Contents About Me .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Why Social Media Works ...................................................................................................................... 3

How Social Media, Content Marketing, and E-mail Marketing Fit Together ....................... 6

Content Marketing .............................................................................................................................. 7

E-mail Marketing ................................................................................................................................ 7

Social Media Marketing ..................................................................................................................... 8

Setting Up Your Social Media Strategy ............................................................................................ 9

How to Use Social Media to Grow Your List ................................................................................. 12

Examples of Great Profiles on Each Social Platform ................................................................. 14

Facebook .............................................................................................................................................. 14

Twitter ................................................................................................................................................... 15

LinkedIn ............................................................................................................................................... 16

Google+ ................................................................................................................................................. 17

Pinterest ............................................................................................................................................... 17

YouTube ............................................................................................................................................... 18

Understanding the Lingo .................................................................................................................... 19

Facebook .............................................................................................................................................. 19

Twitter ................................................................................................................................................... 20

LinkedIn ............................................................................................................................................... 21

Google+ ................................................................................................................................................. 22

Pinterest ............................................................................................................................................... 22

YouTube ............................................................................................................................................... 23

How to Optimize Your Profiles and Attract the Right Clients ................................................. 24

How to Sell with Social Media ........................................................................................................... 25

Your Next Steps ..................................................................................................................................... 26

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 2

About Me

I want to give you a little background about me and how I

came to write this guide. I started using social media many

years ago to promote my own business, an in-home wine

tasting business - my dream job!

I started helping friends and entrepreneurs learn how to use

social media for their businesses and watched as they

increased their sales and formed profitable joint ventures

through online connections. I wanted to help more people and I decided to do some

online social media tutorials.

But I wanted to be a little different. I wanted to build

something that was uniquely me and fun. So I blended

my improvisational comedy background with social media

to create Grandma Mary, a Social Media Edutainer.

As I grew my blog, got a following and provided

educational and entertaining content, I connected with Phyllis Khare who

recommended that I be part of the Facebook Marketing for Dummies, All-in-One,

author team. The book has been out since 2011 and is now in the 3rd Edition. I am

my own testimonial for power of social media. It has been a fun and wild ride and I

have loved every minute of it.

I hope you find this Quick Start Guide informative and helpful as you start your

social media journey. Please don't hesitate to connect with me on Facebook,

Twitter or just send an e-mail. I also do lots of group workshops, webinars and

one-on-one consulting if you want to really jumpstart your online strategy.

To Your Success,

Andrea Vahl

Andrea@AndreaVahl.com

www.AndreaVahl.com

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 3

Why Social Media Works

“We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it?” ~Erik

Qualman

Social media has changed the way we do business forever. It is not a passing fad or not something that

is just for kids. Every major brand has embraced social media as a way to reach people where they are

hanging out.

Social media isn’t just for big brands with big budgets. Small companies benefit from using social media

to stay on top of people’s minds. Small companies can also be better at listening and responding to

their customers on social media.

Recent studies have shown that social media use is only increasing. Take a look at some of the numbers

reported by Pew Research. Every age group shows big increases in social media use.

Credit: http://www.pewresearch.org/data-trend/media-and-technology/social-networking-use/

And we can also see which social networks are the most popular. Facebook continues to dominate the

social market but the other social sites are up as well. If you haven’t embraced social media yet, the

time is now.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 4

Credit: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/12/30/social-media-update-2013/

“Social media will help you build up loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will

willingly, and for free, tell others about you.” – Bonnie Sainsbury

Social media is digital word of mouth. People are asking for recommendations of businesses to work

with on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and wherever people are gathering on line. People may already be

talking about you there. But if you aren’t there, you may not know what they are saying (and it may not

all be favorable).

Let’s look at a few recent stats that help show why social media works:

50% of shoppers surveyed have made a purchase based on a recommendation made through

social media

71% of social media users are more likely to purchase from a business they are connected with

57% of businesses surveyed have generated customers through LinkedIn, 48% have generated

customer through Twitter, and 42% have generated customers through Facebook

Source: http://www.inman.com/next/why-social-media-actually-works-for-small-business-infographic/

Social media isn’t always easy. It’s not a “build it and they will come” strategy. It takes some effort. But

all marketing takes effort.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 5

Don’t sign up for every social media site all at once. Do one or two things well and

then add more. Make sure you know why you are doing it so you keep the big

picture in mind. There are huge benefits to participating in Social Media including:

Expanding your Internet presence

Growing your e-mail list

Connecting with current clients

Finding new customers

Forming joint ventures

Helping your Search Engine Optimization for your website or blog

Masterminding new ideas by watching others in your industry

Make sure you know why you are on social media and put key measurements in place so that you know

when you are successful.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 6

How Social Media, Content Marketing,

and E-mail Marketing Fit Together

Social media can’t live in a vacuum. You can’t expect to have a poorly designed website (or no website),

no content you create yourself, and no e-mail list and just use social media to make sales. People start

out thinking that they need to get on social media because everyone else is on it but you need to have a

strategy.

You don’t have to blog every day (there are other types of content you can create) and you don’t have

to have a super expensive website for everything to work perfectly but you do need to look professional.

If your website is not up to snuff, consider making an investment in that first before diving too deeply

into social media marketing.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 7

Content Marketing You need to have a plan for the type of content you are going to share on social media. If you are

blogging, that is ideal because you are creating fresh content (which Google loves) and adding more

keywords to your site which helps you come up in searches better.

But if you aren’t blogging, think about what you are going to share on social media. Is it going to be

other people’s blogs? Articles? Tips that you offer on your Facebook Page? You could also consider

using the LinkedIn platform to do some short articles there.

Start by making a list of the types of content you will share and how you will create this content. This

could be things like:

Helpful articles

Top tips in your niche

Your own blog posts

Images with inspirational quotes

Humorous posts with funny things about your niche

Links to events you are participating in or running

Information about your products or services

Pictures of things happening behind the scenes at your office

Then make a list of where you are going to source this content from. If it’s from other websites, list

those websites. I have a great article you can use to help you: How to Find the Best Content to Share on

Social Media.

E-mail Marketing Next you want to make sure you have a way to take your social media connection a little deeper by

connecting with them through e-mail. E-mail marketing is still the best way to get your message seen.

If you don’t have an e-mail provider, consider signing up for MailChimp, Aweber, or Constant Contact.

Getting people to give you their e-mail is more challenging these days. They want something good in

exchange for an e-mail address. “Sign up for my newsletter” as a call to action is not going to get the

same response as “Get My Top 10 Tips” or “Sign up for this free webinar” or “Get a 10% off coupon”.

You need to attract attention with your offer.

You may not want to spend a lot of time on creating something to give away but you will get more

subscribers if you offer something valuable – something you would even consider selling! It sounds

outrageous but it works.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 8

Then you should put your optin on your website in several places if possible. You can even put your

optin on your Facebook Page by using a Facebook App. I have a tutorial that shows you how to create a

free custom Facebook tab with Tabfoundry.

Make sure you follow up with people by e-mailing them regularly with valuable information (not just

sales messages). E-mail them at minimum of once a month so they are used to getting e-mails from

you. I e-mail messages once or twice a week but my unsubscribes are not that high because I give out a

lot of valuable content.

Once you give people a lot of valuable content, they will not mind some occasional sales messages from

you. Use your e-mail messages to do your selling for you.

Social Media Marketing People want to use social media to sell more products but it typically works best if you use social media

to drive traffic to your valuable content and also to your e-mail optin. Then you use your content or

your e-mail messages to do the selling for you.

Of course you can always tweet or post about a product or service you have for sale. But your sales

messages should only be about 10% max.

Social media works best when you:

Educate

Entertain

Evoke Emotion

Your audience will interact more with you when your post does one of these three things. Think about a

radio station you might listen to – if it was all commercials you would change the channel fast!

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 9

Setting Up Your Social Media

Strategy

Social Media is overwhelming. It shouldn't be something you do just because you

"have to". If you have a plan in place and know what success looks like for you

then you are more likely to benefit from using social media.

Here is one of my favorite Social Media quotes:

The thing about social media that seems to escape many people, is that it works best as

a lead generator or a way to get links only when it’s used first and foremost for true

social purposes. If you are using it because you think you have to, or as a duty,

you’ll never discover its full impact. You really need to love it and be a real part of

the conversation to get the most out of it.

- Jill Whalen, pioneer in search engine optimization

To start setting up your strategy, write down the answers to these questions:

1. What is your overall goal with social media? Drive sales, drive awareness, be

top of mind for customers, customer service, grow e-mail list? Pick your main

goal.

2. How are you going to measure that goal? Google Analytics, conversion

tracking, social monitoring, surveys? Great reference post:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/measure-social-media-roi/

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 10

3. What sites are you going to focus on? Which social site are your customers on

mainly?

4. How often are you going to post on each social site and what will you post?

Set up an Editorial Calendar.

5. How much time are you going to spend on social media? Set up a time limit

each week and stick to it so you don’t get too distracted and feel like social media

takes too much time. I find an Activity Calendar helps. Set up daily, weekly, and

monthly activities such as this one:

Reference article: http://www.andreavahl.com/facebook/4-easy-steps-to-

implement-a-facebook-marketing-strategy.php

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 11

6. How will you grow your followers? Great content helps but other activities

such as advertising, contests, outreach and other strategies also are critical to

growing your following. Here are some reference articles:

http://www.andreavahl.com/facebook/10-ways-to-grow-your-facebook-

following.php

http://www.andreavahl.com/linkedin/how-to-find-prospects-on-linkedin-

advanced-strategies.php

http://www.andreavahl.com/pinterest/using-pinterest-to-drive-traffic-to-your-

website.php

http://www.andreavahl.com/facebook/how-to-select-the-right-facebook-ad-to-

match-your-goal.php

And my e-book: http://www.andreavahl.com/products/how-to-use-twitter-to-

grow-your-business

Remember to measure your activities regularly and see what’s working best for

you!

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 12

How to Use Social Media to Grow

Your List E-mail is still king. That is where you need to do your selling and connecting with your customers is

through your e-mail messages. Remember to continue to provide value in your e-mail messages or

people will unsubscribe.

I think social media works best when you are using it to drive people to your e-mail list. This makes the

effectiveness of social media harder to measure. Because the sales come after people open your e-mail,

it might feel like social media isn’t working for you. You use social media to find the perfect people to

subscribe to your e-mail list.

You can do things to measure social media return like have a separate tag in your e-mail lists or a whole

separate e-mail list for all the people who optin directly from social media. It depends on your e-mail

provider.

Some people wonder what they can offer to entice people to give them their e-mail address. Here are

some ideas:

Exclusive coupon or first time customer deal

Free report or white paper (put together a few of your best blog posts if you don’t have

anything — it doesn’t have to be something long, it just has to be good, valuable content)

List of resources that is put together in an accessible way

Some tool that they can use (a scheduler, a template)

Top 10 tips about your niche

Access to a recorded webinar that isn’t available on your site for free

An e-course that you deliver through a series of e-mails

Free 15-minute initial consultation (only do this if it works well for you to convert people into

customers and you have the time available)

You can also run a contest to build your e-mail list. People enter your contest with their e-mail address

and you just let them know that they will receive updates from you.

Now post about your offer regularly on social media so that your following then opts in to your e-mail

list. You can even use Ads to help you target your perfect customer with the offer.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 13

Here’s an example of a Facebook Ad I used to get people to optin to my free webinar. When then optin,

I’m then able to connect with them more on my e-mail list. If you want to know more about setting up

this type of ad, see my blog post: http://www.andreavahl.com/facebook/2-types-facebook-ads-get-

leads-business.php

I also have a fantastic course called Facebook Advertising Secrets where I teach you exactly how to set

up ads, get the cheapest clicks, target your ads properly, and more. Learn all about it here:

http://fbadvertisingsecrets.com/

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 14

Examples of Great Profiles on Each

Social Platform

Take a look at these examples and see how you might make some quick changes to your own profiles to

give them a boost.

Facebook Facebook is harder to show because the length of the sidebar. Take a look at the next section to give

you some reference articles on what you need to do to optimize your profiles.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 15

Twitter

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 16

LinkedIn

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 17

Google+

Pinterest

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 18

YouTube

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 19

Understanding the Lingo

Half the battle is understanding what people are talking about when they refer to something within

each social media network. Here are some definitions and references for you. You also may want to

bookmark this set of reference links I have: http://www.andreavahl.com/social-media/huge-list-of-

social-media-help-and-reference-links.php

Facebook Personal profile – your profile with your name and your photo. You cannot have a business as a

personal profile (with friends) because it’s against Facebook Terms.

Groups – a community that people join. You can have public, private, or secret groups. This can be for

your business but any member can post something into the group so you will need to moderate. More

appropriate for natural groups such as a school, an interest, a networking group, etc.

Page, Business Page, Fan Page – these are all interchangeable terms that are for a business or

personality. People Like a page and it’s more of a one-way stream of information from the Page to the

person who Likes it.

News Feed – this is all the information you get from your friends, Pages, and Groups. You access this as

your default view when you log in and if you click Home at the top of the page. This is unique to you

and cannot be seen by others.

Timeline – this is the profile view of a person, yourself, or a Page. Here you see all the posts that that

person or Page has made and the comments below the posts. You control who sees the information on

your Timeline in your Privacy settings. A Page’s Timeline is always public unless they have changed the

targeting of some of their individual posts. You access this view by clicking on your name at the top, or a

person’s name, or a Page’s name.

Tag – you can tag other friends or other Pages by typing the @ symbol and then typing the friend’s or

Page’s name. This will allow an active link where others can then easily connect to the person or Page

that you are tagging. The person or Page will also get a notification that you have tagged them and your

post will appear on their Timeline (unless they don’t allow it).

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 20

Twitter

@reply – this is used to directly talk to someone or mention them. If you put someone’s name here,

they will see it in their Mentions area and know you are talking to them, ie @Oprah Love your show.

Everyone who follows me will see that I said that to Oprah. You can talk anyone you want to, even if

they aren’t following you.

DM or Direct Message. This is a private message. No one sees this except for you and the person who

sent it. You can only send someone a private message who is following you. A word of warning, there

are “auto-DM” programs out there to automatically send DMs out so a large percentage of your DMs

are going to be spam.

# or hashtag. This is a way to break a conversation out into a type of “chat room”. Used a lot for

conferences or events where everyone wants to talk about a mutual subject but may not be following

the other people, ie. #CES2011 or #MOMeo chats. Use Tweetchat.com to follow these conversations or

participate in them.

RT or Retweet. A way to pass along information from one person you are following to all your

followers. If you like a quote or website that someone tweets, retweet it to spread their message. This

is the viral nature of Twitter.

Here are some tools to help your productivity (the top 3 are the most useful):

search.twitter.com – great search tool – use the Advanced Search to go in depth. Use it to monitor

what people are saying about your niche right now.

Hootsuite.com – web-based application that sorts out your followers, does searching and makes

retweeting easier (also can update Facebook and LinkedIn) Built in statistics to track how many people

click on your links and you can also schedule tweets to go out later.

FollowerWonk.com – Find followers based on keywords in their profiles.

Twitpic.com – share photos easily

Tweetchat.com - Participate in Tweetchats easily by filtering on a hashtag and automatically entering

that hashtag into your tweets.

bit.ly – track how many people click your links

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 21

Tweepi.com - An easy way to unfollow people who aren’t following you back.

SocialOomph.com – set up tweets to be sent out a regular intervals

Bufferapp.com – Automatically spaces out your Tweets throughout the day at optimal times that you

have control over. Great tool!

LinkedIn

1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd degree connections – how closely people are connected to you. Your 1st

degree connections are the people you are actually linked to. Your 2nd degree are the connections of

your direct connections, etc. When you search through LinkedIn it shows you the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree

connections at the top of the search. So it’s important to be connected to a lot of people so that you

come up in the searches higher.

In-mail – A paid service that allows you to send a private message to people who aren’t in your direct

connections.

Endorsements - a quick and easy way to say that a connection has a particular skill. You might be

endorsed for skills that are listed on your profile such as Blogging, or Sales. These aren’t as valuable as

actual Recommendations.

Recommendations – a written recommendation from one of your Linkedin connections that stays on

your profile. You receive them for a particular job title and can request them from your connections or

give them to others.

Company Pages – a page for your company. Pages can have followers and post updates.

Groups – communities on LinkedIn facilitated by people. You can start your own group or join groups

and post updates. If you start a group they are best when they are moderated consistently. Status

Status Updates – posts that go into the LinkedIn feed of your connections.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 22

Google+

Circles – putting someone in a circle means that you follow their updates. Ideally you put similar people

into one circle. So you can have a circle for people you’ve met at a particular conference or people who

have the same interest or local friends.

+1 – the equivalent of Liking a post on Facebook. You can +1 something on the web or +1 a particular

post or comment. Stream – the posts from everyone you have circled.

Communities - the equivalent of Groups on Facebook or LinkedIn. You can join communities or start

your own.

Pages – a business can have a Page on Google+ and have people who have circled the page so that they

get the company updates.

Hangouts – a meeting with up to 10 other people with video.

Hangouts on Air- these are like a Hangout but are broadcast to an unlimited number of people and

simultaneously recorded to YouTube.

Ripples – a way to see how content is shared on G+. You can click on any post and view the ripples and

discover new people who may be interested in your content.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-must-know-tips-about-managing-your-google-circles/

Pinterest Pin – an image or video added to a Pinterest Board

Board – a set of pins ideally all about a certain thing (i.e. “Kitchen Ideas”, or “Facebook tips”)

Pinning – the act of adding pins to Pinterest

Repin – pinning something another pinner as already pinned onto one of your own Boards (this is an

encouraged thing)

Like – to like a pin

Comment – to comment on a pin

Pinterest Tools: http://www.razorsocial.com/pinterest-tools/

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 23

YouTube

Channel – where your videos are hosted. An individual can have a channel or it can be branded with

your company information. It is tied to a Google+ profile or a Google+ Page.

Subscriber - someone who follows your channel. They will receive updates when you upload a new

video and you can message your subscribers.

Trailer – a short featured video that stays on your main channel page.

Annotations – you can add callouts, text, and links to your videos.

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 24

How to Optimize Your Profiles and

Attract the Right Clients

Basically your profiles on all sites come down to four things:

1. Choosing the right images

2. Having a compelling bio filled with your perfect keywords

3. Posting great content regularly

4. Using the extra tools available on each site to brand yourself

I have a great set of Infographics that are checklists for each social site to make sure you have your

profile optimized. Go grab them and use them!

Facebook Checklist

Twitter Checklist

LinkedIn Checklist

Pinterest Checklist

Google+ Checklist

Youtube Checklist

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 25

How to Sell with Social Media

Usually everyone wants more sales from social media. You can definitely use your social sites to talk

about products or services you have to offer. But you also have to give value with your posts first. Give

first and then ask for the sale later.

Again, free works best as a lead-in to the sale on social media. If you can do a free-trial or a coupon,

that always helps. But that isn’t right for every business.

Again, I’ve already stressed the importance of using your e-mail list to sell but here are some other ways

you can use social media can help your sales:

Post customer testimonials to help with social proof for your product or service

Demonstrate your product in action either with video or pictures

Build relationships with your prospects – social media is a place to network

Reinforce your sales messages – a prospect has to see an offer 5-7 times to make a buying

decision

Show good customer service through social sites – many potential customer look at a brand’s

social sites to get an idea of complaints and responses

If you can track your sales that come directly from social media, you will more easily see the value of

using social media. Use things like Google Goals or tracking URLs. Here are some great reference posts:

http://www.advancedwebranking.com/blog/measure-social-media-success-in-google-analytics/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-track-social-media-traffic-with-google-analytics/

©2015 Andrea Vahl, Inc. 26

Your Next Steps

Hopefully this has not been too overwhelming. I know social media can be like learning a foreign

language and using it well is a skill you need to develop.

I recommend just picking one or two social sites and doing them well. Don’t try to do it all at once. And if

you get frustrated, get help.

Getting focused help from an expert can take a year off of your learning curve and save you hours of

time hunting for the right answers. I do one-on-one consulting but even if you don’t use my services,

find someone who is an expert in what you want to know. I know I’ve hired many coaches and taken lots

of courses and I would not be where I am today without them.

You can get more information about my coaching here: http://www.andreavahl.com/social-media-

coaching. And if one-on-one help isn’t in your budget right now, consider my FBInfluence course – it’s

EXTREMELY affordable at $97 for lifetime membership. We have had over 20,000 people go through the

course and it gets consistent 10 out of 10 ratings. If you want to really leverage Facebook Marketing,

this is the #1 selling course online today. Get all the details here:

http://www.andreavahl.com/fbinfluence

In any case, you are connected to my e-mail list and I will continue to send you fabulous blog posts,

trainings and other things to help you along your way. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this

and invest in your marketing education!

And if you enjoyed this e-book, I’d love to have you share it with your friends – just click here to tweet it

out!

Thanks and see you on social media!

Andrea Vahl and Grandma Mary :)

www.andreavahl.com