There’s no better time to immerse yourself in social media than right now. Even if you think “the facebook” is a frivolous waste of time, you don’t have the slightest clue what “a twitter” is, and you don’t know what it means to “link-in”… Fear not! Once your business takes the plunge into social media you will be amazed at the ideas, insights, and new connections you will gain. By merely engaging in the three basic social media levers covered in this magazine you will see results with little monetary investment. Beyond covering Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn this magazine is full of tips and ideas for your best social media marketing plan. However, social media does take time, so take the time to do it right. Get started today, this magazine will lead the way.
“Social media is engaging with the masses. It's about creating excitement and buzz around your product. It's about acknowledging and listening to your awesome fans. It's about being active, involved, personable, and connected... And it's fun! Social media is also incredibly valuable. It can expose your brand to new audiences, funnel online discussions into a medium you can control, and get results faster and in a more measurable way than with traditional media.� -Katy Lynch, Social Katy LLC Chicago-based Social Media Strategist
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So long to the days of big ad marketing campaigns. Now, instead of marketing to your customers, businesses and consumers will interact with one another. Social media is transforming marketing from a message into a conversation. Be sure to send your message, but also take time to listen to consumers’ responses.
Regardless if your company has individual employees fulfilling each of these functions or you single-handedly maintain them yourself—this building is a essentially map describing how each function should think within the social media world. After you learn the basics don’t be afraid to try out the less familiar venues. Graphic from www.oneupweb.com
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How Marketers Utilized Social Media in 2010 “Social media is hot. And for businesses it represents a marketing opportunity that transcends the traditional middleman and connects companies directly with customers. This is why nearly every business on the planet – from giants like Starbucks and IBM– to the local ice cream shop are exploring social media marketing initiatives.” -Michael A. Stelzner Founder, SocialMediaExaminer.com
It’s not too late to
you can do it yourself!
Take the time to make an impact returns can be huge!
Source: SocialMediaExaminer.com via
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WHERE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS? Social Media is like any other marketing plan—defining your target market and how to reach them is key. These demographics will help you define which social media venues will be most valuable to your business. From there defining your business’s social media plan of attack will be much easier. In this magazine we will cover the sites that are most popular overall. But don’t let that deter you from diving into the others! 17
The Hard Facts Social Media Type: The Social Network
Active Users: 500 million worldwide
Launched: 2004
Viral Value: Facebook is
the #1 place people spend time on the web
The shear number of people and the frequency with which they are on Facebook is astounding.
How will your business connect?
A Fan page builds your reputation and expands your network within minutes. By having lots of fans visiting your page, you are able to make money by putting more advertisements and promotions on your page. So, start designing one today!
Why Users Engage with Companies on Facebook 40% to receive discounts and promotions 39% to show my support for the company to others 36% to get a “freebie� 34% to stay informed about the activities of the company 33% to get updates on future products 30% to get updates on upcoming sales 29% for fun or entertainment 25% to get access to exclusive content 22% someone recommended it to me 21% to learn more about the company 13% for education about company topics
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Facebook Insights User Insights Total page likes, or a number of fans, daily active users, new likes/unlikes, like sources, demographics, page views and unique page views, tab views, external referrers, media consumption
Interactions Insights
information is meaningful and will help you make decisions about your engagement and content strategy. You will want to document monthly growth and activity, and identify spikes in user activity and what may have caused them. Here are a few simple metrics:
Daily story feedback (post likes, post comments, per post impressions), daily page activity (mentions, discussions, reviews, wall posts, video posts)
Monthly fan size growth: Record the number of fans (or “likers�) you have on the first of every month to see what your growth looks like.
What will you Measure?
The average number of likes/comments: This is your best measure of fan engagement. Increase the number of posts around the topic your fans are more engaged with and decrease the number of posts around topics they are not interested in.
There is a lot of data offered, but you want to sort through it and identify what
Unlikes and attrition rate: Loss of fans is inevitable, watch for spikes in the unlike numbers. You want to try and correlate these spikes with the activity on your page and understand why people are leaving your page.
Tab views: This metric will tell you which tab gets what percentage of traffic. This will help you prioritize content on your page. Referrers: This metric specifies where the traffic to your page comes from. You want to increase exposure to your page on the sites that bring you the most traffic. Demographics: No matter what your objectives are, you can always find the demographics data useful: the gender of your fans, their ages, and where they are from. Page views: This will help you identify the number of returned fans. If you take the number of page views and subtract the number of unique page views, you will have a measure of your returning fan base. Mentions: This is the number of times someone tagged you in their post. This metric is important because it is the easiest way for your fans’ friends to click through to your page. Every time someone tags you, the name of your page appears as a link. Users are more likely to click on that link than to search for your page manually. Increasing mentions should be a main goal for your page.
Don’t Forget Your Facebook Page Facebook fans expect consistent activity on your page. If you neglect your page, it will die. Furthermore, monitoring the metrics specified here will help you understanding how to get the most out of your page. This can seem like a lot of work, but if you keep up with these metrics, or even a few you find particularly important, you will be able to adjust your strategy to maintain traffic growth. Having a successful Facebook page is your window to overall social media success. By measuring your metrics and remaining engaged with your fans you will manage the greatest impact on your business’s bottom line overall. Adapted from “A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Insights,” Mashable/Business, September 2010.
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The Hard Facts Social Media Type: Micro-Blogging Active Users: 190 million accounts Launched: 2006 Viral Potential: Real-time information sharing with people interested in your products and services. Gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and influential people *taken from Twitter.com “About: Twitter for Businesses”
How to Tweet Think about Twitter as a place to build relationships Use a casual, friendly tone in your messages. Don’t feel compelled to follow everyone who follows you, but do respond promptly to concerns, offer customer service, and thank people for praise. Filter for tweets that mention your company, brand, service and/or products. Check out third party applications like
TweetDeck or HootSuite to get started.
Retweet cool stuff—this will show others you are reading their tweets and people will appreciate amplification of their ideas.
Post links to articles, sites, and photos you think folks would find interesting—even if they’re not your sites or about your company. Make sure your tweets provide some real value. Here are a few examples:
Offer Twitter exclusive coupons or deals
Facilitate an engaging contest
Take people behind the scenes of your company—Post pictures from your offices, stores, warehouses, etc.
Share sneak peeks of projects or events in development
Use personality to let followers know there is a human behind the tweets
25 Adapted from Twitter 101 for Business, “Best Practices” twitter.com
Only 12% of marketer tweets represent active dialogue with consumers. Meaning most companies are not harnessing Twitter’s full potential.
Statistics from 360i Digital Marketing Agency, July 2010.
-Customize! Use a personalized background, add a bio and a profile photo, provide your main website link -
Katy Lynch, socialkaty.com
Keep in mind Twitter is a consumer dominated medium
More than 90% of tweets are from consumers Never force topics, go with the flow and engage with your followers about what they are interested in.
-Post Twitter updates daily: Links, jokes, insights, photos, or even opinions on current happenings—it shouldn’t always be about you! -No spam! Every tweet should be unique. -Integrate your social networks: Use Twitter to direct followers to your other social media levers -Remember to keep it fun!
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Online social media destinations arranged by popularity!
The Game Plan Social media is about returns over time. You must engage with consumers consistently to keep current customers involved and also attract new fans and followers. Be sure to switch up how you are approaching fans. Promotional offers, product updates, announcements concerning future plans, photos, and videos are all great ways to keep your fans interested. Switch up the content and utilize your different social media levers to maximize your influence and prevalence in the social media realm.
followers can connect with, comment on, and share with friends. Furthermore, be sure to react to the moves of your fan base. The game is about both acting boldly and reacting confidently. With social media there are very few rules, dead ends, or standards about how Interactions begin, sustain, or end. Just keep playing the game and you will continue to see returns.
Remember to Play Nice Like in a board game, each move will be counteracted by the opposing player. Be sure to plan your moves both in reaction to others and as bold new strides on your own terms. Put new material into the socialsphere, make sure they are topics fans and
This graphic illustrates the interactions between businesses and consumers through social media. If engagement falters on one side, so will the overall flow of content and brand development.
The Hard facts Social Media Type: Social Network for Professionals
Active Users: 85 million worldwide
Launched: 2003
Viral Potential: Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn is strictly for networking. Most useful in B2B interactions: increase your company’s exposure, broaden and maintain your personal network.
Why you need to be part of the LinkedIn network Calling into a company? -you can find an individual and brush up on their history, you might have something in common Selling a product? -search for new contacts in your target market -find buyers/customers Looking for an employee? -find recommendations -browse candidates that aren’t actively seeking work at the time
How to Join In
Make if Valuable
Keep it Professional
Exchange Information
-Make a profile that resembles your resume
-Be an expert -Find an expert when you need one
Catch Everyone’s Attention -Update your status at least once a week
Make Connecting Easy -Post your contact information
LinkedIn Groups -Engage with new people -Demonstrate expertise -Find new clients
Create Discussion -Post questions, answer existing posts
Take Connections Offline -Find an introduction, make an offer to connect and foster real, offline relationships
LinkedIn provides connections never before available, so take advantage of the network at your fingertips!
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Photo sharing
Video sharing
Write a blog to keep customers up to date on your business. It is a way for your customers to connect personally with the business, and opens a venue for their comment as well
Viral potential: placing the delicious icon on your site will allow users to share the site’s bookmark with friends
Use Yelp to read reviews from your real customers— use the complements and criticism to evaluate and adjust your business practices Allow users to add your site to their RSS feed—the feed will automatically post updates from your site to users’ personal news feeds Add personality to your site by linking company video and photo links. Add media from company events, about new products and services, commentary from employees, the possibilities are endless!
Keep up with today’s hot topics according to the public, not the media
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What is it?
Why is it Important?
Crowdsourcing is harnessing the power found in a community to solve problems or facilitate processes that normally require great specialization. Jeff Howe who coined the term “outsourcing describes the on steroids” phenomenon as “outsourcing on steroids.” The trend is possible because of the connections facilitated by social media and the internet. These mediums provide a space to form communities around problems and processes. A better solution that possible with a select team is usually discovered within the masses.
As specified by Howe, “the crowd will almost always outperform any number of employees.” It is possible that crowdsourcing will change business and specifically the creative process, forever. It is important as a business owner you understand where it is being used and why it works. The driving force of crowdsourcing lies in the merit of participation for the big-thinkers and has changed the game for them and businesses alike. Designers and bigthinkers are given the opportunity to participate in real life challenges and businesses are given a breadth of fresh ideas for their most pressing and most tedious developments.
CrowdSPRING is a crowdsourcing website for design. Projects include logo design, web design, product name, company name, and packaging design. As stated by crowdSPRING founders the site is “helping buyers reach countless creatives across the globe, we're changing “changing the game for the little guy.” In- the game for deed they the little guy” are, crowdsourcing provides small businesses the ability to hone talent for even projects of the smallest scale. Give it a whirl for your next creative
project, statistics show the results are overwhelmingly positive.
110 entries per project, on average 100% satisfaction guaranteed on every single project 96% of buyers would recommend crowdSPRING 78,039 designers and writers ready to create for your project
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Social Media Glossary
thecloud Cloud Computing #thecloud the growing phenomenon of users who can access their data from anywhere rather than being tied to a particular machine.
crowdsourcing Jeff Howe taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent and outsourcing it to an undefined @lotsofpeople in the form of an open call #jeff_howe
hashtag Twitter Tool @twitter community-driven convention for adding additional context & #metadata to tweets. add by prefixing a word with hash symbol
MetaData Web 2.0 Tool information about information — including titles, descriptions, #tags and captions — that describes a media item such as a video, photo or blog post
RSS Really Simple Syndication aggregated delivery of content — blog entries, news stories, headlines, images, video — into one feed, eliminates browsing from site to site
SEO Search Engine Optimization the process of arranging your website to give it the best chance of appearing near the top of search engine rankings
SocialBookmarking Organizational Tool @delicious a method by which users locate, store, organize, share and manage bookmarks of web pages without being tied to a particular machine: example of #thecloud
socialmedia Social Media media + social interaction, highly accessible & scalable publishing techniques web-based tech turns communication into interactive dialogue
Tags Web 2.0 Tool keywords added to a blog post, photo or video to help users find related topics or
media, when browsing on the site or using search engines relevant #metadata
TheFutureNow Web 2.0 2nd generation of the Web, enables people with no specialized tech knowledge to create their own websites, create/upload media & share info
UGC User Generated Content an industry term that refers to all forms of user-created materials—part of #thefuture— such as #blogposts, reviews, podcasts, videos, comments and more
Widget Mini Web-Application small block of content, typically displayed in a small box, w/a specific purpose, such as weather forecasts or news, that constantly updates itself
wiki Collaborative Creation collaborative website that can be directly edited by anyone with access to it— best example @Wikipedia , can be used for #crowdsourcing
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