Create Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Presented by: Rabiya Jilani

Agenda • Social Media Tools for Business:

• Facebook • Linkedin • Twitter • Google + • Youtube

• Creating a Social Media Strategy • Tools to help manage your social media • Things to remember • Questions

Facebook • Created in 2004 to allow individuals, specifically college

students, to connect with each other. • Facebook allows you to create a personal profile which you

can then use to communicate with individuals you know personally.

• For businesses you can do the following

Facebook Pages • You go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php • You choose a category for the page • Choose a name for the page and fill out the mini form to

create • Note: You will need to create a personal profile to build and

manage the page as an administrator • Anything you do on the personal side will not show up on the

business page unless you physically add it to the business page.

• Once you create a page, click on Edit Page to add additional information about the business, applications etc

Understanding the Page • The Like button is how users connect to your page • The Profile picture can be your logo, your image, product

image or anything relevant to your business • On the right side of the page, you will see navigation links and

applications . The pre-populated links may vary depending on your page category. You can always add your delete these links in the edit mode

• The top of the page has a photostrip which shows the most recent photos that you tag your page in or post to your page wall

• The Wall allows you to publish a post, add a poll, photo, link or video. The content you add here will appear in the newsfeeds of the people who like your page

• Likes shows pages that the business page likes

Additional Features Applications: Allow you to improve the user experience/information provided. Examples: Photoalbums, Youtube, Blog RSS, Newsletter sign up, reviews, customized applications. Insights: Tells you who your audience is How the audience is interacting Demographic and Geographic Information Learn about the different ways people are interacting and how often

Facebook for business Facebook Places Places allow your customers to check in to your physical store location and share it with their friends. With Places, you can also create Check in Deals to increase foot traffic into your store by offering special deals and discounts to people who check in.

Some Great Resources More information about Facebook for Business

http://www.facebook.com/busines Facebook for small and medium sized business

http://www.facebook.com/smbmarketing Advertising guidelines & policies:

www.facebook.com/ads_guidelines.php Guide to Facebook Ads:

www.facebook.com/adsmarketing Receive ongoing tips:

www.facebook.com/facebookads Create a Facebook Page:

www.facebook.com/pages/create.php Use social plug-ins:

www.developers.facebook.com/plugins Facebook Page Promotion Guidelines:

www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Twitter • Microblogging website • Allows you to create an account/username • Allows you to share text/images and location • Text limited to 140 characters • You can follow others,

• communicate with others public tweet • Send a direct message • you can promote others tweets via ReTweet option • you can add tweeps in Lists • use hashtags to label tweets

Twitter – Gloassary Mention Once you've signed up and chosen a Twitter username, you and others can mention an account in your Tweets by preceding it with the @ symbol, eg: "Glad your shipment arrived @janesmith!" Retweet When you see a Tweet by another user that you want to share, click Retweet below it to forward it to your followers instantly. Message If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user who's already following you, start your Tweet with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: "DM @joesmith234 what is your order number?" Hashtag Users often prepend # to words in their Tweets to categorize them for others eg: "Check out our new products for the Fall: http://t.co/link2 #fallsale" Think of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in search. SOURCE: http://business.twitter.com/basics/glossary

Additional things you can do on Twitter • Add location per tweet • Add profile picture • Add customized background • Advertise • Promoted Tweets • Promoted Accounts

• Great tool to gain insight, make connections worldwide,

Resource: http://business.twitter.com/ https://support.twitter.com/

Linkedin • Create an individual profile

• List all experiences • Add summary • Picture • Education • Qualifications , skills, awards, affiliations • List your websites

• Make Public Profile – Search Engine Friendly • Great for establishing connections • Create custom URL for personal profile • Connect – connect – connect • Ask for recommendations

Linkedin • Other great tools:

• Linkedin Advertising • Linkedin Answers • Linkedin Company Profiles FREE • Linkedin Groups • Linkedin Applications like blog, twitter, events, polls

• Powerful for showing knowledge/skills/qualifications Additional Info: http://learn.linkedin.com

Google + • Very new • You create a profile, add photographs, links, interests • Create Circles of friends/connections • You can interact with circles • Best feature: You can choose what information you want to

share with which circle • You can also create hangouts – group video chats for FREE • You can create sparks - A feed of just the stuff you're really

into More info: http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/+/demo/

YouTube • Depending on your business,

youtube can be a valuable tool

• Create a customized free channel

• Upload videos of • you presenting • your presentation • interviews with experts in

your industry • Create a video explaining

your products and services • Introduce your staff/team • Ask for video testimonials

• Run a contest • Add a call to action • Create how to videos • Post solutions to common

problems • Answer customer specific

questions using video

Youtube • Once you’ve made a video, use the youtube video editing tool

to make it even better – • Add audio/music • Add close captioning • Add transitions • More info: http://www.youtube.com/editor

• Share the video on: • Social media sites • Website • Blog • Add keywords/tags to video and a description to make it search

engine friendly

Remember: ALWAYS CROSS PROMOTE

Some Tools • Tweet Deck • Hootsuite • Co-Tweet • Seesmic • Friendfeed • Twitter Feed • Ping.fm • Monittor • TweetGrid • ReFollow • Twellow • WeFollow

• Compete • Technorati • Twittermeter • Facebook Insights • Twitter Counter • Tweet Grader • Klout

Things to Remember • Sound like a person, sound genuine • Listen to conversations and participate; don’t just broadcast • Ask questions, opinions • Respond • Develop a social media calendar – every day schedule time for

social media • Learn about your audience • Post relevant and valuable content and resources • Don’t spam • Analyze and Optimize – your strategy needs to keep adapting

to changing technologies and audience

Action Plan Name of Business: Names of people managing social media: Will you be managing this internally? Will you be hiring someone to manage social media? Will you have employees, business partners, volunteers, interns manage social media? How often will you be updating social media? This will be a learning process, but have some realistic goals and make it part of your daily routine. Get acquainted with the different social media outlets. Which tools will you be using ? Pick and choose the social media platform(s)/site(s) that best fit your marketing needs, reaches your target market and that you’re comfortable with. You DO NOT need to be on all social media platforms.

What tools are your strategic partners, clients and competitors using? Do your research, educate yourself. What is your business marketing goal? Your social media strategy is a part of your overall marketing strategy and not a way to replace traditional marketing. What is your social media marketing goal? How does it align with the overall business marketing goal? What are you trying to achieve via social media? What is your business’ unique voice? What is your competitive advantage? Establish social media guidelines, policies and procedures. This can be a list of things you want to achieve, assign tasks, objectives, roles etc. Make sure everyone involved with the business is involved and informed.

How can you bring your business story to life? Will you tell a story, use videos, testimonials, something else? Who is your customer/audience? Demographic, geographic, personalities, likes, dislikes etc. Who else will you be engaging with? Business partners/local businesses? Complimentary businesses? What content/information will be important to them? Remember, the goal is to give relevant and useful information What exclusive news/content are you going to share? Offer value don’t spam

How will you be promoting your social media presence? Website? Email signature? Business cards? Cross Promotion? Brochures? Newsletter? How will you encourage fan participation? Polls, questions, feedback etc Will you be playing giveaways, offering discounts, looking for feedback? How will you reward your followers? Special offers, news, resources, discounts etc Which monitoring tools are you going to use? Listen to what is being said about you and your business. Use services like google alerts. How will you handle negative feedback? Create an action plan to handle negative feedback. gy.

What are your benchmarks for evaluation? Number of people following you/fans? Number of engagements? Number of website visits? How often will you revise your strategy? Remember to always evaluate and adapt your strate

Questions?

Contact Loudoun Small Business Development Center

Rabiya Jilani rjilani@loudounsbdc.org

703 430 7222

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