nuttall_smm final project spring 2016 3.0
TRANSCRIPT
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Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4
Focus ......................................................................................................................... 4 • Career Focus ................................................................................................................. 5 • Keywords ....................................................................................................................... 5 Target ........................................................................................................................ 5 • Like-Minded Target Market ......................................................................................... 5 • Near-Minded Target Market ....................................................................................... 5 • Career Stakeholders Target Market ........................................................................... 6 • Potential Employers Target Market ............................................................................. 6 Personal Branding Statement .................................................................................. 6 • Personal Branding Statement. .................................................................................... 6 • About.Me Screenshot .................................................................................................. 7 Personal Learning Network. .................................................................................... 7 PLN Organization ................................................................................................................... 7 Sources for RSS feeds. ........................................................................................................... 8 Feedly Screenshot ................................................................................................................. 8 WordPress Blog ......................................................................................................... 9 • Screenshot ..................................................................................................................... 9 • Blog Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing ................................................................ 9 • Blog Content Marketing Strategy ............................................................................. 10 • Blog Connection Strategy ......................................................................................... 10 • Blog Engagement Strategy ....................................................................................... 11 • Blog Summary of Measurable Results ...................................................................... 11 Twitter ...................................................................................................................... 11 • Screenshot ................................................................................................................... 11 • Twitter Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing ........................................................... 12 • Twitter Content Marketing Strategy ......................................................................... 12 • Twitter Connection Strategy ..................................................................................... 13 • Twitter Engagement Strategy ................................................................................... 13 • Twitter Summary of Measurable Results ................................................................... 14 LinkedIn ................................................................................................................... 14 • Screenshot ................................................................................................................... 14 • LinkedIn Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing ........................................................ 14 • LinkedIn Content Marketing Strategy ...................................................................... 15 • LinkedIn Connection Strategy .................................................................................. 15 • LinkedIn Engagement Strategy ................................................................................ 15 • LinkedIn Summary of Measurable Results ................................................................ 16 Google+ .................................................................................................................. 16 • Screenshot ................................................................................................................... 16 • Google+ Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing ...................................................... 17 • Google+ Content Marketing Strategy ..................................................................... 17
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• Google+ Connection Strategy ................................................................................. 17 • Google+ Engagement Strategy ............................................................................... 17 • Google+ Summary of Measurable Results .............................................................. 18
Facebook Like-Page. ............................................................................................ 18 • Screenshot ................................................................................................................... 18 • Facebook Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing .................................................... 18 • Facebook Content Marketing Strategy ................................................................... 19 • Facebook Connection Strategy ............................................................................... 19 • Facebook Engagement Strategy ............................................................................. 19 • Facebook Summary of Measurable Results ............................................................ 20 Content Curation Collection ................................................................................. 20 • Pinterest Screenshot ................................................................................................... 20 • Utilization of Pinterest .................................................................................................. 21 Overall Influence Measures and Best Successes ............................................... 22 • Klout Screenshot ......................................................................................................... 22 • Progression ................................................................................................................... 22 • Success Stories ............................................................................................................ 22 • Hootsuite ...................................................................................................................... 24 Obstacles ................................................................................................................ 25
Lessons Learned ..................................................................................................... 27
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Introduction Social media has taken the world by storm, it has changed the way we do everything. This is especially true when referring to social media marketing. The game has changed and it’s due, in part, to the rapid adaptation of social media throughout not only the USA, but the entire world. So then it comes as no surprise that MCB’s marketing program offers a social media marketing class, and it may be the most beneficial class I’ve taken to date. The class aimed to teach what each social media is, and their differences. More importantly, the class taught me how to create a social media marketing campaign using multiple channels, and then monitor our efforts in order to learn from them and make adjustments going forward to improve those efforts.
The project focused on six social media platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Wordpress Blogging, Facebook, and Pinterest. The goal of this project is to not only understand each platform and how to use them, but how to use these platforms to promote my personal brand. In todays job search, employers are turning to social media to find quality hires. It isn’t a huge stretch then to say that a job seekers personal brand is important, and will become even more important in the future. So to start out, as we were still learning about each platform, we focused on making each account look consistent with the next. We also filled out all available information sections to make it as easy as possible for potential employers to find out everything they need to know, regardless of platform. Another aspect of this project was creating an efficient personal learning network (PLN). A PLN is a way to curate content in order to share it with your followers. The better content you’re sharing the easier it is to gain and maintain a solid following. Once all accounts were set up and consistent with one another, I began posting and sharing content, and then monitoring our engagement and reach, among other things. This is not only important for learning the best way to personally brand yourself online, but it is also extremely beneficial in that it provides the skills to monitor social media efforts, the same way you would for a company. This report serves as an overview of this project, outlining how I used each social media in order to engage my target and improve my overall personal brand.
Focus
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• Career Focus My career focus is content marketing. After studying marketing for a few years I have always found content marketing to be my favorite form. It actually creates value for your audience rather then projecting promotions at them. It pairs perfectly with social media because both focus on creating engagement around quality content. This is the mission of successful social media and content marketing. My career passion is starting my own streetwear brand, and I want to implement content marketing into our overall marketing strategy heavily. This project has also greatly effected the design and strategy behind our social media marketing plans.
• Keywords Like-Minded:
#ContentMarketing, #SocialMediaMarketing, #SEO, #SMM
Near-Minded: #OnlineMarketing, #InternetMarketing, #DigitalMarketing, #Branding
Target
• Like-Minded Target Market Content marketing comes in many different forms. From video, to infographics, to copy and images, it comes in more mediums than other forms of marketing. Because of this, professionals from many walks of life are looking to utilize content marketing. My like-minded targets are split into two basic camps, the first of which are those who work at some sort of marketing firm like an ad agency. These are professionals who utilize content marketing all the time, not only for clients, but their own firms as well. The second camp is made up of entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to social media and content marketing as a more affordable form of marketing, which will generate engagement with their target market. Keywords include: marketing firms and marketing consultants (specializing in social media marketing, content marketing, and SEO/SMO), online marketing companies, social media consultants, content marketing consultants, social media marketing firms and digital advertising companies.
• Near-Minded Target Market
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My near minded followers/connections are those who would probably consider themselves bloggers. Bloggers that specialize in content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. These individuals often work within the marketing industry, but this is not always the case. Regardless of their occupation, these individuals are knowledgeable on the topic and are seeking to engage there followers as much as I am. This creates a great environment for sharing content and receive interactions in the form of comments. Keywords include: marketing bloggers, start-ups, entrepreneurs, social media marketers, content marketers, digital marketers.
• Career Stakeholders Target Market Career stakeholders generally came in the form of connections that I had made outside of social media. I have been lucky enough to have a few connections allowing me to attend business functions around Northern Colorado. While at these events I met many people who knew so much about my career focus, and were extremely interested to hear what my take on it was. After meeting them in person I followed up on LinkedIn, and then eventually other social media platforms. These individuals enjoy the content I share, and genuinely want me to succeed. Not only in establishing my professional personal brand, but also going forward into the workforce. Keywords include: northern Colorado, marketers, entrepreneurs, digital marketers, small business owners, local influencers, career coaches.
• Potential Employers Target Market Potential employers that are within my target market can also be found in my near-minded and like-minded segments. For the most part they are individuals or even firms that not only share a great deal of quality content, but are also looking for individuals who are doing the same. Furthermore, they aim to create connections and grow and learn just the same as their audience. Company Keywords: advertising firms, business marketers, social media marketing consultants/firms, freelance web developers, online marketers, internet marketers.
Personal Branding Statement
• Personal Branding Statement.
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I am currently career passionate about streetwear, with an emphasis in digital and content marketing. I am in the early stages of starting my own brand so I am doing everything I can to make connections in this market as well as learn as much as possible. I hope to have my own brand up and running shortly.
• About.Me Screenshot
Figure 1
Alex Nuttall on About.Me
Personal Learning Network.
PLN Organization I optimized my Feedly to provide me with the most relevant RSS feeds from blogs that discuss topics relevant to content marketing with a focus on social media marketing and SEO. These feeds were organized into folders such as social media marketing and content marketing so I could efficiently find content relevant to my followers. I also created additional folders for me to stay informed on general marketing/tech news since it
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was relevant to be up-to-date on tech news and knowledge. An example of how I organized my folders can be seen below. Besides Feedly, I also used Reddit as a PLN. While Reddit doesn’t allow you to organize blog feeds as neatly as Feedly, it is still a terrific source for quality, relevant content. Another thing that makes Reddit a great PLN is it also has a community aspect. So not only can I find great, sharable content, but I can also interact in the community. Engaging in conversations related to what I have just read greatly increases my understanding, and also shows that I am an active member of the community. This is especially important when it comes time for me to post from my blog, if I have already established myself as an active member of the community, other community members are far likelier to read my posts, and even go so far as to comment and engage.
Sources for RSS feeds. Sources for my RSS Feeds included Feedly and Twitter as primary sources. If I found that a resource was not providing helpful information I would unsubscribe from their RSS feeds and research new ones by searching for hashtags that were relevant to my like-minded and near-minded followers. Additionally, I was fairly successful finding new, and relevant blogs, on Reddit. Reddit was especially helpful in finding lesser known blogs. I found that while there are tons of great blogs about content marketing, many of them are rather large and successful now; so these blogs provide quality content, but are not a great community for engagement with like-minded individuals. I found this especially useful because often times individuals who are sharing content marketing info on Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever, often share the same things. So you will see 4 influencers sharing the same article at the same time, with the exact same description. I wanted to avoid this, so having quality content from lesser known blogs really helped.
Feedly Screenshot
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Figure 2
WordPress Blog
• Screenshot
Figure 3
Contentacles Blog on Wordpress
• Blog Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing
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My blog is called Contentacles. I wanted to include content marketing in the title, but without making it sound like another dry business blog that takes itself too seriously. So I went with this title because I feel that it’s a little less serious, while still sticking to the core of what it’s all about, content marketing. I strengthen my brand with widgets such as Gravatar Profile, which allows me to show a headshot and a link to a little more about me, as well as social network links to all my other channels. I also strengthened my brand using other widgets like Twitter Feed and Blogroll. Each allows me to illustrate that I am constantly sharing valuable content, that my audience can find in many different ways. The Twitter feed shows my last five tweets at any given time, and the blogroll shows examples of blogs that I draw inspiration from.
• Blog Content Marketing Strategy Contentacles aims to address just what is content marketing, and why is everyone talking about it. My tagline is “the good, the bad, and the ugly…of content marketing”, and it illustrates the main aspect of my blog. Beyond attempting to understand content marketing, Contentacles looks at some companies for inspiration, whether the were successful or not. In both cases there is a lot to learn from successes and mistakes alike so by looking at others experiences, Contentacles breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly. I took a semi-professional tone in my writing for this blog to reinforce the idea that this blog is meant to be more conversational than others in the same area. I wrote as if I were talking to someone else who was interest in content marketing just like me, but perhaps they are new to it and want to understand it from the ground up.
• Blog Connection Strategy The best way to connected readers to my blog was through sharing new blog posts on my other social networks. I provided links from my other social works back to my blog as well, to make it easier for my audience to find it. My strategy was to drive the traffic that I’d created on my other channels to my blog.
Another strategy that helped to create traffic to my blog was through utilizing SMO techniques. By linking my blog to other social media websites, I could boost my ranking on search engines. This was especially true for Google+, though I didn’t gain any engagement, it did help my search ranking. Also by using the similar keywords throughout my social
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media accounts, I boosted the chance of my blog coming up in a search.
• Blog Engagement Strategy My blog first and foremost attempted to draw in viewers with a punny title and a tag line taken from pop-culture. At the same time, it needed to look professional and credible, otherwise they may think it’s completely a joke and they have nothing to gain from it. Within my blog posts I attempted to link to at least two other blogs that expanded on an interesting point that I didn’t have the time to get into, furthering the benefits to my audience. I also attempted to spur engagement at the end of my blog posts with a call-to-action or a poll asking questions about the post.
• Blog Summary of Measurable Results
• Screenshot
Figure 4
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Alex Nuttall on Twitter
• Twitter Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing I first branded my Twitter with an aesthetically pleasing cover photo in an urban background (a reflection of streetwear branding), and a Twitter ID with my name and a head shot of myself to help associate myself with my brand. I also provided a link to my LinkedIn profile so that people can see that I have the knowledge and experience to strengthen my brand image. Additionally, I immediately inform users about my career focus in my description, using relevant hashtags, and I have pinned a Tweet to my profile displaying general information regarding the type of content I share.
I also improved my brand image through social proofing techniques. This included Twitter lists of relevant people in my target market, a well-balanced TFF ratio, and a quality group of people that I follow. This shows users I have a somewhat established presence on Twitter increasing the amount of follows I’d receive from individuals passing over my profile.
• Twitter Content Marketing Strategy Nearly all the content that I shared via Twitter was curated through my PLN, being made up of Feedly categories, Reddit (subreddits; i.e. r/contentmarketing), and Twitter lists. Some content was found and retweeted through my Twitter feed, but in general was pulled from my PLN. By categorizing Twitter users with Twitter lists I could find individuals who posted frequent, quality content about my focus, and then place them in an appropriate Twitter list. This way I could easily sort through the vast amount of information on Twitter and increase the effectiveness of my PLN. The type of content that I curated included information about content marketing in general, how to use it effectively, examples of good content marketing, and where the future of content marketing was leading. On top of this I often tied in information related to social media marketing, as it is an essential tool that must be partnered with any content marketing strategy. Once I had found quality content, the next step was delivering it to my audience in an effective way. Twitter limits you to 140 characters, so getting your audiences attention, sparking their interest, and make them desire more right off the bat is essential. Professionalism was also important when I tweeted. By following a specific format, along with citing my sources, each tweet first engaged my audience with an attractive title,
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followed by an @mention recognizing the source and then appropriate hashtags to make it searchable for users. Though professionalism is important I didn’t want to see too robotic, so even though I was sticking to a general format for my tweets, I would always attempt to add personal voice to give a glimpse of my personality and further engagement. Through tone of voice and sharing things like GIFS/images, I not only illustrated that I am not a bot, but also gave my audience a taste of who I was as a person.
• Twitter Connection Strategy One of the main ways I found new individuals to follow was through Twitter lists. Once I established myself as someone who shared relevant, quality content consistently, I was added to content marketing twitter lists by other users. Like-minded individuals also created Twitter lists to manage the overwhelming amount of individuals talking about a specific topic. I found that these lists always had tons of users who shared similar content to myself. So this not only became a good place to find recyclable content, but also engage with like-minded users and find individuals who would be beneficial to follow. After following individuals, I checked to see if they had followed me back. If they weren’t reciprocal followers I’d unfollow them, unless they were sharing exceptionally good content, or were topic influencers with thousands of followers. A great tool that I used was JustUnfollow, which quickly determined those that hadn’t followed me back or unfollowed me soon after I followed them back. I also ensured that I was following the same practice by following back anyone that had followed me. Otherwise, I risked losing them as a follower for the same reasons that I unfollowed. If I was retweeted by someone, I considered adding them to my list of followers if they maintained a well-balanced TFF ratio. It was also crucial to organize those I followed into a lists after I had followed them. Even if they weren’t like-minded, my lists could give an idea of near-minded individuals that were interested in my career focus, or similar career focuses like social media marketing and digital marketing.
• Twitter Engagement Strategy Engagement is what can set any Twitter strategy apart from an average one. Driving engagement is the most important part of Twitter, and will
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always yield the best results. A major key in stimulating engagement was sharing fresh, relevant content that provided my followers some sort of value. I constantly pruned my PLN in order to ensure I was always curating and sharing the best content related to my career focus. Beyond that, sharing visual content like images and infographics greatly increases engagement from followers and other Twitter followers alike. Keeping text short and descriptive also allows users to scan the content quickly and decide quickly whether or not they care. This is another reason visual content is beneficial because users were much more likely to engage with tweets if they had any type of visual.
• Twitter Summary of Measurable Results
• Screenshot
Figure 5
Alex Nuttall on LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing I set up my LinkedIn profile to showcase my professional experience, educational background and the talents/skills I’ve acquired. This included entering information about relevant jobs I’ve held, clubs I’ve been
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involved with, career related courses I’ve taken, certifications I possess and awards and nominations I’ve received. I also strengthened my brand by adding a personal summary that fully explains and demonstrates my career focus/brand story and provides a little bit more about who I am outside of school and my career focus.
There were also some additional ways that I branded myself on LinkedIn that involved joining career relevant groups, generating career focused posts, publishing my blog posts and linking my profile to all my other social media sites. The content that I provided not only aided in my branding strategy, but it strengthened my social identity signals. I also improved my social proofs by connecting with some prevalent members on LinkedIn, joining relevant groups and following companies within my target market.
• LinkedIn Content Marketing Strategy My content marketing strategy on LinkedIn focused on providing professional content for my target audience. I kept the information relevant to my career focus and shared only my top content from my PLN. Another important aspect of my content marketing strategy was joining and engaging with professional groups. When posting to these groups I made sure the content that I shared was relevant and that it strengthened my brand image. It was also important to address people professionally and minimize any grammatical mistakes or shorthand type so as to demonstrate my communication skills and professionalism.
• LinkedIn Connection Strategy Connecting on LinkedIn was directed towards attempting to connect with employers in my career focus. This was done through connecting with the company page, engaging with posts that they share and joining groups where they might be looking to connect. I also used LinkedIn to create a further connection with business professionals I had met while networking at local events. LinkedIn was also an opportunity to drive traffic to my other social sites by providing direct links to my other profiles. This allowed users to connect with me on other platforms and improved chances of them connecting with me on LinkedIn or another social site.
• LinkedIn Engagement Strategy
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To drive engagement on LinkedIn, I only posted content to my profile/discussion groups that was relevant and interesting/informative to my target audience. Most of my engagement on LinkedIn was through professional I had met in person and strengthen our relationship using LinkedIn. Another way I created engagement was by commenting on other user’s posts or important updates to their profiles; like promotions or awards they had received. I also made sure to endorse people who were notable in their career hoping that they would provide me with endorsements to increase my social signals/proofs.
• LinkedIn Summary of Measurable Results
Google+
• Screenshot
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Figure 6 Alex Nuttall on Google+
• Google+ Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing One of the main ways I branded myself on Google+ was by creating a thorough profile. That included developing a short tagline, and an introduction that fully explained and demonstrated my career focus Additionally, I added a professional photo of myself, branded my social links and added my employment information. I also added links to other career focused websites to improve my brand identity.
• Google+ Content Marketing Strategy The most important thing when sharing content on Google+ was posting in career related groups, since the amount of users in groups are much higher than my personal connections. Additionally, every post that I shared had the proper social annotation and structure. Google+ posts allow you to use multiple hashtags, which increases searchability and strengthens brand identity. I also maintained a similar structure to all my posts which included a title, summary, link, and commentary. The type of content I shared was tailored to my specific groups that I engaged with. To help me find the content, I often utilized my PLN which included Reddit and my content curation collection on Pinterest. I kept this content relevant to the audience and strengthen my brand image by providing up-to-date important information.
• Google+ Connection Strategy My connection strategy was heavily based on sharing to groups on Google+. After sharing something that people found was useful, I would find sometimes users would add me as a connection. Once these individuals connected with me, I would add them to a career focused group and try and connect with them on other social media platforms (especially Twitter). To drive traffic to my blog I would share my newest blog posts in Google+ communities that were most relevant to the article in my blog. This not only increased traffic to my blog, but it also strengthened my brand image by sharing knowledge about my career.
• Google+ Engagement Strategy To drive engagement on Google+ there must be interaction with other users. I did this by commenting on people’s posts in groups, liking posts that I thought were useful and adding career focused users as
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connections on my Google+. This led to users adding me back as a connection and helped generate likes on my posts. The content that I shared also needed to be engaging. To help drive engagement with my posts, I would include a photo or a link, post content that was enjoyable or interesting and leave my audience with a call-to-action/question. Additionally, each post needed to have proper social annotations to improve my SMO. In the end, the quality of my content was what really increased my engagement.
• Google+ Summary of Measurable Results
Facebook Like-Page.
• Screenshot
Figure 7
Contentacles Blog on Facebook
• Facebook Branding & Expertise/Social Proofing
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Some of the ways I branded the page were through adding design elements that helped with my blogs brand identity. I designed a cover photo and a separate profile photo that visually brands my blog, and links it back to themes from the blog itself. In the design I also made sure to provide a short description (also my blogs slogan) and a link to the actual blog. For the imagery, I decided to brand with images of octopus’ because it plays off the name of my blog. I also used the same cover photo as my blog.
• Facebook Content Marketing Strategy The primary source of content for my Facebook likes page was blog posts from the Contentacles Blog. Every time I posted a blog post on I would immediately promote it using Facebook. Besides that, I shared content that was related to my career focus. Most was recycled from my other social media platforms, but with slightly different commentary. Additionally, to help generate content I utilized my PLN to find up-to-date information for my audience. To grow my PLN, I also began to utilize Facebook’s news feed to help provide quality content for my audience.
• Facebook Connection Strategy My strategy for generating connections on Facebook was primarily based on increasing the amount of likes on my page to grow my audience. I also would like other pages that fell within my target market to grow my PLN, increase brand awareness and improve my social signals. In return, many of them were reciprocal and would like my page, growing my connections in the industry. I also invited connections from my personal page to connect with me professionally. This helped to generate likes and ratings increasing my social signals for others that found my page. I also invited friends and family to like this page, which is unique to Facebook.
• Facebook Engagement Strategy To create engagement on Facebook I made sure that every post had an image or a thumbnail from a link. Users were far more likely to like/comment on a post that had an image. Structuring the post was also important to increase engagement. Each post needed to be eye-catching and informative. Facebook is an example of a platform that not only doesn’t utilize hashtags, but also doesn’t particularly like them. Using them seems to put you out of place
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and show that you don’t have the greatest understanding of the platform. Engagement on Facebook can only be created if you have an audience, and with Facebook’s new changes my audience was heavily limited to the people that liked my page. That being said, it was important to drive traffic to Facebook through external links and social sharing options. By increasing the likelihood of my posts appearing on Facebook, I could increase the chances of stimulating engagement.
• Facebook Summary of Measurable Results
Content Curation Collection
• Pinterest Screenshot
Figure 8
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Figure 9
Alex Nuttall on Pinterest
• Utilization of Pinterest The purpose of my Pinterest was to provide me with another element of my PLN that might aid in sharing quality content on other networks. It was also a place that allowed me to organize my content, and display it for other users divided by different categories within my career focus. Not only was Pinterest used to curate content, but it also allowed me another way for to brand myself. I used the same profile picture found across all my platforms, included the same bio found on my Twitter, and added a link to my blog in my description. Of all the channels I used during the project, Pinterest seems to allow the least personalization of your profile page. There are few places to add information beyond a profile picture, quick bio, location, a link to one website, and a link to my Twitter account. At this point I have curated three different boards each related to my career focus, or a similar focus. I established one for content marketing, one for digital marketing, and one for social media marketing. I found the most benefit when using Pinterest to find infographics. Infographics have become extremely popular, and are a great way to teach a point without writing out a long blog post. It combines a visual aspect that tends to draw in more engagement. This was the main content I was curating using Pinterest.
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Overall Influence Measures and Best Successes
• Klout Screenshot
Figure 10
• Progression My Klout score increased greatly towards the first few weeks of social activity. I saw my Klout score increase from 23.31 to 36.78 over a two-week span. Once I hit the mid 30’s it became much more difficult to increase my Klout score. Over the next few weeks I saw minimal ebbs and flows from my overall score. I could also see which social platforms were contributing the most to my Klout score. Twitter dominated this metric at 88% network contribution.
Figure 11
• Success Stories
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1. My first success was being added to over 15 Twitter lists by like-minded individuals. Nearly every week I was added to at least one Twitter list, showing that other users saw me as a credible source for content related to content marketing. As you can see in the graphic below, my Twitter notifications over only a few days, show users adding me to four twitter lists.
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2. Another success story from this project comes from the number of click-through’s on my Owl.y links. Over a little less than three months I saw a fair amount of click-through’s on my posts averaging around two or three on each. I totaled 32 click-through’s from Twitter alone. The graphics below illustrate my total click-through’s over this time period, as well as my best performing Tweets in terms of click-through’s. While the number of click-through’s isn’t staggering, compared to my number of followers, and overall engagement, I am still quite happy with the results and feel that I was someone successful in influencing followers to follow links I’ve provided.
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Figure 13
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3. The last success story I encountered was being asked to join a group of content marketers who hold forums every few weeks in order to discuss the trade and what’s in it’s future. This is perhaps my greatest success story because it shows that I can curate and share content that is quality enough to share with the pros. It also shows that my engagement tactics had an impact on the community, and allowed me to be viewed as one of the communities leading members in sharing content that teaches my like-minded audience tons of things related to our career focus.
Figure 15
• Hootsuite
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Figure 16
Alex Nuttall on Hootsuite
Obstacles There were a great number of obstacles I faced throughout this project. I have to admit, there were moments when I was quite discouraged by these obstacles, as for some (no matter how hard I tried) I wasn’t always able to find solutions. While this was disappointing at the time now that I am looking back and reflecting on the project, I feel that these obstacles actually taught me more about how to use social media for branding more than anything else. I learned from what wasn’t working, and it showed me how different each channel can be in terms of engagement and overall interactions. -Maintaining Platforms -Time-management -Maintaining Twitter Following -Blog Traction -Site Errors/Troubleshooting
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The first obstacle I came across was maintaining a consistent presence across all platforms. It’s true when professionals say social media marketing is a full time job in this day and age. To aid me in this task I utilized Hootsuite, and while it is extremely helpful in many ways, it is not without it’s faults. For instance, Hootsuite is great for scheduling out your twitter posts for the next few days, it’s quick, easy, and has every feature you may need. Similarly, Hootsuite is extremely helpful when posting to LinkedIn. However, there are limitations when it comes to Google+ and Facebook. First of all, there is no way to use Hootsuite when posting onto Google+, at least not if you’re posting on behalf of your personal page. Businesses can still use Hootsuite to post and schedule on Google+. However, similarly to Facebook, there is no way to tag businesses or organizations when posting from Hootsuite’s site. Additionally, there are limited in connect with communities, addressing friend requests and searching for users. With these limitations, I found myself logging into each social media site, which is exactly what Hootsuite is designed to do. It made juggling all six platforms daunting at times. I overcame this obstacle with repetition and perseverance. The more I worked at it the faster I got at moving between networks seamlessly. I used Hootsuite where I could and found quicker ways to use Google+ and my Facebooks Likes page. Possibly the greatest obstacle I faced whilst working through this project was time-management. It is extremely easy to lose track of time and end up putting far more time into one platform than another. Furthermore, it is also difficult to find time to post on, and manage six social media platforms while going to school and working. The difficulty here more than anything is not being able to truly focus on one social media and master it. It requires multiple channels, and at times it is hard to allocate your time efficiently amongst all platforms. I overcame this obstacle by using a content calendar that I created using excel. By mapping out my content strategy ahead of time, it was easier to plan out each channel, and it aided in keeping me to that schedule. It also was a massive time saver because I could go to one place to reference my next move regardless of the channel. Another obstacle that came up during this project was maintaining a consistent following on Twitter. Twitter is probably the ficklest social media in the sense that users are generally just looking for followers, rather than good content and engagement from other users. This led to drops in my number of followers a few times. If users aren’t unfollowing you as soon as you don’t follow them, then they will certainly unfollow you should they realize you haven’t shared any content in a few days. This obstacle made it abundantly clear that consistency in posting on Twitter is absolutely necessary. I saw my greatest follower growth when I was posting around three times a day. This ties back into my last obstacle, because it became difficult to continue this pace once we brought in other social media platforms. There was a two-week period where I focused on posting on Twitter
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everyday. I saw an increase of nearly 30 new followers. The week following, I left town and saw nearly half of that following had disappeared. This is most likely due to a lack of content being shared, and therefore engagement with my users. From that point on I had to re-establish a consistent sharing schedule in order to regrow and maintain that following. After this I saw a steady increase in new followers. The next obstacle I struggled with was gaining traction with my blog posts. While each gained a few views, I found it difficult to get substantial viewership even when sharing through all of my social media platforms. While I did get some viewership from my Facebook Likes page, I noticed that most the time, though they looked at my FB page, they didn’t follow the link to my actual blog. This is most likely due to unexciting titles and not enough appropriate tags. Each will be a main focus when promoting new blog posts through any social channels, especially FB. I believe this is the best way to overcome this specific obstacle. Finally, I saw a number of obstacles related to technical difficulties. This came as little surprise as when using so many forms of technology there is bound to be some issues eventually. Most noteworthy is Wordpress and my blog. While, Wordpress is a great site, and it makes creating good-looking websites very easy, it is not without it’s faults. Many times a came across random issues pertaining to anything from design issues, to complete deletion of a blog post for no apparent reason. While I was able to overcome all tech issues after doing some quick research, it is just another obstacle that also adds to my second obstacle, time management. Time went to fixing issues rather than engaging and curating/sharing content. That being said, this greatly increased my understanding of Wordpress, and really increased my troubleshooting skills overall. The only way to overcome this obstacle is with determination and perseverance.
Lessons Learned 1. The greatest lesson I learned while working on this project was it takes a
significant amount of time to grow your social media networks and maintain it. You may be extremely active one week in social media marketing, but if you can’t maintain that level of activity you can very easily lose that growth. It’s best to maintain a consistent level of activity so that your growth is easily measured and your efforts aren’t wasted.
2. Another lesson I learned is that it’s difficult to compete against those who are paying to increase their social media presence. They either pay for automated systems that follow and unfollow users to gain prominence or they pay to increase the reach of their posts. This is proof that you have to pay to play in social media marketing today. That being said, it is more
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important to have the skills to promote your social media platforms organically. This paired with some paid media is the best way to efficiently grow your social media presence and overall engagement.
3. I also learned to be strategic when choosing whom to follow/connect with, especially on Twitter. Utilizing tools like JustUnfollow, I was able to find users that had well-balanced TFF ratios and fell within my target audience. By being more selective in who I follow or connect with, I was able to achieve greater sustained growth in my personal branding efforts.
4. Additional I learned the impact that SEO has on creating an organic online presence. Once I fully developed my profiles and linked them, I saw a dramatic rise in the amount of profile views I was receiving on Google+. This turned out to be a great thing because it in turn increased my search number on Google. Being able to achieve a high Google rank, for free, is an important part of managing a brand on social media.
5. Lastly, I learned the importance of maintaining a reliable PLN. Even more than that I learned that it is incredibly important to continue to grow your PLN and use multiple sources. When I first started I only used Feedly, which is certainly a great resource, but later I used Feedly paired with Reddit and Pinterest. It helped me diversify the content I was sharing and constantly keep my feeds looking fresh and exciting. I also learned it is important to keep an organized PLN. As I mentioned in my first lessoned learned, it is hard to manage your time during this project. That’s why being organized is so important, it really helps keep your workflow efficient. In conclusion, developing a social media marketing plan is critical before developing a presence on social media. Everything from the amount of time you’ll spend, to what content you share is important to determine beforehand so your efforts aren’t wasted. You should also think about how you’ll sustain your social networks once you’ve grown them. It can sometimes take more work to rebuild an audience than to create a new one. Ultimately, being strategic in everything you do is crucial for success in social media marketing.
a. Final Blog Post
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Final Paper Checklist: ___ Did you review the feedback received from your proposal and activity reports to
make sure all previous expectations for setup, activity, and improvement were completed?
___ Did you follow the proper format for this paper? [How the paper looks is also part of the grading; at the end of this handout are examples of past student project winners of the Colorado American Marketing Association Peak Awards and its use of proper formatting.]
___ Did you sign out of all your social media platforms, social media profiles, and influence profiles and then check to see that the web links in your report are all working properly?
___ Did you sign out of all your social media platforms, social media profiles, and influence profiles and then check to see that the web links in all these social media are all working properly? [If someone clicks a web link on your blog, twitter, etc., it should work properly or your credibility in personal branding and social media/networking will be tarnished.]
___ Did you double check that your “About.Me” page has working web links to your WordPress Blog, Twitter, LinkedIn Profile, Google+ About page, Facebook Page, Content Curation Collection (YouTube Channel or Pinterest), Klout, HootSuite Profiles, and any other social media used in this project? [I cannot grade these parts if your link does not work; and if I have to find it elsewhere, then I will count off points.]
___ Did you review the outline for the content required in this paper to make sure nothing was left out?
___ Did your review the Grading section for the content to make sure you addressed
all things needed for grading? ___ Did you double check the due date and time for this paper to make sure you
submit it to Blackboard on time? [You will lose points if late.] ___ Did you begin writing this report at least one week prior to its due date so there is
plenty of time to ask questions? [If you don’t ask, I can’t help you. If you ask too close to due date, then it will likely be too late for you to implement any of my suggestions.]
___ Have you added these skills to your LinkedIn profile so that McCorkle and others can potentially endorse them? [social media marketing, social media networking, personal branding, blogging, WordPress, HootSuite, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Personal Learning Networks]
___ Did you add the details of this project to the Projects Section of LinkedIn with a web link so employers can read this project report as part of your e-portfolio?
___ Do you give McCorkle permission to quote you from your project (with attribution) for a blog post about the project and to possibly submit your project as an entry in the Colorado AMA Peak Awards. Note: if you do not want me to consider either of these, then please send me an email stating your objection. Otherwise, I assume doing this is okay.