let's get social: social media as a business growth tool

Let’s Get Social:

Social Media as a

Business Growth Tool

Presented by:Danielle M. Cyr, Vice President of Integrated Marketing

Co-Communications

make yourself perfectly clear

Getting Started


1. Social Media Marketing works best as part of an integrated sales and marketing strategy

2. You need a strategy and specific, measurable goals for each platform

3. Don’t sacrifice opportunities for interaction and engagement by scheduling all updates in advance

4. Driving traffic to social content should be a key part of your strategy

5. You need to monitor the platforms on which your brand is present as well as those on which it does not have a presence

5 Things to Remember


Common Oversights

• Not enough time spent on strategy

• Quantity of platforms over quality

• Unrealistic about bandwidth

• Talking versus interacting

• Cocktail party etiquette

• Brand monitoring


Creating a Strategic Roadmap

Situational Assessment• Where are you now and where are you headed?

Unique Value Proposition• Why do business with your organization?

SWOT Analysis

Target Audiences• Who impacts the success of your organization?

Objectives• What are your social media goals?


Creating a Strategic Roadmap

Key Message Points• What motivates your target audiences to take action?

Tactics• How will these goals be achieved?

Optimization Plan• How will people find your content?

Timeline

Measurement• How will you evaluate success?


Ask yourself…

• How can social media marketing help achieve my strategic goals?

• What other marketing and sales tools will be integrated with social media marketing to achieve success?

• Which platforms will reach my target audiences? (Hint: start with a stakeholder survey)

• When will I measure? How will I measure?

• What percentage of my marketing budget will be allocated to social media (and other online content)?

Goal-Setting Best Practices


On- and Off-line, the Basics Still Apply

• Develop a strategic roadmap to guide your efforts

• Meet people where they are

• Know your audience(s)…and your unintended audiences

• Look for natural conversation starters

• Build a relationship

• Build loyalty


A Snapshot of Social Media in 2014


Social Media Marketing Trends in 2014

• All about the visuals

• Real-time reigns supreme

• A keen focus on CSR

• Increased attention being given to social listening

• Social advertising is on the rise• 57% of marketers used social advertising in 2013…80%

plan to use it in 2014


Our Social MediaPhilosophy

Be selective

Be strategic

Be realistic

Be present

Be consistent

Be creative

Then. . . become integrated!


At a Glance: Picking Platforms

Blogs: for starting a dialogue with key audiences

Facebook: for engaging with audiences, building community and sharing photos

Flickr: for sharing event photos

LinkedIn: for growing your network

Twitter: for driving traffic and sharing snippets

YouTube: for sharing event footage, testimonials and more


Picking Platforms – Part II

Pinterest: for telling your organization’s story through pictures

Google+: for enhancing your search engine optimization

Instagram: for capturing moments through photos

Vine: for creating short, fun videos


BlogsFor creating and sustaining a dialogue


Blogging Best Practices

• Optimize your posts with website keywords

• Include multimedia content

• Invite strategic partners to guest post

• Post consistently

• Include links to relevant third-party articles and your own content

• Seek opportunities to guest post on relevant industry blogs


Cultivating a Communityof Supporters


Facebook Best Practices

• Update consistently

• Maintain a cohesive brand voice

• Diversify content – text, links, photos and videos

• Engage the community

• Choose a ‘Cover’ that is reflective of your organization

• ‘Use Facebook As’


Why It Works…


Communicating with your target

audiences in 140

characters or less


Twitter Best Practices

• Leave room for RTs

• Tweet consistently

• Include links to your website and other social media platforms

• Share easy-to-digest snippets

• Share statistics

• Optimize your tweets

• Retweet updates from relevant and credible sources


Twitter Best Practices

• Use hashtags purposefully

• ‘Favorite’ appropriately

• Follow the 4-1-1 Rule• For every one self-serving tweet you should

retweet one relevant tweet and share four pieces of relevant content written by other users


Why It Works…


More than 100 million users in the U.S. and growing


LinkedIn Best Practices• Grow brand awareness by sharing information from/about

your business through your profile status

• Use your ‘Status Update’ to promote upcoming events, highlight promotions and share company news

• Encourage other brand ambassadors (i.e. staff, partners) to share info through their personal profiles

• Use one of the three websites on your profile to link to the company website

• Display the name of the Group(s) in the ‘groups and associations’ section


What’s New with LinkedIn

• Publishing

• LinkedIn Pulse

• Trending Content

• Content Marketing Score

• Sales Program


The #2 Search Engine in the World

72% of online adults in the U.S. use video sharing sights…what are they learning about

your organization?


YouTube Best Practices

• Brand your channel

• Tag your video(s) carefully

• Include keywords and phrases in your video description(s)

• Limit video that isn’t professionally produced to 1 minute

• Focus your video(s) around a central character

• Cross promote your content


Why It Works…


Telling your organization’s story through photos


Telling your organization’s story through photos

Instagram


Telling your story through 6-second (or shorter) videos

Vine


A virtual bulletin board about your organization

Sharing inspiration visually


• 70 million active users

• Trying to reach women? 68% of Pinterest users are female

• Great for fashion, recipes, décor, weddings and other lifestyle categories

Why Pinterest?


Promoting Your Platformstips for driving traffic

• Include widgets on the home and contact pages of your website, and in the footer (if possible)

• Include widgets in e-newsletters and e-blasts

• Add links to your team’s email signatures

• Talk up your presence in real life


Managing YourSocial Media

Program


Making Time…Saving Time

• How much time should you allocate?

• When should you be disseminating updates?

• Which platforms should you focus on?

• Which audiences should you be trying to reach?

• How often should you update?


Time Saving Tips• Develop a list of 5-10 sources that you can rely on for

credible and relevant third-party content

• Repurpose existing content…without diluting the message

• Setup Google and/or Talkwalker Alerts for your organization, key staff and relevant topics

• Use a management console such as HootSuite or TweetDeck to streamline the updating process.• Can update multiple platforms from one console• Built-in link shrinking tools• Ability to sort audiences into manageable groups• HootSuite has basic reporting capabilities


TOFU, MOFU and BOFU Metrics

Social Media Marketing and Your Sales Funnel


• What does your social media conversion path look like?

• What are the key motivators that will consistently move people down the path?

• What is the incentive for converting?

• What happens after people convert?

Driving Conversion


To increase sales by 7% you decide to leverage:• Facebook to boost e-newsletter signups and offer a

discount code for redemption on an future purchase• Twitter to raffle of a gift certificate or service voucher• e-Newsletters to offer purchase incentives to current

subscribers• A tradeshow booth to offer free consultations to booth

visitors• Google AdWords to drive e-commerce sales• Banner ads on key websites visited by your target

audiences/key buyer personas to promote a specific product or service

How do you know where the sales came from, what was most successful and what to refine? Data, data and more data.

Aligning Social & Business Goals


Tools for Monitoring & Measuring TOFU Metrics

Where do I measure?• IceRocket.com• Google Analytics

• HubSpot Graders

• Google Alerts• TalkWalker Alerts• SocialMention.com• HowSociable.com

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Measuring the Buzz – Part II – TOFU & MOFU

Metrics• Twilert – delivers tweets containing your brand name and/or selected keywords to your Inbox for free

• Twiangulate – helps you discover the connections among your Twitter followers that can help you connect with journalists that you want to build relationships with

• Muck Rack – monitor trending topics among journalists and see who’s writing about what through an aggregate of journalists Twitter streams

• Crowdbooster – monitors total reach, impressions and engagement to generate analytics that help refine your brand’s Twitter and Facebook strategies

• BlogPulse – monitors popular topics in the blogosphere


Measuring the Buzz – Part III – BOFU Metrics

• Lead sources

• Lead time to generate ROI by platform/marketing channel

• Strategic partnerships secured

• Sales conversions – by platform/marketing channel and lead source

Analyze all of the above for trends and identify opportunities to replicate successes


• Gone are the days of 5-year marketing plans – you need a nimble strategy and quantitative data to inform the refinements you make

• Be sure to give things long enough to percolate

• Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water

• Embrace the concept, not the medium

• Know your audience…cater to their buyer personas

Refining the Plan


Thank you!

Contact us:

Danielle M. [email protected]@cocommunications.com

let's get social: social media as a business growth tool

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