DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY. Setting up, Raising Awareness For and Monitoring Social Media

Transcription

1 DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY Setting up, Raising Awareness For and Monitoring Social Media

2 INTRODUCTION 1

3 INTRODUCTION 1 Social media first emerged as a personal means of communication; enabling new connections, maintaining relationships and a way to keep up to speed with your friends. Now, the Internet and social media can completely transform the way consumers connect with your brand and business. In order for your online efforts to be successful, you will need to keep up with the ever-changing world of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and others have changed the face of our everyday interactions, all within the past decade. Connecting Facebook and Twitter accounts to your company helps you link with consumers by allowing them to learn more through those key marketing channels. Social media gives you the chance to establish or further a more personal relationship with your potential customers, and when done correctly, can create website traffic and leads for your company. That is why we created this ebook; you will find the information you need to successfully set up, raise awareness for and monitor your social media platforms. At any point if you have questions, please don t hesitate to reach out to us for a free marketing consultation % 7% 79% 79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend brands they follow. 5 Social Media 93% US Internet users spend 3x more minutes on blogs and social media networks than on % of US adult Internet users are on Facebook. 2

4 WHERE TO BE PRESENT2

5 WHERE TO BE PRESENT 2 Have you ever looked for your favorite companies on Facebook? Followed a brand on Twitter to stay up to speed with new products? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are right in line with many US consumers. With so many different social media channels out there, it can be confusing to know where to focus your efforts. The three most widespread social media sites that are extensively recognized and used by businesses: 1 - Facebook 2 - Twitter 3 - LinkedIn

6 Facebook There are so many uses for a Facebook business page including; company location, contact information, special offers, and company/ product updates. With 93% of US adult Internet users on Facebook 2, it is the ideal platform for you to reach potential consumers. Setting Up Your Account Setting up your business page is quite simple, but please note, you need a personal account first in order to create and maintain a business page. Once you have created your business page, be sure to include an image of your company s logo, a short description of what you do and links back to your website. Other features to include on your business page include custom tabs for resources such as other social media channels, blogs, discussion boards and offers. If you are a one-location business, you could set up a map as one of your tabs to provide quick directions for your audience. WHERE TO BE PRESENT Custom tabs are great for adding extra content and activity on your business page, but it is important to note that as of right now, custom tabs cannot be seen on mobile devices. If you create those tabs, consider adding a functionality feature that allows mobile users to see your content, and remember to create posts around those tabs for the users not using a desktop. To create your business page, start here: Posting To Your Business Page You re ready to start interacting, but what should you post? Try to keep your posts consistent by using the 50/50 rule. Half of your posts should be directly related to your company and the other half should be sharing other relevant content, just be sure to link to where you found the shared content! 6 One common mistake to avoid is confusing your personal account with the business page. To ensure you are posting as the business, always check your voice which is located at the top of your business page. 2 Social media posts can sometimes get put on the back burner and seem like a big responsibility if left to just one person in the office. Create a calendar that shares this between everyone in the office; this will help create new, fresh content. To ensure the posts are consistent with the brand voice, create a style guide for social media posts.

7 Twitter More than half of active Twitter users follow companies, brands or products on the social network. 5 Twitter is very different from Facebook and should be treated as such. This real-time network allows users to post short, status updates that can t exceed 140 characters. Setting Up Your Account Unlike Facebook, there is no need to have a personal Twitter account to have a business presence. Be sure to include a short description of your company, or who is tweeting for the company in the bio, along with links to your site. Using a company logo as a profile image is a great way to make your brand stand out in the sea of tweets your consumers are viewing. To create your Twitter page, start here: 2 and be sure to keep your followers in mind while tweeting. One inappropriate tweet could go viral and give your brand a bad reputation. WHERE TO BE PRESENT Using #Hashtags You see hashtags everywhere now, but what are they used for and how can they help your business? They are a way of tagging content to make it easy for anyone to find the topic, promote it or respond to it. By putting a hashtag in front of a word or two in your tweet, you are allowing yourself to be found by users who currently do not follow you but are searching the topic you are tweeting about or discussing. You can take advantage of popular hashtags like: #FollowFriday & #ThrowBackThursday. These can be found on the left side of your Twitter feed. Twitter Etiquette Use your Twitter handle to promote your brand, this can be done through introducing new products, retweeting industry news and trends, posting relevant quotes and encouraging a personal relationship with your followers. Your tweets should be newsworthy and informative, Customer Service Twitter Social media is becoming a big outlet for unhappy customers to reach out to the company in hopes of a quick response to their issue. The key to any social network interactions with your customer is to be timely in all responses. This is essential to show you are a responsive company and take your customers seriously. Customer service can be tricky to navigate, especially if you have one twitter handle. Many companies are creating a second twitter account that is only used for customer service. It would be beneficial to have CustomerService in the handle for

8 LinkedIn LinkedIn is the place for professionals to network on the Internet. As of January 2013 LinkedIn passed an exciting milestone; 200 million members! 3 Through LinkedIn, you can find potential employees and customers as well as industry specific news and trends. Below are just a couple ways you can benefit from a LinkedIn company page: Generating leads, this is especially true if you are a B2B company Participate in industry discussions, gain valuable insight or ask questions Share content that is relevant to your company and industry Setting Up Your Account To start, you will need to use a company address - LinkedIn currently does not support company pages without a unique domain. Using your company allows you to be an administrator on the account so you can make updates, post content and enable other employees to be administrators. 2 To create your company page, start here: WHERE TO BE PRESENT Ensuring Others Learn About You Be sure to post content on a regular basis through your LinkedIn company page; this can be repurposing Facebook and Twitter posts, as well as highlighting company news, job openings and new products or services. Another way to allow others to learn about you is to create a group that will be recognized and relevant to the industry you are in. Once you have created a group and a title, invite members who would be likely to participate in the group. Groups offer opportunity for you to answer questions about your products, show your expertise in the industry as well as the opportunity to generate new leads and create long-term relationships.

9 ENHANCING YOUR PRESENCE3

10 ENHANCE YOUR PRESENCE 3 So your company networks are all set up, now what?? Next you will need to nurture your presence on these networks and gain a loyal following. This is done by interacting with your fans, sharing valuable content and recognizing the contributions of others. Sharing interactive content is key to keeping your audience engaged and growing. Posts with the word video in them are shared 30% more on Facebook than posts that do not. 7 Consumers want brands active in social media channels to be informative, entertaining and interactive. 4 Using Images & Videos There s nothing better than putting a face to a name so show off your staff by shooting videos starring your team. You can share these videos across all your new social media networks and even upload to your own YouTube account. Have someone take photos of a company event or outing. Use those photos to create interesting content to share with your audience. This is a great way to showcase your employees and add credibility to your organization. How Often Should You Post? Below is a quick cheat sheet that shows you the recommended number of times you should be posting to each network within a day. 6 Be sure to monitor your networks and find a posting schedule that works for your company and your audience. Also, just make sure your postings are relevant, informative and fun! Facebook: Post 1-4 times a day. No less than 3 hours in between posts. Twitter: Post 1-9 times a day. No less than hours in between posts. LinkedIn: Post 1-3 times a day. No less than 3 hours in between posts.

11 ENHANCE YOUR PRESENCE 3 Blog Posts If you have relevant content on your website and your social media sites, chances are the higher you will rank with search engines. Having a blog also provides you with more social media posts that tie between your networks, the blog and your website. Here are some introductory blogging tips to get you started: Be sure to include social media share buttons on your blog. This allows readers to share your content. Create blog posts that are important to your audience, like answering frequently asked questions. Be sure to enable and encourage comments from users. End your blog post with a clear question that could get people talking. (For example: What do you think?) Continue to use the 50/50 rule in your blog. People read blogs to learn something new; too many advertisements for your company can be a turn off to readers. Include images or videos as stated before, it is always a good idea to include an enthralling visual element in your posts. Generating leads from your blog is possible always include a call to action in each blog post. Weekend Postings 51% of American companies block Facebook at work. 7 This means weekends could be a popular time for users to connect with your posts. Currently, Facebook offers a way for you to schedule posts up to 6 months in advance. Simply set up your post and schedule for the day and time you want it to be published.

12 MONITORING YOUR NETWORKS4

13 MONITORING YOUR NETWORKS 4 Monitoring your networks is important for a few different reasons. First, it helps you understand your audience, which allows you to better tailor content to catch their attention. Next, existing customers could potentially reach out with an issue they are having be sure to respond quickly and politely to these customers. Last, it is always important to have more than one set of eyes on a company-representing platform in case there are spelling errors, technical issues, etc. Customer Feedback Chances are with most business pages you will find a complaint or two by an existing customer. On the opposite side of that, customers can recommend your company on Facebook. In order to maintain a relationship with those existing customers, be sure to respond in a timely and polite manner. Everyone who visits your page will see their post and your response, which can be positive or negative depending on how you react to the post. Turn a negative comment on your Facebook wall into a positive experience for the customer by responding quickly; and taking their concern seriously. It s all about timely response and a positive outcome. Consumers will be grateful for the open dialog. Style Guide for Responding to Customers Set up custom responses for different type of posts you receive across all your networks. This will ensure everyone is treated equally and makes it easy for any employee to respond to a customer, see our examples to the right! Upset Customer: I m so sorry for the difficulty you are having. We are looking into the issue and will be in contact with you shortly. Happy Customer: Thanks for your positive feedback! We love keeping our customers happy thank you for being one of them! Customer Feedback It s no fun to work on the weekends, but monitoring your networks each day is key to understanding your audience and continuing to grow your presence. Below are a couple suggestions to make monitoring during the weekends as simple as 1-2-3! 1. Create an on-call document that outlines all login credentials, your style guide for responding and how many times a day they should be checking the site (we recommend 3 times a day.) 2. Create an on-call schedule. Depending on the size of your company or marketing department, you can split up the responsibilities so each person only has one weekend every couple months. 3. Each Monday, set up a meeting to review the social media activity for that weekend. This helps keep everyone in the loop.

14 KEY TAKEAWAYS5

15 KEY TAKEAWAYS 5 Now you should have all the tools you need to grow your online presence and start building and maintaining relationships through your social media sites. The key is to see your social media networks as a relationship-building tool, rather than a sales tool. In the long term, your customers may not always need your products or services, but when they do, you want to make sure that you are their first choice. 8 Below are the key takeaways from this ebook if you would like additional information on the topic of social media, please contact us for a free marketing consultation! 1. Always include the following on each social media profile: An image or your company logo A short description of what you do A link back to your website 3. Consistent yet unique voice Create a style guide for your team; include the voice, tone and any other specifications Divide up the social media site responsibilities to ease workloads 4. Always include links/sources When sharing 3rd party content, always include the links to the articles or sites Be sure to give credit where it is due tag the content owner on Facebook or mention them on Twitter Including links also applies to your website, blog and social media sites. Interlinking posts creates an easy way for users to explore you across all platforms your website, blog & social media sites 2. Follow the 50/50 rule 50% sharing your own content 50% third party relevant content

16 ABOUT CATALYST6

17 ABOUT CATALYST 6 Catalyst Marketing is a creative agency founded in 1997 by Ted Kucinsky. Catalyst helps grow and activate brands through strategic marketing grounded in sound insight and experience. For more information and a free marketing consultation, visit CatalystGetsIt.com or call (260) Always include links/sources 1 The Nielsen Company, November Blogher, April LinkedIn Blog, January ecircle, Edison Research, HubSpot, April HubSpot, The Science of Facebook, Sally U, Wordpress, May 2013