Social Networking For Business Students

FACEBOOK FOR FUN AND PROFIT:Social Media Networking for Business Students

Scott Gray

December 9, 2009

University of Montana

WHO AM I?

Scott Gray Born in New Orleans, LA Grew up in the South Attended High School in Geneva, Switzerland BA in CompSci from St. Mary’s College of

Maryland in 04 MBA from the U of Montana in 09 Director of SEO Operations for Real Estate SEO

Pros Starting Website Clarity Founder/CEO of EDEN Systems Various Consulting gigs

WHAT ARE WE GONNA TALK ABOUT?

Introduction Technology/Terminology Overview Ground rules Uses

General Future Career Job-hunting

Tips/Tricks & Resources Questions

INTRODUCTIONOR WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio:

38 YearsTV:

13 YearsInternet:

4 YearsFacebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months

MORE FACTS

80% Percent of companies use LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content

34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands

People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations Only 14% trust advertisements Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1

activity on the Web

WHAT TECHNOLOGIES?

Social Networks Blog Microblogs Social Bookmarking Social Media Social Review

SOCIAL NETWORKS

What is a Social Network? Dictionary.com: “a website where one connects with

those sharing personal or professional interests, place of origin, education at a particular school, etc.”

Some Examples: Facebook Linkedin Myspace Realtown Academia

BLOGGING

What is Blogging? Another from Dictionary.com:

“To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog.”

Examples: Blogger Tumblr Wordpress Typepad Blogsmith

MICRO-BLOGGING

“A blog that allows up to 140 character long posts. Twitter is the most popular and allows text messaging for blog postings via cell phone.”

Examples: Twitter Jaiku

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

Let’s try wikipedia: “a method for Internet users to share, organize,

search, and manage bookmarks of web resources”

Which means? Examples:

Stumbleupon Digg Slashdot

SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING

Web 2.0 sites where shared media is the primary focus of the site

What’s the difference? Examples:

Youtube Flickr Vimeo Deviantart Slideshare

SOCIAL REVIEW

a web 2.0 site on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services

So? Examples:

Yelp Zagat foodbuzz

LINE BLURRING

Social Media Graph Very hard to draw firm lines Twitter feeds pulled into Facebook, Facebook

pulls into Linkedin User Reviews on Amazon.com Youtube videos inserted into blogs

WHAT ARE SOME GOOD GROUND RULES?

Seriously. I mean it. Don’t Spam friend invites, retweet requests,

blog comment requests, etc.

DON’T SPAM!

AVOID BANDWAGON-ITIS

Think before you jump on any social network Myspace is great for music, not for accounting

Find content specific social networks Acadamia.edu is specific to education

Think about your ‘brand’

SEPARATION

Keep professional and personal separate What is appropriate?

Think both Present and Future audience

AUTHENTICITY Don’t be Fake Don’t Lie Don’t pass off other people’s work

ADD VALUE

Provide content people actually want to know about

Remember your audience/context Facebook = pics of your dog at xmas Linkedin = analysis of HP’s marketing

Also applies to blog comments, forum posts, tweets or status updates

IS THIS STUFF EVEN USEFUL?

It’s still networking! Except on a MUCH bigger scale!

BUILD YOUR AUDIENCE

What does this mean? Number of people who actively plug in to what

you have to say How do you do it?

Setup a twitter account Setup a Blog Any medium where you can disseminate

information Remember: Quality!

BUILD YOUR BRAND RECOGNITION

My Brand? Your name/online identity

Increase the number of people who know you and what you do

How? Become active in online communities Comment on industry blogs & forums Respond to tweets and retweet quality ones

EXPAND YOUR JOB FEELERS?

Huh? The more active you are, the quicker you hear

about jobs People want to help each other, it’s human

nature The more humans who know you, the more they

want to help

FUTURE CAREER REQUIREMENTS

These technologies becoming common in workplace Especially for international business & marketing

Innovative Solutions Int’l Festival

Many CRM & management platforms now incorporate social media Yammer is an example

JOB SEARCHING SPECIFICS

Different social norms Calling a classmate you haven’t heard from in 10

years? Linkedin

Professional groups Shows connections to companies

Other’s blogs/tweets Find industry leaders and become active in their

audience

JOB SEARCHING

Online Mentors Use Linkedin to find mentors Many people online are more than willing to help

Don’t be afraid to contact someone! Worse case: no response Best case: you now have a valuable contact Remember: give them something

Blog Twitter Linkedin Profile

WHAT ARE SOME TIPS?

Add appropriate profiles to Biz Cards And treat them as such!

College = Content Generator Lots of papers can be spun for blogs

Link all of your social profiles/blogs/microblogs together Add links in profiles to other appropriate profiles

Find Groups to join Linkedin has tons of great professional groups

Get involved! Don’t just read blogs, but comment

Check Settings What can people see?

WHAT ABOUT TRICKS?

Automated Content Distribution Onlywire Ping.fm

Social Aggregators Hootsuite Tweetdeck

Google Tools Google Alerts Google Live Search Google Keyword Tool Google Calendar

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME?

Create a blog Tumblr Wordpress.com Create your own with Godaddy

Buy a domain/url Create appropriate network profiles Join Groups