I’ve been spruiking social media and the virtues of customer engagement for a while now and it’s going quite well. It’s such an easy sell because the benefits are clear, it’s cheaper than a TV commercial, and virtually everyone on the planet is using at least one social media channel these days. More often than not, the people you need to talk to are half sold on the concept before you even sit down with them, so it’s just a matter of pushing them over the line. Still, it’s handy to have a nice overview of what social media marketing is about, where it’s come from, and exactly what it can do for you.

This Powerpoint presentation is my little baby. It’s grown up a lot over the last 12 months and has done a brilliant job of convincing clients, bosses and marketing managers that they need to be working in the social media sphere. It’s just at home on a giant screen in the boardroom of a multi-national bank as it is on the lunch-room table, so I thought it was about time I shared it with the rest of the world. If you need to sell social media to someone, hopefully you can find some inspiration here. Feel free to share it (you can view the slideshare version here) but please respect my (and DP Dialogue’s) copyright.

How Social Media has Changed Word of Mouth Marketing: Using the Internet to Build Long-Lasting Buzz about Your Brand