Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy

Aug 12, 2009 - 12:00 pm 0 by

Below is live coverage of the Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy from the SES San Jose 2009 conference.

This coverage is provided by Keri Morgret of Strike Models & Barry Schwartz of the Search Engine Roundtable.

We are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage. You can interact with us and while we are live blogging, so feel free to ask us questions as we blog. We will publish the archive below after the session is completed.

Small Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little Guy(08/12/2009) 
9:03 Barry Schwartz:  Session should be starting any minute now...
9:04 Keri Morgret:  What if you could conduct market research, organize focus groups and build your customer base all without spending a dime? Thanks to social media, you can. Small businesses around the world are acquiring loyal customers, gaining valuable insight and boosting business by pounding the social media pavement. Find out how small companies with even smaller budgets can freely tap the world of social media to improve business and increase sales.

* Moderator:
Stoney deGeyter, President, Pole Position Marketing
Click to close
Speaker Profile

* Speakers:
Jennifer Evans Laycock, Director of Marketing, SiteLogic
Ron Jones, President/CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
Billie Jo Waara, Director of Account Planning and Research, Lawrence & Schiller
9:05 Keri Morgret:  Jennifer Evans Laycock is the first person up this morning as we all try to focus for the first session of the morning after the night before (Search Bash).
9:05 Keri Morgret:  She's speaking about Social Media Conversations
9:05
9:07 Barry Schwartz:  It is about "Conversations"
9:07 Barry Schwartz:  Don't worry about being the first to the "next big thing" in social media. It is not about being first.
9:08 Barry Schwartz:  Example, everyone jumped to Plurk, the Twitter like tool. But no one really uses Plurk now.
9:08 Barry Schwartz:  Many of these social media sites that launch are going to go away, so spend your time wisely.
9:09 Barry Schwartz:  Social media is essential now, in the recession. Consumers hunt for info and feedback and they are being influenced by these social media conversations.
9:09 Barry Schwartz:  Social Media Launch Points:
9:10
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9:10 Barry Schwartz:  (1) Flickr is the first she talks about
9:10 Barry Schwartz:  Flickr is all visual, she said.
9:10 Barry Schwartz:  Flickr is much deeper then storing your photos, there are communities there.
9:10 Barry Schwartz:  FLickr works so well, because we are visual people.
9:11 Barry Schwartz:  Example: If you read a blog post with a picture, it adds a tremendous value to the text around it.
9:11 Keri Morgret:  If you do ANYTHING visual, use Flickr.
9:12 Barry Schwartz:  Laycock gives an example fo scubba diving, but lets use this http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=perseids&m=tags
9:13 Barry Schwartz:  She uses flickr for traffic generation and she said the engagement rates are huge from Flickr (huge conversions).
9:14 Keri Morgret:  Engagement rates for visits from Flickr was very high. She gives example of pictures of bento boxes with link to how to create that paticular lunch.
9:14
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9:14 Barry Schwartz:  (2) Twitter

To her, Twitter is a big poster board of post notes
9:15 [Comment From @DavidGeere]
When you say "Flickr (huge conversions). " what type of conversion? Enquiry, visitors, product sales etc?
9:15 Barry Schwartz:  You can then specify which posted notes you want to see and even search them
9:15 Barry Schwartz:  Twitter is a great way to learn about the blogger you want to reach out to.
9:16 Barry Schwartz:  You can learn a little bit about these people and make some type of connection.
9:16 Barry Schwartz:  She discusses how to retweet
9:16 Barry Schwartz:  Retweeting can be very powerful in driving traffic
9:17 Barry Schwartz:  Twitter can also get you feedback and conversational insight into any topic
9:17 Barry Schwartz:  Why Twiter?

  • News outlet
  • Advisories
  • Sales
  • Events
  • COnsumer Insight
  • Target Insight
  • Intital Contact
  • Networking
  • Personal Insight
9:18 Barry Schwartz:  (3) She is now skipping over YouTube slides

It is a great way to get videos viral quickly
9:19 Barry Schwartz:  Value Triangle of social media:
9:19
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9:20 Barry Schwartz:  The more people you follow and the more tweets, the harder it is to form a conversation.
9:21 Barry Schwartz:  cool slides

9:22 Barry Schwartz:  The Wheel of Misinfo:
9:22
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9:23 Barry Schwartz:  Billie Jo Waara is now up.
9:24
9:24 Barry Schwartz:  Step 1: Define your goal
9:25 Barry Schwartz:  If your goal is to increase recognition, then we are talking about brand awarness
9:25 Barry Schwartz:  Ifyour goal is about getting positive opinions, then we are talking about sentiment
9:26 Barry Schwartz:  Goal is increase traffic to my web site, then that is about engagement
9:26 Barry Schwartz:  If goal is to increase sales, then we are talking about conversions
9:26 Barry Schwartz:  If your goal is to communicate with customers, then that is building relationships
9:26 Barry Schwartz:  This normally happens in this order
9:27 Barry Schwartz:  Step 2: Set the bar
9:28 Barry Schwartz:  : If your goal is to increase recognition, then we are talking about brand awarness the metric is then to set what your friends number is now, also how many conversations or mentions u get, or branded keyword search volume and your viral reach
9:29 Barry Schwartz:  A tool to measure brand awareness is SocialMention.com
9:30 Barry Schwartz:  IF your goal is positive opinions, then listen and respond to people, tool such as twitrratr helps with this.
9:31 Barry Schwartz:  Goal is increase traffic to my web site then you look at site traffic, like google analytics to measure this, but u can also use compete.com to see this data.
9:32 Barry Schwartz:  Goal to increase sales, you look at registration forms, sales data and use google analytics to measure these.
9:33 Barry Schwartz:  Set up a google analytics sales funnel
9:33
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9:34 Barry Schwartz:  Goal to communicate with customers then measure volume of conversations, value of them and what conversations u initated.
9:34
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9:34 Barry Schwartz:  Step 3: Excute the Plan
9:35 Barry Schwartz:  Side note, Keri is having major Wifi issues, I am not using the wifi.
9:36 Barry Schwartz:  They use a tool, i think named, Radiant 6, which pulls in convos
9:36 Barry Schwartz:  That is it, she is done, who is next? Sealed
9:38 Barry Schwartz:  Next up, Ron Jones of Symetri
9:38
9:39 Barry Schwartz:  HE defines social media. :)
9:41 Barry Schwartz:  Process: Listen -> Engage -> Measure
9:42 Barry Schwartz:  Listen:
  • Foundation for a social media program
  • Find key influencers, follow them
  • Listen to customers, prospects and influencers
  • What poeple are saying about you, your compeitors
  • What are your customers needs and wants
9:44 Barry Schwartz:  Resources for Listening:
  1. Technorati
  2. Google blog search
  3. Social Mention
  4. Delicious
  5. Twitter Grader
  6. Tweet Reach
  7. Wefollow
  8. Boards Reader
  9. Board Tracker
9:44 Keri Morgret:  A lot more people have wandered in in the 45 minutes since the session started.
9:45 Keri Morgret:  He's giving an example of using Urban Spoon to find a local Thai restaurant yesterday.
9:47 Barry Schwartz:  He shows off some iPhone apps like Urban Spoon and Yelp, what about my kosher app http://www.rustybrick.com/iphone/kosher/ ;-)
9:49 Barry Schwartz:  Reputation Management:
  • Found a negative comment in forums and on twitter
  • Reached out to disgruntled customers
  • Honestly acknowledgd the problem
  • Offered to fix the problem
  • Result, negaitve customer became a big advocate of the company
  • Be careful with your approach
9:50 Barry Schwartz:  Engage:
  • Take active part of the conversation
  • Set up accounts with Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Viral Campaign, Social Sharing
9:52 Keri Morgret:  Giving example of YouTube and will it blend
9:52 Barry Schwartz:  Measurement:
  • Take the time to measure and track these campaigns
  • Measure traffic, engagement, sales/leads, awareness and mentions
9:56 Keri Morgret:  People want to know they're talking to a real person.
9:57 Barry Schwartz:  Q&A Time
9:58 Barry Schwartz:  Testing from mobile
9:59 Barry Schwartz:  Okay, see you in the next session in about 45 minutes... "Search on a Dime"
9:59
 

 

 

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