Social Media StrategyRACHEL MURRAY

Rachel Murray Digital Marketing Consultant

Hydrant

Find us on Twitter by following: @Teamhydrant

Introductions Brief Introductions

◦ Name◦ Job Role◦ Company◦ Social Media Experience

Structure of Today•Social Media Landscape

•Developing your Strategy

•Monitoring your Strategy

•Case Study

•Questions and Answer, Practical Questions

Agenda10.00 -11.00 Start, Introductions and Best Practice

11.00 – 11.15 Break

11.15 – 12.30 Social Media

12.30 – 1.30 Lunch

1.30 – 2.45 Developing your Strategy

2.45 – 3.00 Break

3.00-4.00 Case Study, Workshop and Overview

Objectives

Learn best practice tips for social media sites

Equip you with the knowledge and skills to create a social media strategy

Allow for the practical application of skills and knowledge learnt

Social Media Landscape

Social Media Landscape Social Media is evolving, with the introduction of new features, new capabilities and often new sites and trends regularly.

The power of social media has become extremely relevant for businesses with a huge percentage of people using it as part of their daily lives, and using it regularly.

◦ 52% adults in the UK are using social media regularly ◦ Over 40% of UK companies use social media and 50% of those actively encourage staff to use it

Social Media Statistics◦ 1 Million websites have integrated with Facebook

◦ 23% of users check Facebook 5 times or more daily

◦ 56% of customer tweets are being ignored

◦ 34% of marketers have generated leads on Twitter

◦ Google’s +1 button is used 5 million times a day

◦ 80% of Pinterest users are female

Social Media in Cumbria Virtual Networking – Online Promotion, Collaboration and Generating Awareness -

Linked-In GroupsFacebook GroupsTwitter Conversations – HashtagsTweet-ups and Virtual Networking

Online Presence – City Council Twitter Venues, Bars and Restaurants Discover CarlisleAttractions

Social Media in Cumbria What do you think of social media in Cumbria? What other unique ways have you seen in Cumbria? How have you seen other companies or brands use Twitter well?

Please share your ideas and comments!

Twitter◦ What is Twitter?

◦ Twitter is an information network made up of 140-character messages called

Tweets. It's an easy way to discover the latest news related to subjects you

care about.

◦ Twitter contains information you will find valuable. Messages from users you

choose to follow will show up on your home page for you to read

Twitter This is the entry point for your audience.

Every element of your profile—your @username, photo, bio and links—should reflect your brand identity and personality.

◦ Put your best face forward ◦ Choose your @username◦ Introduce yourself◦ Make it all work together

Twitter – Tullie HouseTullie House – Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest

Twitter – Business News, Retweet other attractions and local events, promote events and raise awareness of activity.

TwitterBUILD YOUR AUDIENCE

Be a good listener

Find your voice

Be strategic

Go viral

SHARE GREAT CONTENT

Keep it conversational.

Apply your personality

Make it shareable

Have a purpose

Tweet exceptional content

What’s the best way to engage your followers?

Watch the clock

TwitterTwitter can be used for many purposes in regard to your business whether that be promotions,

communicating with your audience, responding to consumer queries etc.

◦ Respond – Retweet, Reply and monitor conversations

◦ Reward Followers – Why Follow?

◦ Demonstrate Leadership

◦ Establish Right Voice – How do you want your business to appear to the Twitter Community.

◦ Recommended to Tweet a few times a day – Also the weekend!

Twitter – Hadrian’s Wall

Hadrian’s Wall

Website Integration of Twitter and Facebook Feed.

Supports other accounts such as Hadrian’s Wall Trust, Hadrians Wall.com

Twitter Discussion What do you think? What other unique ways do you use Twitter? How have you seen other companies or brands use Twitter well?

Please share your ideas and comments!

Facebook

Over one billion people like and comment an average of 3.2 billion times every day. When you have a strong presence on Facebook, your business is part of these conversations and has access to the most powerful kind of word-of-mouth marketing — recommendations between friends.

Facebook – Pages, Profiles, Groups

◦ Pages allow real organizations, businesses, celebrities and brands to communicate broadly with people who like them. Pages may only be created and managed by official representatives.

◦ Groups provide a closed space for small groups of people to communicate about shared interests. Groups can be created by anyone.

◦ Profiles allow a user's to create a personal page, listing their friends, interests, group memberships, and recent activity on the site.

Facebook - Posts Successful posts are:

Short: Posts between 100 and 250 characters get about 60% more likes, comments and shares

Visual: Photo albums, pictures and videos get 180%, 120%, and 100% more engagement respectively

Optimised: Page Insights help you learn things such as what times people engage most with your content so you can post during those hours

Facebook – Building your AudienceThings to try:

• Explore the options under the Build Audience button on your admin panel. Be sure

to invite your Facebook friends to like your Page.

• Click on 'Invite Email Contacts' to upload your email list and send a message asking

people to like your Page.

• Promote your Page web address on shop signs, business cards, receipts, emails,

chalkboards and other marketing material.

Facebook Analytics

Page Insights gives you the data you need to gather consumer insights.

With Page Insights, you can:• Assess the performance of your

Page• Learn which content resonates

with your audience• Optimize how you publish to your

audience so that people will tell their friends about you

Facebook Analytics

Facebook Advertising Pay per click

Do your research – Sponsored Stories

Use Image well – 100x80 pixel picture

Split Testing • Body of your ad• Photo in your ad• Headline of your ad • Sponsored Story vs. regular ad

Watch your Results ◦ A typical click-through rate on Facebook is

0.04-0.05%.

Local Campaign – Sponsored StoriesLookalike Audiences

Facebook Advertising - Example

Facebook - Competition◦ Think outside the box with Facebook

Contests

◦ Be Creative and Stand Out

◦ Use all Channels that are available

◦ How can it be shared on Facebook?

◦ How will you choose a winner?

Facebook - Competition What do you think? What other unique ways could you use Facebook contests? How have you seen other companies or brands use them?

Please share your ideas and comments!

Linkedin The worlds largest professional network with over 200 million members in over 200 countries

Based on six degrees of separation – LinkedIn uses: ◦ 1st degree connections (immediate)◦ 2nd degree connections to your first degree connections

Helps to build relationshipsMore than 2.6 million companies have Linked-In Company Pages11+ million members in the UK as of January 9, 2013

Linkedin Company Pages◦ List your products and services available – Never leave blank!

◦ Get Recommendations – for your products/services

◦ Post content that interests your followers and less about how great your company is

◦ Encourage employees to like and share updates – will help to grow customer base

◦ Listen to your audience

◦ Look and analyse Insights of Company Page

◦ Take part in Linked-in Groups discussions

Linkedin Profiles When using Linked-In for business to business social media marketing, a few considerations to enhance effectiveness are;

Professional Photo◦ Self Branding◦ Consistent Image Used on all profiles

Recruitment

Introductions

Things to share – Consider Audience

Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-

sharing website that allows users to

create and manage theme-based

image collections such as events,

interests, and hobbies.

Users can browse other pinboards

for images, 're-pin' images to their

own pinboards, or 'like' photos

Pinterest - PrinciplesPut pinners first - Before you start pinning, consider what pinners really care about. Check out your web analytics to see what they like best, or talk to them directly. Tailor your pinning for them.

Curate your collection - Create a few boards to start your collection.

Show what inspires you - Instead of just showing off your products, show what inspires them

Be authentic – Be creative and show your personality

Share your pins – Promote your Account

Google+

Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than

content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top

(verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.

(Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO )

Google+◦ People love visual media, so don’t hesitate to drag and drop images and

videos for easy sharing and greater engagement.

◦ The best way to get your followers to engage with you? Engage with them too! Make sure that you respond to followers’ comments, follow them back and re share relevant posts.

◦ The +1 button also allows your users to share content with their friends and grow your audience.

Google+◦ Verifying and linking your site with them to boost authenticity and quality.

◦ Understand your audience – target right messages

◦ Segment Followers with Circles

◦ Consider Keywords – In About section

◦ Hangouts and Communities

◦ Reviews – add creditability

Do’s and Dont’s Workshop

Re-consider the best practice advice discussed, and your own knowledge on the platform and lessons learnt to consider do’s and don’t’s when using social media.

Note down one do and one don’t of how to use social media, whether that be things to consider when posting or things that you feel are best and not best practice.

Do’s and Don’t’s Regular Updates – Including Weekends

Show Personality - Be friendly and open

Variety of Content - Be engaging

Double check spelling and grammar - Proofread

Search for popular hashtags

Stay active

Develop a plan

Encourage Email database to join

Add widgets to your site

Segmentation and Targeting

Don’t ignore feedback, interactions and mentions

Don’t be repetitive

Plagiarize

Share too much information

Forget your audience as this is the key to success

Use multiple names across platforms – keep it consistent!

Set up if you don’t plan to invest time

Assume people will find you

Hard sell

Mix personal and business

Multi Channel Strategy It is important that you are creating the write messages to your audience, as your audience may be different on different networks. It is how you manage the cross-over and integrating them successfully.

◦ Using all your social media channels

◦ Successfully integrating them and making them part of your marketing campaign

◦ Measuring cross-over

◦ Consider touch points – identify all points of contact

◦ Encourage collaboration

Multi Channel Strategy - Moby http://destroyed.moby.com/

Using Instagram, Soundcloud, Facebook and Twitter.

Users encouraged to Instagram pictures using appropriate hashtag at specific time and displayed on micro-site.

Multi-Channel Strategy - Cadbury

◦ How Cadbury uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

◦ Separate for Brands – Share Recipes, New Product Launches

◦ Facebook Pages◦ Visual Posts◦ Limited Responses to Customer

Care Communications◦ RT for Sweets Campaign◦ Google+ Hangouts and

Communities

Cadbury – Twitter and Google+ Google+

Early Adopter

Hangouts and Communities

Cakes and Baking Community

Twitter

130,000 Followers – Tweets 20 times a day

Separate customer service Twitter

Multi Channel - Kendal Calling

Kendal Calling - award-winning, innovative, independent festival based in the Lake District.

Instagram • Sharing images to encourage people to

like the image. • 450 Followers• Tag Photos - #kendalcalling

Instagram – Visit Scotland

Using #naturalscotland on Instagram as part of a photography competition.

Additionally used on Facebook to display images to allow for sharing of the Images.

Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media◦ Virility of Information

◦ Integration of daily life

◦ Privacy and Security

◦ ROI – Measurement

◦ Developments in Technology

Negative Feedback A recommendation is to have a strategy or plan in mind to deal with negative feedback on twitter.

Identify the type of feedback◦ Straight Problem◦ Constructive Criticism◦ Attack◦ Trolling/Spam

Decide how to react ◦ Does it require a response?◦ Do you have a standard response?◦ How will you manage the communication?

Search Engine Optimisation Keyword Strategy

Keyword Rich Content

Back Links – add creditability, increase site traffic and visibility of your posts.

Profiling Naming – Profile descriptions

Contact Information and Description

Link your Website – icons and Widgets to gain more online exposure.

Verification

Round-Up USP – What is yours and how to apply that to yours content?

What site ? – identify your customers, and go where they go!

Negative Feedback – How to respond

Search Engine Optimisation – Keywords

Multi-Channel – use all sites, and how?

Be prepared to face challenges and take advantage of opportunities

Your Social Media Strategy

Strategy A Strategy can effect and enhance every corner of your organisation. So it is important to set out specific, measurable goals before you begin, enabling you to evaluate just how much you have achieved.

◦ Develop brand/ product/ services awareness◦ Build audience/ customer base◦ Educate audience/ customer base◦ Understand more about your audience/ customer base◦ Increase reputation

Focusing on the ultimate goal, will guide what you do, when you do it and what content you will share..

Components of your Social Media Strategy

Planning and Analysis

Big Idea & Campaign

Making it Happen

Conclusion

Planning and Analysis◦ Where are we are now ?

◦ Where do we want to be?

◦ What do we want to achieve?

◦ What do we want to do with Social Media?

◦ How will we get there?

◦ Who do we want to communicate with and how?

Planning and Analysis Who is your Online Audience? - Break down your audience into their behaviour online (how often they tweet, do they engage in your communication?). ◦ Customer◦ Audience◦ Demographic◦ Location◦ Data resources and Key influencers

What can you offer?◦ The Business ◦ Brand and Industry◦ Unique offering

Planning and Analysis Competitor Analysis

◦ What are you competitors doing? ◦ How are they engaging with their audience? ◦ What is their persona online?

Define team skills – Internal Resources and Capabilities

Market Trends – adapt and utilise market changes and trends◦ Using Trending Hashtags and Topics of Conversation◦ Technology Trends◦ Trends within your Industry

Planning and AnalysisCustomers and Audience

Understanding the buying and decision making behaviour of your customers, clients or target audiences is essential and involves considerable invested research and planning.

◦ Existing customer and audience◦ New customers in current demographic◦ New customers in new demographics

Prioritised list of customer segments and which customers are more likely to deliver the aims of the strategy

Planning and Analysis What are your reasons for using social media? What do you want to achieve?

Example: You can use your page to do many things, such as find new customers, build your brand and relationships with current customers, promote events and special offers, communicate with internal teams, and much more.

Devise an actionable plan for reaching these goals.

KPI’s, Goals, Return On Investment, Financial and Audience engagement◦ Digital, Business, Operational, Financial, Engagement, Team, Creative

Planning and Analysis◦ Where are we are now ? – Analysis of Current Activity, Position and Resources

◦ Where do we want to be? – Setting measurable of targets, KPI’s and goals

◦ What do we want to do with Social Media? – What else do you want to do

◦ How will we get there? – What can we do, capabilities and resources

◦ Who do we want to communicate with and how? – Online Audience, Target

Audience

Big Idea and Campaign◦ How exactly do we get there?

◦ How will we achieve the goals set?

◦ What will be competitive and unique advantage?

◦ What is the Content, Ideas and Tactics to how you will achieve objectives and

goals?

Big Idea and Campaign Once you have a few goals in mind, think about your customer and what kind of things they want to see from you. What will get them excited? What will keep them engaged?

◦ Brainstorming creative ideas◦ Define channels and plan for each◦ Allocate projects to team members based on skill set◦ Create timeline of your campaign/ Editorial Calendar ◦ Creating an Action Plan

Big Idea and Campaign

Action Plan• Action Type• Priority• Details• Frequency• Metrics• Time• Tactics

Action Type

Priority Details Frequency Metrics Time Means

Like Fan Pages

Low Search for Relevant Pages to receive updates from

2 New Likes per week

Number of Likes

10 Minutes per Week

Facebook and Internet Search

Big Idea and Campaign Create timeline of campaign/ Editorial Calendar ◦ When are you going to post?◦ What type of content do you want to

post?◦ How often to post?

Tools to use:

Scheduling Tools

Or as simple as a Calendar to mark what and when to post.

Big Idea and Campaign To help you build your content calendar consider:

◦ Special promotions

◦ Campaigns

◦ Imagery

◦ Is there Items that you can turn into a weekly series.

◦ How can Twitter can amplify important milestones like product launches,

events and anniversaries?

Big Idea and Campaign◦ Actionable Tactics of how to achieve goals, targets and KPI’s

◦ Creative Ideas and Marketing Campaigns

◦ Preparing an Action Plan

◦ Creating an editorial calendar or posting schedule

Making it Happen◦ Implementing your strategy

◦ How do we monitor performance?

◦ How will you measure the success?

◦ What tools will you use to action your strategy?

Making it Happen Split Testing and measure what works

Tweak as appropriate

Monitor and Report Performance - Record all data with reporting, analysis and procedures

Use analytics to see what works and what does not

Management – Internal resources or Outsource?

Making it Happen Managing Internal Resources

Collective Voice – if there is more than just one staff member contributing to online content, ensure that there is a collective voice.

Staff Social Media Policies◦ What to include?◦ What does it cover?◦ Legal

Employee Training on using social media

Utilising Internal Resources

Social Media Policies

Use of Social Media at Work

Company’s social media activities

Social media rules

Social media monitoring

Contravention of this policy

Evaluation Did the strategy exceed Goals?

What were the unexpected benefits?

What was learnt?

What were the Key Performance Indicators?

What is the value of the KPIS?

Which audience segment engaged with the campaign the most?

What is the value of engagement in relation to the goals?

Evaluation◦ Evaluate the initial goals, ROI’s and KPI’s and compare the reality

◦ Review unexpected benefits, mistakes & lessons learned

◦ Utilise for future campaigns

◦ Establish continuity in engagement

◦ Summarise the benefits of the strategy

Evaluation Tools to use

Measuring and Reporting

Hoot Suite – Reporting and Scheduling

Google Analytics Social

Facebook Insights

Pinterest Web Analytics

Raven Tools

Other

Scheduling - Buffer

URL shorterner

Google Analytics

Evaluation – Tools to use?◦ Do you use any tools that you would recommend?

◦ Scheduling Tools or software that assists, supports or improves your social

media usage?

Summarise• Where are we now, and where do we want

to be. Analysis and Setting goalsPlanning and Analysis

• Action Plan, How going to achieve this. Big Idea & Campaign

• Managing and MeasuringMaking it happen

• Evaluate and MeasureEvaluation

Accompanying Strategies Content Strategy – What is the purpose of your content, what has it to achieve?

Marketing Strategy – overall marketing strategy of your organisation, campaign, and

objectives

Keyword Strategy – Keywords that you ideally using in your content, areas you want

to optimise

Editorial Calendar – Plan what your going to say, when and how your going to do that.

Workshop – Case Study

Workshop – Case Study Given a Case Study

Analyse and Create Strategy based on what you have learnt today

Present your solution

Things to Consider:

What channels are recommended?

Target Audience/Customers

Include Examples

How will you measure success?

• Where are we now, and where do we want to be (Target Audience, Channels)

Planning and Analysis

• Action Plan, how going to achieve this, what tools and creative ideas?Big Idea & Campaign

• Implementing, Managing and Measuring (How will success be measured)Making it happen

• Evaluate and Measure, Lessons LearnedConclusion

Overview and Future Developments

New Developments – 2013 and ahead◦ Facebook Developments

◦ E-Commerce and Social Media

◦ Visual Marketing – Pinterest and Instagram

◦ Google+ - Niche Markets

◦ Google+ and Verification

◦ Mobile and Responsive – Capturing users on mobile

Facebook Developments Graph Search - https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

New Timeline - https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline

New Homepage/ Newsfeed - https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed

Facebook’s future is mobile – users on mobile, advertisements on mobile

Launch of the Facebook Phone

Facebook Developments – Graph Search

Facebook Developments – Graph Search

The more reactions — likes, comments, etc. — the more likely a post is to show up in Graph Search.

The more fans (and friends of fans) who like a page's content, the higher the ranking on Graph Search, and the easier it is to target your content more effectively.

You want as many page mentions and user posts as possible. The more shared your content is, the higher you will rank in Graph Search.

Focusing on the keywords in users' comments allows you to increase search relevance by catering content to the conversations people are having

Follow Up To Do:

Develop your Strategy

Create clear objectives, targets and KPI’s

Implement – assign responsibilities

Accompanying Action Plan and Editorial Calendar

Measure and Report

Measuring

Setting up Analytics

Clear Reporting Schedule

Report and Monitor

Rachel Murray - HydrantRachel Murray

Rachel.murray@hydrant.co.uk

@TeamHydrant

0845 862 1111

Question and answerIF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR REQUIRE ANY PRACTICAL ADVICE THEN PLEASE ASK