Starting a social media project

Starting a Social Media projectPresentation by Lars de Winter

Starting a Social Media project ?IntroductionSocial Media Strategy (5P’s)

Requirements

Index

Introduction

Social Media Strategy (5P’s)

Requirements

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Starting a Social Media project 1IntroductionSocial Media Strategy (5P’s)

Requirements

Introduction

Why Engage in Social Media?

Times have changed and marketing online has hit a revolution era. Marketing is no longer about one-sided conversation where you push your sales message at your target market. Rather, successful marketing is dependent upon your ability to build relationships and have conversations with your consumers using social media. When implementing your social media campaigns, one of the first things you have to do is decide who or what is going to be your social persona. Are you going to build your social brand around an actual person or stick with the company’s name? There is no “right” way to build your social personality, but there are pros and cons to each option that you should consider before you jump blindly into social media. The ever increasing reach of social networks means that companies can’t afford to make any big mistakes or try to change direction mid-campaign.

Clear evidence show businesses who successfully engage in social media reap rewards of building trusted brand advocacy, increasing sales opportunities whilst gaining a rich understanding about their customers. All in real time!

Introduction

See who is talking about your brand?

Consumers and customers are talking about your brand whether you like it or not, so you might as well listen to what they are saying and from there plan how to engage in trusted conversations. 'Listening' comes in the form of Social Media reports, developed from a toolkit of different measuring and monitoring software applied with a scientific analytical approach.Different criteria's are used to identify type of influencer, level of influence and the relevancy of conversational topics and opportunities are reviewed for relevancy to brand.Commissioning a Social Media Listening Report is the first step before any Engagement strategy or plan can be discussed. Without one, your brand will have no direction or focus towards which to plan your entry into social media.

This gives you 2 possibilities:

1. Listen to Social Media and benefit from the information provided2. Engage through Social Media and create a community of engaged, loyal brand

followers


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PLAN: Social Media Strategy

Prior proper planning prevents poor performance. So, before you venture out, create accounts and starting posting – take a big step back and think about your strategy. Then, put it on paper.

• Establish goals (recruiting, training, client interaction, PR, branding, education, culture, etc.)

• Integrate social media strategy piece with your business plan• Establish a content strategy based on your goals• Budget for both time and resources• Set a timeline for frequency of messages• Implement policies and procedures• Communicate your plan and engage your internal audience

Social Media Strategy (5p’s)


POSITION: What’s Your Point?

One of the best parts (and biggest challenges) in Social Media is crafting a clever (and memorable) message. So, what is your point? What are you trying to convey? Finding your voice will help you differentiate and dominate.

• Differentiate your content• Become the expert in your industry• Link, link, link! • Get involved with group discussions• Value before self-promotion• Research what others are doing• Talk about what you are already doing• How personal do you get?• Is there such as thing as sensitive information?

PLATFORMS: Tools and Tactics

Over 350 mediums for sharing online – how do you have the time for all that?! Make sure you are learning which platforms are best suited for your strategy. The Big 4 are most utilized because of their impact and influence online. Finding tools to expedite your posts and content will help!

• Understand key social platforms and their purposes – with an integrated approach• The Big 4: Facebook (500M), Twitter (200M), LinkedIn (100M), Blogs , 350+ mediums

for ‘sharing’ online!• Resource libraries (Wikipedia, etc.) exponential growth in use, high accuracy of content• Photo and video sharing phenomenon (YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, etc.)• Others: Tumblr (3rd party), Foursquare (location), etc.• Tools for managing multiple platforms (Radian6, Co-tweet, Tweetdeck, HootSuite, etc.)• Link shorteners and trackers (bitly, owly, deckly, etc.)• Tagging (@), hashtags (#), and other key tools


PEOPLE: Internal and External Audiences

Once you have a strategy and Social Media functionality figured out, what is next? Engaging your audiences. And yes, this includes both external and internal. You could have crafted the best message, but if no one is listening and responding you are missing half the battle.

• Who dictates your content (internal audience)?• Who posts content, how many voices?• Give incentives for posting good content• Have a watchdog that monitors content• Utilize training forums so your content is well thought out• Who is your external audience?• Grow your external audience• Retain your external audience• Interaction with People vs. Companies• Small company can have a much bigger voice!


PERFORMANCE: Return On Investment?

Monitoring and measuring ROI for your Social Media efforts can seem daunting. Sometimes it is hard to quantify. The biggest key is to ensure you are measuring against the goals of your Social Media campaign. If you are looking to brand your business or recruit great talent, your metrics may be different.

• Utilize analytics already built into the platforms• Use measurement tools available online

(facebook insights, google analytics, twitstat, postrank, sentiment metrics)• Monitoring vs. Measurement, there is a difference• Report, report, report• Track and improve your SEO• Integrate your Social Media ROI with other business metrics• Tracking the intangible parts of ROI (feedback)• What are YOU learning in social media space?

So is there really a “Perfect Program” in Social Media? Depends. What are your goals versus your successes? How much are you learning? Do your customers and colleagues engage with you in a new way? Then perhaps you are finding your Social Media Success.



Requirements

Requirements

LISTENING: What do you need?

As mentioned in the first chapter there are two ways of participating in Social Media, listening and engaging.

The first step when considering social analytics is to establish a listening strategy.

In social media, listening acts as a guide through the ever-changing and interesting world of Social Media. Why? Because listening is an ongoing process that is necessary to keep a strategy fresh and competitive. It enables decision-makers to find and better understand opportunities and stakeholders.

Before actively listening to Social Media you need to know:

• Where do you want to listen (facebook, micromedia, forums, blogs,news sites)• Who is your target audience• What do you want to monitor (trends, complaints, feedback, sentiment)• What do you wish to gain from the gathered information• What is your social business strategy

ENGAGING: What do you need?

Engaging on Social Media enables companies to stay close to their customers to listen to their feedback, ideas and questions. This enables Social Media as a new, effective channel to proactively listen, engage and support large online communities, market your brand and ‘wow’ your customers.

“To create an experience that results in positive consumer engagement with our brand. That is the WOW Factor”

Before actively engaging in Social Media you need to know:

• Where do you want to engage (facebook, micromedia, forums, blogs, news sites)• What do you want to engage (questions, problems, complaints, compliments)• What will be your Social Persona • Which (available) channels you will facilitate• What will be your guidelines/support boundaries• Which Social Media tools are you going to use• Amount of FTE/Agent hours needed to engage• What do you want to report/measure and in which intervals do you report

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SUCCESS: What do you need?

In addition to the mandatory requirements to participate on Social Media you need a few additional things to be really succesfull.

• Reliable and capable Social Media measurement/engagement tools• Constant focus on team performances/KPI’s• “Out of the box” thinkers• Highly motivated team members• Clear rules of engagement• Bonus/Penalty System

All these factors contribute to a successful Social Media Project. Keep in mind that the outcome of the project fully relies on the input of the team.

“Social Media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” - Matt Goulart

Requirements

Lars de Winter Social Media Support [email protected]

Thanks for your attention!

Documents

Starting a social media project