
• Sought strong communicator & • 19,000 visitors in Month 2
respected technologist (EVP)
• Visitors could not publish to blog
but could email the executive • Typical monthly visits:
• Presented thought leadership & 17,000 to 19,000/month
“controversy”
• Marketing gave executive 5 blogs
as homework to prepare
• Didn’t promote blog Source: Marketing Sherpa
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18. Social networks cannot be ignored by marketers.
“35% of adult Americans now use a social
network such as LinkedIn or Facebook.”
Source: Marketing VOX
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19. 2009
• 38 million members in 200 countries
• New member is joining every
second
• Executives from all Fortune 500
companies are members
Source: LinkedIn
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20. Considered the Facebook for
business professionals. Key
features include:
• Contact management & ability to
view “contacts of your direct
contacts”
• Info about companies
• Job postings
• Discussion groups
• “Answer” feature: Pose questions
to entire LinkedIn network - you
often receive rapid responses to
your questions
• Send status updates to your
network
• Manage a profile of your work
experience
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21. LinkedIn is a sales, marketing and recruiting weapon.
• Sales
Get access to prospects to shorten sales cycles
Research that can improve conversion rates
Partnership Development
• Marketing
Set up a company page
Create discussion groups and demonstrate thought leadership
• HR
Research prospective employees during reference checks
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22. 7/11 of us could probably have introductions
facilitated that would yield a conversation.
Board Total Degrees of Separation
Member Connections to Sandor
Roger K. 5 3
Eppo 10 3
Brad 1 - Why the low
Judy 2 3 adoption?
Ed (Profile 1 3
not updated)
Scott 29 2
Mike 31 2
Note: Yesterday only 3/12 board members used LinkedIn?
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23. Slide inserted to provide board member
responses to: “Why the low adoption?”
• Receive too many solicitations once your profile is live
• Uncertainty whether business results can be derived
from using the tool
• Takes too much time to use the tool (with unknown
benefit)
• Uncertainty how to use the tool
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24. • Launched in March 2006.
• January 2008: 500,000 unique visitors
• December 2008: 4.43 million unique
visitors (An increase of 752% compared
to the previous year)
Source: Mashable
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25. Twitter is a “microblogging” tool.
• Similar to Facebook but is a more straightforward
approach
• Users build a network by following friends, family,
colleagues, professionals or brands
• You can also be followed
• Allows you to update your network from a mobile phone
or computer with short concise messaging and direct
links to content
• Messages are restricted to 140 characters
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26. www.teamthink.ca
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27. Twitter can be used in a variety of ways.
• Companies
Boost search engine rankings
Promotions
Recruiting
Customer Service
• People
Networking
Professional Learning
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28. Many brands are failing at using Twitter to their benefit.
• Twitter squatters are camped on their domain
• No clear strategy on how to add value
• Too personal or not personal enough
• It feels a little “odd” when a brand starts following you
• Cannot demonstrate ROI or cannot agree on how to
measure ROI
• No one cares about the brand
• No due diligence to determine if their customers use
Twitter
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29. Success Story: Dell Computers
Approach Results
• Set up multiple Twitter addresses • 50,000 followers
• Identified an individual who is • Attributed $1 million in
Dell’s “face” for social media sales to Twitter
• Pace communications: • Intercept online
@DellOutlet about 2 tweets/week conversations/
• Tweet during peak business hours comments that can be
• Not driven by building followers detrimental to brand
and volume of content published
• Low key approach – build 1 to 1
relationships with consumers and
bloggers
Source: Dell blog coverage
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30. Marketing Case Study
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31. Social Media Case Study: Breaking Point
• Industry: IT (Networking Equipment) Start Up Company
• Challenge:
Limited Budget
Target market skeptical of marketing
Niche market of hard to find professionals
• 6 point solution
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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32. Breaking Point used a targeted approach
to starting conversations.
#1: Created a blog to start and join conversations.
• Set up a blog to attract an audience
• Used tools to scan the web to locate conversations
relevant to their industry
Tweetscan
Google Alerts
Boardtracker.com
• If a relevant conversation was located, team members
weighed in
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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33. Breaking Point sought to add value
with their tweets.
#2: Created a Twitter account.
• Posted notices of new blogs, webinars, polls, trivia and
informal group questions
• Used Tweetscan to locate professionals looking for
advice on equipment testing
• Retweeted interesting information their audience would
find useful
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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34. Breaking Point quickly found that LinkedIn provided a better
vehicle than Facebook to reach its audience.
#3: Created a LinkedIn group.
• Established a group related to network test equipment
and security – not the company products or services
• Group members led conversations and added value by:
Providing vendor advice
Reviews/suggestions for industry events
Feedback on testing approaches/programs
• Ongoing moderation and contributions
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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35. Breaking Point was more strategic with
online press release efforts.
#4: Modified press release strategy to obtain blogger
coverage.
• Increased frequency of releases to 1x/week
• Shortened releases and included many links to specific
portions of the web site
• Changed release time from 8AM to early afternoon to
target West Coast bloggers
• Plugged releases using Twitter, LinkedIn group and
PitchEngine
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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36. Simple tactics were used to increase
connection to the brand.
#5: Promote social media on web site and email.
• Email signatures included links to Twitter, blog and
LinkedIn group
• News section included “Join Us” links to set up Twitter
feed and join the LinkedIn group
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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37. Measured results to assess effectiveness.
#6: Measure growth of social media accounts and web
traffic.
• Social Media Channel Growth
Blog page views
Twitter followers
LinkedIn group members
• Compared marketing metrics
Unique site visitors
Leads
Leads by source
Marketing influenced pipeline activity
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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38. The company’s social media strategy showed a correlation
between the use of social media and the company’s web
traffic and leads.
Campaign Results Leads by Pipeline
• 10,230 unique blog page Source Influencer
views in months 4-6 Web 55% 75%
• 280 Twitter followers
• 141 members in their Trade 23% 4%
LinkedIn Group Shows
• 155% increase in unique
Email 20.5% 17%
web site visitors
Seminars 1.5% 4%
Source: Marketing Sherpa
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39. Putting it all together.
“Think about integrating social media campaigns into
your marketing mix – not just experimenting with
tactics in a one-off manner.”
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40. HR Considerations
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41. Recruiting: The majority of companies are using
social networks to recruit employees.
Source: Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey; 2009
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42. Recruiting: Employers are using social networks as they
provide targeted search opportunities and it saves $$$.
Source: Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey; 2009
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43. What kind of culture do you want to create?
Open Restrictive
“No restrictions” “Outright Ban”
• Fosters culture of trust • Selective use of • No Value
• We need to recognized tools • Kills productivity
Gen Y adoption of • Recognition the
social media tools play a role in
• Typically organizations people’s lives
that have younger staff
or focus on recruiting
younger audience
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44. Social Media Readiness Assessment
Are we taking advantage of opportunities?
Are we managing the risks?
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45. Corporate Readiness
Essential Questions Yes/No
Is our management team up to speed on social media?
Have we developed corporate strategies to respond to opportunities and
risks associated with social media?
Do we have an internal policy for personal vs. corporate use of social
networks?
Have we educated our staff on how to separate their personal and
private activities on social networks?
Can our staff use social media tools productively?
Do we utilize social media for recruiting and researching candidates?
Are we prepared to market and sell using social media?
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46. Marketing/Sales Readiness
Essential Questions Yes/No
Do we have a social media marketing strategy?
Is someone on our marketing team responsible for social media?
Have we integrated social media with your marketing strategies?
Do we know what social media tools our customers are using?
Are we using LinkedIn to support the sales process?
Can we prepare an online response rapidly to a PR threat?
Do we actively monitor our reputation online?
Have we reserved Twitter addresses for your organization?
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47. Don’t sit still!
1. Conduct a self-assessment.
2. Add social media to the leadership team’s agenda.
3. Access subject matter expert to facilitate the dialog.
4. Treat this like a strategic planning exercise.
5. Identify priority areas to address.
6. Start with low risk activities and experiment to build
success stories.
7. Hold an executive sponsor accountable.
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48. Thank You!
If you have questions please contact Sandor Kiss
403.809.3488
kiss@teamthink.ca
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