Social Media Strategy: The Beginners Guide to Strategy Success in 7 Steps A Simple Guide In association with:
Chapter Title Contents Page Page 2 What is Social Media...3 What is a Social Media Strategy Plan...5 How to use your workbook...7 Step One Align your strategy with business goals...9 Step Two Identify Your Target Market...13 Step Three Identify your Key Centres of Influence..16 Step Four What are your competitors doing?...18 Step Five Content and Campaigns...21 Step Six Time Management...23 Step Seven Measure and Analyse Results...25 Finish...28 Useful Tools & Resources...29 Next Step...31
What is Social Media? What is Social Media? Many people and businesses get Social Media all wrong they presume it s for posting their links to their website and using it to sell their products and services. In other words they use it as a broadcasting tool to post out constant promotional links and sales lines. Page 3 Social Media is not a sales tool, Social Media is a new way for us to communicate and connect with an online community of people within our target market. It is a tool we can use to generate more traffic, build new business relationships and to connect with key centres of influence. When I first started out on Social Media I used it as a broadcasting and sales tool. The way it shouldn t be used, but hey I was just like some of you; I didn t have a clue how to use it! When first going onto twitter and Facebook my thoughts were it was about sharing my website links and selling my business services. To my surprise I got no response or feedback. After doing this for a good few weeks I started to notice people unfollowing me and saying to me would you stop spamming! As some of you will know I am a person that loves to keep people happy and want everyone to like me (Although that s not possible, you can t please everyone!) Eventually I started to realise that the broadcasting method I was using wasn t effective with my social media efforts and eventually I sat down for a good
brainstorming session and thought about "what would I like to be reading and seeing? When thinking about what I was broadcasting out I related the situation to an offline experience whilst away on holiday walking in a retail shop. I had walked into the shop and the shop assistant came straight up to me and asked "Can I help you" I just wanted to turn around and say "Give me a chance to have a look around first! I instantly put up a barrier, continued to look round and then purchase what I was going to buy, but some people would have just walked straight back out of the shop and found a similar shop that doesn t add the pressure. Page 4 This is the exact same concept online. If you continually see people spamming and selling online you want to unfriend or unfollow them as its hard selling and very annoying. As in my eyes you just feel like a number and not a person that they would like to get to know and build rapport with. With a heavy sale would you want to do business with them again? One of the keys to Social Media is to provide good quality information and content to build rapport with your target market and to also build something called "know, like and trust". When someone gets to know you, like what you say and do, they will then trust you and this is when they will then use your products and services. Please note this will not happen overnight it will take a good 1-3 months to build an online presence, at which point people will then know like and trust you providing you re not spamming.
What is a Social Media Strategy Plan? Page 5 Lots of people approach us frustrated and under the presumption that social media doesn t work and all is a BIG fad! It is actually a new way that we communicate. A new communication tool we can use to engage with existing and prospective clients online. The first thing we ask when approached by a business who are not having much success with social media is Have you got a social media strategy plan and 99.9% the answer is no. In order for your social media activities and goals to be achieved you need to put together your company s social media strategy. Your Social Media strategy is just like your business plan; it enables you to define your social media goals and objectives, and gives you a vision to head towards. Without these what are you trying to achieve? Your social media goals should align with your business goals and objectives and be SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely). You then need to do your research, look at where your competitors are engaging, where your target market are hanging out, and from this determine which social media pillars you should be using. Within your social media strategy you need to think about key centres of influence; key people who can get your message out to the masses. Think about who are the key people who have a lot of credibility within your industry as these are the people to start engaging with to get your message out there. One of the most important areas to consider is content. Many people struggle with what to post and tweet. Look for industry bogs, news sites and consider these four areas that ZC Social
Media always discuss with their clients; Conversation, Articles, Tips, and Promotion. DON T spam people by constantly sharing links and selling. Share good quality information and content that can build a know like and trust factor in order for people then to come and buy your products and services. An important aspect of your strategy is your blog. Blogging will enable you to direct more people (traffic) to your website rather than a third party website. Page 6 And lastly coming onto measurement; measuring your social media activities and progress is essential, otherwise how do you know if you are improving or achieving your goals. There are various tools out there that can measure various parts of your social media progress. From a tool called Tweetreach that will measure how far your tweets travelled, to using Hootsuite which can analyse the number of new followers on twitter, mentions and how many people clicked on your displayed links. Depending on your preference can depend on which tools you use. Analysing and measuring your social media activities and results will enable you to review and change anything going forward, always make sure you keep an action plan. The biggest task of all with your social media is to take BIG ACTION.
How to use your workbook Page 7 This workbook is to help you create a social media strategy plan that is aligned with your business goals and objectives. Unlike other marketing and advertising expenses, social media marketing is an investment that produces compounding results over time. As you create social media marketing assets such as Facebook likes, blog posts and social media followings, they will help you attract more website traffic, capture leads and convert leads into customers for your business. There are exercises you should complete in order to start applying the social media strategies for your small business/company or internet marketing product. A social media strategy is the first document that should be completed. Without this strategy you will not get the results you are looking to achieve. Take small steps to complete this in order to meet your goals and objectives with your Social Media activities.
Depending upon the time you can devote or your budget, implementing everything in this plan may take 3-months, 6-months or even a year. All supporting documents can be downloaded from http://www.zcsocialmedia.com/workbook Page 8
Step One Align your Social Media Strategy with your business goals Page 9 Your social media, website and other advertising methods should be in place to help you achieve your business goals and objectives. There are many business goals that could apply to your business and why you may be using social media. I suggest you pick 3-5 of these goals and work with these first. Here are some of the general goals companies would like their social media activities to achieve: Build your company presence and awareness online Build your brand s awareness online Build a community of followers online Send more traffic/people to your website Convert more traffic into leads Convert leads to website into sales Grow your email database Communicate with, and retain existing customers If it s ok with you I would like to set your first three goals for the first three months of your social media journey to help you on your way.
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Your three Social Media Strategy goals: Goal One: Build your influence and presence online. Page 11 Goal Two: Build your twitter followers and Facebook likes. Goal Three: Drive more traffic to your website The reason why I have chosen these goals for you is that they are important when first starting out on your journey. In order to be noticed and recommended via social media you first need to establish an influence and presence with your online community. Building your influence and presence is very important to establish influence status and credibility. Before you can build your presence and influence you require a community of people to follow you online. For example you need to build you Facebook Likes and friends, your twitter followers. Therefore your second goal is to build your community. There are various strategies in order to do this. If you would like to know how to build your community visit www.zcsocialmedia.com to find out more! And lastly your third goal is to drive more people to your website in order for them to find out more information about you and what you do. This doesn t mean include your website link on every post or tweet you put out as that will be seen as spamming. Next to the goals on the Social Media Strategy template you will see a column called Tools. I have allocated the tool you can use in order to measure you goal that you have set. For example your goal one is to build your influence and presence online. This can be measured via a tool called Klout (www.klout.com) Klout measures how influential you are becoming online. I recommend you record your Klout score now, and at the end of each month to make sure your score is increasing and not decreasing.
Once you feel you can increase the number of goals to be achieved each month, then please do enter them also in the table. Always make sure that you keep your goals SMART. SMART means: Page 12 S Specific M Measurable A Attainable R Realistic / Relevant T - Timely
Step Two Identify Your Target Market Page 13 When using Social Media there are various platforms that you can use, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google + and many more. Depending on your target market and their interests will depend on which social media platform you use. You will need to conduct some research to find the groups, pages and interests your target market may be engaging and participating in. The reason why you need to do this is because what most companies are doing are jumping onto all the social media profiles, spending time on posting and interacting and not getting the results they set out to achieve. The reason for this is that their target market may not be interacting on that particular social media platform. This is why it is so important to do your research before starting any social media activity. Exercise Think about who your target market are, what interests they may have, what local attractions do they visit, what networking events (businesses) do they attend, do they like a nearby city or theatre? Fill in the table below to analyse your target market the purpose of this exercise is to help you break down who your target market are and to make it easier for you to find them online.
Gender Age group Location Page 14 B2B or B2C / Both? Networking Events / Clubs Interests -Radio stations they listen to? -Magazines they read? -TV Programmes they watch? -Hobbies Local attractions / Events / Festivals Associations or Professional bodies Nearby towns Once you have brainstormed your target market I would then go onto the main social media platforms and identify as to whether they are engaging on there. For example: Go onto Facebook and at the top there is a search bar type in Home and Garden and you may find various groups and pages where your target market are interacting. This will then clarify that your business needs to have a presence and influence on Facebook to get in front of your target market.
Enter the interest in the search bar of Facebook to find groups/ pages etc. where your target market is interacting. Page 15
Step Three Identify your Key Centres of Influence Page 16 One of the most important aspects of using social media is to make sure that you can get your message out to the masses. If you were to try and do this by engaging and getting the message to every individual, this would take you a long time. If you think about key people in your industry that are very influential to your target market, you can look to engage and build rapport with these people (key persons of influence). What will happen is, if these key people then retweet, share and comment on your messages this will then potentially go out to all of their followers. These key people have a lot of influence with their followers and therefore anything they tweet or retweet will have a lot of credibility. The types of key people you may think about are the following: Business Networking Organisers These people can get your message out to many businesses. Local Attractions / Festivals By building rapport with local attractions they will then share your events with people interested in their attraction. It may be you think about teaming up with the attraction to get your messages out to more people. Bloggers Look for bloggers who review your industries products and services. Many of these bloggers have a big following who regularly read the bloggers blogs. If their blog
was to mention you, your message would get sent out to the masses. Exercise Page 17 Think about who you re key centres of influence are, who could get your message out to the masses, and who in your industry has a lot of influence and credibility within your target market. Important: Please note building engagement and rapport with an influencer is not selling and spamming. Build rapport with the key centre of influence, mention them in Follow Friday, and retweet a few of their tweets, but don t overdo it as it will look to obvious! I would also recommend you just choose one or two a month to target, make this one of your social media goals and targets. This is how I have become successful with my social media activities by building rapport and engaging with my key centres of influence.
Step Four What are your Competitors doing? Page 18 I love step four! I conduct this exercise every three to four months and not only look at my competitors social media progress but also look to see what other products and services they are offering The reason why you need to be doing this, is to see what they are doing that may be working, and also to keep ahead of the game. Be different. For example: have a look to see what campaigns, competitions, or what lines of conversation they are using that are successful. Doing this on a regular basis will help you with new ideas for your social media campaigns. Exercise Make a list of your competitors and the social media platforms they are currently active on. Make a note of what they are doing successful, are they conducting competitions, are they associating their posts to a theme or event, are they actively engaging with their online community. Look at how the bigger brands and companies are using social media effectively and mirror their activities. Please note: This doesn t mean copy their exact tactic but do something similar.
Competitor or Bigger Brand Social Media Profiles Klout score = Twitter followers = Facebook Likes = Likes (What interaction, engagement, campaign ideas do you like and are successful) Dislikes (What do you dislike about their interaction and engagement, e.g.: are they not posting on a regular basis?) Page 19 You will see from the table I have also included what their Klout score is, number of followers /likes to see how big their community is online so I can see how I am progressing against their social media progress.
Once you have completed the table then analyse your results and take your key findings. Page 20
Step Five Content and Campaigns Page 21 Gathering content for your social media platforms is an important process. Finding content that your target market will engage, interact and share is what will determine the success of your social media activities. At first it is a trial and error process, and your first three months is where you really need to analyse what worked and what wasn t effective. Many businesses will sit with me and say We do not know what to tweet or post on Facebook. When I have spent at least 20 minutes with them going through the next template Content Strategy they then say I have so many ideas now on what to post! Along with the content strategy template and the research conducted on your competitors and bigger brands, you will find that you have plenty of ideas on content and campaigns. I am going to share the content strategy template with you now. It took me a long time to put this together. When I first started with social media I didn t have a clue what to post, I did spam and post the wrong things. I didn t get the response I was looking for with my social media activities. Once I discovered the balance of various areas of content my social media activities really started to reap the results I was looking for! I suggest you allow 1.5 / 2 hours to go through the Content Strategy template and brainstorm each area. Once you have got your content it s then dividing the content up to schedule out for the following month.
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Step Six Time Management Page 23 Many people can get carried away on Social Media and be on there for hours and not actually achieving anything. With a social media strategy you can allocate how much time you wish to spend on your social media activities, and also what you would like to achieve. Time management is important to all businesses as we only get a certain amount of hours each day to achieve all our business activities, and social media is just one of them. I would like you to think and define how much time you are going to allocate to social media every day. The table below gives an idea on the sort of time you may consider spending on your social media activities. Week Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri 1 1 hour 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 2 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 3 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 4 2 hours 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins As you can see on Monday of Week 4 I have allocated 2 hours for social media activities as this is where I recommend you have a marketing meeting to collate all your content, ideas and planning for social media marketing for the following month. It s a good idea to get this ready. You can plan your themes, campaigns, and messages all in advance. On Monday Week 1, I then recommend you allocate an hour to schedule all your messages and campaigns into your scheduling tools such as Hootsuite. All you would then need to do is allocate 20-30 minutes each day to engage in conversations, participate in groups, post comments, latest news/info and build rapport with influencers.
Exercise Plan your time for your social media activities. Week Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri 1 2 3 4 Page 24
Step Seven Measure and Analyse Results To make sure that your social media activities are successful, that you are driving traffic to your website and your engagement with your online community is working, you need to measure your social media efforts. Page 25 You can measure your social media activities with various tools. The tools can measure different results for you. The tools and resources list will explain what each tool does. We recommend you use the following tools to start with: Tool Platform Why When Hootsuite Twitter and FB Produces a weekly or mthly analytic report to show you how many new followers you received, how many mentions, how many clicks on your links etc. Tweetreach Twitter To see how far your tweet reached. How many impressions and accounts it reached on Twitter. Google Analytics All social media platforms your website provider will give you access. Shows you how much traffic that has been driven to your website from your social media platforms. End of each month or week this can be set up to automatically send to your inbox Once a week Personally I would do this on a Friday to see your week s progress. End of each month ready for your marketing meeting. Facebook Insights Facebook Look to see what posts and pictures got the most engagement, what day and time its best to post. End of each month ready for your marketing meeting.
Page 26 Klout All social media platforms Measures your online influence End of each month ready for your marketing meeting. Exercise Complete the table below with the tools you are going to use to measure your social media activities. Tool Platform Why When
Once you have decided which tools you are going to use, you then need to look at your results at the end of each week/month, and make sure that the traffic is increasing, you are getting more response from influencers, more retweets and mentions, and your Facebook Page posts are getting engagement, interaction and reach. Page 27 Keep a log of your results and compare them to your last month s results, to make sure your efforts are improving and you are achieving your goals. Make sure you have measured all your social media activities, and have analysed your results what is working and what isn t working? Once you decide on any changes or posts you are no longer going to use, keep a record for going forward. The reason businesses fail with their social media activities are down to not setting goals, measuring and analysing their results. Be a successful business, set your goals, measure and analyse in order to achieve your goals and get the results you are looking for with your social media marketing. Remember it s your time and resources you are investing into your social media activities and you need to measure your return on investment and influence!
To Finish Your social media strategy plan is like a business plan. Page 28 Without a business plan how do you know where your business is heading. We need to set our social media goals and objectives to make sure we are achieving results and not wasting our valuable business time. It is recommended to have your social media plan with you in every monthly marketing meeting and it is reviewed on a regular basis. Your goals and objectives will change on a regular basis, along with your actions and reviews. Happy Tweeting and Posting! To Your Successes Zoe Cairns
Useful Tools and Resources Tools Page 29 Tool Name Klout Hootsuite Tweetreach Facebook Insights Google Analytics Tweriod Followerwonk Sproutsocial Twellow LinkedIn Canva Postplanner BuzzSumo Feedly Website address http://www.klout.com http://www.hootsuite.com http://www.tweetreach.com https://www.facebook.com/insights/ http://www.google.com/analytics/ http://www.tweriod.com http://www.followerwonk.com http://www.sproutsocial.com http://www.twellow.com http://www.linkedin.com http://www.canva.com http://www.postplanner.com http://www.buzzsumo.com http://www.feedly.com ZC Social Media Academy Come along to our monthly meeting and learn NEW updates and cutting edge information about social media and the online digital world with a guest speaker from the digital sector and Zoe s social media expertise. Take away the latest invaluable information and use immediately for your online marketing. Having a problem with your social media activity? 20 minute clinic session at the end of each meeting. Every second Wednesday of the month 4pm-6.30pm For more information visit http://www.zcsocialmedia.com or email info@zcsocialmedia.com
Learn with Zoe Online 121 Training Sessions Learn from the comfort of your home or office. An online social media training session on your chosen social media platform or alternatively going through your social media strategy plan. Your online session is recorded for future use and reference. To book your session email info@zcsocialmedia.com Quote 12120 to receive 20% off your Online Training Session Topics covered: Twitter For Business Facebook Business Pages Mastering LinkedIn Profiles and Company Pages Twitter Advertising Facebook Advertising Social Media Strategy Advanced Twitter Strategies Managing your social media activities Social Media Content Email Marketing Face to Face Training Sessions If you would prefer a face to face training session with Zoe please email info@zcsocialmedia.com The topics above are also covered. Not enough time for Social Media? How about Zoe managing your social media accounts for you? Page 30
Next Steps If you have enjoyed this workbook would like a step by step guide through your strategy on exactly how to use the tools and put a successful plan together with the expert, then check out.. Social Media Strategy Success Webinar Programme Page 31 www.zcsocialmedia.com/strategysuccess
Notes Page 32
About the Author Page 33 Zoe Cairns is a highly respected and proficient Social Media Speaker, Trainer and Consultant. Zoe specialises in delivering high profile campaigns for businesses of all shapes and sizes. By sharing her knowledge Zoe delivers effective training for companies and individuals on how they can use Social Media to grow their businesses Zoe launched ZC Social Media nearly 4 years ago after initially getting into social media in her role as mortgage broker/ifa. She found that she had a natural talent to create effective social media outcomes and in September 2011 was commissioned to address a Round Table Conference for Seldia EU in Poland for the European Parliament.