Summary of Online Marketing Class

I just taught an online marketing class for the Kent Chamber of Commerce. I thought I would share some of the information from the class with you.

Online Marketing Seminar

Here are some interesting up-to-date statistics I found as of August of 2009:

Years to reach 50 million users

Radio 38 years
TV 14 years
Internet 4 years
Ipod 3 years
Facebook – 100 million users in 9 months
Ipod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months

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If Facebook were a country it would be the 4^th largest

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world

There are over 200,000,000 blogs – 54% of bloggers update or tweet daily

78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

Only 14% trust advertisements

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Facebook has 250 million active users – 120 million daily

Average Facebook user has 120 friends

12 million people on twitter – 45 to 55 years olds mostly, closely followed by 25 to 37 year olds

40 million people on Linked in

Over 12,000 small businesses on Biznik.com just in the Seattle Area

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The new paradigm is to market to a "tribe" of people who are already interested in your topic. It is better than marketing to a crowd of people who may or may not be interested. Social media makes it possible to assemble or find a willing audience. We can create top-of-the-mind awareness by participating in a conversation with a community of people (tribe) who share our common interest.

Our goal in marketing is to create willing audiences. Here are 5 easy opportunities for creating a willing audience:

1. · Customer list
2. · Email list
3. · Twitter followers
4. · Facebook Fans
5. · Biznik.com & Linkedin.com Connections

Educate and entertain your audience. Build relationships. Be a part of your community.

Because of your relationships with your social media audience, they will become your customer because they know, trust, and like you and they will recommend you to their friends.

The purpose of the class was to give an overview of the social media terrain. I asked each class member specifically what I could share that would make the biggest difference to them. Our discussion centered around how to specifically apply social media to their individual situations.

At the end of the class we asked each class member to share their recommendation for the class. Here are their comments:

This Marketing Toolbox Seminar really helped a web savvy businessman refocus his efforts as it pertains to social media. Ty Podeszwa – TMP Productions

Well worth my time being at the Marketing Toolbox. I learned about a lot of paths/opportunities that are available to me. I am excited to get started on them.

Jeff McCann – Outdoor Perspectives LLC

New Chamber Member Tory Nguyen – EE Printing found the Marketing Toolbox very helpful. She learned some new tools about how to promote her business to the next level. She is looking forward to the next seminar on Web Design next month.

Listening to Kirk Davis’ talk today made me more aware of all the business-building tools and made them not quite so overwhelming to me. DeeDee Peterson-JoviPak

This seminar topic really helped me understand and appreciate the value of social media. to my business.

JoAnn Rovig – JoVI Pak

This monthly seminar is a must for all businesses, owners & managers! We must communicate and participate in community conversations within social media.

Vincent Parker – Lost Art Barber Shop

I didn’t know what to do or ask about “social networking”. The Chamber Marketing Toolbox gave me a great intro to start using a whole new set of tools.

Rick Clendenen – Two Men and a Truck

This Toolbox session offered terrific collaboration and real solutions to a businesses social media strategy. I’m looking forward to next month!

Jeff Link – Missing Link Consulting

The Toolbox Seminar today helped me with my fear of joining social media. I am looking forward to creating a video to post on the “page” that work best for me and the market I want to reach.

Gwen Allen-Carston – Heartland Payment Systems

Kirk Davis, seminar facilitator, is a gold mine when it comes to marketing and business development. He is great at surveying the audience to see what needs we have so that he presents us with relevant information.