Understanding Social Media for Small to Medium Sized Businesses

T H E PAT H O F A S O C I A L M E D I A C A M PA I G N

S O C I A L M E D I A

W H AT TO E X P E CT

‣ This is a foundation of how social media can be used, though not in-depth, you will have a strong understanding of W5 afterwards

‣ Focused on an engagement-based experience, social media has an emphasis on social, something many brands forget

‣ What Social Media CAN & CANNOT do

S O C I A L M E D I A C A N . .‣ AMPLIFY your current marketing strategies by engaging in the

communities you’re focusing on

‣ An OPPORTUNITY to engage with current and potential customers online

‣ DIRECT potential customers towards your current goals eg. website, subscriptions etc..

‣ Build brand awareness

‣ Build your brand’s community

‣ ONE-PART of a multi-faceted marketing campaign

S O C I A L M E D I A C A N N OT. .

‣ A one-stop solution for all your marketing needs

‣ An easy, ‘If you built it, they will come’ scenario

‣ Worth less than what you were paying for advertising back in 1995

‣ Social Media cannot build your empire in a month

‣ The cure to everything ever!

Social media can only be successful if you integrate it and support it through other marketing means.

-Super Amazing Wise Person

“”

Questions?

The When of Social Media

H O W D I D S O C I A L M E D I A B E G I N ?

‣ What’s your definition of social media?

‣ First Email sent in 1971

‣ In 1985, America Online (AOL) was founded

‣ Blogging began in 1997, and in the same year AOL Instant Message made its debut, allowing people to chat online

‣ The internet’s first social network as we know them today: Friendster

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20152012

T H E B U S I N E S S O F S O C I A L M E D I A

‣ Facebook made a net profit of $US1.5bn in 2014 yet is valued at 128 times that.. $US192bn

‣ In 2014, Twitter reported their Q2 earnings at $US312m

‣ LinkedIn reported it’s 2014 Q4 revenue at $US447.2m

H O W D O T H E Y M A K E M O N E Y ?

‣ Venture capitalists. These investors are essentially betting that the site will become popular and eventually find a way to monetize that success

‣ Without investors, services like Twitter would have withered away under operational costs

‣ Eventually, social networking sites have to hope for one of two outcomes:

‣ 1. Find a way to make monetize the site (advertising)

‣ 2. Convince a larger company to buy the site

Do you have an active marketing plan outside of social media?

Online Eco-System

The Heart of your presence

WEBSITE

Audience, Engagement & Leads

SOCIAL MEDIA

Show your expertise

BLOG

Whitepapers for EmailsLANDING PAGEMonthly Subscriptions

NEWSLETTER

The Heart of your presence

WEBSITE

You’ve just finished your website. 120 hours & thousands of dollars later and it looks great! So now what?

Now you need to tell the world about it, so how exactly do you go about doing that?

You need little birds to spread the word, you need some social media to connect you with your audience, to

help build your community.

The Heart of Your Presence

There are many reasons your business needs a blog, but none are more valid than the fact it builds your authority.

By creating content to share, you help generate traffic to your site. This in turn helps your standing with Google by providing

consistent fresh content for it to recognize.

Simple put, your blog is the air of your eco-system

Showcase Your Expertise

Show your expertise

BLOG

The purpose of a white paper is to promote a certain product, service, technology or methodology to influence

prospective customers' decisions.

We do this by providing factual information – minus marketing fluff.

By offering your expertise in exchange for a prospect’s email address, we continue to feed the eco-system, adding to our

email list and creating valuable content we can continue to use, something we colloquially refer to as — Evergreen content.

Evergreen Content for Emails

Whitepapers for EmailsLANDING PAGE

A N ATO M Y O F A L A N D I N G PA G E

A newsletter is a great way to keep in touch with your prospects. It’s a marketing tool that your customers actually

signed up for, so obviously they want to see it.

This is where you can share important updates, promotions etc.. to once again provide information that positions you as an

expert in your field.

This of course builds a level of trust and loyalty with your customers. All in all, it’s a win-win.

Email Subscribers

Monthly SubscriptionsNEWSLETTER

The Heart of your presence

WEBSITE

Audience, Engagement & Leads

SOCIAL MEDIA

Show your expertise

BLOG

Whitepapers for EmailsLANDING PAGEMonthly Subscriptions

NEWSLETTER

Questions?

Path of a Social Media Strategy

Client Goals

1

If you don’t have a clear and concise idea of why your brand is on social

media, then you’re wasting your time.

-Super Amazing Wise Person

“”

B R A N D A W A R E N E S S

‣ Project your brand

‣ Recognition from potential customers

‣ Top-of-mind marketing

B U I L D I N G C O M M U N I T Y

‣ Would you rather have 1000 Facebook followers, or 100 followers who advocate on your behalf?

‣ Building trust, builds community

‣ What are you offering followers that makes them want to have you in their feed?

T H O U G H T L E A D E R S H I P

‣ You are the foremost expert in your field

‣ It’s not what you know, it’s your perspective on it

‣ Sharing your knowledge is the lifeblood of social media

D R I V E T R A F F I C

‣ This is the first goal for most brands

‣ Does you website have a sales funnel in place?

‣ What happens after you get traffic?

Building Persona Profiles

2

P E R S O N A P R O F I L E S

‣ Age

‣ Gender

‣ Job Description

‣ Income

‣ Likes/ Dislikes

K E Y W O R D S‣ What best describes their industry?

‣ What best describes their goals?

‣ Where do you use keywords?

‣ Google Ads

‣ Hashtags

‣ Blogs

‣ PPC

The Channels

3

C H O O S I N G YO U R C H A N N E L S

‣ Over 800+ Channels

‣ Who is your target audience?

‣ Where do they congregate?

‣ What do they talk about?

‣ What do they love?

FA C E B O O K

‣ Demographic: 58% Women

‣ Pros: Community Centric

‣ Benefits: Most people will look for you on this channel first

‣ Users: 1.4Bn

L I N K E D I N

‣ Demographic: Business

‣ Pros: Direct B2B engagement

‣ Benefits: Real-World Network

‣ Users: 347m

T W I T T E R

‣ Demographic: Mobile-Centric

‣ Pros: Perfect for Customer Service

‣ Benefits: Very Event-Oriented

‣ Users: 288m

Content Strategy

4

C O N T E N T C R E AT I O N

‣ Creating your own content places you at an advantage

‣ You become the thought leader

‣ You can control the conversation you want to have

‣ You can focus on your localized industry

W H I T E PA P E R

‣ Evergreen Content ie. Long Term

‣ Provides your expertise in more than just a bite-size format

‣ Provided in-exchange for email

‣ Helps build your email subscription base

I N F O G R A P H I C

‣ Evergreen Content

‣ Visually appealing

‣ Great shareability

B LO G P O ST S

‣ Sets your expertise!

‣ Consistency is key

‣ Helps drive traffic to your site

‣ SEO friendly

‣ Cost effective if you do it yourself

‣ What do you talk about?

‣ Top 10 questions your clients ask you

‣ Examples please

V I D E O

‣ Video is the currently a powerhouse

‣ An extra channel to engage via YouTube, Instagram or Vine

I M A G E S

‣ We are visual creatures

‣ 3-8 seconds to engage

‣ Easy

‣ Watermark for longer brand awareness

‣ Includes community

Cultivate

5

A U D I E N C E

‣ Leverage your network/ employees

‣ Use channels advertising platform ie. Facebook (Pay-to-Play)

‣ Contests

E N G A G E

‣ Be fun, real, honest

‣ Show failures as well as successes

‣ Engagement is what builds a community

‣ How do you engage strangers?

‣ Hashtags

‣ Events

‣ Literally just talk to them

Marketing Objectives

6

A N A LY T I C S

‣ If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist

‣ The Almighty ROI

‣ Social Media is extremely measurable but..

B E N C H M A R K

‣ Where did we start?

‣ What is success?

‣ Is what we’re doing working?

‣ Is it working? Change it up!0

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April May June July

Questions?

The Anatomy of a Post

Each social channel has it’s own unique audience and therefor, it’s own unique voice.

-Super Amazing Wise Person

“”

T W I T T E R‣ Include A Clear Call To Action

‣ Click here, here's why, retweet this, and read on work to let people know you want them to click through or re-tweet.

‣ Sometimes all you need to do is motivate people to get the results you are looking for.

‣ Messaging Matters

‣ Keep your tweets between 100-120 character for best results.

‣ Don't sacrifice grammar and punctuation to get the tweet in. You'll look dumb.

‣ Questions, stats, and facts engage users and encourage retweets.

‣ Mention, thank, quote, give credit and engage others to encourage conversation.

‣ Images Increase Engagement

‣ Don't over do it. Save images for times when you really want to get in front of people.

‣ Use Hashtags

‣ Hashtags are a great way to get inside a conversation

FA C E B O O K‣ Messaging Matters

‣ Humor, inspiration, and positivity are the most liked and engaged with content on Facebook.

‣ Ask questions and tell stories to encourage commenting and interaction with your page.

‣ 2-3 sentence teaser is enough.

‣ Timing Is Everything

‣ Make sure you are sharing when people are online. You can find out the exact time frame through Facebook analytics.

‣ Images Grab Attention

‣ The perfect size image is 800x600.

‣ Engage With Your Audience

L I N K E D I N‣ Messaging Comes First

‣ Your message should be business related and offer your expertise on the given subject.

‣ 3-4 sentences is a good amount of content to offer before adding the link. 2. Link Love

‣ Images show up when you share links so make sure it is a good picture.

‣ This is your opportunity to bring people to your website which can hopefully turn into good business for you.

‣ Use Images

‣ We see nearly 10x more likes and comments when I upload an image and don't use a link.

‣ Commenting & Liking

W H AT TO D O

‣ Each channel has a different voice

‣ Localize your references, make it personable

‣ Take advantage of large hash tagged events like the World Cup

W H AT N OT TO D O

‣ Don’t overuse hashtags, no more than 3, or else it looks like spam

‣ Grammar mistakes

‣ Be wary of tragedies

Contingency Plan

C O N T I N G E N CY P L A N

‣ Bad publicity through outside means ie. bad review

‣ High-traffic post responses ie. SCOTUS

‣ You’re social media manager quits

‣ National or Local Emergency

I F YO U S C R E W E D U P

‣ Take responsibility right away!

‣ Don’t lie ie. Someone hacked your account

‣ Find a way to remedy the situation immediately

H I G H -T R A F F I C P O ST R E S P O N S E S

‣ Coordinated with your IT team about if your site can handle the traffic ie. The Reddit Hug

‣ Speak with your team about how you'll stop, drop and roll with a tsunami of comments or traffic

‣ That means everything from keeping your site functional to how you'll respond, content-wise

YO U ’ R E L E F T H I G H A N D D R Y

‣ Train other employees to take over if need be

‣ Make sure multiple players have access to the accounts, dashboards and other tools--and the experience to use them

‣ Build a Best Practices Playbook

N AT I O N A L E M E R G E N CY

‣ Turn off any pre-scheduled messages in your social queue

‣ If it’s the right thing to do, make it clear that you’re not going to say anything else until your employees are safe

‣ Say something about the crisis, and make it authentic and sincere

‣ Do not plug yourself unless you’re providing a free service to help ie. Apple during Japan earthquake

Services

S C H E D U L I N G

‣ Hootsuite: Free // Not good for multiple brands

‣ Buffer: Easy Content Cultivation // auto-scheduling optimal times

‣ Sprout Social: Full suite of metrics AND scheduling

M E A S U R I N G

‣ Website: Google Analytics (first thing you do)

‣ Twitter: SocialBro // Cultivating Audience

‣ Facebook: It’s own metrics are actually very concise (PHXart)

OT H E R

‣ Blogging: Co-Scheduling

‣ Finding content: Topsy //

‣ Hashtags: Tagboard

‣ Landing Pages: Instapage

‣ Content Cultivating: RSS Feeds // Feedly