Social Media: The Next Steps

1. Social Media: The Next Steps Taking your social media program to the next level

2. Overview Taking your social media program to the next level Developing a Social Media Strategy Let’s Talk Content Tracking Your Results Am I on social media for the right reasons? What do I want to get out of it? Why do I need a social media strategy? What should be included? Example of a social media strategy outline Where can I find content ideas and content already created? Is it ok to automate my social media posts? What’s the best way to share various types of content? What content is the most engaging? How do I bring all my profiles together? How do I know if my social media efforts are working? What can I do with my social media statistics? When should I post to ensure maximum exposure? What factors go into creating a posting schedule? www.sbxmarketing.com

3. Overview Taking your social media program to the next level Integrating Social Media Within Marketing Mix Emerging Social Media Trends Tools, Tips and Tricks How does social media fit into my existing marketing? What are some ways to integrate it with my other activities? How can I engage bloggers? What are QR codes? How will the next generation of mobile devices change the way brands interact with people in real life? Why is quality content more important than ever? Is it time to rethink my social media program? How can I get the most out of my social media efforts? What is Facebook Timeline? What is EdgeRank? What other technologies and services should I consider to expand and assist my program? www.sbxmarketing.com

4. What Are Your Goals? High Visibility Attract Followers Stimulate Sharing Create a Community Increase Conversions Increase Reach Increase Retention Generate Revenue For most companies, the goal of social media is to ultimately increase revenue. So how does it all fit together? Increase conversions – Turning more leads into sales by attracting the right audience and helping them down the path to purchase. Maximizing social media resources and optimizing landing pages can also help to increase conversions. Increase reach – Attracting a larger social media following will help increase your online reach. The viral nature of social media helps stimulate content sharing between your fans and their friends. Increase retention – Building a community around your brand through social media helps turn a one time customer into a repeat customer. Social media allows brands to connect and engage with their customers. ~Ernest Barbaric Tools of the Trade Google Analytics Link Shortener Listening Sites Mobile Device Camera/Video Camera Social Media Dashboard Time The average Facebook user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups. - Social Media Examiner

5. Social Media Strategy Developing a social media strategy is an important part of your program. This is a fluid document and will need to be reviewed and revised on a regular basis. Sections to Include • Program goals – Why social media? What do you want to accomplish? How are you going to get there? • Polices and procedures – Dealing with “charged” posts, understanding tone of posting, chain of command, identifying gatekeepers and responsibilities. • Social media map – Outline profiles being used and how they all fit together. Identify social media “hub” and the pieces around it. • Content plan – Details on content topics, content types and content sources. This is the section where you list your content creators. Also include a posting schedule. • Tracking and reporting – Tracking and recording results, creating benchmarks and setting social media goals. Nearly 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phones. - Nielsen

6. Social Media Strategy – Resource University of Oregon • Developed a “Social Media Checklist” for departments to review before engaging in social media. This is the perfect blueprint for the creation of a strategy and policy document. • The checklist is part of a much larger brand document and helps ensure all university social media activities stay consistent with the brand. • Fantastic guide for a small business to review – whether you’re already active on social media or you’re considering getting involved. • View the full checklist here - http://webcom.uoregon.edu/socialchecklist Covered In Checklist Resources Strategy Measurement Audience Engagement and Listening Content Evaluation Social networks and blogs account for nearly a quarter of time spent on the Internet by Americans. - Nielsen

7. Let’s Talk Content Content is the ammo in your social media gun. Quality content drives your profiles and helps spread your message. Create Your Own Share Content From Others Sharing content created by others is another way to engage and inform. Use a service like Google Alerts to help mine content created by others. Here are a few places you might want to look: Online newspapers and magazines Social media profiles of others Blogs and guest bloggers Social media listening sites (Socialmention.com, Samepoint.com) Source information from your own social profiles through questions and polls Creating content is often easier said than done. It can put a strain on the limited marketing resources of many businesses. Here are a few things to keep in mind: Play to your strengths. If you’re a good writer, create written content. If you enjoy photography, create a photo blog. Keep content short and to the point. Images and videos typically work well on social media. Look at your website analytics for content ideas. Give the people what they want. One-third of companies have a senior executive who is responsible for social media company-wide. - Booz & Company

8. Layered Content Approach Base Layer Real - Time Engagement 1 2 3 Organizing your social media content into a few different layers can help you create an effective deployment plan: Base Layer - These posts ensure consistency and frequency. They are non-time sensitive posts designed to engage at key times during the day. These posts can be created as you go or can be scheduled ahead of time. (Events, product information, company news, informational posts). Real - Time Layer - These posts are created and shared “on the fly”. Having a real-time presence is important and can help increase engagement. (Time sensitive content, content created during events). EngagementLayer - This is the most important aspect of social media. Content in this layer includes responses to questions, sourcing user generated content, and asking questions. What’s Engaging? Whitepapers Lists (Top 10, 5 Best, etc) Questions and polls Images and video How-to’s Presentations Audio/podcasts E-newsletters Ninety-five percent of Facebook Wall posts are not answered by brands. - All Facebook

9. Content Mapping Hub and Spoke Model Possible Content Hubs The Hub – The place where content is originally posted and shared. The hub should feature some sort of call to action and have analytics code installed on it. The Spokes – These spokes represent any content distribution channel. They have a two way relationship with the hub. Comments, suggestions and user generated content can also flow from the spokes to the hub. Each spoke will have a slightly different audience. Understanding the likes and dislikes of each group will help determine what content is shared where. Blog Website Facebook page Wiki Microsite Landing page Nearly every large charity and university in America is on Facebook. Less than 60% of the Fortune 500 are. - Grow

10. Tracking Your Results – Time of Day Tracking clicks and engagements will help identify the best time of the day to post Time of day tracking can help maximize your social media resources and ensure your content is viewed by the most people Daily engagement tracking can be done with tools like Facebook Insights and Bitly.com. Test posts are various times of the day and record the click through rate and engagement. Monitor patterns over a number of days and trends will begin to emerge. Posting patterns may vary by day of the week (weekday vs. weekend). Time of Day Tracking – Things to Consider Pay attention to holidays and local events. (Edmonton social media channels are flooded with hockey updates during Oilers games). Time of day and demographics can go hand in hand. (Parents with young children are more likely online in the evenings). Go with your gut. Statistics are a guide but not the be all and end all. There were an average of 10 000 Tweets per second during the final 3 minutes of Super Bowl XLVI - Twitter

11. Tracking Your Results – Resource Creating a Tracking Spreadsheet Things to Track Tracking and recording your social media results will help identify trends and audience preferences. Record each post – when posted, where posted, title of the post, number of clicks, number of engagements, and overall sentiment. Use these results to develop a content plan and post schedule. The idea is to gather information to help you work smarter and maximize your resources. Further A/B testing can be done to track the effectiveness of post titles and rich media types. Title of post Time posted Location of post Number of clicks Number of engagements Overall sentiment Engagements by key influencers 50% of Pinterest users have children – Mashable.com

12. Social Media Integration Basic Integration Some businesses wrongly view social media as a separate marketing silo. Integrating social media into your overall marketing efforts can increase the effectiveness of your campaigns and help you reach new audiences. Include your social media profile information on all marketing collateral. Encourage customers, employees and suppliers to join your networks. Offer incentives for those that join. Empowering your first few followers can help speed up your social media growth. Use the integration applications provided by sites like Facebook and Twitter when adding social media to your website. Nearly every large charity and university in America is on Facebook. Less than 60% of the Fortune 500 are. - Grow

13. Social Media Integration Blogger Outreach QR Codes Mining Your Own Content Combining social media and PR Combining social media and print media Combining social media and print media People often underestimate the power of bloggers. Bloggers are always looking for fresh and unique content. Companies are starting to reach out to these individuals with exclusive content or products. Most established bloggers have a strong social media presence. Adding QR codes to print materials is a simple way to connect your offline and online media. Try to connect to an engaging piece of media like a video or an image instead of your homepage or wall. Bitly.com will create and track QR codes for you. Creating content can be a struggle. Many business owners fail to see the content that they’ve already created. Use content from brochures, advertisements and product catalogs. Tailor this content to fix your social media audience (create Top 10 lists, “How to” articles, etc). In January 2012, Pinterest drove more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. - Shareaholic

14. Social Media Integration – Brainstorm How can you integrate social media into your current marketing? Here are some relatively low cost ideas that we’ve thought about, seen and/or tried: • Encourage customers to review your business and products online. • Stream an event live on your website or social media channels. • Include a Twitter hashtag on your marketing materials. Monitor the hashtag for mentions and be sure to interact with those using it. • Invite a local blogger for a tour of your business. Offer them a unique experience that is worthy of a blog post. • Encourage visitors to “check-in” at your location using Facebook Places or Foursquare. • Offer deals or specials exclusively to your social media followers. • Loan video cameras to your customers. Use the footage they collect to create videos for your social media channels. Google + is predicted to top 400 million users by the end of 2012 – seoconsult.com

15. Emerging Trends Near-field Communications Personalizing Content The Honeymoon is Over NFC is coming in new mobile devices Consumers will have more options to filter Now what? Same technology used in PayPass Many see it becoming a standard in mobile devices NFC would change how consumers interact with brands in the “real-world” Would also have an impact on checking in and sharing in a social media setting People are becoming overwhelmed with content Social sites are developing new ways to deliver the most relevant content to users More filtering options put a stronger emphasis on creating quality content and better understanding the needs and wants of your audience Companies are starting to take a hard look at their social media presence Most understand the need but few have a plan Being “on” social media isn’t good enough anymore 2012 will be a time for companies to get serious, get a plan or get out 11 new Twitter accounts are created every second – Twitter.com

16. Tools, Tips and Tricks - Tools Google Analytics – Real Time Storify Knowem.com Using social media to tell a story See what’s happening right now Stake your social media claim Storify allows you to tell stories through mining, selecting and organizing social media posts Create, share and then embed your story on your website Effective service to show buzz around events or news Drag and drop interface is very user friendly Google Analytics Real-Time gives you new insights into your visitors Monitoring stats in real-time can give you instant feedback on your social media campaigns Use stats to identify popular content, content holes and landing page effectiveness then make changes on the fly Knowem.com helps companies stake their claim online Allows you to search your name or brand name across a list of social media sites Shows you where your profile name is available and where it is already in use Students and recent college graduates are the fastest-growing demographic on LinkedIn. – LinkedIn.com

17. Tools, Tips and Tricks - Tips Facebook has rolled out a number of changes lately. EdgeRank and Timeline are changing how businesses use the site. Are you up to speed? Get to Know EdgeRank Get to Know Timeline EdgeRank is the secret formula behind being seen on Facebook. Think of it as Facebook’s version of the mysterious Google Algorithm. It determines what you see on your Facebook wall. EdgeRank is based on three key factors: Affinity – the strength of the relationship between the user and the page or person sharing the content. Weight – the type of content being shared. Facebook values certain types of content more than others. It appears images and video are valued higher than other forms of content. Time – how recent the content was shared. Timeline is more than a change in the look of your page. This new layout completely changes how a company uses Facebook and it promotes the idea of telling your brand story. Here are a few key changes: No branding or calls to action are permitted on the cover image. “Milestones” can be added to highlight important moments in company history. Engagement and quality content are even more important now. The default landing tab feature is gone and the ability to “fan gate” has been limited. The first video posted on YouTube was 19 seconds long and was called “Me at the zoo” – Mashable.com

18. Tools, Tips and Tricks - Tricks Geo-target Facebook Posts Leverage Partners Identify Influencers Target by location or language Get active on other profiles Others can help with the heavy lifting Facebook allows you to target your posts by geographic location and language. This is a useful tool for pages with a wide reaching audience. Targeting posts is an excellent way to increase your post count without overwhelming your followers. Don’t go at social media alone. Leverage the profiles of your “real life” allies. Develop contests and promotions that incorporate multiple profiles and websites. Be an active member of other groups, forums, pages and websites. Watch for individuals that engage with you on a regular basis. Nurture these online relationships and consider extending them offline. Offer your key followers promotions, opportunities and products. Make them feel like they’re part of the business. Students and recent college graduates are the fastest-growing demographic on LinkedIn. – LinkedIn.com

19. The SBX Media Team Trevor discovered the wonderful world of e-marketing while working as Owner of Panther Management Group and as Marketing Manager for Hostelling International Northern Alberta. In 2007, he also joined Travel Alberta Regional, where his leadership and skills helped mold the Travel Alberta e-Marketing team into one of the finest in all the land. The idea of working in e-marketing and social media wasn’t on Brian’s radar back in 2004. Fresh out of university, he created SirShanksAlot.com as a way to better serve those customers he met during his day job at a local golf shop. Brian was able to parlay the knowledge and skills gained from building the site into an e-Marketing Specialist position with Travel Alberta Regional in 2008.  Need some e-marketing help and a golf lesson at the same time? Duncan is your man. This former golf professional got his online feet wet when he created TheGolfDrillGuru.com… a golf instruction website. Thanks to a lot of hard work and determination, Duncan’s site quickly gained a loyal following as it shot up the search engine rankings. Having been raised in an entrepreneurial household, Bryan has no fear of diving into new things. He is also a principal and director for  totalBarça, a global volunteer-based organization focusing on news and fan community around the Spanish soccer (ahem, football) club, FC Barcelona. Trevor Tessier Brian Siddle Duncan McGillivray Bryan Leung @TrevTessier @bsiddle @DuncanSBX @Bryanytl www.sbxmarketing.com