Getting Started with Social Media

August 29, 2011Prepared by Carter Hostelley

What Social Media is NOT?

It’s not a scam or fad or hype.

It’s not free. It takes time.

It’s not just for kids.

It’s not a Facebook page.

Invent an industry.

Change a few words.

Charge for information already used for decades.

Make money.

Genius.

What is Social Media?

Sure, it’s about having conversations on the

Internet…

But it’s also about creating content.

And sharing… lots and lots of sharing.

Which develops real relationships… imagine that!

But not overnight. It takes awhile.

The good news? You’re already doing it!

Now with social tools, you can do it even better.

= )

What is Social Media?

Word of Mouth on Steroids

Why Should You Care? 75% of the Global Internet population visits social networks1.

85% of social network users believe that a company should

interact with customers using social media2.

80% of companies with at least 100 employees will use social

networks for marketing this year3.

1. The Nielsen Company; 2. Cone, 2008; 3. eMarketer

So, your customers and prospects are doing social media (and

talking about your company - are you listening?)

Btw, your competitors are doing it too… (and talking to your

customers and prospects - are you worried?)

So NOW it’s time for YOU to do social media.

Imagine how hard it would be to do

business if you could no longer use

email… pretty hard right!?

Soon, most business

professionals will be thinking

the same thing about… social

media!

Why Should You Care?

Remember Before You Dive In…

Do Don’t

Do use social media to develop real relationships with social tools (like Twitter).

Don’t think social media means just having a Twitter account.

Do give people reasons to talk about your business… and make it easy to do so!

Don’t just talk about how great your products and services are.

Do engage like a real person: with personality, opinions, and using everyday language.

Don’t engage like a corporation: impersonal, boring, and using industry jargon.

Do use social media to help people solve their problems.

Don’t use social media to do a hard sales pitch.

Do invest in social media for the long term… it will pay off!

Don’t expect instant results.

How to Get Started?

1. Determine what you want to achieve with social media.

2. Choose which social media approach you’ll use given your objectives.

3. Pick the social media tools you’ll use to build and engage your target audience.

4. Develop the right content strategy to support your social media objectives and approach.

5. Track and measure progress along the way.

Determine what you want to achieve

• Create Brand Awareness?

• Improve Sales Prospecting?

• Generate Leads?

• Drive Referrals?

• All of the Above?

Engagement &

Advocacy

Brand Awareness

Social Advertisin

g

Advertise on social networks to

reach highly-targeted audience

Social Marketing

Build social channels to engage

customers, prospects, and

influencers in real conversations

Social Selling

Prospecting & Lead

Generation

Leverage social tools to identify and engage customers

and prospects

Choose your Social Approach

Pick Social Media Tools

Tools DescriptionMonitors Web for brand and keyword mentions.

How to UseAre you listening? Set up email alerts for keywords you care about such as your company, key prospects, competitors, etc.

ApproachSocial Selling

Social networking platform for business professionals.

Build professional network. Research prospects and get intros. Advertise to reach business professionals.

Social SellingSocial Advertising

Social networking and microblogging platform for everyone.

Monitor what key influencers are saying. Build and engage relevant audience. Keyword advertise to grow follower base.

Social MarketingSocial SellingSocial Advertising

Social networking platform for friends and family… and (increasingly) brands.

Build and engage brand audience. Launch social campaigns (i.e., offers and contests). Integrate “Like” button into all Web content. Advertise to target audience.

Social MarketingSocial Advertising

Most popular blogging platform.

Content is king. Build and engage topical audience by blogging and social sharing of blog posts.

Social MarketingSocial Selling

Video-sharing platform and 2nd largest search-engine on the Web.

Users want to see videos from brands. Build and engage brand audience. Leverage for social campaigns.

Social Marketing

Follow Best Practices and Avoid PitfallsTools Best Practices Common Pitfalls

Link in to everyone so you can leverage their network for introductions, etc. Send thank you emails as LinkedIn invites. Tie-in your Twitter, RSS for more ways to interact.

Tweet 3 to 5 times daily using different messages (helpful, industry-related, personal). Search keywords to find who to follow. Retweet the tweets of prospects and customers to build relationships.

Don’t set up too many alerts or you may miss the alert you care most about!

Don’t focus on follower quantity. Instead build quality (target audience) follower list. Don’t stop tweeting or your follower list won’t grow. Don’t forget to create a complete profile (picture and interesting bio) or you won’t attract quality followers.

Use “fan-gated” pages for special offers, campaigns, and sweepstakes to build audience. Develop content strategy for daily engagement. Leverage for social branding.

Not promoting FB page within customer-touch-points (website, emails, etc.). Not incorporating Like button in brand content. Not having specific content strategy to drive engagement.

Not consistently blogging. Not staying on topic. Making blog posts too long (500 to 1,000 words is best).

Create YouTube channel and upload all video content. Create content that engages users. Get and post user-generated content.

Not making videos engaging, relevant, or shareable from user perspective. Not optimizing videos for search. Not pointing videos at your other online properties.

Set up daily alerts to monitor your name and brand (reputation mgt.), competitors, key prospects, etc.

Only linking to people you know well. This restricts the size and reach of your network. Not “listening” to your network and leveraging for introductions. Not completing your profile.

Pick narrow topic and blog at least 2 times per month. Leverage social to distribute posts and build audience.

Develop Your Content Strategy

News Related Entertaining Educational Promotional PersonalIndustry news Videos Articles Offers Activities

Company news Photos Q&A Contests Experiences

News commentary Apps, Games, Polls Surveys, Research Coupons Opinions

News summaries Quotes Webinars Freebies Connections

Interviews Top 10 Lists Tutorials Sweepstakes Questions

Social Media is Fueled by Content (popular examples):

Create and share content frequently and consistently!

Engaging

Make your content intriguing, informative,

interactive, fun

“Respondable”Get responses by being

opinionated, have strong views, ask

questions Shareable

Provide highly relevant, helpful, valuable

content, and it will be shared

Remember to Make Your Content…

Track and Measure Your Progress

Categories Description Examples

Social Audience Total audience size and growth of your social properties.

Twitter Followers, LinkedIn connections, YouTube and Blog subscribers

Social Views How often social properties are viewed over time, audience size, platform, etc.

Number of Facebook views, LinkedIn views, YouTube views, blog views

Social Engagement

Number and frequency of interactions over time, audience size, platform, etc.

Facebook wall posts, blog comments, brand mentions

Social Advocacy How often content is being recommended and shared over time, audience size, platform, etc.

Facebook likes, Twitter retweets, positive reviews

Social Referrals Number of visits, clicks, and leads being generated from social media effort over time, audience size, platform, etc.

Website visits, newsletter signups, referrals, product sales

Getting Started on Social Tools

Tools Sign Up URL

http://www.google.com/alerts

Get Started

http://www.google.com/support/alerts/

https://www.linkedin.com http://learn.linkedin.com/

http://www.twitter.com http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics

http://www.facebook.com http://mashable.com/guidebook/facebook/

http://wordpress.com http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-started

http://www.youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/t/about_getting_started

Free Social Monitoring & Tracking Tools

Tools Description

www.google.com/alerts

URL

www.socialmention.com

www.klout.com

www.bitly.com

www.facebook.com/insights

Monitors Web for brand and keyword mentions. Sends email alerts.

Monitors Social Web and blogs for brand mentions. Sends email alerts.

Track interactions with fans and content within Facebook. Must be page admin to view.Insights

Measures an individuals social influence. Want high Klout score folks recommending brand.

Measures

Social EngagementSocial Advocacy

Social EngagementSocial Advocacy

Social ViewsSocial EngagementSocial Advocacy

Social Advocacy

Link shortening tool that makes it easy to track and analyze clicks and referral sources. Social Referrals

Monitors Twitter for brand and keyword mentions. Sends email alerts.

Social EngagementSocial Advocacy

www.tweetbeep.com

Website and blog analytics that tracks unique visits; and inbound clicks from social referrals. www.google.com/analytics

Social AudienceSocial ViewsSocial Referrals

Insights Website and blog analytics that tracks unique visits; and inbound clicks from social referrals.

www.youtube.com/t/advertising_insight

Social AudienceSocial Views

Thank You!Leadtail helps marketers, advertisers, and business owners with their online marketing and social media needs. Let us know how we can help you…http://Marketing.Leadtail.com

http://www.Leadtail.com

http://www.StartupYourOnlineAdvertising.com

http://www.BestOnlineAdvertisingStuff.com

@Leadtail

www.facebook.com/Leadtail

(888) 330-3236