YOUR COMPANY
ABC Company: A Social Media Strategy
2010
YOUR COMPANY, ADDRESS, PHONE, EMAIL, WEBSITE
Table of Contents Phase I Page
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Connecting Twitter and LinkedIn
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Measuring Success
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Phase II
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Blog
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Other Platforms to Broaden Your Social Networking Experience
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Phase I Overview: This strategy overview details the concrete steps needed for ABC Company to carry out Phase I of their initiated social media plan. Based on best practices in social networking, the strategy is designed to: Push ABC Company to the forefront of its industry in an engaging way Brand ABC Company as a “thought leader” in communications, printing and cross channel marketing Expand its reputation as a resource to customers and prospects Drive sales by creating new business opportunities The focus of this Phase I social media plan outlines the initial creation, implementation and ongoing utilization of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter followed by a brief summary of a potential Phase II strategy.
Facebook Setting the Stage – Converting Visitors into Followers Visitors who first access ABC Company’s page will be welcomed to a creatively designed landing page that reinforces the brand with several of the following messages and/or call to actions: ABC Company’s mission and responsibility to their clients What followers will learn, see and interact with on your Page What makes ABC Company unique? Topics that may be shared on the wall A “call to action” to “Like” the Page Sign up form for email blasts and/or newsletters (allowing you to capture prospect information) Link to ABC Company’s website Attracting Followers We will begin with your own group – Management, Sales Reps, Employees, Vendors, YOUR DATA BASE. o Notify all employees via an internal announcement, that ABC Company has launched a campaign to enhance its social media presence. Invite your employees to “Like” the ABC Company Page and encourage them to promote the page to their own Friends. How about a competition to drive interest from your staff? Consider offering a special summer-time treat that awards employees who help you to build-up your following by a specific date. o Consider sending out two external announcements: 1. Vendor Reps - Your vendors are your partners for success. Let them know about your social networking presence and ask for their support. You might thank them for the great services that they provide and tell them that in appreciation, 3
you’ll be mentioning them from time to time on the Page (see Wall posts for). It’s a win-win situation for you and your partners.
2. Data Base – Send out an announcement to your entire database that shares details about your Facebook presence and encourages people to “Like” the newly enhanced ABC Company Page. Let them know your plans for interacting in this social community and how they will benefit from being a follower. Give-a-ways always help the bottom line. Just like with your employees, you might include a special offer to all visitors who “Like” the Page. Givea-ways could be in the form of an educational tool, a link to a fun video, an animated “Thank You for Joining Us” e-card or a coupon. This type of action could be embedded into the landing page and accessed by the visitor after clicking the Like button.
ABC Company prides itself on its commitment to community. Why not stimulate your efforts to build your following and offer a 1/1 match. Promote a campaign where ABC Company will donate $1, to a selected non-profit, for every new follower that joins the Page by a certain date. People love raising dollars for charity – and this will certainly give ABC Company a thumbs up. This action could be promoted in all three of your announcements and on your website. You might also ask the charity of your choice to reciprocate by encouraging their followers to “Like” ABC Company’s Page. The more people they get to sign up, the more that’s in it for them. Integrating Facebook into the ABC Company website will be another way to drive traffic to the Page. A simple “Follow us on Facebook” with a direct Page link or a Facebook application that allows visitors to see who is already following your Page, along with recent posts, can help convert your website visitors into Facebook followers. Collateral Materials – Be sure that all collateral material printed for your sales and support teams promote your social networking efforts. You might consider offering a code on some materials where, individuals who first “Like” your page and then present the code in a post get a special coupon for your services. This will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your materials in driving individuals to the Page and also identify who is actually responding to your “call to action.” The Wall
In establishing your Facebook presence and building a monthly messaging campaign, the following topics/ideas could be considered: Goings on, news and updates in the social media world o Not just the news, but how that information impacts your followers/customers ABC Company success stories o How you’ve solved a problem for a client – name the client o How an employee helped out a client o Shout out and thank you to vendors who’ve been helpful to you Info on upcoming educational workshops and seminars Speak about how ABC Company “Gives Back” – community involvement 4
o Post photos and videos of special events you’ve participated in or sponsored o Share personal stories from employees and customers that speak about how they’re involved in giving back o Post upcoming events that you’re sponsoring for followers to support Green Thinking o Share specific ways that ABC Company participates in the Green Movement o Profile your Green Movement partners (as featured on your website) o Post ongoing tips and videos for others to learn what they too can do to preserve our natural resources Posting links to industry-related articles, white papers, e-books, blogs, video interviews, photos and other websites that followers can download Provide followers w/content they can only get on Facebook; give them advance warning that something valuable is coming that will only be shared via this platform o A major announcement from ABC Company o A coupon or gift o An invite to a special workshop or webinar for Facebook members only Pose open-ended questions to provoke thought and responses (this can also be combined with most of the other suggested topics) Put your employees front and center and thank them for their great work Tag ALL followers who are mentioned so that postings with their names also show up on their Wall and News Feeds Post weekly shout-outs to individual Followers; thank them for following; mention their involvement with ABC Company Create surveys and polls to help stimulate discussion and collect valuable data for your company; Reward followers who participate Groups and Events are proven elements that generate interaction between members. Encourage your members to create and/or join Groups of people with similar interests; often a popular community group will buzz with activity as members share information and images including details about your own company Ask Our Experts – Put this on Facebook and get a Q&A session going. If you’re posting on your Blog, make sure it is mentioned on your Facebook wall with a link to the post (which is a great inbound link to your website) Make a Facebook widget available for ABC Company followers to post on their own profile, website or blog Providing followers with multiple paths of interaction will keep meaningful dialogue in the forefront and advance your goals to attract new followers and convert them into prospects. Building the Momentum – The Messaging Campaign To maximize the value of your Facebook Page, My Company, with input from ABC Company, will construct a schedule of daily posts that touches on each of the various noted topics. Some posts will be scheduled based on information gathered through various resources and other posts will be dependent upon what is currently relevant to ABC Company. Once we identify the items that will add value to your page, we can determine the messages to schedule and when to schedule them. 5
It will also be necessary to establish a collection of approved remarks that My Company can make on ABC Company‘s in order to respond to postings from Followers in a timely manner or while awaiting for approved feedback.
LinkedIn In working with ABC Company, My Company will build out a dynamic LinkedIn Profile for the company Senior Executive, that presents him/her as an authority in his/her field and an industry thought leader. The Senior Executive should develop a messaging campaign that takes note of his/her daily professional activities, ideas and expertise, and incorporates links to excellent sources of information. My Company is happy to work with the Senior Executive to help him/her develop a personalized campaign. Posts may include or be about: Projects for ABC Company clients Presentations and workshops for clients or prospects How ABC Company is working to sustain natural resources Community service opportunities that you are engaging in Something you’ve learned related to your industry A link to an article, white paper, e-book or video Slide Share presentations and blog posts that are informative and educational At the same time, we will coordinate a weekly message from ABC Company, to be posted by all sales staff on LinkedIn, which will reach out to all of their Networks. Each ABC Company LinkedIn user should consider the following: Join an established Group - Use the group to demonstrate thought leadership in your market. Answer Questions - Ask and respond to relevant questions in the LinkedIn "Answers" section. Anytime you ask or answer a question it shows up in the Network Updates feed (Home Page) for all your connections. Best of all, you gain expertise points in your category if your answer is chosen as the best answer for a particular question. LinkedIn users tend to trust experts in their subject categories and are often contacted directly. When answering a question, you might also leave links to relevant articles, landing pages, or blog posts. Add LinkedIn applications to your profile – e.g. SlideShare Presentations, Polls, Company Buzz, Google Presentations
Twitter To maximize the value of Twitter as a social media tool for communication, it is important to create a comprehensive plan that presents timeless quality content in a format that will effectively engage individuals and grow your network of followers. My Company proposes the following actions in crafting a Twitter plan for ABC Company. Draft a Tweet Plan Schedule a series of weekly tweets to be used in conjunction with real-time tweeting. Tweets will be carefully crafted to target your preferred audiences, and in doing so will: Brand your Twitter presence – your audience immediately knows what to expect from you 6
Provide consistency – you continue to share valuable information Save time – tweets can be written and scheduled several weeks ahead of time Choosing A Preferred Audience In crafting a Tweet Plan, it will be important to determine who you want to connect with on Twitter so that you can formulate a “preferred” Twitter audience. The audience you choose will be the impetus for the content you publish and the individuals you select to follow. For best results, it is advised that ABC Company begin by focusing on two to three segments of your audience and work to engage those groups before reaching out to other targeted populations. How Many Tweets Per Day It will be important to determine the number of tweets per day that ABC Company should post to engage followers. Three to five “scheduled” tweets, spread out through the day, is the average recommended number. However, it will also be important to incorporate some “real time” tweets such as Re-tweets, and responses to feedback in order to keep the conversation flowing. Finding the Keywords to Use Keywords will be incorporated in Tweets to send a consistent signal that tells others who ABC Company is, how you want to connect with them and what you want to talk about. It will be important to find keywords that will connect most with your preferred audience. We will want to use the keywords they use. Formats for Scheduled Tweets A series of formats will be established for ABC Company to ad variety to tweets and keep the conversation from getting boring. This will also allow you to write many timeless tweets on the same keywords and present them in various ways. Writing Tweets It will be important to provide your preferred audience with the information they are most interested in. Each tweet must be unique content as Twitter does not allow duplicate tweets. In writing tweets, for ABC Company, My Company will: Keep your preferred audience in mind Use your keywords Use one format to write your tweet By integrating key words and hashtags (#) in your 140 character posts, ABC Company can virally spread its messages to targeted audiences with content that includes: News and information about your industry Tips and how to’s for printing, communications, working “Green” Links to articles, e-books, photos and videos Impact of national, world or local news on the company and your clients Updates on community involvement (philanthropic efforts); Special events Special promos for Twitter followers only that contain Twitter only codes or coupons 7
Choosing Times and Scheduling Tweets It is not best practice to publish all scheduled tweets at once as you would only reach the audience online at that time. We will want to spread your scheduled tweets throughout the day in addition to publishing tweets in real time. My Company will use online tools that allow us to schedule tweets and, at the same time, monitor any feedback.
Connecting Twitter and LinkedIn Once established, we will be able to join your Twitter account to LinkedIn so that you can paint a broader picture of your professional interests and ideas by making your Twitter ID appear right on your LinkedIn profile. You can choose which LinkedIn status updates you share with Twitter, as well as which tweets are displayed as your LinkedIn status. You can even connect more than one Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile. This gives you complete control over which networks see your updates and what they see, automatically or manually.
Measuring Success Measuring the success of a social media plan depends mostly on the goals you set forth. In quantifying the value of ABC Company’s campaign, the following can be considered after a three month period of time: Increase in rankings on social networking sites based on traffic and links New followers after 30/60/90 days Number of social media users actually engaging with your content and/or converting into prospects Increased sales and leads Customer engagement and retention
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Phase II Now that ABC Company has an established active presence in the social media world, it will be important to take it up a notch in order to increase the momentum. Individuals have become more and more “media savvy;” and they are taking advantage of every new opportunity that comes along to communicate and share information. To keep up with the ever-changing environment of communication platforms and tools, My Company suggests that ABC Company consider implementation of a Phase II plan, to take place approximately three to four months after launching Phase I. The second stage of ABC Company’s social media campaign could include:
Blog ABC Company needs to establish a blog that is linked to your website. As opposed to a website, where content is stagnant, blogs regularly provide new and fresh content for search engines and web crawlers to find in searches. Blogs also allow you to: Publish regular updates (and link them to your other social networking platforms) Provide quality content Build and engage with your audience Attract individuals to your website through active inbound links Facebook To keep the party going you want to build an active and engaging presence that attracts a community of followers who return to your Page. To do this you might consider: Adding additional tabs that provide specific information about ABC Company or target specific audiences Incorporating Facebook applications that provide greater engagement such as: contests, polls, fundraising tools or live chat-room applications (yes, you can even schedule a life chat right on your page) Using Facebook Ads to reach a more targeted audience LinkedIn Create a Group that meets the needs of your followers and/or focuses on the message you want to provide. You can then promote it and grow your own network following. Twitter Employ Co-Tweets: This application allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts and stay in sync while doing so. With CoTweet, you can: o Engage people throughout your company — Share the job of being on duty. Tap the collective wisdom of people across functional areas like marketing, PR and customer service. Assign tasks and track follow-ups. o Focus on the conversations that matter — Know when you need to jump in. Track your exchanges through simple case management. Schedule updates to make company announcements. 9
o Keep your brand human — automatically include signatures in your updates to identify who's talking and keep conversations personal. Other Platforms to Broaden Your Social Networking Experience YouTube – Post and link videos related to your industry, interests and events Flickr – Photos could include: The great print work you’re doing for customers and post them for prospects to see. Consider categorizing your photos to relate to your various segments Photos of ABC Company staff participating in events and supporting causes The “inside workings” of ABC Company Photos of happy customers Mobile Applications – To engage the consumer who is always on the go, there are a variety of applications now available that customers and prospects can easily access at the touch of a button. ABC Company might consider developing App’s that: Offers quick tips on printing and commutation Makes recommendations or “how to’s” How about an App for the “Branded Storefront” – give your customers quick and easy access to their jobs
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