“If you are going to have a public conversation about your brand, you might as well do it on the first page of Google...”

Michael Walsh – CEO and founder, Social Starter Srl

Social Starter presentation guide

1. Marketing and Communications

Social Starter presentation guide

How does Social Media work?

Normally, when you want to talk to your customers, you have to pass through the marketing and communications department. Vice versa, when your customers want to talk to you, they have to go through customer support.

Not only is this communications system wrong because the ears and the mouth of your company are disconnected, it’s wrong because you put filters between you and the very people you spend a great deal of time trying to capture.

It’s time to find your voice again, and start as many conversations as you can with it. It’s time to bring this model bang up to date.

How does Social Media work?

Now you’re talking! Used correctly, social media jumps

straight over traditional information channels and creates a

remarkably powerful yet friendly and intimate platform through

which you and your customers can talk freely to one another.

This way everyone’s still in the picture but the communication

between them is more open, more transparent and a lot better

as a result.

Marcoms can see what Customer Support has to deal with

and even react in real time as a result. Likewise, Customer

Support is now part of the dialogue with customers and as it’s

no longer confined to the final link of what is a very unhappy

chain you discover that there’s a lot more value in that

department than you ever thought possible.

Too good to be true?

Social Media is not something you just buy and plug in to your company’s communication strategy, it has to be learned, understood and then embraced by the company if it’s going to have any chance of success.

It takes effort and dedication, which is why we dedicate one month to meet up and talk about how social media can help your company and what will happen should you decide that this is right for your company.

Too good to be true?

Used correctly and the returns of using social media as part of your corporate communications mix are tangible in all of these areas:

Trust Authority Immediacy

Loyalty Following Insights

Respect Empathy Reputation

Relevance Community Popularity

With all this at stake, it’s no wonder Social Starter makes sure that you do it right from Day 1.

Starting with setting clear objectives.

How do we get there?

1. Know where to start

In principle, there are two questions you should have clear answers to before you start:

• What are our objectives?

• How are we going to get there?

What are our objectives?

The hardest part of starting a social media campaign is knowing what to expect from it.

There are so many variables (and technologies) it can very quickly descend into a random game of hit and miss with very few demonstrable returns.

How do we get there?

In reality, as your customers, employees, stakeholders and anybody else interested in your brand are already talking about you, you are effectively joining conversations that are already underway, so the question you should actually ask yourselves is not what you expect from social media, but what those people already using it expect from you?

So how do we get there?

Listen.

Once you’re thinking with your customers in mind, you can start to balance their needs with your own set of objectives and priorities that will allow you to find your true voice.

How do we get there?

2. Follow the rules

As a business, your social media efforts must bring some form of tangible returns in order to justify the commitment you’re inevitably going to have to put into it so before you start, you need to establish a set of guidelines, policies and procedures that will make sure your social media strategy stays on track.

Setting down the rules will also ensure that everyone from management and employees to customers and stakeholders knows what they can expect and, just as importantly, what’s expected of them.

How do we get there?

3. Walk before you run

Make no mistake: social media is hard work and you shouldn’t expect to transform into a social media sensation overnight.

Building relationships with customers online takes time, determination and a considerable amount of humility. Just like a long-distance race, you have to pace yourselves and set realistic objectives that you can reach over time.

No less important is the need to apply the same amount of “openness” to your social media strategy as with existing communication efforts, at least in the beginning. Anything unexpected will just end up coming across as unauthentic and will be far more difficult to maintain long term.

How do we get there?

4. Get into the habit of using Best Practices1

As with all business activities, social media has its own set of best practices that, while by no means set in stone, do tend to help produce the best results over time.

• Emphasize quality, not just quantity

Engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. It’s also about keeping your blog content fresh and replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status. Don’t just check the box; engage with your customer audience.

• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job

Social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead, it’s important for everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.

1 Charlene Li: engagementdb.com

How do we get there?

Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something

The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.

• Find your sweet spot

Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be consistent and participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.

2. Search Engines

Social Starter presentation guide

What is a search engine?

Some say a search engine is...

a coordinated set of complex programs that includes:

A “spider” A fast database called an “index” Data retrieval software

We say a search engine is your home page

Apparently*, getting on the first page of Google will bring around 20 times more traffic than a website on page 2 of Google...

...and 50 times more traffic than a site on page 3 of Google.

So if you are on page 4... you may as well be on page 100.

SEO in 2 minutes

The biggest secret in search engine optimization is that there really aren’t any secrets*.

SEO simply boils down to doing five things right:

Developing a keyword strategy to target the right searchers

Building a well-structured web site

Creating good content and doing basic “on page” optimization

Promoting your site to get links from the rest of the web

Avoiding technical “mistakes”

*There is a lot of technical detail, yes, but no real secrets.

1. Going after the keywords that reach your desired audience (what that means is going after the market (keywords, Topics, Themes, Problems, Solutions), NOT the product - understanding the searcher’s intent is critical. You don’t need traffic - you need targeted and responsive traffic. Different keywords represent different goals. Not just for you but also for the searcher and when you can align your goals with the searcher’s goals then you have a good keyword).2. Using those keywords on the page in an intelligent way so that when someone searches, you’ve got a chance of being found3. When you link to those pages from within your own 4. Get other people to link to you (with or without keywords - linking is always good)5. Don’t try and fool the search engines. Don’t spam with low value content that isn’t designed for users as this a problem for the search engines.

3. What We Offer

Social Starter presentation guide

The Social Starter Platform

Articles (corporate, products, opinions) designed to communicate with and engage your brand’s customers.

“How-to” videos, instructions, guides, reviews, advice or anything else your customers are waiting for you to publish.

“Lead generation” and “sales” videos published on the major social networks (if required)*

“Expert Voices” – an entirely 100% community-driven section in which customers are encouraged to share their expertise and knowledge of your products.

Forum designed to encourage open discussions and support in a centralized location.

Social Media “Base” Site

What’s in the box?

We can provide everything you need to get your brand off to a great start in social media.

Analysis of current social media standing (brand Vs. competitors).

Determination of objectives and KPIs.

Preparation of custom social media guidelines and procedures.

In-house training for participants/employees at every level

• A single-branded online presence across all social networks.

A custom social media site built on the Social Starter platform (+ hosting).

Real-time monitoring of all major social networks and blogs.

Regular search engine-optimized corporate and product articles written by professional copywriters.

Active participation in off-site discussions (outreach).

Active participation in relevant satellite sites (video/images/micro-blogging)

Search engine-optimized videos distributed through the most relevant video hosting sites (social broadcasting).

Monthly reports tailored to your needs.

Social Starter Digital Map

Main Site

Main Site

Social Media

Site

Social Media

Site

VideoHosting

Sites

VideoHosting

Sites

Micro Blogging

Sites

Micro Blogging

Sites

SocialSharing

Sites

SocialSharing

Sites

Image Hosting

Sites

Image Hosting

Sites

Outreach

Strategy

Outreach

Strategy

External Web

References

External Web

References

Social Starter Digital Map

The result.

Combine the unmatched communication opportunities of social media and peerless search engine optimization techniques of Social Starter and you have a brilliant opportunity to engage with your customers wherever they are and whenever they need you.

Social Starter srlVia Giacomo Leopardi, 29

20123Milano - Italy

socialstarter.com+39 02 87236272