Positive Women’s DayDeveloping your Twitter and overall

social media strategy

Outline of the session

•13:45 - Social Media Key Principles and the REACH model

•14:00 - Your social media strategy - Setting objectives and defining your audience

•14.40 - Twitter fundamentals and benefits•14:55 - Managing your social media •15:05 - Q & A – Ask me anything!

What’s social media really all about?

What is Social Media?

SOCIAL =

anyone (& everyone)

can have their say

MEDIA =

they can say it any way they want to

What is Social Media?

“In an affluent society, we value our time and our money, so before we invest either of them in a purchase or an activity, we want to know if it is worthwhile. To figure that out, we turn to other people, listening to their advice and observing their behaviour.”

Craig McMurtyMicrosoft Developers Weblog

What’s social about Social Media?

The aim is to get trusted referrals. . . from people who authentically evangelise your product or service for you.

Steve Holzner

“Facebook Marketing”

Where are these influencers?

• 62% of UK adults aged 35 to 55 use social networks

• 1.23 billion users on Facebook • 645 million users on Twitter• 58 million Tweets sent a day • 277 million users on LinkedIn• 540 million users on Google+• 218 million users on Instagram• 70 million users on Pinterest• 100 hours of video uploaded every

minute on YouTube

What’s social about Social Media?

o Marketing – broadcasting promotional messageso Increase your online visibility and search ability o Establish your expertise and showcase your experienceo Customer service – make your customers feel valuedo Become a valued member of people’s online networko Connect with industry experts/influencerso Catching up with what clients and competitors are up to

What can you use social media for?

Social Media Benefits

• Evidence your experience and expertise

• Establish trust and loyalty

• Instant feedback to inform your service development

• Influence & Amplification

• Engage hard to reach audiences

• Develop a voice in your sector

• Professional development & networking

• Celebrate your successes

Before you dive in – what’s your strategy?

What to consider

Who are your three aspirational audiences?

What are your three key messages?

What three offers or calls to action do you have?

Objectives

• Increase your online/social visibility in a competitive market

• Spread awareness of your business and its services

• Showcase your character and expertise• Keep customers happy & informed with up to

date information & provide good customer service

• Drive web traffic = enquiries, bookings & sales

Objectives

• Keep up to date with the news and trends in your industry

• Increase engagement with customers – keep them coming back

• Keep an eye on competitors

Link social media to your current business objectives – how can it help you achieve them?

Audiences

• Potential customers – new & existing – define by type – which platform best for demographic

• Potential collaborators or suppliers – non-competing useful contacts to make

• Industry experts and influencers • Current offline contacts – genuine online/public

recommendations made easier & more visible• Local businesses for awareness & referrals • Potential employees – social recruitment?

KPIs

• Likes and followers - What do they mean for you though, what is their value?

• Engagement - @ mentions, retweets, direct messages, direct enquiries, response rates

• Website traffic driven from social • Number of followed links for all shared content• Social media referrals• Direct sales conversions – online or offline – Do you

ask where your leads heard about your services?

So what about Twitter?

• Most public of social platforms - easiest to do outreach to find audiences to engage with

• Tweets more likely to be seen by a wider audience – through hashtags, @mentions and retweets – All Public!

• Easier to build your audience - Follow to increase your own following

• Can send a tweet to any user you like • Easier to share other people’s updates through retweets -

amplification

Why use Twitter

• Great capability for listening – valuable research on topics in your industry, consumer trends, competitor activity

• Public customer service – transparency of your values and service

• Public recommendations can be easily amplified• Using industry hashtags can get your content more easily

noticed

Why use Twitter

Twitter Strategy Tips

• Decide on your message and identity – optimise your profile with keywords – what do you want to be found for? How are you going to represent yourself?

• Find relevant users to follow - People & organisations who tweet relevant & useful information in your industry

• Listen and Learn - use the search function to find your keywords, what are others doing in your field?

Twitter Strategy Tips

• Follow public industry Twitter lists and create your own – credible sources you respect to establish your expertise

• Link to your other online presence as evidence of your expertise - web content, blog, LinkedIn profile.

• Tweet opportunities, tips & advice, thank contacts for recommendations, local events/news, general business opportunities

Tweeting Tips• Retweet useful information and add your own

opinion. The key to Twitter is expanding the reach of your brand and messages through amplification by getting retweeted

• Be seen as a valued, helpful member of someone’s network

• Find top tweeters in your area of interest that you can follow and engage in conversation

Find the right people to follow

• Following strategy – To increase your following, you need to follow!

• Do you follow users who engage with you? • Do you follow influencers in your field?• Do you follow local influencers?• How can you reach the audience of your

competitors or non-competitors?

HashtagsWhat are the conversations in your industry?

Some examples #ukemplaw #hr #banking #socialmedia #financejobs

Find some of your own http://www.hashtags.org/ The more niche the better!

Useful Twitter Tools & Features

• Twitter Advanced Search & Followerwonk – Find relevant users to engage with

• TweetDeck or HootSuite – management & scheduling

• Twitter Lists – find relevant users• Hashtags – find relevant conversations• Kred – measure influence• Goo.gl - URL shortener & tracker

Twitter etiquette• Twitter is a new form of customer service. Consumers expect

you to be there to be found and contacted. • It’s about building relationships, not just broadcasting your

messages.• It is important to be helpful & responsive on Twitter to build a

strong, trusted reputation.• It’s not a hard sell - it’s about trusted referrals and

recommendations.• It’s all about getting re-tweeted to increase your reach, spread

your messages across different audiences, with help from the Twitter community.

Remember…• Be professional on Twitter but be yourself• Not just your own information, your own

messages, it’s not all ME ME ME!• Share richly sourced content with your

network so they keep coming back.• Retweet and credit your community to

encourage engagement• Remember – social is about conversations!

Managing your presence on multiple platforms

own website?

Scheduling - Maximise your social media efforts

• Avoid bulk status updates when messages aren’t time dependent. If you post more than two or three times in a row, you may flood the timelines of your followers

• If you have updates to share, spread them out over time so more users are likely to see them.

• You can schedule tweets through Buffer or using social media dashboards like HootSuite or TweetDeck.

• But remember – automate the task not the conversation!

Schedule activity

Hootsuite – Use a social media dashboard to schedule & syndicate content where relevant.

Best times to tweet & post

• Maximise activity by scheduling your content• When is your target audience online? Test it

yourself to see the engagement you get at different times.

• First thing in the morning – 9:00am, lunch time and early evening 17:00-18:00pm.

Social Media Risk• Loss of competitive advantage by not using it – less

visibility than competitors on popular social networks • Missed opportunity to control the social space where

customers have conversations about your brand• Missed opportunity to amplify positive messages and

feedback about the brand to reach a wider audience.• Risk of damage to brand reputation if social media is

not done well

Any Questions?

Positive Women’s DayLucy Goetz Social Media Trainer & Consultant

Keep in Touch

www.lucygoetz.comlucy@lucygoetz.com@Goetzy on Twitterwww.linkedin.com/in/LucyGoetz