developing your social media business strategy
TRANSCRIPT
@MacLeanHeather
Developing Your Social Media Business Strategy What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Heather MacLean CMO TaylorMade Solutions @MacLeanHeather
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@MacLeanHeather
Developing Your Social Media Business Strategy What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Heather MacLean CMO TaylorMade Solutions @MacLeanHeather
@MacLeanHeather
Global BrandsLeader in transforming business into social enterprises
@MacLeanHeather
• PR and Marketing > 15 years • Headed up Marketing and PR for a $1.5B
company • Chief Spokesperson • Contributed to 5 PR News Books • Published in the Workplace Review • Top Blogger (Business 2 Community & InNetwork) • Finalist in Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 • Worked in 6 industries, public and private sector
and in about 50 different countries
@MacLeanHeather
Who am I?
@MacLeanHeather
Who am I?
AssumptionsThat you communicate with customers and prospects
That you want to use social media for business
That you are open to receiving information to take the steps necessary to effectively use social media
That you realize that this seminar is only the tip of the iceberg
What You Will Leave With
Why an integrated strategy is important for reputation management, marketing and lead generation
When and how to start using social media “effectively” as a part of your overall business strategy
Key metrics to measure success The 6 Building Blocks of a Social Media Business Strategy
Don’t Operate in a Vacuum
Social Media is not a Stand-Alone Strategy
Top Mistakes Made
10.No measurement 9. No alignment to business objectives 8. Only doing push communications 7. Not engaging with your customers/prospects 6. Not listening to brand, competitors, industry conversations
Top 10 Continued
5.Choosing too many channels and abandoning 4. Not choosing the right channels 3. Resources don’t understand the brand 2. You don’t have the right resources 1. No plan/strategy (lack of management knowledge/buy-in)
Case Studies
3 Companies Doing it Right
Starbucks - the challenge
Bricks and mortar Traditional business B2C Rewards system - coffee cards Tim Hortons really the only coffee company still relying advertising on TV
Starbucks wanted something different
Starbucks
Early adopter Consciously thought of the digital experience Focused on ‘customer experience’ Music
“It really is about connecting with someone in a more intimate, experiential way that we think will have longer lasting ability to build affinity than a 30-second TV commercial or an ad.”
Engagement
Old Spice - the Challenge
My father’s aftershave My grandfather’s aftershave Not exactly a young/hipster product
What Happened
Men versus women Market to your audience Change the message Create a relationship Humour Visuals
Taco Bell
Lots of noise Lots of competition (200,000 US locations) Decreasing profit margins Increased concerns healthy eating Lots of variety Increase in fresh/local options
What did they do?
A lot Reframed the approach Started communicating Repurposed Content from TV ads, etc. over to social Leveraged user-generated content Since 2007 almost 8 million Facebook fans Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram In 2013, Taco Bell ranked as No. 1 on DigitalCoCo’s Restaurant Social Media Index, trumping key competitors such as McDonalds and Starbucks.
What do they have in common?Clear and defined brand & brand voice
Defined audience - Personas
Commitment to resources/strategy A. Channel analysis B. Listening & Engagement Strategy & Plan C. Integrated with overall corp objectives D. Social Media Playbook
Avoidance of push communications
Measure ROIHad an integrated marketing plan
@MacLeanHeather
What is Integrated Marketing?And why is it important? Relevant?
Definition
Is the application of consistent brand messaging across both traditional and non-traditional marketing channels and using different promotional [disambiguation needed] methods to reinforce each other.
“Since social media led to the democratization of knowledge, we can easily say that disruption to marketing has been to stop push communications with the masses. But rather to engage with and build communities of very distinct customers while leveraging a multichannel approach.”
ComponentsDigital (SEO, SEM, Email, PPC, website) Paid (ads) Earned (Editorials, stories, features, viral) Owned (website, social channels,content marketing)
Content Marketing (blog, webinars, ebooks, white papers, case studies, pod casts, video)
PR (Media releases, media events, features) Events (trade shows, promotions, sponsorship) Influencers Marketing Advocates
And everything has a CTA
Workshop - Part 2
Strategy first…tactics laterKnow your product/service offering and what differentiates you
Know your brand/voice
Understand and define realistic objectives for your overall marketing and NOT just social media
Have a clear understanding of who your clients and potential clients are - personas
Based on this select what channels you need to use to communicate
Tactics (not in this workshop)
Think about specific campaigns What are you saying in your ads? What are you advertising? Are you leveraging content marketing? What is your CTA? How your email is supporting your overall campaigns How are you promoting/discussing events/promotions?
Social is how the modern consumer has grown accustomed to communicating. The social platforms are where they turn for discovery, research, peer-to-peer recommendation (a force far stronger than other influencers like advertising), and for follow-up customer service.
Retail is Social
78% of consumers say that the posts made by companies on social media INFLUENCE their purchases
Source: Forbes
Decisions are made after approximately 75% of research completed before making/accepting contact 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions 58% of Facebook users expect offers, events or promotions when they become fans Facebook is the most effective platform to get consumers talking about products
Content Marketing Stats
80% of business decision makers prefer articles
over ads
Brands that create 15 blog posts/month average
1200 new leads/month
54% more leads are generated with
inbound marketing than outbound
Content Marketing produces 3 x more
leads/dollar
Inbound marketing costs 62% less per
lead than traditional outbound marketing
Nurtured leads, on avg. produce 20%
increase in opportunities
What is a Brand
The foundation of an organization, its operations and its products/services.
It sets the stage for what language the organization uses, how it communicates with stakeholders, customers and the community, as well as its visual identity.
Many think of a brand as a logo, but that is the last part of any branding exercise. Ultimately a brand is a set of expectations, promises and relationships.
Personas
Who?
How?
When?
Where?
Right Now..
Who buys your product/service?
Who makes enquiries?
IDEALLY…..
Who do you want buying your product/service?
Do they match?
Social Listening & Engagement are KEY components of the overall Business Strategy
How big is it? It’s big.35 plus hours of video
are updated to
YouTube every minute.
300 000 new people
join Twitter every day.
155 million Tweets per
day.
11.5% of the world are
now on Facebook, 51%
of the US.
The average US home
will have 5 to 10 web
enabled devices by
2014
50% of TV viewers
around the world
watch Internet TV.
Over 5 billion photos
on Flickr, 2.5 billion
photos per month on
Facebook.
THERE ARE >800 MILLION PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK.THAT’S LIKE, ALMOST A BILLION, YO.
June 2009
493 tweets per second
May 2010
10,000 tweets per second
What is a community? Engage? Why?
• Customers • Prospects • Employees • Influencers • Suppliers • Partners
Competitive Advantage of Community
Develop personal relationships
Be moreresponsive
Build reputation
Emphasize customer service
Build brand recognition
Lead Gen
Where is a community?
• Forums run by fans • Forums run by
companies • Blogs • LinkedIn groups • Facebook groups • Yahoo and Google
groups • Twitter • Google+ • Flickr and others • YouTube and others • Social bookmarking • Location-based apps
Make People Feel Special
Why Listen?
Listen First
People are talking about you whether you’re there or not.
Ignoring them is like ignoring a ringing phone.
People are Talking About Your Company
How do you Listen?
• paid tools: Hootsuite, Radian6, etc. • free tools:
– Google Alerts – Twitter Search – Google Blog Search – Social Mention – Hootsuite
Social Media Command Centre
But…Be Strategic
Playbook• This can be your saving grace • What to respond to • What not to respond to • Workflow • Post tagging (for reporting) • Escalation - to whom and when • Hours • Team • Governance • etc.
@MacLeanHeather@MacLeanHeather
Be Authentic
Understand your community before diving in.
Speak with a human voice.
Engage with your community person-to-person.
Admit when you’ve made mistakes.
Engagement Rule #1
@MacLeanHeather@MacLeanHeather
Be Relevant
It’s not about you, it’s about your community.
Share info that’s useful for them and they’ll accept a little that promotes you.
Use 80/20 rule.
Engagement Rule #2
@MacLeanHeather
Be Practical
Social media is a set of tools, that is part of a bigger picture.
Despite what some say, it is not a strategy unto itself.
Tie your efforts to existing, bottom-line business objectives.
Remember your KPIs
Engagement Rule #3
@MacLeanHeather
Be Patient
Building a Community takes time.
Like in your personal life, there are no short-cuts to building relationships. Keep that in mind.
Engagement Rule #4
Image courtesy of josephomotayo
@MacLeanHeather
Be Committed - Be Active
Engage regularly with your audience.
Respond quickly whenpeople engage with you.
Keep your content fresh.
Provide Value
Engagement Rule #5
Listening for Intent
• 2013 • Complaints happening • Company ignored • Continued promoting (push
communications) • Social media exploded • Horrible corporate response • Hit mainstream media • Stock took hit • Head eventually quits/president too
Channel Selection
Best Practices
• Look at your business does and what your brand is
• Where are your customers/prospects? • Be selective • Once you start, stick with it • Have a plan • Have patience as you build your network • Never buy likes or buy Twitter Followers • Remember to support with other marketing
What is your brand/line of business
Who/Where are your customers
Group Work
Or, you can simplify
• Website visits
Facebook Demographics
Twitter Reach
LinkedIn Demograhics
Increased Calls
Sales
1. Start listening.
2. Find out where your customers/prospects are engaging.
3. Learn what your competitors are doing.
4. Get everybody together in the same room/have a plan.
5. Develop a social media policy.
6. Determine what works best for you.
The 6 Building Blocks of a Social Media Strategy
Questions
Channel Sharing Best Practices
Use your own name for your Twitter ID. Know your audience
Twitter Best Practices
• Choose your Twitter handle carefully
• Use your logo as the avatar and choose a good background
• Create your own hashtag associated with your brand
• Use only 1 or 2 hashtags at a time. 3 at the most
• Be sure to read a linked article before re-tweeting it. It might contain information that you didn’t intend to share.
• Be sure to put context around a link. NEVER just tweet a link.
• Tweet no more than 15 times/day
• Be human
You the Right Imagery
Facebook Best Practices
• Know your audience
• Be responsive (expectation is 1 hour)
• Write for your audience
• Use images - Tag people
• Use video
Facebook Best Practices
• Post no more than twice a day
• Post every day
• Know what day is THE best day for you
• Know what time is THE best for you
• Ask people to share your post
• Have contests to raise your profile
Facebook Best Practices
• Shorter posts get read (think 140 characters even in FB)
• Speak as a human being, don’t be a robot.
• Show humour, have fun, but remember balance
• Indicate who your team is and who is posting - use initials
• Remove links from post and let it it stand on its own.
Questions
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Establish your goals in advance.
If you don't know what you want to do, you're much more likely to fail. (As in life.)
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Tie them to your existing business goals:
• leads • conversions • web traffic • customer satisfaction
sentiment • awareness • employee satisfaction
recruiting
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Understand that every part of your business will have a different definitionof ROI.
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Decide in advance how you will measure success.
What are the metrics that spell success for you?
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Focus on campaigns.
Break your activities down into manageable chunks.
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Make them trackable through your web analytics
• Create a unique landing page
• Create a unique URL for each social channel
• Use your web analytics to see where the traffic came from
7 Steps to Measuring Social Media ROI
Understand that, in the end, ROI is a formula and you need all the data to truly calculate it
ROI = gain – cost cost