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

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Facebook

iPod

Internet

Radio

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 à Rankings à Clicks à 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 (only a starting point, not of real value)

¤  NutshellMail (daily email summary)

¤  Bufferapp.com

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

¤  Twentyfeet.com (analytics)

¤  Crowdbooster

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