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Social Media Strategy in 8 Steps

When working in an industry like social media you can’t create strategies for the present. By the time you complete your marketing strategy, all the tools and networks you rely on will have changed. In order to be strategic and be ahead of your competitors, you have to look into the future. What trends are on the horizon for social media? What’s coming next that we need to prepare for? Here’s what we think:

Step 1: Build an Ark

Nobody should “own” social media strategy in your organization. Social impacts all corners of the company, and should be more like air (everywhere) than like water (you have to go get it). Thus, the first step in the process is to create a cross-functional team to help conceive and operate the rest of the strategy.

 

Step 2: Listen and Compare

It’s an old social media strategy chestnut by now, but “listen” is still good advice that’s often ignored. The reality is that your customers (and competitors) will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media, if you broaden your social listening beyond your brand name.

 

Step 3: What’s the Point?

Yes, you can use social media to help accomplish several business objectives. Butthe best social media strategies are those that focus (at least initially) on a more narrow rationale for social. What do you primarily want to use social for? Awareness? Sales? Loyalty and retention? Pick one.

 

Step 4: Select Success Metrics

How are you going to determine whether this is actually making a difference in your business? What key measures will you use to evaluate social media strategy effectiveness? How will you transcend (hopefully) likes and engagement? Will you measure ROI?

 

Step 5: Analyze Your Audiences

With whom will you be interacting in social media? What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your current or prospective customers? How does that impact what you can and should attempt in social media?

 

Step 6: What’s Your One Thing?

Passion is the fuel of social media.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you sell, your product features and benefits aren’t enough to create a passion-worthy stir. How will your organization appeal to the heart of your audience, rather than the head? Disney isn’t about movies, it’s about magic. Apple isn’t about technology, it’s about innovation. What are you about?

 

Step 7: How Will You Be Human?

Social media is about people, not logos. 

The mechanics of social force companies to compete for attention versus your customers’ friends and family members. Thus, your company has to (at least to some degree) act like a person, not an entity. How will you do that?

 

Step 8: Create a Channel Plan

Only after you know why you’re active in social at all, and how you’ll measure social media strategy success should you turn your attention to the “how” of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the rest. This channel plan should be distinct, in that you have a specific, defensible reason for participating in each.

 

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Where and Why to Publish Short-Form Content

Smart content marketers know that constantly producing content can feel like trying to feed a beast with a nearly insatiable appetite. If long-form content like ebooks and whitepapers is a meal, then short-form content is like a snack, providing bite-sized information that’s easily digestible.

Both long- and short-form content should be part of your marketing menu, but the beauty of short-form content is that it lends itself to a variety of formats and can be repurposed into longer pieces. On top of that, short-form content can often be produced and distributed more quickly than longer pieces that require extensive planning and research.

Here are some examples of short-form content and tips on how to use them:

  • Blog posts and articles: Blog posts and articles can take a variety of forms including round-ups, reviews, or Q & As. For instance, Eloqua posted a round-up post of marketing tips from the Content2Conversion Conference in New York City earlier this year. Publish content on your own blog or provide it as a guest post with a link back to your blog or website. When posting on your own blog, make sure there’s an easy way for readers to subscribe via RSS or email so they’ll stay engaged with your content. Blog posts and articles published on your own site or elsewhere can be easily shared on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and email newsletters.
  • Curated content: Finding and sharing outside content that’s relevant for your readers helps position your brand as an industry thought leader. You could share links on social media or link to other sources on your blog with added commentary explaining why the topic is relevant to your readers. Companies in virtually every industry find curation useful. The Oregon Wine Board curates news on the state’s wine industry, including tasting events, legislation that’s applicable to growers, and more. And in its news section, Lawyers.com shares infographics, quirky news items, and other links of interest to the legal profession. Our Content Curation Look Book contains several other real world examples of companies large and small that use content curation effectively.
  • Podcasts: Not everyone wants to consume content through reading, so offering content in an audio format like a downloadable podcast lets them listen in as they’re driving, cleaning, working out, or otherwise going about their daily lives. Marketing expert Heidi Cohen lists the benefits of podcasting for content marketers, among them extending your content’s reach beyond your blog. One format that works well for podcasts is having a conversation or question and answer session with an expert guest. With the right host, a solo podcast works as well. Podcasts can be posted on your blog and made available as a free subscription through iTunes such as theContent Marketing Podcast by Rachel Parker.
  • Videos: A growing number of internet users now watch videos on their smartphones or tablets, making this a great format for relaying information to users on the go. Post videos on YouTube or Vimeo and include relevant tags and keywords so users can easily find them. Videos can also be embedded on your blog, pinned to Pinterest, posted on Facebook, and shared in a variety of other ways. KnowledgeVision posted a video of a skype interview and also weaved highlights of the video into a blog post.
  • Webinars: Webinars are a great way to drive email signups and demonstrate your value to current and prospective customers. Content for a webinar can be repurposed from other formats such as a blog post or ebook and polls or surveys completed during the webinar can provide fodder for new content pieces. Create a hashtag for your webinar and encourage attendees to tweet tidbits from the webinar to help build buzz. We hosted a content marketing webinar with Eloqua last year and wrote a blog post as a follow up to the webinar.
  • Infographics: Thanks to popularity of big data and visual platforms like Pinterest and Visual.ly, infographics are all the rage. You could create an infographic based on data your company has collected or synthesize data and other information from a variety of sources to tell a compelling story. Include your company’s logo in the infographic so that the original source is clear when it gets shared. Post your completed infographics on Pinterest and Facebook and encourage other bloggers in your niche to share the graphic with their readers.

Tell us! How have you used short-form content to build brand awareness and engage readers? Any other formats you’d add to the list above?

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Are You Paying Attention To Social Media Etiquette?

Social Media is one of the easiest and fastest ways to connect with your audience.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional when engaging on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed:

Is your blogging content original?

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

Use ‘@username’ on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience to share that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

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Why You Might Be Loosing Twitter Followers

You’ve been building your Twitter presence and you feel good about it. It is great to increase that number, but it is equally important to maintain that number. If you have been loosing followers lately, there are a few things to consider that might be behind it.

Are you delivering the content you promised you would? If you own a clothing boutique, your followers are likely expecting you to tweet about fashion trends, clothing tips, store deals, etc. If your tweets are about your political opinions, or the new frozen yogurt place you tried yesterday then your followers are not getting what they signed up for by following you. Make sure that any personal opinion tweets go to your personal account and not your business account.

Do you respond? If your followers ask you a question, or reply to your tweets they probably want a response back.  Being responsive on your account assures users that they are tweeting to a real person, and not a pre-scheduled system. Twitter is about building relationships. If you are not building a relationship with your followers, they are not going to stick around to build one with you.

Do you use Twitter solely for promotion? Remember that Twitter is a social media platform. People join to be social – they do not check their twitter solely to read promotional messages. If you are doing some promotion tweeting, be sure to provide a value to your followers. If you are promoting something on Twitter, make sure your followers get a benefit from reading that tweet. For example don’t tweet “Buy our new perfume…” instead consider tweeting, “Mention this tweet for 10% off our new perfume.”

Are your tweets original? If you are abusing the retweet button, that may be why you are loosing followers. The retweet feature is wonderful for sharing content, but when you retweet something you should add your own opinion. Use a few words to share why you decided to retweet something. Your followers connected with you on Twitter to hear what YOU have to say – give that to them.

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The Hashtag Basics

Hashtags can be a great marketing tool, but it is important to know exactly when, where, and how to use them to help you market.

Hashtags are the words, or sometimes just jumble of letters that you see following the # sign. Hashtags are not essential, or appropriate for every tweet. Before going hashtag crazy, it is important to know how they can help your business. Hashtags work for categorizing content. Adding a hashtag into your tweet makes it easier for other users to find. This can be extremely useful when discussing a topic other Twitter users may be discussing as well. For example, during the Superbowl you could search #Superbowl on Twitter and a display of Superbowl related tweets would be the result.

As a marketer, you can use hashtags to create buzz around your product or service. For example, say you are the owner of a shoe boutique and you are having a sale on winter boots.  Tweet something about the sale, and then use the hashtag #winterboots. This is a broad category, and someone in the market for winter boots is likely to search “#winterboots.” By incorporating the hashtag into your tweet, your tweet will show up in the search results. It is important to keep the hashtag brief and easy to read. If you use the hashtag #WinterBootsAreHalfOffAtTheShoeBoutique it is not only hard to read, but it is also likely that nobody will search for that hashtag – and your tweet will not appear in any searches.   Your tweets are already limited to 140 characters, so use those characters wisely! Hashtags should be used to get your point across, yet still remain brief.

For hashtag success, be consistent. There is no point in using a hashtag if you do not keep using it. If you do not repeat the hashtag, your tweet may go unseen by potential customers. Make sure to use your hashtags. Be sure your hashtags are relevant and easy to understand. Twitter is about simplicity – so be nice and do not confuse your Twitter followers with a confusing hashtag.

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The 411 On Hashtags

Have you been using hashtags in your tweets? If you have not jumped on the hashtag train, you have no doubt seen them on Twitter.  Hashtags are the words, or sometimes just jumble of letters that you see following the # sign. Hashtags are not essential, or appropriate for every tweet. Before going hashtag crazy, it is important to know how they can help your business, and when they are actually useful.

Hashtags work for categorizing content. Adding a hashtag into your tweet makes it easier for other users to find. This can be extremely useful when discussing a topic other Twitter users may be discussing as well. For example, during the Superbowl you could search #Superbowl on Twitter and a display of Superbowl related tweets would be the result.

From a marketing standpoint, hashtags can also help to create some buzz around your product or business. For example, say you are the owner of a shoe boutique and you are having a sale on winter boots.  Tweet something about the sale, and then use the hashtag #winterboots. This is a broad category, and someone in the market for winter boots is likely to search “#winterboots.” By incorporating the hashtag into your tweet, your tweet will show up in the search results.

Keep the hashtag brief and easy to read. If you use the hashtag #WinterBootsAreHalfOffAtTheShoeBoutique it is not only hard to read, but it is also likely that nobody will search for that hashtag – and your tweet will not appear in any searches.   Your tweets are already limited to 140 characters, so use them wisely! Use hashtags to get your point across but still remain brief.

Remember there is no point in using a hashtag if you do not keep using it. In other words, be consistent with your hashtags. If you do not repeat the hashtag, your tweet may go unseen by potential customers. Make sure to use your hashtags. Last but not least, be sure your hashtags are relevant and easy to understand.  Twitter is about simplicity – so do not confuse your Twitter followers with a confusing hashtag.

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5 Tweet Ideas For Small Business

Stuck for ideas on how to optimize your tweets? Here are 5 ideas for things to tweet about on a regular basis:

  1. Share things that are behind the scenes of your business. Tweet photos that provide access to things your customers can’t get or see in other ways.  That will build incentive for fans to follow you on Twitter.
  2. If there is any positive news about your business or even your industry – share it! That is absolutely something to tweet about. A good mention about your industry reflects well on you, and if it is about your company in particular that is even better.
  3. Tweet tips!  For example, you could start hash – tagging #TuesdayTweetTips in which every Tuesday you would share a helpful hint that goes along with your product or service. If you own a brewery, tweet tips on which beers compliment which burgers.
  4. Post questions that clearly urge people to respond. This way you can interact with the tweets that are responses to your questions. Once you have created some dialogue, you can post a tweet with a link to your company blog that holds the correct answers.
  5. Tweet a secret word or code that is only available to your Twitter followers.  When customers use the secret code, they receive a discount.

As you know, a tweet can be a powerful tool for boosting your online presence – you just have to make sure you are using it right!

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Twitter’s Updated Search Feature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter has recently announced new changes to the way users search on their database. This could have a measurable impact on how brands compose their tweets.

The new search update appears to resemble the Google search engine in some ways. As a user types in a keyword, it attempts to guess what they’re searching for, as options that are trending will appear below in a drop-down menu. This lets the users view options before they finish typing. The Twitter search now also fixes spelling, similar to the “Did you mean” Google feature.

In addition, Twitter now will take your search and provide you with options of similar search terms. For example, when searching, “Social Media Strategy,” Twitter might suggest, “Social Media Agency” as another good search option. This will be very useful when users are trying to follow a trending topic or find new content.

Another new aspect to the Twitter search is its ability to filter search results to the people users follow. This helps users when they’re searching their feed for older tweets they meant to favorite, or messages from friends. This is a fairly small update, but it personalizes Twitter in a new and interesting way.

Twitter is the go-to place for breaking news. News tends to hit Twitter before appearing on television, in the papers, or on websites. Because of this, Twitter is trying to become the go-to place for people to search for news. The new Twitter search feature still only lets user search things within the Twittersphere (as opposed to the Bing/Facebook partnership). However, search results will be free of Internet junk and full of more relevant and recent tweets.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this updated Twitter search is how it will affect brands using strong Twitter promotions. Brands need to start adjusting their tweets for searches since the site itself is now being structured for searches. Just like blog posts and websites are composed to show up in Google, tweets must be optimally composed for Twitter. This new optimization will impact Hashtags and Keywords on Twitter. Hashtags will be even more important in tweets because they will now have more of an impact in searches. Companies should start utilizing their hashtags with popular search terms. With regards to keywords, tweets should contain keywords to help them show up in Twitter searches. But companies need to be careful not to go overboard with hashtags and keywords in their tweets!

This new way of tweeting should help brands see increased consumer engagement on Twitter overall. It is likely that there will be more organized conversation and detailed tweeting within the site.

This new real-time search feature is available to all users on Twitter. The updated Twitter search will provide for a more efficient social site. Keep in mind just how important keywords and phrases used by brands within tweets will become with this new Twitter search. If you are managing your company on Twitter, always think about which search terms people might be using on the site and try to appropriately incorporate them into your tweets without coming off as spam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Twitter’s Updated Search Feature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twitter has recently announced new changes to the way users search on their database. This could have a measurable impact on how brands compose their tweets.

The new search update appears to resemble the Google search engine in some ways. As a user types in a keyword, it attempts to guess what they’re searching for, as options that are trending will appear below in a drop-down menu. This lets the users view options before they finish typing. The Twitter search now also fixes spelling, similar to the “Did you mean” Google feature.

In addition, Twitter now will take your search and provide you with options of similar search terms. For example, when searching, “Social Media Strategy,”

Twitter might suggest, “Social Media Agency” as another good search option. This will be very useful when users are trying to follow a trending topic or find new content.

Another new aspect to the Twitter search is its ability to filter search results to the people users follow. This helps users when they’re searching their feed for older tweets they meant to favorite, or messages from friends. This is a fairly small update, but it personalizes Twitter in a new and interesting way.

Twitter is the go-to place for breaking news. News tends to hit Twitter before appearing on television, in the papers, or on websites. Because of this, Twitter is trying to become the go-to place for people to search for news. The new Twitter search feature still only lets user search things within the Twittersphere (as opposed to the Bing/Facebook partnership). However, search results will be free of Internet junk and full of more relevant and recent tweets.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this updated Twitter search is how it will affect brands using strong Twitter promotions. Brands need to start adjusting their tweets for searches since the site itself is now being structured for searches. Just like blog posts and websites are composed to show up in Google, tweets must be optimally composed for Twitter. This new optimization will impact Hashtags and Keywords on Twitter. Hashtags will be even more important in tweets because they will now have more of an impact in searches. Companies should start utilizing their hashtags with popular search terms. With regards to keywords, tweets should contain keywords to help them show up in Twitter searches. But companies need to be careful not to go overboard with hashtags and keywords in their tweets!

This new way of tweeting should help brands see increased consumer engagement on Twitter overall. It is likely that there will be more organized conversation and detailed tweeting within the site.

This new real-time search feature is available to all users on Twitter. The updated Twitter search will provide for a more efficient social site. Keep in mind just how important keywords and phrases used by brands within tweets will become with this new Twitter search. If you are managing your company on Twitter, always think about which search terms people might be using on the site and try to appropriately incorporate them into your tweets without coming off as spam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tips For Successful Social Media Marketing

 

 

 

 

Businesses everywhere are finding new opportunities to engage with consumers through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. It’s known that Twitter gets about 460,000 users to sign up per day, and Facebook is expected to reach 1 billion users by August, so it’s easy for businesses to realize that each and every one of these users have the potential to be a customer.

But social media marketing is more than just making an account and adding friends and followers. It is critical to have a well-established strategy and to do your research so you can develop the best social media plan for your company.

Follow these tips before you hit the social media highway.

1. Have A Plan

Too often Facebook becomes littered with inactive company pages. These pages are the result of marketers making a company page without a goal in mind.

It’s important to understand your objectives. State what it is you want to accomplish. This might be to create brand awareness, to provide a platform for consumers to give input and ask questions, or to build customer loyalty with promotions and specials.

Also, you’ll want to make a plan for measuring your ROI. It’s very helpful to be able to tell if your efforts are paying off. If your efforts aren’t getting results, then you can have a plan set to help you modify your marketing tactics.

It’s also wise to know you’re target audience. Define the demographics of who would be most interested in your products and services so you can send your brand message to those specific people.

Finally, make sure you have the time necessary to run your social media marketing plan. If you can’t make the time needed for your social media marketing, your attempts will not get very far. Consider hiring someone to help you so you can have the time to make a successful social media marketing campaign.

2. Keep It Simple

After you’ve got a basic plan set up, don’t go overboard and try to join every social network site out there. That will only end up fragmenting your efforts. What you should do is focus on creating one or two accounts on social media sites and grow your audience there.

3. Don’t Spam

With social media, it can be tempting to start promoting your products and services like crazy, but advertising should not be the main focus of social media marketing. Facebook users don’t go on the site to just look for something to purchase, so make sure you’re engaging with followers and fans on a level beyond advertising and promoting.

4. Communicate

Silence is not golden in the social media world. Communication is a must for any business, especially social media marketing. If you are not able to maintain ongoing communication with your customers, you will lose the value of having a social media presence. So be “social” and make contacts and boost your reputation.

5. Build Your Fan Base

It’s easy to gain customers by building your fan base. If you communicate well through your social media sites, your fan base will grow, and the potential for more customers will grow as well. Be sure to post interesting and unique information often, and follow people who are relevant to your brand, and they might just follow you back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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