Social Media: Find Your Voice In Social Media by Chris Abrah

1. Social Media: Find Your Voice In Social Media for Developing 21st Century Essentials: Impact Student Success by Chris Abraham Is your voice being heard through social media? Join a great and interactive discussion on the signs that your social media shout is actually getting lost in the crowd. Learn how to whisper and still be heard. The session will be led by Chris Abraham. Chris Abraham is a leading expert in digital: online reputation management (ORM), Internet privacy, social media marketing and digital PR with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement and Internet crisis response. March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

2. About Chris Abraham is a leading expert in digital: online reputation management (ORM), Internet privacy, social media marketing, and digital PR with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet crisis response. March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

3. Contact Chris Abraham, Principal Consultant chris@gerr.is +1 202-352-5051 @chrisabraham twitter.com/chrisabraham facebook.com/chrisabraham linkedin.com/in/chrisabraham google.com/+chrisabraham March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

4. Outline • Overview • Headquarters • Homesteading • Discovery • Listening • Content • Outreach • Ambassadors • Engaging • Activate • Persistence • Growth • Reporting March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

5. Overview • Social media profiles are the embassies and consulates of your brand “nation” • You need to be everywhere your clients and prospects are • You can open as many embassies as you want but be very clear • Pretty sites with good information and optimized for search are not good enough anymore • Google now demands social media success as indicator of first-page worthiness • Photo tip: “F8 and be there” • If you’re not where stuff is happening, you’ll never get the photo March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

6. HQ • All social media roads lead to “Home” • Your embassies and consulates are only as good as your nation • All marketing, direct or social, needs to be funneled to your stores, schools, or sites • Sort out your own brand identity first • “Physician, heal thyself” • Enable social media on every page of your site • Make every piece of content shareable • Promote your social media properties on every page of your site March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

7. Homesteading • You don’t own social media properties • Consider them to be “ephemeral art” • Only use social media properties for: • Triage • Activation • Engagement • Support • You (probably) don’t want to start your own • Message board if product is really “technical” March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

8. Discovery • Olly olly oxen free! • First you go to them, then they’ll come to you • Influencer- and topic- discovery tools • GroupHighwww.grouphigh.com • Little Birdwww.getlittlebird.com • InkyBeewww.inkybee.com • Googlewww.google.com • Rule 34: “If it exists, there’s porn of it” (sorry) • If it exists, there’s blog of it (seriously, anything) March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

9. Listening • Before you engage, listen • Before you join a conversation at a soiree, be sure to catch up on the topic, energy, emotion, tone • Sometimes, not engaging is best • Monitoring is excellent market research • Creeping your competitors is listening too • What are your competitors doing on social? • Why reinvent the wheel? • How can you learn from their success? Failure? • Poaching their customers is fair game, right? • All is fair in love, war, business, education, and schooling! March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

10. Content • Bees • The Internet is insatiable and the market is flat • Bees only care about color, shape, smell, iridescence • Bees will land on anything “shiny” – but will they stay? • Flowers • Create content on your own site, property, or blog • Petals • If you can’t produce content (video, audio, text, graphic) then hire a pro March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

11. Content (Cont) • Pollen • Social media sharing is like stamen covered with pollen that sticks to visiting bees only to be distributed to the fertile carpels of other flowers • Pollination • Don’t make assumptions as to how a visitor – the bee – will engage with your flower – sites & social media profiles • The child choosing the box over the toy • Cross-pollination • Aggregation-, submission-, and guest-blogs • Getting content included in Google News, etc • Or, get aggregated on a site that’s on Google News, etc. March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

12. Outreach • Advertising • Twitter and Facebook offer powerful tools • Paying money to build followers & Likes • Paying money to build lists and drive activation • Social media outreach • Search social media using industry keywords • Very easy to engage people who are natural • Blogger outreach • A-list outreach: hundreds over time • Long-tail outreach: one big blast • Buying Likes, fans, and friends, subscribers March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

13. Ambassadors • Influencers are the new sales team • Earned Influencers • Rule 34 • Seriously, if you target right, you can get help free**! • ** Free is never, ever, free – but earned, authentic, and enthusiastic ambassadors instead of “paid actors” • Paid Influencers • This is a reality • The fees differ and you’ll have to balance who they are, what they can offer, their influence and popularity, your budget, and what they’re willing to do for you. March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

14. Engaging • “Who are you and what do you want?” • Be who you are – no stealth messaging required • Don’t arrive from a place of shame or interruption • Tip: every single authentic Like & follower is a human being, with hopes, dreams, wants, fears, and passions! • Seriously, no joke – every single one of them! • Gifting • Give influencers what they want and not what you want to give them • Doesn’t have to be a thing, can be access, information, networking, exclusive news, etc. • “What’s in it for me?” • “One man's trash is another man's treasure” March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

15. Activate • After all this flirting, make a move! • What do you want? • Donations? Buzz? Followers? Attention? Buzz? • What do you want them to do? • Sign a petition, make a call? Follow your profile? • How do you reward them? • Contests? Recognition? Raffle? Bragging rights? • How do you define success? • Growing your list? Increasing your influence? March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

16. Persistence • The biggest mistake digital marketers make is to stop well short of being annoying • If you’re not getting a little pushback, you’re not yet pushing hard enough • “Fortune favors the bold” • Cases-in-point: • Obama direct email campaign • Again, and again, and again… and $690 million • Long-tail blogger outreach • Pitching thee times • 1st: 20%; 2nd: 60%; 3rd: 20% • Any more resulted in blowback March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

17. Growth • Churn happens in social media membership • The moment you hit a number through prospecting new members, you’ll start losing them • “If you're not growing, you're dying”—Anthony Robbins • The Law of Large Numbers is the digital marketer’s friend • Theories of “large numbers” or “right followers” • You should aim at both: the best & the most March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

18. Reporting • The proof is in the pudding • What metrics define success for you? • Volume? • Mentions? • Sales? • Conversions? • Donations? • Followers? • There are plenty of tools: • Sysomos (MAP & Heartbeat) www.sysomos.com • SDL SM2www.sdlsm2.com • Lithium Social Webwww.lithium.com • Spredfastwww.spredfast.com March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.

19. Any Questions? Chris Abraham, Principal Consultant chris@gerr.is +1 202-352-5051 @chrisabraham twitter.com/chrisabraham facebook.com/chrisabraham linkedin.com/in/chrisabraham google.com/+chrisabraham March 7, 2014, Washington, D.C.