Optimize your social media channels to create value through engagement.
introduction Millions of potential customers are using social media to converse about their personal experiences with the products and services they use every day, yet many companies lack a solid strategy to engage people on these online channels. Social media represents a huge opportunity for brands to listen and engage with potential and current customers. What s Inside: An Introduction to Social Media Channels 04 Best Practices 07 Using Your Website to Boost Your Social Media Presence 12 Increasing Conversions 14 3
An Introduction to Social Media Channels Facebook With more than a billion global users, Facebook is the undisputed king of social. It s the place where we go online to connect with friends and family, find people who share our passions, and express our opinions on just about any subject under the sun. Few will deny that Facebook has had profound effects on modern society in recent years. We don t send as many letters as we used to, in large part because it s much more convenient to post that party invitation or reunion announcement on Facebook (and perhaps email the remaining few who don t have an account). Their newest feature is Graph Search Facebook s version of long-tail search (for example, you can search my friends in Indianapolis who like the Patriots ). Twitter With more than 280 million active users, Twitter remains one of the top social networks in terms of global engagement. Twitter has become the go-to source for microblogging short bursts of rapid fire communication that allow us to connect with friends, colleagues and others. Twitter has seen tremendous growth in its nearly seven years of existence. The San Franciscobased company was created in March 2006 by entrepreneur and developer Jack Dorsey. Its allure is simple a broadcasting channel where you can communicate with text messages up to 140 characters known as tweets. Twitter also allows you to easily share media such as photos and videos. The format allows for anything from mindless chatter to political debates to discussions about the next big thing in business. Today the blue Twitter bird logo is among the most well-known among social networks (perhaps second only to Facebook). And the network is where many of us go to discuss just about anything in real time from the Super Bowl to the Grammys. Twitter allows you to follow people and businesses that interest you, and you in turn can be followed by anyone with an account (under the default privacy setting). Some of us love to use Twitter to communicate, while others would rather use Twitter mainly as a listening tool. If you re interested in monitoring a particular subject like SEO or marketing, you can create a customized Twitter list that allows you to follow up to 500 feeds that you select. 4
YouTube YouTube came from humble beginnings. The three cofounders registered the domain name in February 2005 and a 19-second clip titled Me at the Zoo became the first video on the site that April. Nike was one of the first companies to sense the site s appeal and had a soccer video about Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho go viral that October. YouTube officially debuted that December and four months later venture capital firm Sequoia Capital injected some $8 million in funding; five months later Google acquired the site for $1.65 billion. Today YouTube is the undisputed king of video, and the world s appetite for the media whether on desktops, laptops or smartphones is insatiable. Some 800 million unique visitors come to the site each month and some 72 hours of video are uploaded to the site each minute. And YouTube is tightly integrated into Google s large swath of products. For example, when you sign in to your Google+ account, you see a YouTube tab at the top of your screen that allows you to visit your personalized home page in one click. GOOGLE+ In June 2011, Google introduced its latest attempt to take control of the social sphere Google+. Some 1 million business and brand pages were created in the first six months and the network boasts more than 400 million users. And Google+ recently passed Twitter to become the second largest social network. Google+ combines features that are similar to those of networks like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. It allows you to plus content that you like across the web the newer network s answer to the Facebook Like. Content that you plus appears under the +1s tab of your profile and we can often see content that our friends recommend as part of our Google search results. Your profile can include your photos, YouTube videos and posted updates with links and different types of media. And Google is constantly tweaking the social platform to make it more robust and user-friendly. 5
LinkedIn Launched back in 2003, LinkedIn has grown tremendously over the past decade. The network made its name as a site that professionals use to advance their careers by connecting with business colleagues and other professionals, and by accumulating professional recommendations. The wealth of professional data gathered by LinkedIn even serves those just joining the working world. For example, recent graduates can map their careers by exploring the careers, talents and connections of their school s alumni. However, LinkedIn has grown well beyond the business of brokering digital connections. Today the network has numerous features such as industry and topical groups, company pages, advanced search and a multitude of applications. At the center of LinkedIn s drive to become the premier destination for professional content is LinkedIn Today, where you can go to get the day s top news, tailored for you. You can access LinkedIn Today from your profile by clicking the link under your News tab at the top. LinkedIn Today customizes your news according to factors like the Industries that you follow (and it s not shy about suggesting additional Industries you should include). 6
Best Practices Here are some best practices to help you succeed on the most popular social networks: Facebook Pages: The home for your business or organization on Facebook is the Page. Your page should include a visually appealing cover photo and avatar, with a completely filled-out profile that includes relevant information about your business or organization. EdgeRank: The more people interact with your Facebook page, the higher the chance that your updates will show up in their specific results. This is called EdgeRank, and it s defined by level of engagement through actions like comments, shares and links. Be Visual: You can maximize engagement by having a great company Facebook page that shares great content in a visual manner. Studies show that photos and videos have a higher rate of engagement than text-based updates. Sharing links is okay, but try to engage your audience with non- salesy content. Facebook is a great way to show off the lighter side of your business share photos of fun things happening around your office or video of a company outing. No one wants to be sold to on Facebook! 7
Twitter Engage: Twitter is all about engagement. You must talk to your customers and encourage them to tell their individual stories. It s especially important to engage influential Twitter users (as shown by the quantity and quality of their followers). By spending some time with Twitter, you can quickly get a sense of the influential voices within your industry. Reaching out to them and having conversations with these thought leaders will help you increase your follower count which in turn increases your own influence and reach on Twitter. Brand mentions: Find conversations about your brand using the native search feature in Twitter, and schedule recurring reports on keywords and phrases through services like Twitter and Google Alerts. For example, we regularly monitor the phrase digitalrelevance since many Twitter users reference us without using our username @drelevance. Get found: Maximize your exposure on Twitter by learning how to time your tweets for your target audience. Every market is different and you need to experiment with how to time your tweets for greatest effect. For example, if you re targeting a teenage audience, they probably won t be on Twitter until after school. But if you re targeting people in the tech industry, they ll probably be on Twitter more during the workday. Services like Crowdbooster will actually suggest the optimal times during the day in which to send a tweet based on your previous performance data. Bufferapp.com allows you to pre-schedule your tweets in accordance with your defined cadence. 8
YouTube Channel: Create a YouTube Channel and fill it with great video content about your company, its products and services, and your employees. Build playlists of videos about common topics, and take the time to customize the look and feel of your channel. Optimize: Optimize each video by completely filing out the video title, description and keyword tags. Add meta-data like recording data and recording location, and be sure to upload a transcript of every video you produce. Transcripts help search engines in attributing relevance to them. Speechpad is an excellent resource for transcription services. Every video should support a page or article on your website, so include a link within the video description that points back to your website. Remember: YouTube is a social network! Subscribe to other channels and interact with other videos by liking, commenting and sharing! 9
Google+ Pay Attention: Though it s often derided as the red-headed stepchild of the social media family, many brands are using Google+ effectively generating huge followings, discussions and shares. HARD FACT: Since Google+ is owned by Google, you should be paying attention to it. Data suggests that Google+ usage is tied directly to rankings. Build Your Page: Google+ Pages operate similarly to a Facebook Page. You ll want to fill out your profile completely, upload a cover photo and avatar, and begin sharing content. It s important that you differentiate between the content you share on Google+ and your other networks. Google+ has a specific user base, so keep those personas in mind as you share content. Test and tune different kinds of content to see what gains traction. Be sure to add users to Circles who have circled your page. (Note: you can only add users to Circles that have already added you but you can add other business/organization pages to Circles at any time). 10
LinkedIn Aside from individual users, companies can also create a presence on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Company Pages, which operate similarly to Facebook Pages, allow you to show off products/services and advertise open positions. There are three core components to a LinkedIn Company Page: Home: The Home tab of a LinkedIn Company Page is the landing page for all users interested in your company. Here, you can list basic information and post status updates it s a great place to share links about your company initiatives. Careers: The Careers tab is the hub of your LinkedIn recruiting efforts. Here, you can post job openings, display employee testimonials and list the benefits of working for your company. Products: The Products tab allows you to highlight different service offerings, display customer testimonials and solicit recommendations. With the amount of professional networking that occurs on LinkedIn, a robust LinkedIn page is absolutely critical. Remember: your employees profiles will direct other LinkedIn users to your Company Page, whether or not you have optimized it. You don t want those visits to see a naked page! 11
Using your website to boost your social media presence It may be prudent to encourage website visitors to visit your social media profiles; you can bolster your brand and send social signals to search engines by getting people to like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. Here are some tips on leveraging your website to boost your social presence. Social Share Buttons Your blog posts and landing pages should include social share buttons that allow website visitors to share your content with their networks without leaving your website. If you have website content that generates buzz, people will be more likely to promote this when they view the popularity of the post. Be cautious of adding static buttons that direct website visitors away from your site to your individual social profiles. You work so hard to get folks to your site why send them away? Instead of static buttons, consider adding Follow widgets that allow visitors to Like, Circle or Follow your social media accounts without leaving your website. 12
Facebook Integrate Facebook s Open Graph Protocol to ensure that your webpages display correctly when shared on Facebook. When someone clicks a Like button on a webpage or blog post, the Protocol will allow you to maintain control over how rich snippets thumbnail, page title and description are displayed on Facebook. YouTube Make the most of your video content by embedding your videos on appropriate pages or blog posts. A video is a great way to reinforce a text-based page. It can also be the focus of a page or blog posts. Either way, be sure to support it with written copy including the video transcript. Putting your transcript on-page not only makes your content accessible to visitors with hearing impairments, but also gives visitors the option of quickly scanning a transcription if they don t want to take the time to watch the video. If you find yourself including a lot of videos on your site, consider creating a video sitemap. This will tell search engines about the video content on your site, allowing them to index that content. Social Bookmarking Consider adding your website pages to social bookmarking services like StumbleUpon. This will expose your content to a network of over 25 million users. 13
Increasing Conversions Even though all details of social media ranking factors have not been disclosed, we do know that with a little effort, you can increase conversions. And who wouldn t want to do that? Social networks are no different than any other kind of online outlet in that you need to provide visitors with first-rate content. Don t skimp on anything when it comes to content; use superior content to differentiate yourself from your competitors. If you don t have the time to generate top-shelf content, then hire someone to do it for you. Think about it: your social media presence will likely produce early contact with potential customers. If they re not impressed by your social media presence, then they may never make it to your company website. Don t go for the hard sell. Think of it as you would an email. Do you keep the emails that resemble advertisements? Nope. You delete them. The emails you keep are those that are informative and provide true value. Involvement is key. Be truly involved and engaged with your customers; it will be easy for them to tell if you aren t being genuine with your communication efforts. You should also get others involved. Think about your existing relationships in the real business world. Work with them on projects such as a co-branded contest that can generate social media buzz. Use multiple social networks in tandem to build anticipation as the event nears. Tweet about it on your Twitter account and post information and updates on your Facebook wall. Encourage employees to post updates on their personal LinkedIn accounts. Shoot a video of preparations and put it on your YouTube channel. Even if your event isn t a money-maker, it can generate all kinds of goodwill among your customers. Trust and loyalty can pay big dividends for you down the road. Provide value on each social media platform through incentives like coupons and special offers that are specific to that platform. You don t want to duplicate content across different platforms. However, it s important to be consistent in your branding across all the social sites. For example, you don t want your new logo on your Facebook site and your old logo on your Twitter feed. 14
Final Thoughts Don t forget to mention your social media presence in other marketing materials such as receipts, posters and direct mail. It can be something as simple as Make sure to connect with us on Facebook at swww.facebook.com/digitalrelevance and on Twitter at @drelevance. By being active on social media, you can connect with people in entirely new ways and get them fired up about your brand. Make sure that your branding is consistent across all your marketing channels. Talking to your customers through social media platforms will provide you insight into how customers perceive your company and your brand. Once you get in the swing of things, these conversations should be fun. And all that research, content and involvement will start to pay off big time. About the authors Steven Shattuck is Senior Marketing Associate and Community Manager at digitalrelevance. @stevenshattuck Derek Smith is an Inbound Marketing Consultant at digitalrelevance. @derekrsmith74 15
Interested in more? Contact Steven Shattuck, Community Manager at digitalrelevance to discuss your social media campaigns. StevenShattuck@ Office» 317.575.8852 Twitter» @StevenShattuck @drelevance 8900 Keystone Crossing, Suite 100 Indianapolis, IN 46240 888.603.7337 toll-free 317.575.8852 local 317.575.8904 fax info@ 2013 digitalrelevance. All rights reserved. v.1, April 2013