Social Media for International Trade

The 24th Annual NASBITE International Conference Monday, April 4 2:15 p.m.-3:30 p.m. III-D Laurens Room Lehrer/Madden Introduction technologies are changing the way international business is done. All practitioners and trainers in international trade must be aware of social media outlets and know how to effectively leverage them to add value to their daily activities. This seminar will provide an overview of social media technologies useful in international trade. You will learn how to use these important and popular tools for both business and education. For the optimal experience, view the Prezi. http://prezi.com/avhpklcqr3u7/the-24th-annual-nasbite- international-conference-social-media-for-international-trade/ Social Media Quiz

1. America Online 17. 33. Brightkite 2. Apple 18. 34. Mobile Me 3. 19. FriendFeed 35. My Space 4. Deviant Art 20. Design Bump 36. Netvibes 5. Drupal 21. 37. Gamespot 6. Dopplr 22. Last FM 38. Feedburner 7. Email 23. LinkedIn 39. YouTube 8. Ember 24. Mixx 40. Pandora 9. Designfloat 25. Designmoo 41. Evernote 10. Picassa 26. Skype 42. 11. Foursquare 27. StumbleUpon 43. Windows Live 12. Posterous 28. Technorati 44. Yahoo 13. 29. 45. WordPress 14. 30. 46. Yelp 15. Talk 31. Viddler 47. Newsvine 16. Share This 32. Yahoo! Buzz 48. Delicious Social Media y A conversation via on-line tools y Creates a community for sharing information and staying connected y Allows for collaboration; interactive y Established relationships, builds trust, and replaces traditional marketing (from monologue to dialogue) y Encourages Honesty Elements Allows consumer comments to be heard! y Forums and Online Communities y Blogging and Micro-blogging y Social Networking y Multimedia Sharing (Pictures, Music, Video) y Social Bookmarks y Online Reviews (, Likes) y Really Simple Syndication (RSS) y Podcasting – audio and video y Wikis Must Haves y Compelling Content y Creates Value y Measurable and Meaningful y Testing (A/B and Multivariate) Example: A-B Testing in Mail Chimp Benefits y Tool to Connect y Leverage Relationships and Networks y Open Feedback; Share Information (and Challenges) y Metrics are Influence and Engagement y Consumers Feel Ownership of Brand y Consumers “Like” and Recommend to Friends Responsibility y Personal y Corporate y Government Best Practices y One Voice (message consistency) y Consistent Branding y Stay Engaged and Listen to Consumers y Dedicated Position (copywriter, web-designer, and social media guru) y Establish Corporate Policy Guidelines y Integrate with your online marketing and social media strategies into your (your website is the foundation upon your business; the authority to where customers find information on your products/services) U.S. DOC Guidelines Review General Guidelines for use of social media/web2.0 technology in an official capacity y Be Courteous and Professional y Do not publish personal opinions y Post accurate information that is also available on our official government sites

Review the Department’s Guidelines for Secure use of Social Media sites: y Don’t use the same passwords for multiple social media accounts y Don’t use the same password as your Commerce accounts y Even if the site doesn’t require it, use a strong password y Monitor your account regularly and only follow links/ downloads from known sources Cloud Computing Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid. Users do not need in-house expertise and do not have control over their technology infrastructure. y Mobile y Economies of Scale y Content Security y Who Owns It? y Where is Your Data Stored? Example: The Cloud y Google y Salesforce y Microsoft y Amazon y Zoho y Rackspace y Amazon y Yahoo U.S. Statistics

Entrepreneurs Employment (includes self employment) • 22% of employers use y 78% of small businesses* SN to evaluate potential candidates*** y 50%+ total workforce employment* • 9% more plan to use Small Business SN in the near future*** y 52% home based* • 16% potential y 99.7% employer firms* employees manage their y 97.3% total exports* SN profiles for employers*** y 40% high skilled employees* y 51% go to social networks (SN) for advice** Source: El Camino College SBDC How it’s Used in International Trade y Service and product marketing y Finding business partners y Qualifying business partners y Market research y Training y Product support y Current news y Customer service y Communication with partners and customers Useful for Trade Professionals y LinkedIn y 37 Signals y Twitter y One Note y GlobalTrade.net y Evernote y Ustream y y Google Talk y Google Voice y Skype y Yelp y Carbonite Understanding Tweets y 140 word limit per tweet y Reply To see user’s screen name and send message y Delete Click the trashcan icon next to the tweet y RT ReTweet (RT@username+message) y OH Overheard (OH+message) Reiterate earlier tweet w/out revealing original author y HT Heard Through (HT@username+message) y # (#NASBITE24) y Keywords for searches, like discussing the 24th Annual NASBITE International Conference Manage Your Web-Profile y Displays Your Name, Email, Location, Organization /Company, Title, Social Networks, Tweets, and Brief Bio y Benefits: y Profiling tool y Users can add private notes y Creates transparency y Able to craft your image & manage your profile http://about.me http://rapportive.com http://www.GlobalTrade.net

Incognito y How do you really know anyone in a virtual world? y Mailbox services like Earth Class Mail conceal physical addresses y Voice services conceal location and re-direct phone numbers (land-line & mobile) y Social media based on email address, not the individual y Fulfillment services perform warehousing and shipping functions on behalf of the business (so your supplier may never actually touch the goods--good for contract manufacturers and private label) y On the surface, you know what the tech savvy want you to know y Mitigate your risk. y Use tools like Google Street View y Read Customer Reviews like on Yelp y Follow your industry/community on Twitter and subscribe to tweets on your service providers Example: Google Street View Let’s Get Started y GlobalTrade.net http://www.GlobalTrade.net y NASBITE Website Profile http://www.NasbiteInternational.org y NASBITE CGBP Group http://www.LinkedIn.com y Business Without Borders http://en-us.dev2.businesswithoutborders.com/registration y International Trade – Quora http://www.quora.com/International-Trade?q=finternational+trade Thank You! BARNEY LEHRER, Vice President, FITA Online 179 Fifth Ave, #118, Brooklyn, NY 11217 USA Phone: 718-871-0369 | Fax: 718-928-6784 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.fita.org

BRONWEN MADDEN, Deputy Director, El Camino College CITD 13430 Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250 USA Phone: 310-973-3173 | Fax: 310-973-3132 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.elcaminocitd.org Handouts y The CMO’s Guide to The Social Landscape y 15 Free Web-based applications to start your Business by Rhonda Abrams y Social Media Action Plan by The Horn Group y 10 Tips for Using Twitter to Grow Your Business by the El Camino College SBDC 2nd Annual THE SOCIAL LANDSCAPE

CMOs will invest more in social media this year than ever before, yet this is a scene that constantly shi s and changes. Here to help you better leverage these major social media sites is CMO.com’s 2nd annual guide to the social landscape—updated and revised for 2011. GOOD! OKAY! BAD!

CUSTOMER BRAND TRAFFIC TO WEB SITE COMMUNICATION EXPOSURE YOUR SITE SEO

A central and open Using pages as a persona allows For many Web sites, Facebook Google and Bing have both indic- communication portal, Facebook companies to position their has emerged as one of the top ated that they are using "social is the hub through which brands on other relevant pages. traffic sources. While the "viral signals" as part of their ranking businesses want to drive social For example, Starbucks' page potential" is lower on Facebook algorithms, pointing to Facebook A social-networking site where interaction. Positive or negative, itself can now post on large than others, nothing is more and Twitter, in particular. While users can add friends, send companies can use Facebook to co ee-lovers' pages. consistent at driving a steady the links themselves are “no- messages, and build their own get their messages out and to flow of traffic to every message follow," the search benefits exist, receive customer feedback. or post. especially in instances where profiles "Query Deserves Freshness."

Twitter is the ultimate outbound It isn't what you're saying on The prevalence of noise and As with Facebook, Twitter has messaging tool. Inbound Twitter that exposes your spam have reduced Twitter's been singled out as a component customer communications are brand. It's what you can get ability to send direct traffic. of Google's and Bing's social quick and to the point, allowing others to say about you that However, it is an exceptional component. The links are A site that for simple monitoring and has the real impact. Getting tool for assisting with traffic "nofollow," but the social enables users to send “tweets,” management of conversations. retweets and interactions can generation from other sites, component is real and expected do more for brand exposure like Digg, StumbleUpon, and to become more prominent over or messages of 140 characters than any other social site. Facebook. time. or less

As a PR tool, Flickr gives Flickr's improved search Even if you get tens of Flickr is very much indexed in company-sponsored events rankings and integration with thousands of visits to a photo search engines and passes links a pictoral home that can be other social sites makes it the with your URL hyperlinked and page rank. It is also a major more professional and better high-quality image posting below, the click-through rates part of Google's and Bing's social An image-and video- hosting organized than on other social service of choice. Bulk images are among the lowest around. search component—photos Web site where community image- sharing sites (including should go on Facebook. Quality All links are "nofollow." liked by individuals can be seen members can share and Facebook). images should go on Flickr. more prevalently in their friends' searches. comment on media

Not the primary focus, but you LinkedIn is great for personal LinkedIn continues to Very high page rank, almost can potentially engage branding and showing the improve its standing in traffic guaranteed to be a ranking on customers by encouraging professional prowess in your generation by encouraging the first page of search results, employees to answer organization. Encourage sharing through every new especially for your individual A social-networking site for industry-related questions employees to maintain feature it has rolled out employee names. High SEO business professionals people post and become known complete profiles to show o during the past year. It isn't as value for vanity search for your as an expert in the field. your solid team. consistent as Facebook or as name, but that is about it. viral as Digg, but it's getting better.

Whether you seek to entertain, Your YouTube branding is YouTube is growing in the Very good for building links inform, or both, video is a second only to Facebook when traffic-generation segment, back to your site because the powerful channel for quickly people are researching your particularly through in-video videos rank very well. YouTube responding to customer company. Be certain that the messaging through annotations channels are a tried-and-true A video-sharing Web site where complaints and showing your messages are frequent and that and URL branding. Clicks on way to send some really good social-media savvy. It is also the they align with what you want content links are still minimal, exposure and SEO back to your users can share and upload best venue for reputation as your perceived company but even those numbers have brand. new videos "repair" if things go wrong. persona. seen a recent rise.

Customer interaction is Brands have an opportunity to Digg went through a rough Very good in that even if your nonexistent on Digg, but the gain mass exposure on Digg, spot in 2010, but seems poised story doesn't become popular, it intrinsic value of exposure particularly through the most for a rebound in 2011. Even will still get your page indexed that is possible through a Digg interesting posted about with the decrease in traffic, very quickly. Also, if your story A social-news site where users front page story can your company. It is a venue for it is still the most consistent does become popular, this is can discover and share content other sites where customer content discovery—brands that viral-traffic generation site that likely the best site in terms communication is strong (such do well on Digg can do well can send tens of thousands of of getting the attention of as your ). anywhere. visitors to individual posts. bloggers who will link to you.

StumbleUpon is not a tool The paid campaign can be good StumbleUpon is the social Very good if your story makes it that is useful for customer for brand awareness, especially media equivalent of a traffic to the top page for its tag. Due communications. There is a aer you have attempted Grand Slam—it doesn't happen to StumbleUpon's large user random chance of getting getting free, organic traffic to oen, but when it does, it's base, many people can find your A social-news community a message to your current your home page. You can target huge. Keep discoveries diverse. stories and link to them. For where members discover and customers and the user base is very accurately, but keep in You never know when you'll vanity searches, your profile growing, but it's still very slim in mind you are paying $.05 per get hundreds of thousands, page ranks well, too. share Web pages comparison to other social sites. visit ($50 CPM). even millions of visitors from StumbleUpon.

Only the extremely adept Attempting to build your brand Reddit has emerged in the past If you make the front page, a lot can use Reddit as a customer on Reddit is like trying to sell year as the best social news of sites will pick up your story, communication tool. Any time whale meat to Greenpeace. It traffic-generation site on the generating valuable back links. you open your company up to won't happen, and it's likely to Internet. Quality and originality Many of these stories are picked A social-news community the growing masses at Reddit, turn very ugly if you try. are paramount—if your up by reputable sites, giving where users post links to the there is a chance it can backfire. message isn't viral, Reddit will more trust to your site. site’s home page Occasionally, everything goes not approve. better than expected.

The growing segment of Tumblr Tumblr's simple platform Images can get traffic. The blogging nature of Tumblr users and the ability to ask and and extreme ability to have Otherwise, there is no real allows for extremely high answer questions makes the site content shared on it make it a traffic potential yet. In the potential from a link-building a potential darling for customer viable branding tool. GenY is coming months, it may expand, perspective. The sites A social-networking site where communications. As the site's migrating to Tumblr to share but currently almost all activity themselves also rank very well users can ask and answer exponential growth continues, opinions—if that demographic happens directly on Tumblr in the search engines. questions expect it to rival Twitter as a is important to your business, itself. top-2 communication tool. your Tumblr presence must be strong. CReATed by Rhonda Abrams

Get Rhonda's FRee newsletter and more business advice at www.planningshop.com. 15 FREE WE b-basEd applications to staRt youR businEss

Thinking about starting a business and need to save every penny? Well, I have good news for you. There has never been a better—or at least cheaper—time to start or run a business. Need a website? You can get one for free. Need to send out invoices? Do it for free. Want to communicate with customers? Also free. Using these free and easy-to-use web-based applications will not only save you hundreds of dollars, they will make your life easier and more productive too. Set Up your Office Skype www.skype.com Skype is the mother, father, grandmamma, and granddaddy of all VoIP services. In addition to the free PC-to-PC service—constantly updated with new features including videoconferencing, IM, voicemail, and more—you can, for a small charge, call phones anywhere in the world.

use this app? Y / N User name:______Password:______Mozy http://mozy.com Mozy offers a free version of its online backup service. The free version allows you to upload 2 GB of data. Although you download the program to your computer, your backup is stored online.

use this app? Y / N User name:______Password:______Create and Share documents & Presentations Google docs www.docs.google.com Google Docs is a broad online portfolio of word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and calendar functionality accompanied by forms and handy templates (invoices, business cards, invitations, fax cover sheets, etc.).

use this app? Y / N User name:______Password:______SlideShare www.slideshare.net The SlideShare works like YouTube for slide shows rather than videos. Upload your presentation, get a permanent URL and share it with the world or invite a select audience to view it. You can upload 100MB files of various formats—PowerPoint, Google Docs (see above), PDFs, and more. You can also add audio to your slides, embed SlideShare into your website or blog, and integrate it with social networking sites.

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© 2011 by Rhonda Abrams. Published by TheThe Planning Planning Shop—specializing Shop—specializing in in content content and and tools tools for for successful successful entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. 1

Social Media Action Plan

Tie Social Media to Your Business Goals Business Drivers Goals Financial • Revenue • Expenses • Leads Customers • Customer experience/satisfaction • Customer service/support • Building community Brand • Awareness • Thought leadership • Innovation

Design a Listening Program What to Follow Specific to Your Company Industry trends

Key words and search terms

Influencers to follow

Competitors

Pick the Tools to Fit Your Goals Tool Purpose and Strategy Rank Priority (from 1-3) Focus on 1 and 2 Monitoring Tool Listening and measurement Corporate Blog Thought leadership, depth, engagement, linking & guest posts Twitter Headlines, engage, sales, solve service issues, competitor insight Community Customer driven, customer care, sourcing trends Facebook Social, friendly, recruiting, link to community and blog, video LinkedIn Engagement, networking, recruiting YouTube Amazing stories, brand awareness SlideShare Content sharing, thought leadership

Measure in Conjunction with Marketing Goals

Goals Social Media Output Tools/Tactics to Measure *Faster, better insight/information Conversation monitoring, customer 100s of listening tools (Buzzient, feedback Radian 6, etc.) Customer community search.twitter.com *Awareness, thought leadership # of people reached Unique site visitors Twitter followers Blog comments *Faster, better sales # of interactions Your CRM system Leads Deals Revenue *Customer support, satisfaction # of issues addressed Your CRM system Twitter *Faster, better development # of ideas implemented Insert Yours Here Insert Yours Here Insert Yours Here

*Examples by Altimeter Group How do we finish the client’s power point presentation and the government RFP by tomorrow when we’re so short staffed? Who’s going to train the new guy and what if he doesn’t work out? Do I buy a building or continue paying a blood-thirsty landlord who JANUARYdoes not 2010have enough parking for my employees? How do we get bigger accounts? How do we keep from getting too big too fast? How do we generate more profit on existing business? Should we hire a new10 employee Tips or upgrade for our equipment? Using Do we Twitter get a loan, lay people to off, or close our doors? How do we market our product in a bad economy when we’re being overspent? Should we keep our internal sales force or work with independent distributors? The client wants his order by 4 p.m. next Friday and we can’t get anyone on the phone to confirm shipment. It’s 4:30, the printer is stuck in traffic with 5,000 catalogs andGrow they need to sYourhip by 5 today. Business Why does the receptionist always call in sick on Fridays and Mondays How d o we finish the client’s power point presentation and the government RFP by tomorrow when we’re so short staffed? Who’s going to

SBDC TWITTER, the microblogging service that lets you send out messages of 140 characters service Centers: or less, has fast become one of today’s hottest tools for networking and marketing your business. Twitter messages are called “tweets,” forwarding a tweet is “retweeting,” and COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS users “follow” each other. If you’re not already on Twitter, it’s time to give it a try. Here Santa Clarita, Antelope and are 10 steps to using Twitter to grow your business. San Fernando Valley areas (661) 362-5900 1. Start slowly. Begin by importing your e-mail contact list to Twitter and following those www.cocsbdc.com contacts who are tweeting. You’ll see who they follow, you’ll start following some of those people, and your network will begin to build. EL CAMINO COLLEGE South Bay areas 2. Take control. The sheer volume of tweets can be overwhelming, so you’ll need tools to (310) 973-3177 manage Twitter. Search “Twitter applications” or visit http://twitter.com/downloads for applications to simplify and organize tweets. I like Tweetdeck (www..com), which www.southbaysbdc.org lets you sort your Twitter feed into columns and create different groups you can monitor. LONG BEACH CITY COLLEGE 3. Share useful information. Many people use Twitter to share links. But don’t just link to your Greater Long Beach areas own blog or Web site; also share other interesting and valuable content. Focus on quality (562) 938-5100 over quantity and you’ll soon become known as a trusted resource. www.longbeachsbdc.org 4. Offer deals.Tweet your followers special offers, discounts and other limited-time promotions. PACIFIC COAST REGIONAL For instance, a restaurant owner might tweet today’s lunch special; a consultant might offer Downtown Los Angeles 25 percent off a seminar for those who sign up in the next hour. Deals make followers feel (213) 674-2696 like “insiders,” and they’ll likely retweet them. www.pcrcorp.org 5. Be easy to find. Help people find you on Twitter by including your Twitter “handle” on SANTA MONICA COLLEGE your business cards, Web site, Facebook or LinkedIn page, in your e-mail signature…you get Westside Los Angeles the idea. (310) 434-3566 6. Track trends. Twitter is a good gauge of what people are talking about at any given time. www.smcsbdc.org Use Twitter Search to search your company name or industry keywords and find out what people are saying about you and your competitors. Do instant market research by tweeting an informal poll or survey. SBDC 7. Follow potential clients. Recently, a company I was following tweeted about plans to launch a new Web site. I tweeted to let them know how our company could help, and we LEAD Center: ended up landing a new account. LONG BEACH COMMUNITY 8. Follow the competition. Twitter is an easy way to see what your competitors are doing, COLLEGE DISTRICT planning, investigating and thinking about. (866) 588-SBDC www.smallbizla.org 9. Get real. Twitter connects you with people online, but don’t let it end there. Solidify the connection in the real world with a “Tweetup”—an offline get-together. Meeting up with Twitter contacts takes your relationships to the next level.

10. Measure results. As with any marketing tool, you need to know what you want to get from Twitter and measure your ROI. It does take a good deal of time, so assess your results periodically to make sure the payoff is worth your investment.

By Rieva Lesonsky Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Before launching her business, she was Editorial Director of Entrepreneur Magazine. Follow Rieva on Twitter.com/Rieva and read more of her insights on SmallBizDaily.com.

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