Creating a Social Media Plan

Creating a Social Media Plan

By: Michael Boguslavskiyhttp://www.rapidpurple.com

http://www.rapidpurple.com | [email protected]

Overview

• Social Media Channels• 6 Steps to Creating a Social Media Plan• Budgeting for Social Media• Getting Started• Questions


What is Social Media?

• Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.

- wikipedia.org


What is Social Media?

• An ongoing conversation that’s happening RIGHT NOW

• A promotional channel for content distribution• A long-term return on investment • A steady stream of information for:– Research– Feedback– Building Relationships with customers, clients,

contacts


Current Statistics

• Over 80% of people in the US have at least 1 social media account

• Social media makes up over 17% of all online usage– Overtaken email as #1 activity on the web

• As of February, 2011, there were 156 million public blogs– Posting almost 1,000,000 blog posts daily

• 93% of Americans believe companies should have a social media presence – 85% believe those companies should be interacting with

customers


Social Media Statistics - Facebook

• 600 Million active users worldwide – 200 Million on mobile devices– Mobile users are twice as active as non-mobile users

• Average user has 130 friends• Over 900 million objects people interact with– Pages– Events– Groups

• Average user creates 90 pieces of content/month• Fastest growing segment is 35-45 years old


Social Media Statistics - Twitter

• 110 Million registered users• Signing up 300,000 daily• 75% of traffic comes from outside twitter.com– Third party applications

• 55 Million tweets daily• 600 Million search queries on twitter search

daily• Peak days to tweet are Tuesday & Wednesday


Social Media Statistics - YouTube

• More videos uploaded in 60 days than 3 largest networks create in 60 years combined

• 35 hours of video uploaded every minute– That’s about 200,000 Hollywood movies each week

• 2nd largest search engine on the web• 3rd largest website on the web• Exceeds 2 Billion views daily– Double the prime-time audience of all 3 major US

networks combined


How is Social Media Used?

• Customer Service• Product/Service Feedback• Networking and Job Searching• Promotions• News• Internal communication


Case Study: Martell Home Builders

• Start using social media in May 2007• Uses Twitter, SmugMug, Facebook, Blog, Yelp• Works on social media 1 hour per day• Sold 16 homes in 2007, 40 in 2008, and over

100 in 2009• Sold one home using only social media– Never met the client in person



• Customer-centric strategy • Fresh blog content• GPS tracking in trucks with Google Maps– Keeps customers informed and workers accountable

• YouTube videos introduce customers to employees

• SmugMug keeps photo logs of customer projects– Customers log in to see project progress

• Currently has 12,000 twitter followers– Tweets about projects, tips, company updates



Why they are successful:

• Realized importance of relationships with customers

• Transparent• Well defined Social Objectives• Internal shared vision• Streamlined communication process• Sell experience to customers


Creating a Social Media Plan

• Preplanning• Listen to the Conversation• Create Your Target Profiles• Set Specific Goals• Join the Conversation• Measure ROI


Step 1 - Preplanning

Questions to ask internally:• Where do our customers get their information• What influences our customers? • How does information flow in our industry?• What promotional channels are we currently

using?– Are they working?

Asking questions indicates how social media can be used to complement your business goals.


Step 2 – Listen to the Conversation

• Secure your brand on social platforms– Usernames are often unique– Use consistent usernames across all platforms

• Set up monitoring channels– Google Alerts– Social Mention– Technorati– Twitter Search– Radian6

• Monitor influencers, competitors, blogs/comments, and industry news sources


Step 3 – Create Your Target

• Focusing on key target segments lowers marketing costs

• Example:– Target Audience is 25-35– $350 Billion in spending power– Spend 20 hours online weekly– 96% of them join social networks

• This information can be gathered through market research, surveys, or previous studies


Step 3 – Create Your Target

• Find key attributes from monitoring channels• Chart presence on social media• Market Segmentation– Demographic– Geographic– Psychographic– Behavioralistic

• Continue gathering customer data at each step of your plan


Step 4 – Set Specific Social Goals

• Increase brand awareness• Increase traffic/Opt-ins• Develop business partnerships• Boost SEO/SEM results• Generate Leads• Reduce CRM costs• Increase Revenue


• 3 Phases of Social Equity– Awareness• Qualify fans and followers as leads

– Engagement• Increase long-term communication• Exclusive promotions will help turn advocates into

customers– Social Commerce• Determine small data set to introduce products to• Gather product reviews

Step 5 – Join the Conversation



• Establish an Editorial Calendar– Choose specific days for posting content– Be consistent – you’re a news source– Helps stay on track and organize content– Choosing specific topics each day helps find

content ideas

• Share calendar with everyone involved


Step 5 – Join the Conversation• Be Transparent and Authentic– Don’t be evasive– Offer your name, title, experience– Admit your interests in the topic– Define your credibility

• Strive to answer questions about your authenticity

• Don’t focus on selling, focus on engagement• Earn a reputation, then introduce trusted

products



• Be the expert in your industry– Write about what you know– Offer insights to those who ask for it– Share links to resources you think add to the

conversation

• When customers trust your content, they’ll trust your products



• Have rules of engagement – Know what to do with negative comments– Determine who is involved in responses– Admit to mistakes and thank those who bring it to

attention – Respond Kindly

• Share the rules with your team• Turn brand “detractors” into “advocates” – People remember bad experiences, but will buy again

if it’s corrected


Step 6 – Measure Your Returns

• What is a Return?– Non-financial • Visitors, word of mouth, page views, fans, followers

– Financial• Sales, Transactions, Coupons• ROI

• Not all returns have to be $$ to bring value



• Qualitative– Are we part of our industry’s conversation? – How do our customers perceive us versus our

competitors? – Did we build key relationships?– Are we moving from monologue to dialogue?

• Quantitative– Website Analytics– Social Mentions– SEO Rankings– Linkbacks– Subscribers



• Establish before/after baseline– What did our online environment look like before

social media?– What online channels were we using?– What does it look like now?

• Determine hard numbers here– 5.5% conversion rate before– 8.5% conversion rate now

• This baseline should track at least 6 months



• Develop Activity Timeline along same baseline• Diagram exact dates in which key SM activities

occurred – 8/11 blog started– 8/13 Facebook page started– 9/15 FB ad campaign begins– 9/17 FB ad ended

• Note Milestones on diagram– 500/1000/10,000 fans– 100 clicks to blog link



• Look at Key Performance Indicators (KPI)– Transactions– New Customers– Sales– Revenue– Average Order Size

• Use Google Analytics to determine exact numbers• What are the transaction precursors?

– Brand mentions– Loyalty metrics– Store traffic– Free sample offers



• Overlay all timelines and look for patterns– SM Activities– Web Analytics– Store Metrics– Loyalty Metrics

• Circle areas where increases occur• How were specific numbers

achieved? – Facebook promotion– Product launch– Press release – Coupon offer


Budgeting for Social Media

• Allocation vs. Addition– Do you raise new funds or borrow from existing

budgets?• How to determine Allocation or Addition– What are your goals?– How much is your existing marketing budget?– Which current tactics work? Which are most

expensive? – What internal resources are available?


Budgeting for Social Media

• What to budget for:– Time– Design and Branding– Analytics Tools– Social Monitoring– Automation Applications– Social Media Advertising– Outsources/Consulting


How to Get Started

• Start with platforms you can actively maintain• What outsourcing is needed?– Design, development, content management, market

research• Plan your content flow– Will you push content through all channels?

• Find tools to automate processes– Tweetdeck– Hootsuite– Sendible


Additional Resources

• Blogs– Socialmediaexplorer.com– Socialmediatoday.com– BrianSolis.com– Mashable.com

• Tools– Tweetdeck.com– Ping.fm– Hootsuite.com– Trackur.com– Socialmention.com


Questions?

• For a free consultation on how we can help you take advantage of the opportunities provided by social media, please contact us with the details below:– Email– Website– Phone– Facebook Page


Business

Creating a Social Media Plan