Shama Hyder:
And I did my thesis on Twitter when it had 2,000 users. Any guess as to how many users Twitter has today? 375 million. You come from a very historic industry. It’s been around for a long time. The world of marketing of social media, when I started out, people looked at me like, this is crazy. I don’t understand. This is a fad, like the internet was a fad. Remember that? Right? The principles I’m sharing with you, I used to build my own company. I was 22 years old when I started. I had $1,5000 in the bank account. We passed a million in revenue in our first three years in business.
Shama Hyder:
I think the work that you do matters. And my goal today is to help you make it matter more, to get your message a little further out there so you are making even a greater impact in your community and making more money. So, I’ll give you a little bit of background that’s not on the official kind bio that was read. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Any Longhorns in here? Really? Wow. I must be way up North. Huh? Usually there’s one in every room. So, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. I have a degree in organizational communication and technology. And I did my thesis on Twitter when it had 2,000 users. It is? Thank you so much. I so appreciate that.
Speaker 2:
Is that working now?
Shama Hyder:
Thank you. Yes.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Shama Hyder:
It sure is. Any guesses to how many users Twitter has today? 375 million. All right? Very, very early days when I got started. In fact, that little blue bird that you see there, I had a tee shirt with it on and people would say, oh, which cartoon is that? Very, very early days. And so, I did my thesis on Twitter. I was very excited. I got out there and I thought, man, this is going to change the world. I’m so excited. And this was 2009. And I could not get a single job. Any guesses as to why, by the way? Do any of you remember ’08, ’09? Not a lot of jobs. Yes. The industry didn’t exist. You come from a very historic industry. It’s been around for a long time. The world of marketing of social media, when I started out, people looked at me like, this is crazy. I don’t understand. Right? This is a fad, like the internet was a fad. Remember that? Right? Some of you are like, I’m still not quite sure about this internet thing. I promise you, it’s here to stay.
Shama Hyder:
And so, when I got out, I realized something very interesting about tough times, by the way, about tough economic times. I found that small businesses are the most receptive to innovating, and changing, and wanting to do the things that get more customers in the door than almost any other type of company out there. Would you say that’s fair?
Speaker 4:
Yes.
Shama Hyder:
How many would like more customers in the door? All right. That’s why we’re here, right? That’s where we’re here. We want to get more customers in the door. So, my goal today is to help introduce you to a little bit of what this looks like, and the things that you really need to be thinking about, right, Even more than doing. If I can just get you thinking in that way, I promise the doing will follow.
Shama Hyder:
So, I graduated. And, because I couldn’t get a job, because the industry didn’t exist, I started my own company. So, I do know what it is like to make payroll, by the way. I’m not just standing here talking theory with you. But really the principles I’m sharing with you I used to build my own company. I was 22 years old when I started. I had $1,500 in the bank account. We passed a million in revenue in our first three years in business. I had no connections, no network, I could have all the groceries I wanted, so that was a big plus. Right? Thanks to mom and dad. So, that was a big help.
Shama Hyder:
But I grew my company on the basis of these new media principles, some of which I’m going to share with you today. And then, over the years we’ve helped so many customers, so many clients take advantage of this. So, a lot of what I’m sharing with you is also case studies, things that are real world, practical that you can take back and implement in your businesses. Quick show of hands, how many love social media? Okay.
Speaker 4:
Love Twitter, hate Facebook.
Shama Hyder:
All right. Fair enough. Love Twitter, hate Facebook. Okay. How many hate social media? It’s okay. You can be honest. How many have like a love, hate relationship. That’s probably most of us. Right? Kind of a love hate relationship. All right, quick show of hands again. How many would say that you are beginners when it comes to kind of marketing and this digital stuff? Beginners. Okay. There’s my beginners. Cool. Intermediates? You feel pretty good. Any advanced? You could probably be standing here doing this. Okay. Not much so. But, if you looked around, you see that everyone’s sort of on a different path and that’s okay.
Shama Hyder:
My goal today is very simple. My goal is that you’re going to leave here knowing something a little bit better than when you first walked in. Even if you take one thing from here and are able to implement it in your business to grow that bottom line, to get more customers, I’m going to think that’s a success. If you don’t learn something new, which highly doubtful, but let’s say that you know this stuff, you’re like, man, I feel like a whiz. I’m going to answer your questions inside right before the auction where I’m going to be signing the books that you’re all going to get a copy of. Does that sound good? So, I really want you to make sure that you come up there and you ask your question. And we’ll make sure this is as valuable for you as possible. Sound good? Because you left the stores, right? You left the stores. You’re out here. You might as well make the most of it. Awesome.
Shama Hyder:
So, let’s lay the land real quick. For the longest time, marketing has all been about pushing your message out there. Any history fans in here? Any history buffs? Okay, one. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I feel the fellow geekiness in the room. That’s great. So, that, for history buffs or not, is actually the city of Pompeii, which they excavated and we’ve got digital technology now. That’s awesome.
Shama Hyder:
So, when we look at the city of Pompeii, you find something really interesting, marketing messages on the walls. Right? It literally says, my fish is fresher than this guy’s fish. No kidding. So, in many ways, right, this is how we’ve marketed for the longest time. We’ve stood on our soap boxes. We waved the flags. Right. We’ve marketed our wares. This is how it’s always been done. Except something changed a lot of this. Who remembers AOL? The Internet. Remember the Internet. Hang up the phone, Sue. Right? Anybody steal the little disks from your neighbors so you could get more minutes? No. It was just me. Okay. In my defense, I was 14 years old, so.
Shama Hyder:
The internet, of course, changes everything because now what do people have? Choice. We have choice. Anybody you remember when you had five channels on TV? Yeah. And now, how many of you Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, all that good stuff? Right? Very, very different. In fact, I’m very envious of this little guy and my son who is six months old because they get everything on demand. I mean Sesame Street is one of his favorite things to watch. So, we put that on and he is very into it. Elmo is his favorite character. You really needed to know that. I’m not sure why, but it seemed important. But, when I was growing up, we had two channels. And, if we missed her Sunday 10:00 A.M. cartoon, that was it. You could wait till next week. Right? It was like, oh sorry you woke up late. It’s gone.
Shama Hyder:
Today, it’s very different. You have choices. Your customers have choices. A lot of what we’re thinking about today is, when they have these choices, how do we get them to choose you? And it’s easier than you might think. I’ll break it down for you, I promise. If I could sum everything up for you in one image, it would look a lot like this. Look at 2005 and look at now. 2005 wasn’t that long ago. Anything really jumped out at you from that? What jumps out at you?
Speaker 4:
No cell phones.
Speaker 5:
No screens.
Shama Hyder:
No cell phones. No screens. Let’s go a layer deeper. What’s the reach of that event in ’05?
Speaker 6:
Those people.
Shama Hyder:
That’s right. Those are the people that are there. The reach is those people, right, in those rooms. So, let’s say 5,000 people attended and let’s be really generous. Everyone went back home and shared the message with someone else, one person. They told a significant other, they told their neighbor Lucy, right? They shared. 10,000 people heard about that or what happened. What’s the reach of that same event now?
Speaker 7:
Global.
Shama Hyder:
It’s global, and I’ll prove it to you. How many always know what happens on a United Airlines Flight minutes after it happens? Right? We all seem to know. We know when United loses a piece of luggage. We know whatever. Right? It’s very different.
Shama Hyder:
When I say social media, how many of you, by the way, think about like Facebook, and Twitter, and LinkedIn, and YouTube, and so forth? Right. Fair enough. So, those are social networks. What I’d like to get you thinking about slightly a little bit different. Social media, the new definition of social media is people are now the media. People are now the media. That’s really a game changer if you think about it, isn’t it? And I’ll prove it to you. How many of you, quick show of hands, have checked Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews before you decided what you’re going to go see? It’s a lot of us. How many of you have Yelped a restaurant before deciding to try it? But we’ve all done it. And that’s the idea of people are now the media.
Shama Hyder:
So, when we talk about all this new media, and how to get your message out there, and social media, it’s not these networks. That’s great. They’ll come and go. The much bigger idea and picture here that I want you to start thinking about is that people are now the media. And how do you leverage that? How do you take advantage of that? And, if you can think about one event, the global impact it can have, do you think that you can have more impact in your communities?
Shama Hyder:
Hi there. This is Shama Hyder again. Thank you so much for watching my videos. I super appreciate it. Please share if you find this information valuable. Do comment. I love hearing from you. And be sure to subscribe. That way you don’t miss a single thing.
