launching your brand in social media

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Launching Your Brand in DigitalReal Life Examples of Launching & Optimizing Brands for Local

Victoria EdwardsSenior Manager, Social Media

@TallChickVic

2@TallChickVic

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Overview

1. Capturing Brand Name

2. Local SEO for Facebook, Yelp & Google My Business

3. Campaign Examples, Tips and Ideas

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Capturing the Brand Name• Research your brand name before committing to it• Choose a name that appeals customers you are trying to attract• Comforting or familiar name that conjures up pleasant memories so customers respond to your business on an emotional level • Avoid long and confusing• Consider brand’s future

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Capturing the Brand Name

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Capturing the Brand Name | GuideWell

• Twitter does not accept requests for usernames that seem inactive.

• Inactivity is based on a combination of tweeting and logging in and may not be able to tell whether an account is currently inactive, as not all signs of account activity are publicly visible.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/15362

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Capturing the Brand Name | CliniSanitas

• Brand had original handle of @CliniSanitasMIA

• Brand then expanded out of city & state• Consider future of brand when developing

social media strategy to avoid issues

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Capturing the Brand Name | Trademark or Copyright?

• A trademark protects a word, symbol, phrase, color or design (or a combination of these), that identifies and distinguishes the goods or services of one person or company from others.

• Copyrights are a form of protection for the authors of "original works of authorship," like literary, musical, and other creative works.

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The Unofficial Facebook Page

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• If you claim accounts in local it's easier to control the message

• Easier to find the message

• Easier to triage the issue

Benefits of Claiming Your Brand Name

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The Unofficial Facebook Page | Claiming• Pages might be created for your business if

someone checks into a place that doesn't have a Page or the location isn't connected to a Page

• If the Page was created in this fashion it will need to be claimed before you can try to merge them.

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The Unofficial Facebook Page | Verify• Verify via phone call• Email• Utility bill/Phone bill • Business license • Business tax file • Certificate of formation • Articles of incorporation

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The Existing Facebook Page | Claiming

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The Existing Facebook Page | Claiming

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The Existing Facebook Page | Claiming• Local business license (issued by your city, county, state,

etc.)• A tax filing• Certificate of Formation (for a partnership)• Articles of Incorporation (for a corporation)

• https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/634636770043106?__mref=message_bubble

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Facebook Location Pages | Benefits• Lets you manage

locations from one central area

• Helps the customer find the exact location they are looking for

• Can customize content to that location

• Can see how each location performs with engagement and reviews

• Can develop Facebook Ads to target location (increase foot traffic)

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Facebook Location Pages• If you're dealing with a brand that will have multiple

locations, set up page as a brand page • If it is set up as a location page, switch it to a brand page,

then request the location tab

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The Existing Facebook Page | Tips• Make sure you utilize Facebook Location pages to avoid

the unofficial page issue

• Do brand keyword research in Facebook, using variations of brand to see if there are any pages you should be in control of

• Make sure you research every so often, just in case

• Create brand page first, not location page if dealing with multiple locations

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Yelp

• If you're a new brand claim listings ASAP! • Build out address, phone number, hours, and

categories • Upload professional location imagery (10-12) • Showcase staff, location, and your product • People rely on photos to determine level of trust

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Yelp

• Develop an account on biz.yelp.com • Search for business name & location • When searching for new business - be logged out

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Yelp

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Yelp • If you don't have ad budget, then this will be a manual process • Free bulk claim for more than 10 locations under one account

is one-time only • Moderators within Yelp approve new & claimable listings • At times can verify by phone using verification code • Doesn't always work, especially if you don't have a extension

capabilities/automated phones

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Google My Business • Improves your local ranking on Google • Essential for local SEO • You have insights into traffic statistics such as views, clicks

and followers, customer actions, driving direction request and more

• Continuation of the gradual trend towards Google rewarding quality on all fronts—from citations to links to reviews

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Google My Business • Claim your listing(s), as often many people don’t • Make sure your NAP details are up-to-date • Ensure opening hours and phone number are current • Check the business images you are using and consider

refreshing them or uploading higher res versions• Can request bulk verification, so you don’t have to wait for

postcard with verification code or phone call verification

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Facebook & Content | The Reality

• Posting organically will get you very little reach

• Budget must be allocated to have any traction with your content in Facebook

• If a client’s budget is small, make sure your time is accounted for (blogs versus visual content)

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Campaigns | Grow Community & Brand Awareness to New Locations

• Brand CliniSanitas• Recently opened 3 new locations• One in Tampa and two in Connecticut• Wanted to target people in those areas• Campaign ran for 15 days• Gained over 4,000 likes

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Campaigns | Sweepstakes to Celebrate Grand Opening of LocationsGoals • Bring awareness to the new CliniSanitas locations• Increase page likes around the new CliniSanitas location pages• Increase reach & likes to the CliniSanitas page

Prizes $1000• One grand prize of a $500 Amazon Gift Card• Three $100 Amazon Gift Cards• Four $50 Amazon Gift Cards

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Campaigns | Sweepstakes to Celebrate Grand Opening of Locations

• Gained over 4500 fans

• 300,000 Reach• 851,000 Impressions• Cost $7k

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Campaigns | Promote Grand Opening of a New Location• Promoted Event page

• Developed Ads

• Traffic to landing page was higher with ads vs. event page

• Received more “like” using event page vs. ads

• Event received more shares vs. ads

• What engagement or objectives will depend on what you type of content you promote

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Tips and Ideas for Campaigns• Get creative with visuals• Animals always get good engagement• Promote the value add• Promote the community aspects of your business

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Tips and Ideas for Promoting Content & Campaigns• Host a contest• Promote your events• Boost your blog posts (a must)

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Tips and Ideas for Promoting Content & Campaigns• Boost video content as it gets

higher reach organically if posting natively to Facebook

• Boost your news and press releases

• Put budget behind posts that are having good success organically

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Final Thoughts 1. Thoroughly research brand name before committing to one (make

sure it’s not taken.

2. Capture brand name variations

3. Consider future of brand when thinking of naming conventions in social media

4. Make the effort to capture and optimize your brand’s pages to help control the message

5. Make sure you have budget to push your brands messaging and content, otherwise it will be a waste of time

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Thank You!

@TallChickVic

@_GWConnect

Victoria.Edwards@GuideWellConnect.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorialedwards