Telling your story a quick guide for startups

Telling your Story

A Quick Guide For Busy Startups

Thursday, September 20, 12

The Three-Headed Monster

• Paid.• Advertising, marketing

• Earned.• Public Relations, news coverage

• Owned.• Website, blog, Facebook, Twitter

Today’s talk

Thursday, September 20, 12

A Few Words about PR(for small companies)

• Sometimes worth paying for • Special events, product rollouts

• Monthly retainers harder to justify

• Hourly for specific projects

• DIY Tools:• Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

• ProfNet (part of Vocus, maybe a joint buy?)

Thursday, September 20, 12

“Using social media CORRECTLY is like putting your Rolodex on steroids.”

- New York Times, Sept. 7, 2012

Thursday, September 20, 12

IT’s Where People Are

Service Total Users ActiveFacebook 950M 800M

Twitter 500M 140M

LinkedIn 175M 48MGoogle+ 400M 100M

YouTube 490M 150MFlickr 51M 25M

Instagram 80M 8M

Pinterest 104M 18M

Visual

Broad

Smaller, but vital

for startups

Thursday, September 20, 12

A Lot More Words AboutSocial Media

• Create reach and relationships• Build a base of public and industry

awareness• Modest but regular time investment• Low to no cost

Thursday, September 20, 12

Basic Mindset

• “Chinese Water Torture”approach• Schedule 15 minutes a day

• Make it a routine while reading the day’s news.

• A little every day quickly adds up to a LOT

• Your Phone is Your Friend • Opportunistic

• What do you do that ties to industry trends, breaking news?

• Have A Personality

Thursday, September 20, 12

Tools Automate, Simplify, Optimize

✴ HootSuite (Business Tool, freemium) ✴ TweetDeck (bought by Twitter)✴ Seesmic Ping (Bought by HootSuite)✴ Browser share tools

Hootsuite

Browser share tools

Thursday, September 20, 12

General Tips

• Follow promiscuously (as appropriate)• Industry leaders, competitors, journalists, regulators, investors

• Repost notable stuff from others• Respond to your followers• Think before you “Send”

Thursday, September 20, 12

Website/blog Additions

• WordPress • Heavy-duty publishing platform. Lots of power, widgets, options.

• If no blog, use Tumblr • Free. Huge installed base. Easy to use. Shares to Twitter, FB. Post

links, text, audio, video, photos. Good for SEO.

• Show your Twitter posts with on-site widget• Twitter resources - widgets

• Social media share buttons• AddThis; Also add to your email sig file, news releases

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Set up personal profile, ALWAYS.

• Then you can create a company page

• Ensure all employees have profiles & follow company

• Post (here’s why):• Events, news releases, product announcements

• News coverage, industry-related stories

• Join, post to LinkedIn industry, trade groups

Thursday, September 20, 12

Twitter

• Company & personal accounts, if you can

• Brief, painless. 3x/week; Easy on mobile

• Tweet about:• Events, appearances, deals

• Company news, releases, photos, promo docs

• Stories of note about your industry & company

• Perspectives on industry news, trends; Have A Personality

Thursday, September 20, 12

• 950 million users. Need to be there.

• Create personal Profile (keep it to yourself)

• Then you can create company Page, post:• Company releases, news coverage of company

• Events, photos, milestones

• Marketing videos

• Blog posts (if you have one elsewhere)

• Industry news of note, and your perspectives on it

• Surveys and questions

Thursday, September 20, 12

Facebook’s EdgeRank

• Algorithm decides what followers see

• Priorities are:1. Video and photos

2. Questions, events, milestones

3. Plain ol’ text and links

• Only a small portion of followers see any post

• Photos/video boost your chance of being seen

• FB advertising probably not worth it

Thursday, September 20, 12

Google+

• Part of Google, GREAT for SEO• Post same as FB: Links, text, photos, video, events, news

• Claim your personal profile through GMail

• Then you can create your company page

• Have your employees create accounts, put company page in their circles

• Google offering custom URLS, verified accounts. Get them when you get a chance.

Thursday, September 20, 12

Google+ Hangouts

• BIG opportunity• Free videoconferences with

audiences

• Auto-recorded to YouTube.

• Great for marketing, how-to, customer support and engagement.

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Part of Google; helps SEO• Biggest video-sharing site• Not core, but if you’re doing video, you

MUST use this• Events

• Marketing material

• How-to and demos, podcasts

• User submissions

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Sharing for slide shows/presentations• Post marketing, promo material• Connect with LinkedIn widget• Also:

• Learn better PPTs

• Research your industry, competitors

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Biggest photo-sharing site, also handles video

• Not core; freemium model• Easy sharing through App Garden tools

• Add-ons for Website, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, etc.

• Post photos/video of: • Events, products, appearances, cool things tied to your business

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Not core, but biggest MOBILE photo-sharing site.

• VERY easy sharing to many other platforms

• Facebook bought it; getting integrated

• Posts from your phone:• Events, products, appearances

• Users and novel product uses

Thursday, September 20, 12

• Not core. More C-to-C than B-to-B.

• Photo “boards” of things people love:• Products and product uses

• Things/ideas/inspirational phrases that define your company, its approach to business and life

• Female-dominated

• Aspirational

Thursday, September 20, 12

Thanks

David BloomWords & Deeds

[email protected]

310-621-4284

Twitter: @DavidBloom

Tumbler: BloomsDay

Thursday, September 20, 12