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SOCIAL
MEDIA The ultimate guide to getting started with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more
148
SECOND edition
Digital Edition
sy Pages of eaelp to follow h & advice
Contents
Contents The big picture 10 Why social media matters
22 Social network automation tools
Thanks to social media, the way we do business has changed for ever
You’ll save a lot of hassle by automating some of your updates
16 Building an online community ‘Community’ is the latest buzzword but it’s more than just a flash in the pan
Facebook 30
Get started with Facebook
36
Facebook does a good job of giving you too many options. We explain the essentials
32
Share things in Facebook groups
40
By creating groups, you can control how you interact on Facebook
34
Set up a Facebook event Facebook makes it easy to organise the logistics of an event
48 The essentials of Twitter It’s the most direct social network, where you get messages across in 140 characters
50 Get the most out of Twitter Twitter is easy to set up and use, and fantastic for getting your message out there
54 Master Twitter marketing Using Twitter for marketing shouldn’t be all that different from chatting to your friends
6 | Social Media Made Simple
F ree marketing on Facebook Increase online sales, build brand awareness and promote your products
Effective Facebook ads Want to market your business on Facebook? You’ll want to consider Facebook Ads
44
F acebook ads: advanced tips Master these advanced techniques and you’ll be rubbing shoulders with the pros
58 Effective Twitter advertising Twitter has entered the self-serve ad world; should you be spending your budget here?
62 Twitter ads: advanced tips These techniques for experienced users will take your ad campaigns to the next level
64 Four invaluable Twitter tools Grow your following, manage your timeline and get to grips with scheduling
72 The essentials of Google+
Google+ is the next big thing in social networks but it’s taking a while to get there
74 Plus-sizing your business Google+ is rapidly developing, and it has a special focus on business customers
78 The essentials of Pinterest Get to grips with the online scrapbook and share your creativity worldwide
80 Free marketing on Pinterest There’s more to Pinterest than meets the eye – it’s a viable marketing platform
84 The essentials of Instagram Introducing Instagram, one of the biggest success stories of recent times
Contents
The rest
92 Master LinkedIn marketing LinkedIn is great for getting a career boost, but it’s also formidable for marketing
96 The essentials of Tumblr Use Tumblr and discover an engaged new world of microblogging
98 Making Tumblr click Tumblr is harder to crack than other social networks, so content is definitely king
102 Make online apps more powerful IFTTT speeds up the way you work with multiple web applications and services
104 Use Buffer to automate posts Buffer can automatically post to several social networks simultaneously
86 How to succeed on Instagram Here’s how to gain followers, express values and build your brand or business
90 The essentials of LinkedIn It’s the biggest online marketing portal in the world, and a perfect meeting ground
Pro tips 108 Social media analytics Discover whether social media is really working for you and your business
114 20 tips to get to know TweetDeck Get to grips with Twitter’s tool for power users and discover how columns are key
118 Get to the top of Google! SEO is crucial to getting your business website recognised in a crowded market
126 Keep people on your site How to keep visitors on your site longer once they’ve clicked from a search result
128 How to go viral We look at how you can create easily sharable content to promote your brand
132 Handling a social media crisis Learn to avoid and handle social media crises by looking at recent meltdowns
136 Marketing with a blog Running an active blog establishes that you want a deeper dialogue with customers
138 Market using infographics Putting across your point in illustrated form grabs attention and attracts visitors
140 Creating good social content Visual content is the most important type because social networks actively boost it
Social Media Made Simple | 7
The big picture | Automation tools
Social network automation tools If you’re running social media for a business, you’ll save a lot of hassle by automating some of your updates. Here are 12 great tools to help you
Hootsuite
COSchedule
Hootsuite isn’t cheap, but it’s one of the very best for running multiple social accounts across teams (you can add different user accounts). You can see what posts are scheduled, as well as add different groups of tabs and have different networks alongside each other. There is a free version, but it only offers up to three accounts.
If you’re running a blog, pages on social media and stacks of other posting methods, lining everything up at the right time can be a difficult task – particularly because studies show that staggered, well-scheduled posts make the biggest impact. CoSchedule’s calendar sorts the whole lot out for you.
From £16 per month ● https://hootsuite.com
22 | Social Media Made Simple
From $40 per month ● http://twitterfeed.com
TweetDeck
This web app concentrates on doing one job and doing it well: scheduling tweets for a later date. Sign in with your Twitter account and you can schedule up to 50 tweets; if you want more, you’ll need to sign up for the $5.99 monthly paid plan. It’s most useful for tweeting things such as birthdays or trailing upcoming events.
We’ve run a whole feature about TweetDeck tips on page 114. Why? Because it’s free and it’s produced by Twitter itself. It’s a pro-level tool that enables you to arrange tweets in columns; these could be formed from searches, groups of users, hashtags or a host of other criteria. Great for staying on top of things.
From free ● http://twuffer.com
Free ● www.tweetdeck.com
Social Media Made Simple | 23
The big picture | Automation tools
Twuffer
Facebook | Marketing
Free marketing on Facebook Do you want to increase online sales, build brand awareness and promote your products? Read on...
From leading brands that boost TV campaigns with Facebook engagement, to growing businesses that host creative online offers to keep fans excited, any business – big or small – can use Facebook as a marketing tool. Social media platforms such as Facebook bridge the gap between businesses and
How to get more Facebook Likes
Engaging fans to spread the word through shareable content will put you on the fast track to acquiring new Likes. The most noticeable change in Likes will come from content you create, so share eye-catching images, be relevant, be authentic and update your page frequently. Keep your page worth a visit by starting conversations and adding exclusive Facebook content to your audience’s news feeds, such as competitions and offers. Use Facebook Insights to understand your audience’s reactions to individual posts and do more of what works best.
36 | Social Media Made Simple
consumers, improving communication between them and leaving brands with a better understanding of their audience. Whether you’re a freelance illustrator, successful independent restaurant or a globallyrecognised brand, Facebook should be at the top of your marketing strategy.
Facebook Groups and Pages Facebook groups and pages each have their own strengths. Groups are ideal for intimate communication in communities – to discuss a topic, and to share ideas and opinions – while pages are designed to help businesses, organisations and professionals create an authentic presence online to represent their values. Therefore, creating a Facebook page for your brand or business is the first step towards getting yourself noticed on the social network.
Key steps to promoting yourself, your business or a brand on Facebook Suggesting your page to friends, putting up signs in your bricks-and-mortar store, adding a Like button to your website, and including links to your page wherever possible will all contribute to page growth. However, the most noticeable change in Likes will be as a result of the content you post on your page. Let’s look at ways to optimise your Facebook marketing effort by identifying your audience, creating compelling content, and analysing your strategy.
01 Identifying your audience
Having a clear understanding of your audience will help you tailor your Facebook posts to suit its interests. Most brands have customer profiles outlined through authorised data collection, but as a growing business or
How to identify your audience: ●● Create a description of your ideal customer. Decide on age, gender, personality, occupation, hobbies, spending habits, likes and dislikes. ●● Locate your online audience. Which websites interest them? What are they reading? What are they likely to search for online? ●● Determine their end goals. What is it about your product or service that they like? ●● Write a more detailed outline of each identifiable customer. Give them each a name and backstory. Write a short day-in-the-life-of paragraph about each one that you can refer to. These are just a few questions to get you started. There are hundreds of customer profiling templates online that can help you build a more comprehensive portrait. Piecing together a clear picture of who you’re ‘talking’ to online will help determine the tone for each post and what customers are likely to respond to.
02 Create your FACEBOOK content strategy
A Facebook content strategy is a daily outline of page updates scheduled for the week or month ahead which include things you want to promote or share. For example, you know
next week you’ll publish a blog post about an offer available on your website’s shop, which will start on Saturday and end on the following Monday. For your Facebook strategy you could schedule the following: an announcement of the upcoming offer the Thursday before, share a link to the blog post on Saturday, and post a product image on Sunday evening as a reminder to those who haven’t already taken advantage. Map out your Facebook strategy by determining your weekly or monthly goals and devising daily content around it. Remember to look at your customer profile to find ways of working in content that would interest them. Your goals may be to drive traffic to your online store, to increase your reach and Page Likes, or to build brand awareness. They may be all of these things, so a strategy is central to creating posts that get attention and get results.
Best post ever According to Facebook, rich photography and captivating videos, asking questions, and Facebook Offers (a paid-for service) – or offers of your own – receive the best response out of everything. If you think about your personal use of Facebook, are these the same things that catch your eye? Arizona-based State Bicycle Company is featured on Facebook’s Success Stories page. Each week it shares a stunning image of a bike with an inspiring quote dropped over the top. This generates a
Facebook | Marketing
freelancer, taking time to identify your ideal customer will help you to find more of them.
State Bicycle Company creates content that inspires and motivates while building awareness of its limited edition bikes.
lot of shares and plenty more comments and likes. The company calls it Motivational Monday. Not only is it the perfect day for inspirational posts that banish Monday blues, the content is visually striking. Most importantly, it’s shareable, which extends the reach of the page and potentially leads to new fans.
03 Analyse your progress with Facebook Insights With your page in place and content being published regularly, you can measure your success using Facebook Insights. Facebook’s easy-touse analytics service helps you evaluate different aspects of your page. Tools such as Engagement, Page Likes and Post Reach help with tracking your best-performing content by discovering who’s engaging with you, and at what time. Use these tools to find out what’s working well, write your own best practice, then replicate it. These steps are simple, but it takes an active page to make discoveries that lead to growth.
Social Media Made Simple | 37
Twitter | Ads
Effective Twitter advertising Twitter has followed Facebook into the self-serve advertising world, so should you be spending your marketing budget here?
With 330 million monthly users, Twitter is less than a quarter of the size of Facebook. But despite the difference in scale, its advertising options remain attractive - to the point that numerous businesses have even met the reported $200,000-per-day fee to have their hashtag added to the global trending topics section. The Twitter audience is attractive due to the huge amount the company knows about its users – what they like, and the things they talk about - which allows adverts to be precisely targeted at the right people. So, is Twitter Advertising a good fit for your business? It’s certainly a powerful way to identify and communicate with relevant audiences, and the right campaign can be highly effective. Here we’ll explain how the platform works, how to set up a campaign, and examine reporting and payment. We’ll look at best practice and tips to ensure you get maximum
58 | Social Media Made Simple
value from your budget. Twitter’s analytics dashboard was until recently only available to advertisers, although it’s now available to all users.
Twitter Analytics Login at https://analytics. twitter.com to see all sorts of useful information about your account. It breaks down how each tweet has performed, not just in terms of replies, retweets and favourites, but
how many people your tweet reached (impressions) also the number of clicks on tweeted URLs. All of this information can be downloaded to a spreadsheet for easy analysis. It also tracks your rate of follower growth, illustrating on a day by day basis when you’ve gained (or lost) the most followers. Also provided is useful information about your followers, including top shared interests, such as
Twitter’s analytics dashboard gives you all sorts of useful info, which will help you create really successful ads.
Twitter Ad formats There are a variety of different ad types, and which one you choose will simply depend on your objective. ●● Followers - To grow your Twitter following, choose this option. The audience you specify at the targeting stage will see your account in two places: the ‘Who to follow’ section on the left-hand side
charged when someone retweets, favourites, replies to or clicks on your tweet. ●● App Installs/App Engagement and Leads on Twitter - These campaigns make use of Twitter’s Card functionality, which allows them to download your app from the App Store or Google Play, or securely share their email address with you. With an App Install or App Engagement campaign, you pay when someone clicks to install or open your app. With a Lead campaign, you pay for each email address you receive.
Targeting your advert Targeting is possibly the most important part of your Twitter ad. It’s the difference between an effective campaign and a waste of money. There are four different ways to do it.
i
Tips and tricks
You don’t have to use an image in your tweet, but it can be a really good way to stand out in a busy timeline. Use something vibrant or recognisable. Characterful will always beat corporate here. Upload your image at 880x440 pixels, which avoids letterboxing, and display at the optimum size across all devices. When it comes to the copy for your ad, it’s important to make every one of the 280 characters count. Calls to action, such as ‘click here’, and questions can be effective ways to encourage engagement. If you want Twitter users to take a specific action, make sure your tweet spells that out in a pithy and compelling fashion. As a rule of thumb, look out for an engagement rate of at least 1–3% for Promoted Tweet campaigns, and 0.1–0.3% for Promoted Accounts. If any of your ads aren’t hitting that benchmark after a few days, tweak or replace them.
●● K eyword-based. This means
of desktop Twitter, and within
targeting people who tweet,
the timeline on both desktop
search for or engage with the
and mobile. In the latter
words or phrases you specify.
the accounts you specify. This
position, you can create a
This can be broad, including
could be your competitors, or
tweet to appear alongside the
synonyms, for example,
other relevant accounts in
‘Follow’ prompt, such as,
such as people who tweet
your industry. Interest and
“Follow us now for special
about lattes when you’ve
follower targeting can be used
offers and the latest news!”
targeted coffee. It can also
within the same campaign, or
A Follower campaign works on
be exactly matched, and it
they can be used on their own.
a cost-per-follow basis. You
can be made to exclude other
pay when someone follows
words or phrases you specify.
option capitalising on
you, but otherwise not at all.
Other options include
Twitter’s popularity as a
filtering tweets with
second screen for people
Select this if you want to drive
negative sentiment out of
watching television. Enter the
traffic to your website. Or even
your targeting, and having
name of programmes showing
get people to take a specific
your campaign automatically
on UK or US TV – the only
action on your website, if you
matched to relevant
countries in which this is
trending searches.
available at the time of writing
●● Site Clicks or Conversions
have Twitter conversion tracking set up. You’ll only
●● Interests and followers. The
●● Television. A relatively new
– to target the conversations
pay when someone clicks,
former allows you to target
about those shows that are
or converts.
audiences based on their
taking place on Twitter.
●● Tweet Engagement - To get
interests; for example, cycling
●● Tailored audiences. We’ll talk
more people engaging with a
and beauty. The latter, which
more about this option when
particular tweet choose this
is perhaps more useful, is for
we discuss advanced
type of campaign. You’ll be
directly targeting followers of
techniques, on page 62.
Social Media Made Simple | 59
Twitter | Ads
technology or comedy, a breakdown of their location and gender, and a list of their most-followed accounts. All of this, of course, may come in handy when creating your ads. To get started on that, sign in at http://ads. twitter.com (your analytics are also available) with your usual details, add your payment method and specify whether your promotions are exempt from tax.
The rest | Instagram success
Boden: British fashion brand Boden’s blend of bright, colourful fashion for all the family translates seamlessly to Instagram, with video, captions and colour
With over 150,000 followers, Boden’s Instagram feed is a cleverly distilled version of its overall marketing strategy. The fashion brand is known for its strong visuals and recognisable style, but Boden offers more on this channel. With a variety of clothing for babies, kids, men and women, Boden’s feed is diverse and appealing. It regularly posts three or four images in a day. Snippets such as new print designs, creatively-styled outfits, and puppies on photo shoots are drip-fed to followers. Celebrities with Boden’s products are featured, and regrams from prominent bloggers and Instagram users extend the brand further. Up-and-coming bands and classic tunes are featured in Boden’s 15-second videos, and flash sale codes entice customers to its retail site. Not a post goes by without a creative hashtag or two, ensuring Boden’s feed is found by those browsing by topic.
Followers who comment or ask questions get a quick response. Boden also shares followers’ pictures. This generosity engenders good feeling about the brand. Boden customers are extremely loyal, every picture posted on the Instagram feed is well-liked, and comments flow freely. The tone of Boden’s comments is friendly and fun, occasionally surprisingly so, but never off-brand. Above all, Boden makes followers feel rewarded for their attention. Behind-thescenes snaps give customers insight, and the added value makes them feel their custom is important to Boden. Being a family company, Boden has worked hard at remaining accessible and friendly, and its Instagram strategy is an extension of this attitude. Behind it is a huge marketing budget and a team to match, but you can apply the same know-how on a tighter budget and with a smaller team.
Boden Boden’s bright and colourful feed exudes fun and friendly fashion. http://instagram.com/boden_clothing
88 | Social Media Made Simple
Your account is up and running. What’s next? These quick tips will have you successfully snapping in no time
Post regularly
Don’t forget to check your hashtag
Instagram now has over 600 million active users each month, meaning feeds move fast. If you don’t want to become invisible, you need to keep images flowing. Maintain a high quality to your feed. Your followers are savvy – they probably follow your competitors, too – so make sure everything you post is top-notch. It’s easy for someone to hit ‘unfollow’, never to return again.
Before diving in with a clever hashtag, quickly check what comes up when you use Instagram’s search feature to look for it. Sending your hard-won customers on an unexpected or unwanted Instagram journey could put them off you for life. A bad message can spread as quickly as a good one on social media. Avoid a PR disaster. Do your research to ensure no one gets a nasty shock
Vary your content
Don’t go too far off-brand
Think of your Instagram feed as a well-balanced meal. You need a variety of ingredients to ensure your feed is just the right blend of product, people, places and that little something extra to give your company the edge over your competitors. Style over substance isn’t a bad thing in this case; it’s worth giving your vignettes a little of it.
Although it’s a good idea to think laterally about your content, make sure you’re loosely referring back to your brand or business most of the time. Keep your company values and ideals in mind. No one wants to see the marketing manager’s night out with old school friends, although a Christmas party with all of your staff isn’t out of the question, preferably early on in proceedings.
Use blue Research shows that images heavy on blue shades gain more likes than those predominantly red or orange. Textured images, those with plenty of background, and less saturated images are also winners. Make your pictures stand out by thinking about your composition. Unusual shapes and highly-contrasted pictures are eye-catching and attractive.
Don’t delegate without instruction If you have to hand over the Instagram reins to a colleague, make sure they’re fully briefed on your strategy. All your hard work could go down the pan without clear guidelines as to what is (and isn’t) expected. Keep an eye on how they’re managing your account, and delete anything that doesn’t fit with your brand. ●
Social Media Made Simple | 89
The rest | Instagram success
Six tips for Insta-success
Pro tips | Sticky content
Keep people on your site How do you keep visitors on your site longer once they’ve clicked through from a search result? Here’s the lowdown
We all want to get our site to the top of Google. But that’s only half the story – what happens when people click through to your site? Do they hang around and check out what you have to offer – or quickly move on to the next result? Obviously, we want the former to happen, so how can we make sure it does? When visitors find nothing of interest on your site at first glance and leave immediately, this is known as a bounce. A site with a high bounce rate from good quality traffic sources is an indicator that the website isn’t performing up to visitors’ expectations.
Sources of traffic Reducing your website’s bounce rate is a great first step in improving its overall performance and conversion rate. First you need to analyse the bounce rates of the different traffic sources. Focus your efforts on improving the
126 | Social Media Made Simple
bounce rates of the highest converting traffic sources, such as: ●● Search engine traffic; ●● Email marketing campaigns; ●● Affiliate campaigns.
Ignore the bounce rate from unqualified sources, such as: ●● Unknown referrer sites; ●● Social networking sites; ●● Random directory sites.
Landing page design How you design your landing pages can make a difference to your bounce rate. Take the example of Real Gap (www. realgap.com), which provides gap year and travelling ideas in over 35 countries for those youngsters wishing to take a year off before, during or after university. The website uses speciallydesigned landing pages for its pay-per-click (PPC) accounts. The PPC page has a strong call to action, whereas the SEO page just contains general gap year information. Not surprisingly, the bounce rate
Case study
Though the site has now closed, Jamster was a website aimed primarily at a young audience, and provided ringtones, dial tones, mobile games, screensavers and music for mobile phones. It tried three different landing page designs: an interactive page powered by Flash, a rock-themed page and a generic landing page. Using PPC as the only source of traffic, we were able to determine that Flash interactivity was the key to a very low bounce rate and high conversion rate. The Flash landing page used a great call to action and Flash interactivity. Providing a fun and exciting Flash widget alongside a strong call to action delivered a very high return on investment. The rock-themed page, not surprisingly, appealed to rock fans but was a static page without Flash interactivity. The generic page was designed with no specific genres of music and used light, friendly colours. The results (from PPC sources) indicate that neither of these were the right approach for Jamster consumers. The Flash page had a 17.4 per cent bounce rate, compared to a bounce rate of 22.1 per cent for the rock page and one of 49.8 per cent for the generic landing page.
●● Make sure your headline
towards your visitors. Don’t
will separate those visitors
write content that is vague
randomly for you to test the
or general. Your visitors are
performance of the pages in a
here to read about a specific
non-biased way. You can do
subject, so they won’t thank
this by using AdWords, email
you for wasting their time.
campaigns or even affiliates
●● Hierarchy – place the most
to send traffic from specific
important information at the beginning of paragraphs and bullet lists. ●● Keep it simple. Remove all extraneous matter from your landing page. Ask for only
refers directly to the place
enough information to
where your visitor came
complete the desired action.
from or the ad copy that drove the click. ●● It’s vital to provide a clear call to action. Here’s a good example: ‘Only £99 per night at the Hilton Hotel in Paris. Book now.’ Here’s a bad example: ‘Cheap hotels in Paris, the most romantic city in the world. Choose from 300 hotels in Paris, France.’ ●● You need to write clear, precise and targeted content that’s geared specifically
Testing How do you know what’s working and what isn’t in terms of keeping visitors on your site? Answer: you don’t. So assume nothing, and test everything. Thanks to Google’s Content Experiments (in Analytics), we can create, test and monitor the performance of landing pages. The purpose of testing your landing pages is to reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates. Setting up an A/B split test on Google Content Experiments is very easy and free. Here’s a basic overview of the steps involved:
Golden rules Finally, here are some golden rules to remember when you’re designing and testing landing pages: ●● No idea is a bad idea until you’ve seen it in action. If you get an idea for a landing page, try it! Try them all. ●● Make a different landing page for every keyword that gets at least 500 clicks per month. This ensures your highest converting keywords get all the attention they deserve. ●● Send at least 500 visitors from the same traffic source/ keyword to each landing page, to accurately gauge its performance. ●● Once you’ve tested several landing pages, try improving them by testing different versions of the best performing pages. ●● The best landing pages can then be tested to varying
●● Create a campaign to test
degrees using multivariate
landing pages against
testing. This is where you
each other.
test specific elements of the
●● Upload the URL of the original page that you’re testing. ●● Upload the URLs of the other landing pages you want to test against the original. ●● Copy the JavaScript codes provided by Google and paste Image ©MikeChipperfield/Magictorch
keywords through the funnel.
them into the relevant pages you’re trying to test. (This requires access to the HTML code of the pages.) ●● Send at least 500 visitors to the primary URL and Google
page rather than entirely new pages.
Creating landing pages that encourage visitors to stay longer can sometimes be time-consuming and expensive, but it’s absolutely essential for high converting, high performing websites. In the words of Samuel Beckett, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” ●
Social Media Made Simple | 127
Pro tips | Sticky content
for the PPC page is far lower than for the organic page: 18.24 per cent for the former compared with 25.44 per cent for the latter. It’s a clear demonstration of how the design of the page people land on influences the bounce rate. So what’s the secret to designing a page with a low bounce rate? Here are some helpful tips.
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