Social Media Strategy Workbook

Transcription

1 Social Media Strategy Workbook

2 contents contents Overview of Social Media Resourcing & Managment of Social Media Audiences Social Media Channels and Tactics Social Media Channels Tactics: Content and Engagment / 20 Rule for Social Media Posts Social Media Engagement Social Media Content Planning Social Media Management, Resources & Risk.... Metrics

3 summary The following guide will help you to understand how you can use social media successfully as part of your communications and marketing. It has been produced for marketing, PR and communications managers in public sector and government organisations, charities and businesses. The guide contains practical advice, examples and exercises to help you: Understand what social media is and how your organisation can use it Gain management buy-in and resources for social media Produce effective content that will interest your audiences How to manage social media risk Good luck preparing your social media strategy and feel free to get in touch if have any additional questions on social media. contents Paul McGarrity Director, Octave Digital

4 What is social media? S o c i a l M e d i a o v e r v i e w Social Media is the term for online sites that let people communicate with a community of peers in real-time. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are used by hundreds of millions of people across the globe to keep in contact with friends and family, find, share and promote content. Who is using it? Social media use has increased massively in recent years. In UK and Ireland over 52% of the population has a Facebook profile and sites such as Facebook and Twitter now play a very important part of their day-to-day communication with peers, friends and family. Social media is not a fad. In fact real-time social media networking has become so important, that it has become the primary way for people to connect with others. This trend will only grow with the rise of smartphones which make it easier to access social media sites in different locations. how do people use social media? People use social media for a variety of purposes including: Communicating with their network of friends Finding out about news and views online Networking for business But perhaps the most important way people use social media is to post comments and content. People use sites such as Facebook and Twitter to tell their friends and peers about what s happening in their lives. Their status updates can range from the funny, the life changing to the ridiculous. Sites such as Facebook and Twit- 1.

5 S o c i a l M e d i a o v e r v i e w ter are social sites so people frequently respond to other status updates - by commenting, retweeting or liking the post. Posts, depending on their popularity, can reach a wider audience if they are liked, commented on or retweeted, sometimes giving them a viral effect. how can organistions use social media? It s not difficult to understand why major brands, small businesses, charities and public organisations are using social media. The power of traditional media has decreased in the past decade. While some forms of traditional media such as TV and Radio have remained relatively roboust, other media such as newspapers and magazines have witnessed massive declines in readership figures. People are using new forms of media including search engines, and social media to communicate, shop and socialise. Because social media is so important in many people s lives, it makes sense that you will want to use social media as part of your marketing. Social Media Marketing Benefits : Connect with modern consumer who uses variety of media and devices, but is increasingly moving away from print media Boost Online PR and exposure for your brand to carefully se- lected niche groups Improve key business areas from customer service to market- ing and HR 2

6 PREPARING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY why use social media? Not enough organisations ask the questions why do we want to use social media?, and what do we hope to get out of it? So your first step in a social media strategy is to be very clear about what you want to use social media for. This part of the strategy is where you map out your objectives. Below I have listed a wide range of goal and objectives Research and Learning Market research Promote an event Reach a niche / target audience online Promote interesting content Identify new leads Recruit staff Raising profile of key staff / CEO Improving PR coverage Promoting content Improve reputation Note: It s common for businesses to try to use social media to achieve unrealistic objectives. While social media can be great for marketing / PR, recruitment, events and customer relations it s not a sales channel and it s only effective when it s used properly. You need to consider the wider digital marketing and sales environment and select the right tactics and channels for your business objective. So, for instance, if you want to increase traffic and leads to your website, then you will want to place a greater emphasis on using search marketing and marketing. 3

7 why use social media? Consider the business and marketing objectives above. Map out your main objectives for using social media. Are they SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely? Exercise 4

8 PREPARING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY Organisational Use of Social Media In my experience many organisations are not aware of how they can potentially utilise social media across the whole organisation. As part of the strategy, you will need to consider how social media can operate across the organisation from HR to customer service and PR. TopTip: If you work for a large organisation - make sure you educate decision makers on how social media affects the whole organisation from customer service to the CEO and sales. One idea is to hold a session with staff to discuss how technology, digital and social media can be utilised to improve customer service, networking etc. 5

9 Review the chart below and identify the areas where you could improve your business functions? Business Improvement Examples Primary Channels Could we use? How could we use? Marketing Promoting the brand (B2C) online Reaching defined demographics (using Facebook to advertise to young people) Building brand loyalty (encourage brand fans to follow you on social media and engage via content) Exercise Marketing (B2B) PR Gaining leads online (an accountant could use social media to identify leads and connect, engage with them) Improving media relations (identify main journalists and connect with them online) Profiling Senior Staff online / Improve CEO reputation Improving promotion of event and live engagement. Identifying and engaging with stakeholders Integrate into crisis communications plans and activity 6

10 Internal Communications Customer Service Engage with staff / improve internal comms. Replace staff intranet Responding to customer enquiries and complaints Broadcasting announcements Finance Reduction of spend on ineffective forms of communication and customer service (eg. Reduce reliance on telephone for customer service; reduce spend on print adverts) HR Advertise recruitment drive (e.g graduate placements ) Exercise Improve recruitment for niche positions (e.g use Linkedin to identify and contact) 7

11 Measuring Goals S o c i a l M e d i a o v e r v i e w Having defined what you want to achieve with social media, you now need to complete a short benchmark for measuring success. This is not a case of measuring the number of followers you have on social media channels. Instead you will want to measure the impact you are having online. The social media measurements I find most useful are: Engagement with customers How quickly and effectively you responded to customer queries online Identifying influencers and leads Engaging with influencers and leads How people engaged with your content (likes, positive comments, retweets, shares etc) Networking at events Online media coverage Website traffic Note: Hootsuite (Enterprise Version): Social media scheduling and meas- urement tool Facebook Insights: Analytics tool that can be accessed in the Admin section on a Facebook Page Google Analytics: Tracks information on visitors to your website and the activity. These tools will give you data on social media engagement and how social media activity is driving traffic to the website. However you will also have to interpret the data and report on how social media goals are being achieved, so it typical to produce a regular report on the extent of engagement on social media, how people responded to your posts etc. 8

12 Map out your social media goals For each of your goals, map out the following: What is the goal? What is the benefit to your business / marketing activity? How will this activity be measured What is the goal? How will you achieve? What is the benefit? How will it be measured Example: Start social media Promote brand Number of fol- Increase online channels, social awareness lowers; customer engagement media advertising, Get audience to engagements with between us and online PR promote our con- posts our target audi- Create great, inter- tent Retweets, likes ences esting content! Gain feedback and shares of our Encourage feed- from customers content back! Comments, how well you replied Exercise 9

13 R e s o u r c i n g & M a n a g e m e n t o f S o c i a l M e d i a Resourcing Effective social media requires a commitment to do it well and to resource it effectively. In order to manage social media effectively, you will need to do the following: Plan the types of content you are going to use Produce content (posts, photos etc) on a very regular basis Grow your social media community on different channels Engage with your social media community in real time Monitor your social media channels regularly Looking at the list above you may feel you don t quite have the resources to do social media effectively. So the next step in your social media strategy will be to: Assess your organisation s main resource gaps Try to secure additional resources Identify the following gaps in your resourcing and management in the exercise below: Resource Gap? Relevance to your organisation Next Steps No budget Key staff do not know how to use social media Staff do not have time to use social media Social media has been left to one person / overstretched Approach management and make a strong case for social media investment and training In-house Social Media Training Additional social media resource. Reduction in other marketing activity in favour of social media Training other members of staff in how to use social media Additional resources 10

14 R e s o u r c i n g & M a n a g e m e n t o f S o c i a l M e d i a Securing resources Securing the right resources for your social media activity may well be the most important factor in your social media success. The secret to securing the valuable resources usually people, training and budget is to make a persuasive case for using social media. The case should focus on: The value and benefits of using social media to the organisa- tion How the organisation can benefit by improving key areas of the business by using technology such as social media Finally, it s very helpful to have a senior manager or board level champion who supports the use of social media. They will be a key ally in securing resources. Staffing You will also have to decide which staff within your organisation will be operating the social media channels on a regular basis. Unfortunately, many organisations fall into the trap of automatically thinking that a recent graduate or intern will be best placed to manage social media. However this is rarely the case. Sounding authoritative and interesting on social media often requires an in-depth level of knowledge of the organisation and junior members of staff often don t have this. In practice it s much better to use experienced staff who can then be trained up in managing social media well. 11

15 R e s o u r c i n g & M a n a g e m e n t o f S o c i a l M e d i a training Social Media training is used to ensure that relevant staff have the knowledge, understanding and skills to use social media effectively. Typically, in-house training, delivered by a social media trainer, is delivered in the following areas: Training Type Audience Benefit Social Media Opportunities How to use Social Media channels - Practical Social Media Marketing and Management Senior Staff / Managers Staff who will be using social media on a day to day basis Staff who will be using social media on a day to day basis / Managers Educate senior staff on the benefits of social media Gain buy-in from senior staff A Z practical training on how to use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin Ensures staff can use each channel well Staff learn about: the types of content to use on social media How to respond to com- ments How to grow following Social Media Risk All Staff Risks of using social media How to mitigate risks Preparing a social media policy 12

16 question How would you assess your available resources for using social media effectively? question Who will manage your social media on a regular basis? If social media is being used across a variety of units (e.g customer service, marketing) then who will be responsible for managing social media and how will they work together? Exercise question Identify your staff training needs. Who will need trained in social media? Have you secured a budget for staff training? 13

17 audiences The next stage in your social media plan is to map out the target audiences you want to reach. However before you do this, you need to consider some important points about reaching and influencing people in the digital age. People use social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to socialise, learn new things, to relieve boredom, research and be entertained. Is it any wonder they ignore corporate PR stories online. With Social media you have to attract people to you brand online and then be a combination of useful, funny, caring etc enough for people to engage with what you are saying. So you have to ask why would sometime with limited time and lots of distractions want to follow you on Twitter or friend you on Facebook? Why would they want to interact with your content? A u d i e n c e s If your organisation has a PR / Communications plan it will be useful to review it to find out if have a list of target audiences already defined. Types of audiences you may want to reach include: Current clients or customers Potential clients and customers Journalists Bloggers Thought leaders Stakeholders enewsletter readers staff local businesses networking contacts 14

18 Defining Your Target Audience question Who are your target audience on social media, who do you need to reach? question What kinds of content will resonate with them? Exercise question How are you going to engage with them? question What do you want to motivate your audience to do? 15

19 Social Media Channels and Tactics Social media channels and your audiences The social media landscape is made up of hundreds of different social media sites however there are a handful of very dominant sites: Facebook the world s most popular social media site Twitter second most dominant social media site, based around short tweets Linkedin World s largest business networking sites In addition to the social media heavyweights, there are a variety of popular social media sites including: You Tube Google+ Pinterest Which Social Media Channel(s) are relevant for you? The vast majority of organisations will want to concentrate their social activity on the dominant social media sites. You also have to consider where your audiences are online. If you a public body or brand then Facebook and Twitter are two of the obvious channels to use. However if you are a B2B firm, then you may want to concentrate on Linkedin. 16

20 Social Media Channels and Tactics Brand Promotion Customer Service Advertising Event Networking B2B Image promotion Your Opportunities How to Build an Audience on Social Media In short the best way to grow an audience on any social media channel is to post great content and engage with people. But you will also want be proactive in finding the relevant audiences and current contacts on social media. This stage in your strategy is about building your social media audience. 17

21 Social Media Channels S o c i a l M e d i a C h a n n e l s facebook Facebook is the world s largest social media platform. If you are a small business, brand, charity or government organisation you will want to include Facebook as your main social media platform. Points to consider in your Facebook Marketing: Facebook is used by people to socialise online with families and friends so you need to develop really interesting or useful content that resonates with your audience. Facebook effectively punishes Pages that post poor content by showing your posts less. Businesses that are good at Facebook use a combination of stories, humour and are topical Effective Facebook marketing is increasingly driven by good quality images The main marketing opportunities with Facebook are: Creating interesting stories about your brand Using Facebook Ads and Promoted Posts to reach a wider au- dience 18

22 twitter Twitter is a real-time social networking platform which is witnessing major growth. In fact, the UK has around 15 million active users. Keeping up to date with their interests / news Contacting businesses (customer service) Live chatting with friends / business contacts at events Find out about breaking news Businesses can use Twitter effectively by: S o c i a l M e d i a C h a n n e l s Promoting interesting news and information Networking at events and with stakeholders Help with customer service issues in real time Use cultural and news trends to raise your visibility online. linked in LinkedIn is a networking tool for professionals. Used by millions of business people across the globe, the platform allows you to: Research potential leads, contacts or potential employees Build a powerful community of connections Raise your visibility and that of your company 19

23 tactics Tactics: Content and Engagement Your tactics are the most important factor in making social media work for your business. In this section you will review the two broad types of tactics that will be used to fuel growth and interaction on social media: Content: The types of posts and visual content that you develop and publish on a regular basis Engagement: How you interact with people on social media Why is content so important to social media success? Two of the biggest reasons some businesses perform poorly on social media are: Boring, irrelevant content Lack of engagement and interaction with people on social media channels In order to be successful in social media marketing, you need to interest your fans and followers in the news feeds section. This is the section that people check to find out news and updates from friends, family and brands. The newsfeed is a competitive space! So you need to develop and promote content that interests people in what is essentially their personal media space. The key to marketing successfully in social media is through content that people will like, share or post positive comments on. So how can you do this successfully? 20

24 80 / 20 Rule for Social Media Posts The 80:20 Rule Apply the 80 / 20 rule to social media posts. For every promotional post you make (new product in stock, launch of your new online video etc) you need to create about 4 posts around content designed to interest your customers. Brand Content 20% Brand related information and content that benefits your audience. Think of discounts, special offers or important news that is relevant to your audience. But remember to keep it topical.! Example: Audience Focused Content 80% Content that really chimes with your audience. This type of content does not have to be directly related to your brand rather it s content designed to entertain and appeal to your audience. For example a supermarket retail brand might post content about Great British BakeOff or a ask a question about Christmas or 21

25 80 / 20 Rule for Social Media Posts Valentines day, or they might just retweet a funny comment from a celebrity. With these types of posts they aren t mentioning their own brand they re being social online by talking about cultural events. This type of social media activity can be very successful. Example: Pop Culture / Product Promotion > Product Promotion < Thought leader post (B2B) < 22

26 Think about (a) (b) some of the events, news, new products etc that you would like to promote in the next few months. several major cultural events, TV shows, upcoming holi days and relevant celebrity news happing today. Write down your ideas for: 1 brand focussed post on Facebook Exercise 4 audience focussed content posts for Facebook 23

27 Social Media Engagement One of the areas that organisations really fall down on when using social media is failing to engage with people. To use a networking example they re a bit like: (a) (b) The really shy person at their first networking event who doesn t say anything Someone at a business lunch who only talks about them selves and ignores what other people are saying? S o c i a l M e d i a E n g a g e m e n t Not very social is it? To be successful at using social media you ll need to engage in the following ways: Monitor your news feeds to check out what your community is saying Identify what people are saying about your brand online Answer questions quickly and be helpful Ask questions and get feedback from people Operate a customer service function via Facebook & Twitter Like and comment on other people posts It s similar to being a good friend on social media in your personal lives. When I m using Facebook, for instance, I ll review what my Facebook friends post. I might like a photo they have posted, comment on something they have said or I could help them with a question they ve asked. Brands who don t engage end up looking self-interested and not really interested in their customers! 24

28 Example: Asking a question S o c i a l M e d i a E n g a g e m e n t Example: Asking a question 25

29 In order to develop your social media content, you need to think about and answer the following questions: Social Media Content Planning What social media channels will you use? How will using them help your business and marketing objec- tives? facebook content Q. What types of issues, events, news etc might form the basis for your social media stories on Facebook? Think about the types of seasonal and cultural events that might be happening in the next few months and might be relevant to your organisation. Use them to generate a list of 5 social media posts on Facebook. twitter content What types of Tweets might you develop to: Promote news and events in your industry Be visible and interact with people at an event Promote a product Engage with a customer linked in content Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can raise your visibility in Linkedin via the status updates section. Some of the areas you might like to include in your LinkedIn content are: Commenting on a new development, news, controversy in your industry Promote an event Comment on a post from an industry peer Promote content you have developed (blog post, online guide etc) 26

30 Engagement Exercise You are organising an event on behalf of your organisation - what types of content can you develop to: Promote the event Create engagement during the event Follow up after the event / call to action Exercise 27

31 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT, RESOURCES & RISK The sections below will help you answer the key resourcing and management questions and develop a plan for adequately managing social media within your organisation. Social Media Management and Resourcing Social media savvy organisations share a critical factor: Their senior management have bought into the fact that modern organisations and businesses need to use social media well. Having bought into the need to do social media, they will commit to resourcing it and having their staff trained in how to use it well. So the first step you take if you want to manage social media well is to persuade management of its value and the benefits of using it properly. The next step should be to secure the financial, staff and training resources to do it properly. Organisations who market and communicate well via social media usually have: An in-house social media champion someone who is a strong user of social media and who knows your brand well A digital marketing and social media agency In your social media strategy, you will need to address the following questions: Q. Have we the time to do social media properly? Can you de vote at least 2 hours to each social media channel each week? Q. Who will manage our social media channels and content? Q. What training do we need to invest in in order to do it effectively? Q. Do you need outside help from a social media expert? 28

32 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT, RESOURCES & RISK Social Media Risk However social media with its emphasis on open, two-way conversations presents challenges and risks for organisations. Social media can act as a beacon for negative comments from a small minority of people. Even though a small percentage of all comments on your Facebook Page may be negative or unacceptable, organisations need a clear policy and guidance on how to react to these comments. As your own employees will be posting comments on social media channels on a very regular basis, you need to set out guidance on what types of content to post, how to deal with any unacceptable posts or even block certain users from your social media channels. Some businesses have encountered reputational damage due to a lack of proper procedure when using social media. The main social media risks can be summarised as: Failure to monitor you social media accounts and spot damag- ing content online Staff member posting something inappropriate on your organ- isation s social media profile Staff using their own social media channels to bring your or- ganisation into disrepute Not securing your social media accounts former staff mem- ber seizing control of your social media accounts Negative reviews from customers on your Facebook Page 29

33 SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT, RESOURCES & RISK While some organisations do encounter negative incidents on social media in many cases they have not taken basic steps to manage risks effectively. Many of the social media risks can be easily managed by: Proper social media training for staff Regular monitoring of social media channels Securing your social media accounts In order to mitigate some of these risks and ensure good governance, it is important for larger organisations to develop an overall social media policy and guidelines. The following guide will help you to consider the main elements of a social media policy and also help you prepare one for your organisation. 30

34 Think about the main risks that could affect your organisation? Outline what they may be. How you will you try to mitigate these risks Exercise 31

35 metrics Finally, your social media strategy should set out the main metrics that will help measure whether your activity is successful: Generate Traffic: Use Google Analytics to measure the level of traffic from social media and which social media channels are referring traffic. Grow Followers: Followers of your social media channels Generate Engagement: Quality and type of engagement with people / customers via social media METRICS 32

36 Social Media Troubleshoot Guide Issues Why they happen What to do about them We have social media channels but can t grow them Started a social media profile and just left it there Paid Ads and promoted posts to reach a defined audience Social media platforms treated as direct communications sites Poor content Orgs: Manually search and add friends / follow pages Talk to people in real time / good content Develop and posts good quality content A lack of resources / capability Social media hasn t been positioned properly with senior staff. Need to secure resources and budget for it A Z practical training on how to use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin Ensures staff can use each channel well METRICS Not viewed as sufficiently important to allocate a budget too No training No time CEO senior staff don t want to do it / poor understanding of Tech 33

37 We are concerned about the reputational risks We are concerned about the reputational risks Create a Social Media Policy for your organisation Free resource: co.uk/digital-learning/ online-guides/ Our content doesn t really connect with our audience Treating the same as Corp Comms All bout ME! approach Culturally, you need to be comfortable with having a less corporate approach to social media posts Follow the 80 / 20 rule outlined in the Social Media Content section METRICS How often do we need to post content? Irregular posting of content Let staff have responsibility and leeway to post Create a Content Calendar similar to PR calendar. By mapping out the main events, promotions etc occurring each month it will make it easier to create social media posts. Aim to post content on Facebook every day and a few times per day on Twitter 34

38 Who are we? Octave Digital is a digital Internet marketing agency founded in 2009 to help businesses and organisations market effectively online. The consultancy specialises in online marketing strategy and campaign management and helps clients to understand, adopt and utilise new technology and media. Our services include Digital Strategy and Planning, Digital Marketing Training, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click advertising management, Social Media Marketing, Website Design and Marketing. Paul McGarrity Managing Director Our services include Digital Strategy and Planning, Digital Marketing Training, Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click advertising management, Social Media Marketing, Website Design and Marketing. Contact Paul McGarrity now on to see how we can help your organisation market effectively online 45 Belvedere Park Stranmillis, Belfast BT9 5GS t e paul@octavedigital.co.uk octavedigital.co.uk Octave Digital All Rights Reserved