Justin Flitter

Social Media for Business-interview series presents prominent Internet professionals from all over the world who are at the cutting edge of the latest Social Platforms. During this exciting and truly international interview series our experts reveal what are the most useful Social Media Tools and what you need to consider when you start using Social Media as part of  your marketing mix.

Justin Flitter is a Social Media Mentor based in Auckland, New Zealand. Justin has been a Social Media Practitioner for over 12 months. Justin’s passionate about using social media to enhance the customer experience. He connects the dots online and offline to create a more rewarding experience for the business and its audience, turning fans into influencer’s. Justin blogs at blog.flitter.co.nz.

Q1. What are the most important social media platforms at the moment?

There are only 3 that I am bothering to invest time and effort into. They are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

Trust, referrals and conversations. Advertising has changed shape. People dont want to be yelled at, they want to be apart of the conversation, sharing and engaging with that brand, learning and getting deals they might otherwise not have been exposed to.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

I measure social media through website traffic, level of engagement (# of conversations/interactions, sentiment) and sharability (how often my posts were RT’d, clicked, liked etc)

Q4. What social media platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

Thats a loaded question. First you have to listen and research to find out which platforms people are already talking about you on and go there. If there are no mentions of you go to Facebook and Twitter and start there

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

• Get the right people involved
• Listen first act second
• Integrate the online and the offline
• Follow those who engage with you
• Teach people about your product so they are smarter that your competitors customers

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

Traditional = one way

Social Media = 2 way +

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

A website is not mandatory. The question should be if your business has customers should you have a SM strategy? The answer is always yes. You work out how your business will use SM, you dont have to copy others. Even if there are zero conversations happening about your brand you have the power to start and create them. Thats driving more buzz towards your business.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

Facebook works really well for retailers and tourism businesses and not as well for B2B service businesses. Its a place for rich media content and discussions that need more than 140 characters. The advertising platform is useful for impulse marketing and is highly targeted. Plus FB covers are wider audience so you’re able to reach more people and its very easy, much easier that twitter to share content.

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Hannah Suarez

Social Media for Business -interview series presents prominent Internet professionals from all over the world who are at the cutting edge of the latest Social Platforms. During this exciting and truly international interview series our experts reveal what are the most useful Social Media Tools and what you need to consider when you start using Social Media as part of  your marketing mix.

Hannah Suarez is an Online Marketing Consultant from Brisbane Australia. Hannah is currently working as a Marketing Coordinator with Brisbane Festival (online marketing), involved with the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association’s Queensland chapter and various other consultancy projects for a variety of clients in relation to web, digital and online content.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media Platforms at the moment?

First thing to come to mind is Twitter but I think that it’s because I am using Twitter effectively, hence the preference for it, but others may not see what is so great about a site that only lets you post messages up to 140 characters long! The platforms that are most important are the ones that are dynamic, interesting, two-way, easy to analyse/monitor, mobile (as in you don’t need to be at a PC to use it), open, customisable, etc.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

It is increasingly becoming more of a two way interaction now with individuals being able to provide real-time feedback to advertising communications such as Facebook sponsored ads and more.  It is also taking place across other social media platforms or traditional is making its mark on social media.  For example, I found out about the Nescafe’s recent billboard advertising campaign on Twitter when someone made a comment about it, I saw (and loved) a TVC when it was embedded on a blog post and I helped spread it virally on to my own networks.

The effects of social media can be hyperlocal or hyperglobal, day or night, weekend or weekday. If you suck, people will talk about you. If you are awesome, people will talk about you. Miniscule or major, relevant or irrelevant, people will talk about you.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

There are numerous tools out there including: Backtype, Disqus, Addictomatic, Trendrr, Socialmention, Boardreader, DP Dialogue’s Dialogix, Wotnews and Google Alerts (though the quality of these alerts really depend on what search terms you use). Unless we are talking big numbers (ie. a million views on YouTube) I look into the quality of the reactions, whether or not the influencers are joining in the conversation and so on, to measure and analyse the effects. Some reactions to social media marketing may also be difficult to measure so another great way is to measure effectiveness is looking into specific KPI’s – like whether or not a designated hashtag becomes a trending topic or just talking to your customers and finding out how and why they are interacting with you.

Q4. What Social Media Platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

I would recommend Twitter, Blogs (internal – hosted on their domain) with a comment system such as Disqus, Facebook (Pages, Groups, Events), LinkedIn (Groups) and Vimeo (if the company has videos).

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

• What is your strategy?
• What platform/s will you be using?
• What action/s will you be implementing?
• What performance indicators will you be tracking?
• How will you monitor and analyse?
• Will you listen or join in the conversation?

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

I have never been involved in traditional marketing long enough to make a worthwhile comment about the differences between social media marketing and traditional marketing.  I know that those involved in traditional marketing are interested to expand their knowledge and skillsets into areas such as social media marketing.  As someone heavily involved in social media marketing, I am always interested to see how traditional marketing methods can work with social media.  I think that adopting this openness and interest in each other’s fields can only expand the possibilities of good and efficient marketing.

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

Yes.  Compiling a strategy – whether it is a 20 page document or a 20 word sentence – for being in the social media space will be useful for the company to articulate exactly why they are implementing social media in the first place.

Companies need to include the following questions:

• How can we engage with our audience?
• What are the key indicators that a particular action on a particular platform (at least) can benefit the company’s mission and vision?
• What are the short and long term consequence for being involved?
• What platforms should we be involved in?
• Who should be involved in these social media conversations?

Companies need to ready themselves about the implications of being in the social media space.  There are a lot of articles, professional development programs and people to talk to that can help companies use social media effectively.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

I heavily use Facebook as a social media marketing tool. Facebook is a very ‘personal’ platform so I do my best to ensure that if I were to ever market to anyone in Facebook, I would do so in the same way that I would be if I was having a conversation to a group or to an individual.  What are they interested in?  Is the information that I am providing relevant, useful or interesting for them? How can I present this information in a way that is unique to a platform such as Facebook?  I ask myself these questions while I use Facebook for the purposes that it outside the personal/hobby realm.

Facebook has a lot of features and tools that make it a great platform.  I can create a note/upload video/upload photos/write a status update and tag individuals so that they receive a notification about the note.  This has been great in terms of initiating conversations that is occurring on the platform (such as Facebook status conversations) or as an alternative to sending a media release via email.  I can create Facebook Events, -Pages and -Groups.  And then there are the gaming platforms, Facebook advertisements and so on.

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This popular reality tv-show uses Social Media Components in its marketing quite effectively. Masterchef has its own Facebook Page as well as Twitter account. The show has close to 95.000 fans on Facebook and over 6.000 followers on Twitter. They post 3.8 tweets/day approximately and have followers from all over the world. Their website (masterchef.com.au) is also built to function like a social media website or portal with social engagement features such as polls, competitions, recipes (duh..) and games. Logie Award winning judge Matt Preston has his own Facebook Page as well with over 6.000 fans.

MasterChef is on channel TEN 7.30 Sunday-Friday.

Alexei Kouleshov

Alexei Kouleshov is a managing director of Your Easy Web Solutions, which is a web design and internet marketing company. Alexei has been working with Andrew and Daryl Grant since 2004 developing their online businesses such as ebooks and membership sites. Now he is offering his knowledge to his own clients. His areas of expertise include, web 2.0, blogging, pay per click advertising, seo and developing systems to suite business processes. He is also a part of Our Internet Secrets faculty which is currently the biggest internet marketing board of marketing experts in Australia.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media Platforms at the moment?

I think that in terms of business Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are the biggest at the moment. People would actually use those platforms to interact with business owners.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

With the introduction of Social Media (Twitter specifically) big companies have really stepped down to make themselves accessible by average person. I think that it really makes communications transparent and easy.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

I personally measure just about everything on my websites with Google Analytics. It allows me to get accurate data of all the traffic that comes to the site. In the end its ROI that really matters.

Q4. What Social Media Platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

I would definitely recommend using Twitter and Facebook. They are fairly easy to setup and customize. Make sure to setup a custom background for Twitter.

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

The main thing is to be responsive. When people write on Social Media, they expect a fast response, so make sure that you respond straight away. Also, it is important to product content that is easily sharable.

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

Social media marketing is nothing like traditional marketing. The main objective is to make content easy to digest and fun to watch. With traditional marketing like TV and newspaper, people are starting to become immune to the ads, whereas with social media, its all new and attention grabbing.

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

Absolutely, I think that its easy enough to implement and you are just cutting yourself short by not doing it.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

Facebook is excellent. It has a very large responsive audience who is constantly looking for new content. I personally use Facebook Groups, Fan Pages and Social ads to promote my business and would recommend others doing the same.

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Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes is a previous two sport collegiate All-American and also the NCAA All-Division Record Holder for the most receiving yards in a single football game. Lewis Howes has founded the Sports Executives Association and SportsNetworker.com which connects sports executives around the world. Lewis also represents sports companies and professional athletes with social media marketing and branding as he has successfully translated the mental and physical tools learned in sports to the business world.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media platforms at the moment?

The major three are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but I’m of course partial to LinkedIn. It’s the best platform for business and most powerful for networking in my opinion.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

I think social media marketing has challenged some of the major brands to re-evaluate their advertising efforts. Social media is focused on transparency and humanizing the brand, something you don’t always get in advertising communication. I see social media helping shape the future of advertising.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

There are specific ways I can measure the effects, such how many people sign up for my webinar or buy an eBook. I also look at the bigger picture results such as relationships formed or connections made. These can be harder to quantify but are still important to consider.

Q4. What social media platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

It depends on what their goals are, but primarily LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for starters.

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

It is important to have a strategy from day one. Remember that not every platform is going to work for you particular business or market. Learn what works for you and be a good listener. Sometimes listening is more valuable than the message you’re putting out there.

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

Well it happens a lot quicker, so you need to be constantly engaged to keep up. In some ways it’s not that different than traditional marketing. A lot of the same rules apply; it’s just the tools and platforms that are changing. I would say that social media is more relationship driven than traditional marketing.

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

Yes, there is some value for all companies in social media. How you best utilize it depends on your particular business. You can’t expect to use the same strategy for every company. I think people get caught up on the idea of needing to launch a campaign across every platform at once. Consider what makes sense before you dive in.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

I give content that my friends want, and I stay on the top of mind with them by interacting on their wall.

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• Facebook is now topping Google for weekly traffic in US.
• Social Media has overtaken pornography as #1 activity on the web.
• Facebook added over 200.000.000 user in less than a year.
• 80% of companies use Social Media for reqruitment. 95% of these do it on LinkedIn.
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 old females.
• 90% of people watching TV skip the ads using TiVo or PVR’s.
• 60 million status updates happen on Facebook every day.
• YouTube has become the world’s second biggest search engine. It is owned by Google.
• 78% of consumers rather trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust traditional advertising.

The message of this presentation is that businesses don’t have a choice any more. It is not a question whether they want to engage in Social Media or not. The question is how well they do it?

Enjoy the updated version of the Social Media Revolution!

PS. While you were watching this video over 100 hours of new videos was uploaded to YouTube.

Check out the original Social Media Revolution video featured here.

Janne Muhonen

Social Media for Business -interview series presents prominent Internet professionals from all over the world who are at the cutting edge of the latest Social Platforms. During this exciting and truly international interview series our experts reveal what are the most useful Social Media Tools and what you need to consider when you start using Social Media as part of  your marketing mix.

Janne Muhonen is the director of New Businesses at Talentum Media in Helsinki, Finland. Talentum Media produces journals, professional literature, seminars and network content for professionals in different fields: economists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, and IT and marketing experts in both Finland and Sweden. Talentum’s media content is geared to the needs of the target groups and produced by journalists with solid professional credentials.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media Platforms at the moment?

Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin (b2b) and Twitter.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

First, social media has made advertising more personal. Second, because social media customers have become marketers. You have to be more personal and have more accurate knowledge of your target group. You have to know how they communicate (using social media). It should be considered as like any other new communication channel. At the moment its totally overhyped and in many cases it would be wiser to allocate budget to other more traditional actions.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

My opinion is that every marketing action should increase sales. If not – it is not worth it.

Q4. What social media platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

It depends on what you are marketing and to whom and where. Facebook. YouTube. Twitter.

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

Know the platform you are going use; how people (and companies) communicate there, what kind of messages get the best response. Keep that in mind but do something differently ie. be unique. Identify groups you want to affect. Learn who are the opinion leaders of chosen networks and groups. Do not fool your customers. Anyway your activities should increase your sales. Participating in social media requires goals and objectives as any other marketing action. Know what you are doing and what results you are looking for. Remember it’s a two-way media. Think it through.

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

It’s more personal, you can get closer your target. It can be very cheap if you can create message that spreads virally. Traditional marketing is from one to many. Social media marketing includes conversation between recipients and it is rather from many to many than from one to many.

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

Yes, since declining to use social media is also a decision that should be grounded in the overall business strategy. What we now call Social Media will be in near future (for some people it already is) just the way how we communicate every day. But the strategy does not have to be as heavy structured as other strategies of the company because the field of social media changes quite rapidly.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

Facebook has a lot of potential, most of it is still unused. You just have to know how to use it, old-school marketing strategies won’t work without modifications. Facebook is still trying to figure out the best way to capitalize its platform. Most of the facebook marketing campaigns are rubbish. For products, easy to buy from web, it can be considered as a working sales channel – for b2b-products not.

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Iggy Pintado

Social Media for Business -interview series presents prominent Internet professionals from all over the world who are at the cutting edge of the latest Social Platforms. During this exciting and truly international interview series our experts reveal what are the most useful Social Media Tools and what you need to consider when you start using Social Media as part of  your marketing mix.

Iggy Pintado is an accomplished and experienced business leader, executive, speaker and author from Sydney, Australia. He is an internationally recognized connection technology practitioner and a dedicated observer of societal and business models and patterns. He is also the CEO & Chief Networking Officer at ConnectGen. Let’s see what Iggy has to say about the current state of Facebook,  Social Media and Social Media Marketing.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media Platforms at the moment?

The most important social media platforms are the ones were people “go and gather”. Currently, that’s Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. From a social perspective and with 400 million members, it’s hard to overlook Facebook. From a business perspective and with 60 million members, Linkedin is a preferred business community destination. The most instantly accessible platform for both social and business networking and with 75 million users currently, it’s becoming increasingly important to establish a presence on Twitter.

Q2. How do you see Social Media has changed the advertising communication?

Social Media has made advertising communication both instant and interactive. Selling products is no longer about broadcasting a direct message in the world of social media. It’s now about creating direct connections with prospective individuals and communities (groups) of interest around your brand or company. The advertising discussion will move beyond communication to one of “connection” with people, information and experiences.

Q3. How do you measure the effects of Social Media Marketing?

At a base level, it’s number of engaged users (followers, fans, connections) directly or in groups. Secondly, there’s level of interaction – number of comments, discussions, brand mentions. Thirdly, there’s the direct correlation to web hits, clicks, orders and eventually, sales.

Q4. What social media platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

I would recommend Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. (see Q1)

Q5. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

I recommend the four P’s on online networking – PURPOSE, PROFILE, PARTICIPATION and PERSISTENCE.

Q6. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

Social Media differs in that a continued engagement is necessary with the audience of users. The outcome of initiatives and tactics can be measured directly based on user interaction. It’s instant, effective and efficient and requires a strategic plan, a structured and fully resourced implementation and specific metrics.

Q7. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

If your company has a website, you’re one of a trillion websites on the internet. If you have good search engine marketing and optimisation, your customers should be able to find you from the crowd. With social media presences, you create interactions where people “go and gather” and where they spend more time socialising. You want to be where your prospects and customers are so you can direct them directly to your website.

Q8. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

With Facebook becoming more and more pervasive, it’s imperative to have a Social Media presence there as an individual. group or fan page. There are many businesses that are establishing presences there to better engage with prospects, customers and stakeholders.

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Image - Courtesy of the Facebook Advertising Guide ISBN 978-0-9806484-7-8

The study showed a notable increase in awareness, ad recall and purchasing intent when the Facebook Ads mentioned friends of those users who have become fans of the brand in the ad. This is actually no surprise as it has been a known fact that online (or off line) peer recommendations are one of the most influential factors in brand acceptance. If a Facebook Ad coincides with an item in a user’s News Feed (for instance indicating that a friend has become a fan of a brand, artists, product etc.) the impact of the ad on awareness and recall is even more evident.

Facebook Ads on average generated 10 % increase in ad recall, 4 % increase in brand awareness and 2 % increase in purchase behavour among users who saw the ads compared with a control group with similar demographics or characteristics who didn’t see the ad.

According to Jon Gibbs, VP-media analytics at Nielsen “Paid and earned media work together in ways that could have implications well beyond Facebook. The market has been talking very much about how to buy paid media and how to earn earned media, but there’s been very little attention to the types of hybrid impressions and hybrid experience that blends these two. Facebook’s Social Ads present a fairly unique way of blending paid and earned impressions.”

Nielsen is the world’s leading marketing and media information company active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA.

Shannon Shubert

Social Media for Business -interview series presents prominent Internet professionals from all over the world who are at the cutting edge of the latest Social Platforms. During this exciting and truly international interview series our experts reveal what are the most useful Social Media Tools and what you need to consider when you start using Social Media as part of  your marketing mix.

Shannon Shubert is a Social Media Marketing Expert from SanDiego California USA. Shannon brings Social Media to small businesses all the way up to fortune 100 companies teaching them how to use Web 2.0 to save time, energy and money in free tools through social media online. Her proven techniques have saved several companies hundreds and thousands of dollars in advertising dollars.

Q1. What are the most important Social Media platforms at the moment?

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, A Blog, Friendfeed and Feedburner.

Q2. What social media platforms would you recommend to a company that is just starting their online marketing?

I would recommend Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (or some media site), A Blog, Friendfeed, Feedburner, Google Profile and Linkedin

Q3. What are the key points to remember when a business starts using Social Media?

Communication and personal responsibility, integrity, humility and being humble in business is the most important key things to remember when dealing with business on social media and networking. The difference between social media and social networking is social media is the “content” we put on our sites, and “social networking” is the relationship and communication we are building through the “content” we put on the sites. It is creating “balance”. We don’t want to ONLY put business. Be personal, open, about ourselves. This will bring us more business than we realize. Especially when we also get to know more about others and their lives outside of business.

Q4. How does Social Media Marketing differ from traditional marketing?

Social Marketing just allows us to reach more people faster, where traditional “belly up” marketing we had to meet people in a group. Set the meeting up, though it was more personal and in person, now we get to reach thousands more people faster, daily, by phone, email, online. It also allows us to share “content” daily even in our “sleep” creating leads.

Q5. Do you think every company (that has a website) should have a Social Media Strategy? Why?

YES! Frank Kern said it best! in the “State of the Internet Address” (http://masscontrolsite.com/blog/?p=65) “The next decade we are facing single biggest wave of wealth on the internet for business. We are a Global National Community.” “The rest of the World is Coming Our Way!” All businesses will be online in the next 10 years. This is why I’m a JV with GrowYourBusinessEasily.com which helps every business from brick and mortar to home businesses with online and websites and social media. Businesses are finally understanding what it means to get online. Not just getting a website, but also using social media and networking sites. And if they don’t, they will fall behind. Because the internet is NOT a fad and neither is social media. Plain and simple.

Q6. How do you see Facebook as a Social Media Marketing tool?

Facebook is a great ‘balance for social and marketing. I like to use Facebook to network my businesses but to also use Facebook to be personal and outgoing as possible and this creates a positive balance in business. I also love to use Facebook to help network others in my networks to use the “pay it forward” concept which again creates another valuable balance for me in return. facebook also has many valuable “applications to install to help feed your content from other social media sites to your Facebook helping create a “viral” effect and leaving facebook to be the MAIN platform if you wish.

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