This document provides tips for using social media, particularly LinkedIn and Twitter, for business purposes. It discusses how to establish an online presence, engage in conversations, grow networks, use groups, and track results. The key points are to understand your audience, develop a strategy, regularly post valuable content, and find ways to measure performance. Social media is a powerful marketing tool when used effectively for B2B lead generation, branding, and sales.

1. Before we start there’s this
And we’re giving away FREE Stuff, but
you have to sign up first
http://sqz.co/Gp9z7KF
and for mobile

2. Social Media Workshop for B2B
A master class on Social Media in the B2B space, what works,
what doesn't, and how to do it yourself.
Feb 28, 2013
AgencyFour
Presented by: George Giles | Founder & Senior Partner
Company http://agencyfour.com / LinkedIn http://sqz.co/q5ZPc86
On Twitter use #socialTLV
or @agencyfour to ask questions

3. Social Media is a
Powerful
Real time
Interactive
Marketing Tool

4. Social Media SECRETS

5. 1. Hard Work
2. Understanding
your audience
3. Strategy
4. Execution
5. Tracking

6. LinkedIn Top Social Tool for Business
More than 8 in 10 companies listed on the 2012 Inc. 500
(81% of them) use LinkedIn*
- Up from 73% in 2012
Facebook has declined to 67%
- Down from 74% in 2011
Does that mean you have to use LinkedIn or other sites?
No, each business has unique goals and customers that
require the right tools and strategy
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

7. The Rise and Fall of Social Media in Business
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

8. The Rise and Fall of Social Media in Business
Blogging 44% publish a blog (up 37%)
- Software, advertising/marketing, and media companies
were the most likely to blog
- Government services organizations were least likely
YouTube use fell to 30% (down from 45%)
Pinterest use at 18% (not tracked in 2011)
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

9. Real Value of Social Media to Inc. 500 companies
How central is social marketing to business growth:
- 27% say social tools have been very necessary
- 35% somewhat necessary
- 24% somewhat Unnecessary
- 15% very Unnecessary
Keep in mind we don’t know their:
- Strategies
- Audience
- Work effort
- Goals or Tracking
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

10. ROI (Return on Investment) of Social Media
Only one-third (34%) of the 2012 Inc. 500 report having the
ability to determine financial return on social media
investments.
Among that third, 19% say social media has helped them
cut recruiting costs.
Keep in mind we don’t know if or how they are tracking
Source: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

11. Does your business NEED a social media presence?
APPLE doesn’t
But we’re not Apple – few companies are

12. Why should we use social media in B2B?
Power + Reach
The goal is not follows & likes
It is about leads and sales
• Social media = another chance to reach a user
• We don’t need to own, pay, or build the social media
infrastructure in order to participate
• React quickly to questions or opportunities
• Low barrier to entry
• Supports branding
• Establishes expertise
• Drives in-bound traffic
• Targeting by demographic & geographic profile

13. Social media VS Other Marketing Tools
• Direct Mail, Telemarketing, or Email Marketing:
We need to own, rent, or have a list
• Paid Advertising
We have to pay to promote our business to the audience
Once we stop paying the traffic stops
• Event Marketing
We have to physically attend to participate and usually with a
significant investment of time, money, and staff
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO takes time to implement & see results

14. Social media networks
• What social media networks are you familiar with?

15. Social media networks
43 Things English, baby! hi5 My Opera StumbleUpon
Academia.edu
Advogato
aNobii
Epernicus
Eons.com
eToro
Hospitality Club
Hotlist
HR.com
Myspace
Nasza-klasa.pl
Netlog
Tagged
Talkbiznow
Taltopia
199 top sites
AsianAvenue
aSmallWorld
Athlinks
Experience Project
Exploroo
Facebook
Hub Culture
Hyves
Ibibo
Nexopia
NGO Post
Ning
Taringa!
TeachStreet
TermWiki
(Feb 2013)
Audimated.com Faceparty Identi.ca Odnoklassniki The Sphere
Bebo Faces.com Indaba Music Open Diary TravBuddy.com
BIGADDA Fetlife IRC-Galleria Orkut Travellerspoint
Biip.no
BlackPlanet
FilmAffinity
Filmow
italki.com
Itsmy
OUTeverywhere
PatientsLikeMe
tribe.net
Trombi.com
Reported Network Size
Blauk
Blogster
Bolt.com
FledgeWing
Flixster
Flickr
iWiW
Jaiku
Jiepang
Partyflock
Pingsta
Pinterest
Tuenti
Twitter
Tylted
5,017,628,477
Busuu Focus.com Kaixin001 Plaxo Vkontakte
Buzznet Fotki Kiwibox Playfire Vampirefreaks.com
CafeMom Fotolog Lafango Playlist.com Viadeo
Care2 Foursquare LAGbook Plurk Virb
CaringBridge Friendica LaiBhaari Qapacity Vox
Classmates.com Friends Reunited Last.fm Quechup Wakoopa
Cloob Friendster LibraryThing Qzone Wattpad
CouchSurfing Frühstückstreff Lifeknot Raptr WAYN
CozyCot Fubar LinkedIn Ravelry WeeWorld
Cross.tv Fuelmyblog LinkExpats Renren Wellwer
Crunchyroll FullCircle Listography ReverbNation.com WeOurFamily
Cyworld Gaia Online LiveJournal Ryze Wepolls.com
DailyBooth GamerDNA Livemocha ScienceStage Wer-kennt-wen
DailyStrength Gapyear.com Makeoutclub ShareTheMusic weRead
delicious Gather.com MEETin Shelfari Wiser.org
deviantART Gays.com Meetup (website) Sina Weibo Wooxie
Diaspora* Geni.com Meettheboss Skoob WriteAPrisoner.com
Disaboom GetGlue MillatFacebook Skyrock Xanga
Dol2day Gogoyoko mixi SocialVibe XING
DontStayIn Goodreads MocoSpace Sonico.com Xt3
Draugiem.lv Goodwizz MOG SoundCloud Yammer
douban Google+ MouthShut.com Spaces Yelp, Inc.
DXY.cn GovLoop Mubi Stickam Zoo.gr
Elftown Grono.net MyHeritage StudiVZ Zooppa
Elixio Habbo MyLife Students Circle Network

16. Top Social Media Networks
What are the top social networks with over

17. Top Social Media Networks 100+ million users
Facebook 1+ billion United States
Tencent QQ 784+ million China
Qzone 597+ million China
Sina Weibo 503+ million China
Google+ 500+ million United States
Twitter 500+ million United States
WeChat 300+ million China
VK 190+ million Russia
LinkedIn 200+ million United States
Renren 160+ million China
Odnoklassniki 148+ million Russia
Windows Live 100+ million United States
Pinterest * 48.7 million United States
*Pinterest was ranked as the third most popular social media network
in the United States by visitor traffic (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
Source: Hitwise

18. Top B2B Social Media Networks
Dedicated professional networking site
200 million registered users
Founded May 2003
Focus: Business
Micro blogging site for B2C and B2B
Over 500 million active users
Founded March 2006
Focus: Everything
Social networking service for B2C and B2B
Over 1 billion active users
Founded February 2004
Focus: Heavily consumer focused
Social networking service for B2C and B2B
Over 500 million active users
Founded June 2011
Focus: Everything

19. Social Media Conversations
There are two types of conversations:
• One way conversation
• Two way conversation

20. One Way Conversations
Your audience isn’t listening or is listening but not responding
Your audience is talking but you’re not listening or responding

21. One Way Conversations 2012
You are not talking to your audience

22. One way Conversations 2013
You are not talking to your audience
That is ALL her posts

23. Two way Conversations
You and your audience participate in
a back and forth conversation

24. The POWER of Listening
Once you join a social network there is
an idea that “if you build it they will
come”. Unfortunately that doesn’t
work for all business’.
Look for mentions about your business,
questions in your realm of expertise,
and related news that you can offer a
unique insight to. Monitor your social
channels for conversations to
participate in and for conversations
aimed at you.
Act fast or risk losing the opportunity.

25. Types of content to Post
• Interviews
• Lists
• Resource Centers
• Polls and Surveys
• Revisions/Updates
• Reviews
• Comparisons
• Rants
(Carefully worded and thought out rants)
• News
• Case Studies
• Tell a Story
• Predictions
• Stupid & Funny
• Contests
• Pricing
• Guest Posts

26. Strategy
1. Drive sales
2. Drive lead generation
3. Establish expertise
4. Expand your network
5. Promote live events
6. Support existing customers
7. Find new promotional opportunities

27. Introduction to LinkedIn*
200+ million registered users
•47.6% of users use LinkedIn 0-2 hours per week
• 26% use it from 3 to 4 hours a week
• 12.2 % use it for 5-6 hours per week
(that is nearly 1,400 minutes per month)
• 76.9% of users say LinkedIn helped them research people and companies
• 68.8% said that it helped reconnect with past business associates
• 49.7% said it was good for building new network relationships with individuals
who may influence potential customers
* Research data from Powerformula.net

28. WHY should we use LinkedIn for Business?
By building up a personal brand the account will:
- Establish trust from skills & recommendations
- Establish expertise
- Be found more in searches
- Get more invites to connect
- Find more opportunities
- Be exposed to a larger
network to promote to, hire from, and work with

29. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
Define a company expert
- Skip the paid LinkedIn account
- Complete the basics (profile, add, join relevant groups)
- Add Skills then get people to endorse you with keywords
- Get recommendations

30. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
Get skills endorsed
Send an email to your followers
“Greetings, valued LinkedIn connection -
A quick, one-click favor to ask of you. Can you endorse just one of my skills on my LinkedIn
profile? The link's below for your convenience.
Why would you do this? Simple - I'll be reciprocating a skill endorsement on your profile as
well. We both benefit in terms of better visibility and credibility on this great resource we
use.
Visit me @ http://il.linkedin.com/in/marketingconsultantisrael
Thanks for your support,
George “

31. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
- Answer questions in groups
- Ask questions in groups
- Use your LinkedIn URL in
your email signature
- Set up saved keyword searches
for your groups to get an email alert
- Research competitors and their LinkedIn activity

32. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
Grow Your Network
The easiest people to add are Human Resources
and Headhunters. They also tend to have the
largest networks.
Then add open networkers (LIONS) who will add
you back.
CAUTION: Once you add someone they can see your
email address and email you. Use a disposable email
account (Gmail) to deal with any spam.

33. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
Competitors
If you want to know what your competitors are up to on
LinkedIn, add them as a connection.
CAUTION: Once connected you can see their activity, their
connections, their groups and vice versa. It’s best to
connect to them with someone’s account from your
company that isn’t very active on LinkedIn, thus protecting
your activity and connections.

34. How to use LinkedIn for Business?
Set up a Company Page
- Add products/services
- Add a YouTube video and sales contact
- Add links back to your site
- Post updates
- Set up your own LinkedIn group related to your target
audience

35. LinkedIn Groups
What can we do with LinkedIn Groups?
LinkedIn groups are organized by topics, professions, regions,
interests, etc.
You can use LinkedIn Groups to/for:
- Lead generation
- Promote your business/service
- Promote press release, events, white papers, articles,
webinars, news, products, websites, newsletters, surveys, and
more and more and more
- Establish yourself as a topic expert
- Network
- Find leads/jobs/partnerships
- Find employees and consultants

36. LinkedIn Groups
What can we do with LinkedIn Groups?
You can write someone that you share a LinkedIn Group with
even if they aren’t a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd connection.
Go to the group, Members, Scroll through the list, then you’ll
see “Send Message” to the right of their name. Messages can
include email and website address’.

37. LinkedIn Groups
What can we do with LinkedIn Groups?
Adding connections from LinkedIn Groups is very easy because
you don’t need to have their email address.
To improve your changes of getting
accepted as a connection:
-Complete your profile
-Write a relevant invite message
- Personalize the invite message
with something other then the
generic message

38. LinkedIn Groups
What can we do with LinkedIn Groups?
Set up your own LinkedIn groups around a topic or profession.
People will join the group over time.
Benefits:
- Lead generation
- Networking
- Promote your business / service
To successfully build your group up; participate regularly, add
content that has value, engage with questions, don’t sell, don’t
spam, control who joins and what they post, add users as
connections, and promote through your own expertise and
topic knowledge.

39. Paid LinkedIn Accounts:
Inmails, saved profiles, more in-depth search
functions, profile analytics for people who
viewed your account and the keywords they
used to find you.

40. Tracking:
Tracking campaigns and posts on LinkedIn is a challenge, especially when it crosses
over to the LinkedIn mobile app. Here are two free ways to track:
One of the most basic methods of tracking any links that you post is by using
shortened URLS. You can customize the link for each group you post to by using a
query string ?=group1 at the end of the URL, like so
http://link.com/homepage.asp?=group1 Then add that to a URL shortening service
like bit.ly to get the short URL.
Do make sure that you test these URLs before you use them to ensure they are
compatible with your system!
The second method is to use landing pages, conversion pages, sign-up pages, along
with Google Analytics. The specific page will only be used for the campaign so you
know where the traffic came from. From analytics you can see the incoming landing
pages, number of conversion, along with referral traffic sources, geography, time on
site, bounces, etc.

41. Use Twitter to:
• Post news relevant to your company
• Post special offers or discounts to drive sales
• Post events to provide real time updates
• Post questions or ideas to get immediate feedback
• Follow important industry figures influencers/media
• Tweet about things that interest you, and have fun
with it! Your customers might appreciate getting to
know you as a real person, not just a brand.

42. Twitter Tips:
• SEE what other businesses are doing on Twitter
• USE Twitter search engines for keyword searches around brands,
products and topic of interest
• FOLLOW Twitterers with similar interests to establish a brand
presence within the conversation
• START a conversation
• DEDICATE time to Twitter. Having more than one employee on Twitter
will ensure an ongoing company presence. Spread your messages out
over the day, don’t bunch them up.
• ASK questions and get feedback from your followers

43. Twitter Tips:
• Retweet content from clients and news
which keeps the account active and will
gather followers
• Use #hash tags to start topic groups
• Talk directly to people (conversation)
• Don't discuss sensitive information
• Link to outside content
• Live tweet from events
• Avoid using ALL CAPS
• Don’t SPAM
• Check frequently
• Have a STRONG password
• Post pictures and videos

44. When to use Twitter for business:
Do you post on the weekend?
OR
Is this you on the weekend?

45. When to use Twitter:
Twitter engagement rates for brands (B2B & B2C
mixed) are 17% higher* on Saturday and Sunday
compared to weekdays.
On average, only 19% of the brands’ tweets were
published on the weekend. If a brand spaced its
tweets out evenly throughout the week, then
28.6% should occur on the weekends.
Look at your website analytics to see how much
traffic you get on the weekends, it will be an
indicator for when you should be on social media.
*Source: Buddy Media | June 2012

46. When to use Twitter:
Tweets published during “busy hours” (8 a.m. and 7 p.m ) performed best
with 30% higher engagement rates than those that occurred after-hours.
Twitter posts on “non-busy hours” get 24% lower engagement.
Keep in mind the time zone of your audience to post on their time.
If you have to post bad news schedule it to post on Saturday in the
middle of the night (2am ). That way the least amount of people will see
it.
*Source: Buddy Media | June 2012

47. Twitter Best Practices:
- Keep Tweets to less than 100 characters
- They get a 17% higher engagement rate than longer tweets
- Tweets with links have an 86% higher retweet rate than Tweets sans
links
- Make sure the link works before you post it. In 92% of cases, Buddy
Media determined it was because they didn’t insert a space before the
linkhttp://mylink.com We also find people add a period . after the link
Check out this great link http://mylink.com.
- Be part of the conversation, but respond quickly and think about your
reply carefully, even a negative Tweet about your company could have
benefit
- Don’t always follow the rules, see what your audience needs and adapt
*Source: Buddy Media | June 2012

48. Twitter Best Practices:
- Tweets with hashtags get 2x the engagement of those without, only
24% of tweets during the time of the study used them
- Using 1 or 2 hashtags is fine, but if you add a 3rd, you’ll see an average
17% drop-off in engagement
- Posts with images have double the engagement of those without even
though users can’t see them until they click on them. We’ve found
images with human faces get more engagement then other types of
pictures.
- If you ask followers to “RT,” you’ll get a 12X higher retweet rate than if
you don’t
- If you spell out the word “retweet” that figure jumps to 23X
- Search for mentions of your company, brand, products
*Source: Buddy Media | June 2012

49. Twitter Strategies: Content
- Provide good content & users will share it
- Use webinars and whitepapers to educate and PULL traffic
- Always push/pull people back to your site
- Respond to questions quickly
- Celebrate your users (praise loyal fans and thank them)
- Follow quality people
- Get a good mix of business and personal (60/40)
Goal
- To be the expert
- Branding
- Lead Generation
- Quality Traffic

50. 2012 vs. 2013 activity for Adam Sandler on Twitter (it’s the same)

51. What not to do
1. McDonald's Promoted Trend Goes Wrong
January 2012, McDonald's ran a paid promoted trend using the hash tag
#mcdstories
Users posted their horror stories. McDonald’s had no recourse.
McDonald's later admitted that "#mcdstories did not go as planned.“
What can we learn = Think your campaign through!

52. What not to do
2. Bad Timing = Insensitive
American Rifleman posted this tweet during a shooting spree at a movie theater in
Colorado.
What can we learn = Check to see what’s going on online and apologize when
necessary.

53. What not to do
3. Mixing up public and private accounts
Kitchen Aid’s social media staff mixed up their Twitter accounts and
posted from the company’s account instead
Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad!
She died 3 days b4 he became president.
#nbcpolitics
What can we learn = Check to see where you’re posting from and/or don’t post
something offensive.

54. What not to do
4. Working with the wrong people
Macy’s partnership with Donald Trump was put to the social media test when
Donald offered to pay $5 million for President Obama’s college records and passport
information. Macy’s Facebook and Twitter pages were bombarded with anti-trump
protests. Macy’s gave in and broke ties with Donald.
What can we learn = Be cautious of who you align your business with.

55. What not to do
5. Using an easy password
This month alone the following companies had their passwords compromised and
someone else had control of their accounts.
What can we learn = Use a really hard password, make sure only the right people
have it, change it on a schedule, don’t click on any suspicious links in messages.

56. The Negative
1: Respond quickly and professionally the first you hear of
something negative
When it comes to social media, silence is often louder than
words.
2: Be Genuine
If your customer thinks the brand wronged them in some way
take care of the problem, respond immediately, look into it,
and follow-up. If there is responsibility that needs to be
accepted then OWN it and let your customers know. On social
media it’s just not one customer that is listening, it could be the
entire world.

57. The Negative
3: Embrace criticism and run with it
Listen, ask, listen again, ACT … then do it all over again. THAT
is how you turn criticism into the chance for ongoing
relationships and a better relationship with your audience
4: If it’s someone else's negative
it’s an opportunity
Oreo used the Super Bowl blackout
to bid on the keyword and promote
themselves with humor
YOU CAN STILL DUNK IN THE DARK

58. Set up a Facebook
Company Page
• Complete your profile
• Share relevant content
from blogs, news, etc
• Upload pics and videos
to tag and send
• Assume anything posted can be seen by everyone
• Don't put anything up there you wouldn't be
comfortable with
• Add ALL of your Social Media links to your profile so
people can find you
• Be fun and interesting

59. Facebook: Private Groups
- Private groups are not
searchable through Facebook
- People must friend the admin
and then be approved to join
- Discussions are closed and
not indexed or shop in results
Benefits
- Customer group discussions
- Online focus groups
- Engage a targeted vertical
- VIP group

60. Facebook: Best Practices
- Facebook uses “pay to play” to reach 100% of your followers
- We typically see a reach of 10-15% of likes seeing the message
- Don’t post from third party systems, as Facebook will purposely
reduce your exposure potential
- Post through Facebook whenever possible
- Post with images, human faces perform better
- Don’t always follow the rules, see what your audience needs and
adapt
- Search for mentions of your company, brand, products
- Post during your target audiences business hours

61. Google+
- 500 million users*
- Active users are mostly male and tech first adopters
(engineers, programmers, IT)
RJ Metrics reports*:
- 30% of users who make a public post once never do so again
- Average post on Google+ has less than one reply, reshare and +1
- There’s a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again even after
posting publicly five times.
- Average time between posts is 12 days for active users.
- The average number of public posts per active users declines steadily
month after month.
*Source: Google
(200 million as of June 2012)
**Source: RJ Metrics

62. Google+
RJ Metrics reports*:
In contrast, a report found that:
52% of Facebook users and 33% of Twitter users engage
with the platform daily
Score found** that Google+ users spent an average of 3.3 minutes on the site in
January vs. 7.5 hours for Facebook.
Does this mean it should be ignored?
No. If your target audience is male early adopters then it has value. Treat it like
Facebook, since most people use it for non-professional purposes.
It also has value for SEO since Google includes Google+ results in it’s results at a
far higher rate then it should organically.
*Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
**Source: Score

63. Social Advertising
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all have ad options:
Facebook:
Targeted banner ads, sponsored stories
Costs start at a penny
Promoted Posts
LinkedIn:
Targeted ads & video ads
Minimum $10 a day
Twitter:
Promoted Tweets targets a specific tweet with keywords
Promoted Account
Promoted Trends ($200k a day)
Enhanced Profile Pages
Still early in the rollout – USA only
Minimum spend $5k for business accounts
Small business accounts need to be pre-approved by American Express

64. Social Media Tools
Management: HootSuite
It’s a social media dashboard for social media management,
scheduling, and tracking. It’s a SaaS application so you have
nothing to download and available from anywhere with
internet access and a browser.
It allows you to post message, schedule posts, and manage
all your social messages from one interface.

65. Social Media Tools
Tracking: GetSqueeze
Tracking social media links is problematic. A good solution is
shortened trackable URLs. We use GetSqueeze and have
found our missing clicks that Google Analytics doesn’t tell us
about. Anyone who attended the workshop will get a free
GetSqueeze account.

66. Social Media Tools
Fliptop
Social research tool. It allows you to upload a list of email
address’ or Twitter @names and it produces a list of all the
associated social media accounts and some additional
information with about a 60% success rate.
You only get charged for the successful user completions
US$0.10 a match.

67. Social Media Tools
Fliptop:
It gives you more ways to reach your audience.

68. Social Media Tools
Automated Twitter Tool
We use an automated tool for
specific Twitter keyword
searches.
Based on a set of keywords it
builds a list of everyone who
used those keywords in a
Tweet.
This is a free tool developed
by @mhawksey

69. Social Media Tools
Uses for Automated Twitter Search
Great for events when you want to mine the data for
possible attendees’ to message them to drive them to your
booth.
Generate a leads list around a topic OR to generate lists
around people who mention your brand, products, services.
Combine those names with Fliptop and you can gather the
rest of their social media information.

70. Social Media Tools
Social Search: Topsy.com
Topsy is a social network search engine. It searches through
the social networks and provides results. Right now it indexes
Twitter and Google+. Lots of filters and options allow you to
make detailed searches and create email alerts for each
search.

71. Mobile Devices
With higher and higher use of mobile devices we run into
tracking problems. Shortened URLS are necessary to track
posts efficiently on mobile. For B2C we’ve seen increase of
up to 40-50% of visitors on mobile, and they are buying on
mobile. B2B we see from 15-25% on average. Most popular
mobile devices are iPads followed by iPhones. iPads provide
a near full viewing experience like a laptop or desktop.

72. Take Away
• Set up your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages
• Commit 20-30 minutes a day to it - AND HAVE PATIENCE
• Add me on LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/N6mOHZ
and recommend this workshop if you liked it!
I will add you back.
George Giles
george@agencyfour.com
Twitter @agencyfour
Company http://agencyfour.com
LinkedIn http://sqz.co/q5ZPc86