Having spent the last 5 years focusing on how Social Media can increase sales and brand awareness, I wanted to share with you some great case studies that have happened to me over the past four weeks that proves how successful a multi-channel experience can be.

First, I used an online application called Slideshare which allows users to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios. I spent over four hours creating a Facebook for Business presentation for one of my trade show seminars. Once I had finished it, I uploaded it to Slideshare. After three days and 115 views, I noticed on my twitter mention stream, the below tweet.

Slideshare had actually chosen my presentation as “Presentation of the day”. They have over 73,000 followers on Twitter alone. Within three minutes of their tweet, my presentation went from 115 views to over 8,000. This one tweet was so powerful from Slideshare because some of their community went on to ‘pay it forward’ and the presentation now has grown to 12,500 views. (Picture below)

I then went on to write a blog based on the Slideshare presentation which further validated the power of social media. The “Facebook for Business” blog attracted more attention from my readers and as show below, it was shared over 130 times, generating more views of the presentation via the blog.

In the blog, I shared a link to a Facebook for Business webinar, based on the original presentation. I took this blog and ‘pinned it’ to my Pinterest account. This was then picked up by one of my followers and ‘repinned’ to their board.

Not only did that person sign up to the webinar, and attend; one of their followers who saw the ‘pin’ on their board, signed up to the webinar. This allowed me to capture their email address and add that my database. The same happened inside of Twitter. One of my followers retweeted my tweet and she, along with two of her followers signed up to my webinar.

I then received an email from an event organiser in Slovakia who saw my presentation from one of their followers who retweeted it, and contacted me. I am now asked to speak at their event later this year. I was also contacted by a TV personality who has asked for my help in generating traffic to their online store. I also shared the presentation on my Facebook Fan Page and Google+ Profile.

After seeing how much interaction I had around my Social Network accounts, I decided to check my Klout score. I was pleased to see my score had jumped up and I had become a strong influencer of Facebook.

This marketing was 100% free and started in one place. Social Media works as snowball effect if utilised to its fullest. I have proved that anything is possible with Social Media if you use the right networks and the right tools.

It’s great that we, as a Social Media driven society are endorsing great, visually impressive sites like Pinterest but there are some networks that go almost unnoticed as a way of increasing traffic and driving sales, one of them being Slideshare.

You might think I’m crazy to focus on Slide sharing as a way of increasing traffic but this is something we overlook on a day to day basis. Have you seen Forbes ‘Richest People in America’ list? This is a slideshow. Apple has incorporated slideshow’s into their iPhoto application as a key feature. The list is endless for the businesses using Slideshow’s as a way of presenting their products.

Slideshare offers users the ability to upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios. I uploaded my first presentation on May 9th 2009 and have been actively using the network ever since. Now at 23,452 views, I will share with you some great tips on getting on to the front page of Slideshare.

CRM Software & Cloud Computing business Salesforce have openly said; “I see SlideShare as a virtual bookshelf, or a library in the cloud, where we can make our best content more discoverable to a diverse audience.”

For you to really utilise Slideshare and all it has to offer, you need to look at it as more than just powerpoint presentations that leave you reminiscing about school. Visually, Slideshare is now a platform that allows you to engage, entertain and inform users with effective pictures and “to the point” information. With over 60 million visitors per month alone, you are seriously missing out on the generated traffic (over 500% more from business owners than any other professional website) that Slideshare has to offer.

Think it’s going to cost you to create a visually interesting presentation? Think again. It really isn’t as hard as you think it is. I have personally created all of my presentations on my Slideshare account and have had success. Although design is important, you must focus on how you present your work and the quality of that information you are sharing.

Front page of Slideshare? It’s not as hard as you think. First you must research the kind of presentations that are successful on Slideshare. The title of a presentation should be looked at as a heading for a blog post. It must be engaging and stand out from the crowd. The use of text and images is a must. The best way to do this is to caption photos within the presentations. Keep the slides within 10-25 pages as you don’t want to lose interest.

When thinking about creating a presentation or document, you need to take into consideration the audience who is going to view it. Most likely, this will be business people. I’m not saying ‘don’t target beginners’, but keep the topic noticeable, without being predictable. The idea of Slideshare is to allow your viewers to pay forward your information to their community. Social Commerce today wrote an article which included one of my presentations. This automatically increased views and to this day, is my most viewed presentation.

To get the word out about your presentations, use your community on Social Media to do this. You have all of the free networks out there where you can promote, so make sure you utilise them. Without sharing your work, you will not make the front page of Slideshare. You need the initial views from your community to get the ball rolling inside of Slideshare. The whole idea is that you are giving your audience something of value which means they will pay it forward to their community. You can pin your presentation for Pinterest, Tweet about it, use as a Facebook post or even create a blog post around it.

It is important to Keep brand continuity when making your presentations. You may notice on my Slideshare account that I have recently altered my branding. My older presentations have my older branding and my more recent work, has my new branding.

Slideshare is first and foremost a network so treat it like one. Use a photo of yourself in your profile and include your keywords around your business in the description so people can see the message you are trying to portray.

Are you ready to make the front page of Slideshare?

Last week we delivered two webinars to my email database about the 6 biggest mistakes companies make using social media and why consumers unfollow brands.

We talk a lot, and quite rightly, about how social media can be used to enhance customer relationships and build rapport with your target market. The right content can truly work wonders – but the wrong content? That’s a different story.

It can be disturbingly easy to accidentally find yourself labelled a spammer. You think you’re posting something interesting and relevant – the recipient doesn’t. You forward a link in good faith – it’s not at all what it should be. But if you’re not sure what’s spam or not, read on and we’ll tell you. If you know them, you can avoid them!

1. Profiles. Are you adding lots of social media profiles that only offer links to your site, and little other relevant content? Then you’re spamming. Without active engagement, your visitors will feel like they’ve been had.
2. Comments. Are you joining discussions just to link your page, or posting lots of content with only a tenuous link to the actual topic? Are you littering any and every comment-enable social site possible with the same info? Then you’re spamming! If you have to comment, keep it relevant.
3. Follows. Contrary to some misguided beliefs, following every Twitter account you can get your hands on will not mean that they will in turn follow you. It’s a transparent attempt to create popularity artificially, and you’ll be spotted immediately. Resist! If some gullible people follow you back, then hitting then with endless links to your business will cut short that relationship pretty quickly.
4. Geolocation. As a relatively new phenomenon, you might not be annoying everyone with your hourly updates yet, but believe me you soon will. ‘X is at the corner shop. X is leaving the corner shop. X is heading to the King’s Arms. X is at the King’s Arms.’ Annoyed yet? Yup. So don’t do it. Or at the very least, keep it to a personal social media account.
5. Splogs. Does your blog have little or no original content? Do you recommend trends simply by following what the real leaders are saying? Do you pack your blog with ads to fill space? Then sadly you have a splog, and you’re spamming. It’s not ethical, and if you’ve just nicked the content, it might not even be legal!

There you have it. Follow my other blogs to know how to use social media without spamming, and watch your business grow. Good luck!