Basic Social Media

Pauline Randall

Florizel Media Ltd

Aims of the session

To have a good, basic understanding of the key social media tools and

how they can be used in business

Objectives

At the end of the session you will be able to:

• Name the key social media tools

• Identify opportunities for using them as part of your marketing

strategy

• Integrate social media with your online and offline marketing

• Develop a content strategy

• Measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing

• Set up accounts on Twitter and Facebook

Housekeeping

• Timing of session – 9.30 to 12.30

• Fire Alarm and Fire Exit

• Other administration

• Introductions

KEY SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS

Key points Watch out for …

• Not great for B2B

• Posts not as visible as you

might think – Edgerank

• Restrictions of how you can do

things like run competitions

• Need to moderate comments

• Facebook has a tendency to

keep changing/moving things!

• Can be good for B2C

• Flexible format – can post

text, links, images, video

• Good way to engage with fans

• Good analytics on the site

• Demographically targeted

advertising

• Can post offers and promote

individual posts (subject to

conditions)

• Dog’s Trust

Twitter

Key points

• Can be good for all types of

business

• Flexible format – can post

text, links, images

• Good way to engage with fans

• Short and to the point

• If you develop a good, loyal

following you can have good

reach

• Shop Scotland

Watch out for …

• Very fast medium – average

life of a tweet is about 18

minutes

• You need to tweet frequently –

if you don’t have time then this

might not work for you

• Limited space in a tweet –

need to be compelling fast

• Native analytics and

advertising only available to

big spenders

Key points

• Good way to show off your

personal background and skills

• Online networking – connect

with other businesses, clients

etc

• Can be particularly good for

B2B

• You can add a company page

which people can follow

• You can post updates from you

and from your company page

• Groups – can be useful to join

and/or setup

Watch out for …

• Can be noisy if you have a lot

of connections

• It’s hard getting people to

engage with company pages

• A lot of people don’t visit that

often so won’t see your

updates

• New endorsement feature may

be turning into the LinkedIn

version of ‘likes’ – not

necessarily useful

YouTube

• Can create your own, branded

channel

• Big audience but lots of

competition

• Good for ‘how to’ videos

• Can use it to host video which

you can embed/share

• Remember to add clear titles,

descriptions and keywords to

help you get found

• PSYBT

Google +

• Google’s third attempt at social

media

• Could become the B2B version

of Facebook pages …maybe

• Google say they have a lot of

users but most people aren’t

using it

• Worth keeping an eye on it –

Google have enough resource

to make it work in the end

• Get Social Scotland

OPPORTUNITIES

Exercise

Take ten minutes and

write down all the

different ways that you

think you could include

social media as part of

your marketing strategy

A few ideas …

• Share ideas

• Share offers

• Build website traffic

• Monitor competitor activity

• Post news items

• Help people out

INTEGRATE WITH OFFLINE

Online is not separate to

offline

Include details on:

• Business cards

• Letterheads

• Compliment slips

• Email footers

• Flyers

• Posters

• Pop-up banners

• Table cards

• What else?

Remember

• Tell people the name of your Twitter account, Facebook page

etc – don’t leave them to guess

• Try and keep the same username on all channels

• Don’t forget to complete all the bio information including a

link to your website

CONTENT STRATEGY

Kittens always get

great reaction on

social media but

don’t rely on that as

a strategy!

Exercise

Take ten minutes and

write down all the things

that you think your

followers would be

interested in hearing

about

Some ideas …

• News stories

• Hints and tips

• Images

• Feedback

• Sales messages

• New products/services

• Problem solving

• Keep it relevant – if you’re following the Waitrose account you

probably won’t be interested in hearing football updates there

Keep it balanced

• Remember it’s ‘social’ media – it’s not about you ‘telling’ all the time

• Don’t forget to listen!

• Sales messages shouldn’t be the bulk of your posts – followers will

get fed up of this and you’ll lose them

• Put yourself in your follower’s place – why should they follow you?

What’s in it for them?

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE YOU?

Think back to your

opportunities and objectives

• Have sales increased?

• Do you get more enquiries?

• Are more people signing up for your newsletter?

• Has your web traffic increased?

• Do you have more followers/fans? Who are they?

Some tools to help

Twitter and Facebook

• Twitonomy

• Twitter Counter

• Facebook Insights

Website traffic

• Google Analytics (will not

only tell you how much

traffic but also where it’s

come from)

… and several more!

SETTING UP A FACEBOOK

PAGE

Let’s visit Florizel Books

SET UP A TWITTER ACCOUNT

Let’s visit @FlorizelBooks

FINAL QUESTIONS

Any questions?