Social Media: Time To Get In The Conversation

Alex Lawrence: Vice Provost – Weber State University

Twitter: @_AlexLawrence (underscore before my name)

LinkedIn: /AlexOnLinkedIn

Facebook: /AlexLawrence

Blog: StartupFlavor.com

Google+: Gplus.am/Alex

Street Cred – Social Media

47,000+ Twitter Followers (Top 5 in Utah)

4,700+ Facebook Friends (public account)

50,000+ Blog Readers/Subscribers (active in 2011)

2,600+ LinkedIn Connections

1,000+ FourSquare Friends

1,000+ mobile apps downloaded

Average 1,300+ clicks per link and 100K+ views per post

Which Networks and Profiles?LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube & FourSquare

50M Users Put In Perspective

Facebook

iPod

Internet

Radio

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Years

Twitter Stats

200M registered users

Adding 500,000 per day

200 million unique visitors per month

150 million tweets per day

1 billion tweets per week

Largest VC raise in history = $800M

Facebook Stats

750+ million active users

50% log on once per day

130 friends

250 million active mobile users per month

30 billion pieces of content (links, news, blog posts, photos)

70% of Facebook users are outside of the United States

Instagram Stats

7 million users & 150 million photos uploaded in 9 months

80% applied filters

Took Flickr 2 years to get to 100 million photos

Only on iOS!

4 employees

Mobile Market Stats

Average teen sends 1500 texts per month

76% of all phone subscribers use texting

2.3 trillion texts sent in 2010

With only 19% smartphone market penetration

Over 500,000 iPhone apps, 37% are free

Within 5 years, mobile internet access > desktop access

17% of Time Spent Online = Social

Twitter and Facebook Users Under Age 35:

27% check status and post updates 10+ times per day

40% post updates while driving

30% use while on dates

64% post updates at work

Advertising $ Follow Eyeballs

1995 2010

Global Internet Ad Revenue

$55MM $90B

Ad Revenue Per User $9 $86

Global Internet Users

6MM 2.2B

Investors, Partners and Mentors

AngelList (8,000 introductions, 400 investments)

Due diligence on you via social – billboard worthy?

Can you connect with customers?

Talk to people you wouldn’t normally have access to Mark Suster (iActionable intro) Hank Haney (golf tips from Tiger Woods coach) Robert Scoble (introduction to potential partner) Chad OchoCinco (cell phone number) CBR Venture Capitalist ($20M raise) Scott Anderson (Zion’s Bank CEO)

How Do I Use Social For Business?

Be yourself

Don’t do or say something you wouldn’t mind sharing with an investor, employer or partner

Customers talk to each other online

It’s not a commercial

Real photos, custom backgrounds, detailed info

Be yourself

Convinced? Ok, At Least Try…

LinkedIn is a MUST 100% profile complete Use current photo Make sure everything is accurate Get recommendations Actively seek out connections in areas related to interests Investors, employers and partners will check you out here Paid account shows you who looks at your profile Keep it up to date IT IS YOUR RESUME

Activity Equals Influence

Either in or out

Animals smell fear – customers smell insincerity

Listen and Engage

Time – no quick fix, no quick results

Klout = free stuff

SEO value Rankings Clicks Customers

Encourage employees to be social, don’t block it!

Suggestions and Tools

Send out using a scheduling tool like Bufferapp.com

**Connect other networks (Twitter to LinkedIn, etc.)

Be sure to reply to people where they replied to you

Use a mobile application to share “live” updates

Setup keyword searches and join conversations

Suggestions and Tools

Tweetdeck (demo)

Klout (not perfect, but can be helpful)

NutshellMail (daily email summary)

Bufferapp.com

Google+ (many leaving to focus solely on this network)

Twentyfeet.com (analytics)

Crowdbooster

Where and What?

Let’s discuss which ones for you – Q&A About what? How often? Links to curated content Photos One entry point connected to multiple exit points Consistency Authenticity

Where and What?

Which networks don’t you like, get or understand? FourSquare Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Tumblr Google+ Klout Others?

Takeaways

Social media is not a toy for kids

It is not a fad

If you aren’t actively engaged now, you are behind

Employers, partners, investors and customers are there

The great equalizer

You will need to use it for most businesses

Remember This…

“Realize that the social media success equation isn’t big moves on the chess board, it’s little moves, made every day that eventually add up to a major shift.” -Jay Baer

Homework

Setup a Twitter, Facebook or Google+ account (you choose, but has to be new or less frequent)

Customize your profile in every aspect (name, photo, bio, links, background, etc.)

Start following, friending, circling people who are interesting but that you do not know. Also be sure to friend/follow/etc. me where you approve.

Engage in 5 “conversations” about a professional topic of your choice with an influencer (Klout score over 65) – excluding Alex. Conversation = multiple replies.

Copy/paste links to these conversations, email them with 2 paragraphs describing your +/- value of the interaction