The Advanced Guide for your Social Media Strategy

Why we are all here today…

Today’s presentation Facebook Advertising EdgeRank Facebook strategies Location Based Social Media Twitter YouTube Management of Social Media

Facebook Advertising:

What is Facebook Advertising? Facebook has 600 million users. Facebook allows you to enter all kinds of personal information, along with selecting “likes and interests.” Facebook allows you to ADVERTISE to their 600 million users using a “Cost Per Click” or “Cost Per Impression” model You can start today. What is Cost Per Click (CPC)?

Facebook Advertising…why? Biggest benefit: targeting. You can target by location (Country, state, or city). You can target by demographics. Age, sex, relationship, languages. You can target by Likes and Interests. You can target by Education and Work. Finally: you can target friends of friends (of friends). Examples of targeting: Maine Office of Tourism

Determine your goals and outcomes: You have two choices for the result of your ad: 1. Advertising something on Facebook. Like your Fan Page or an Event. An example would be engaging your target audience to “Like” your page. 2. Advertise a Web page. An example would be to send people to your reservations Web page.

How to set up your ad:

Facebook ads are simple and they put everyone on the same playing field Small business owner = huge corporation You get a 25 character title which serves as a headline. No “ALL CAPS.” Must be proper grammar. You get 135 characters. You get a tiny image which is 110 by 80 pixels.

How to pay for your ads: You pay by credit card or PayPal. You select your maximum bid per click. Remember, you are paying per click or “action.” An action would be someone “Liking” your page. You set a daily budget. Maybe you only want to spend $50 per day or less to begin.

The blurring line between websites and Facebook: It’s not good enough to have a website anymore. Facebook is great for live interaction and engagement with your customers. The near future and the blurred line between your website and Facebook. Where should you send people? Website vs. Facebook. One way vs. two way.

The Impact of Facebook EdgeRank 98% of users are greeted with “Top News” when signing on to Facbook This is determined by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm:

Top News vs. Recent News

3 Factors that impact EdgeRank 1. Affinity: How often do you interact with the post creator? How many friends do you have in common with the post creator? 2. Weight: How many people have interacted with the post? What type of interactions? What kind of interactions? What kind of content is included in the posts (photo, link, video)? 3. Relevancy: How timely is the post? Does the post contain content targeted at your interests or activities?

Facebook Strategies You will “Like” Key strategies – 1. Participate (be active) 2. Use content to serve, then sell 3. Connect with influencers 4. Empower your customers

The Do’s when using Facebook Do: 1.Provide rules for your page. Ex: Coca-Cola 2.Show fans you appreciate them with discounts and exclusive deals. 3.Provide entertaining and engaging content. Review what people like, do more of it. 4.Leverage Facebook’s Insights to craft your Facebook strategy. 5.Be timely. Get ideas at emotionscards.com 6.Offer incentives as a fan acquisition strategy.

6 Quick tips for acquiring “likes” 6 Quick tips for acquiring “likes” 1.Turn Buyers Into Fans At Time of Purchase 2.Incentivized Like, or “Reveal Tabs” 3.Facebook advertising 4.Incentivized Word of Mouth Contests 5.Include Social links in all your s 6.Send an quarterly about your Facebook page and tell them about your “Incentivized Like” discount

The Don’ts when using Facebook Don’t: 1.Don’t be overly promotional. Respect the space. 2.Don’t jump into a promotion without first looking at the market objective and baseline. 3.Don’t ignore what the likers are saying and ignore the types of content that they engage most with.

How to Facebook as a PR tool 1. Ask questions 2. Post trivia 3. Interact with fan engagement 4. Incorporate relevant photos 5. Relate to current events 6. Incorporate video 7. Content for time-sensitive campaigns 8. Include links

Five Traditional PR Tasks And Their Social Equivalents 1. Identify key messages, programming – create content calendars 2. Create media list – identify digital influencers 3. Build media relationships – engage with digital influencers 4. Secure media placements – secure Facebook posts, shares, tweets, etc. 5. Pitch – reach out to digital influencers

Find your Top 10 Influencers for Free! 1. Visit Ex: Disc Golfwww.mblast.com 2. Search a key word phrase about your business 3. Click on the names and get their contact info, including phone number, website and blog address and more. 4. Before you reach out, do your homework: - “Google” them - Read their work - Find them on Twitter

Engage Influencers mBLAST Four Rules for Identifying Influencers 1. Influencers must have topical relevance for your market 2. Popularity alone doesn’t necessarily equal influence. To better understand someone’s influence with your audience, look beyond their large number of followers to see if they matter specifically to your market. 3. Influencers have authority. Measure to see how authoritative the person in your markets by seeing how often they are quoted. 4. Beware of tools that offer generic influencer measurements, as no single score can accurately measure influence. Each individual will measure differently for each topic-based market segment and scores may change constantly.

How to Get People to Like Your Brand To build a stronger Facebook presence, companies need to find ways to add value ◦ Talk about what people want to hear ◦ Build affinity ◦ Inspire sharing A community without content is less interactive and less engaged. Use pop culture to attract attention. Visit Roost.com for content suggestions.

New strategies for your page New strategies for your page Couponing promotion. Ex: Today only mention you are a fan and receive 10% off. Use Facebook “Deals” under edit page. It isn’t all about money. Tie in pop culture with your brand Poll questions help you learn about your customers. Partner with other businesses and brands that have huge followings Small value, multiple winners Large value one winner

Facebook Contests Facebook Contests Contest need to follow Facebook’s rules. You can’t create contests on your wall. You can’t use Facebook functionality to run contests. Good contest example is Papa John’s. Resources for running a successful contest: - E-prize - Wirefire

Facebook Strategies to increase Edgerank Tell your friends about your promotion. This month we will select 10 lucky winners to get (incentive). Getting friends of friends increases Edgerank. Target related posts on big brand pages. Been seen as an expert and get good exposure. Ex: WCSH 6 Use symbol to maximize impressions

How often should I post? For pages less than 100,000 consumers, post 3-4 times a week ◦ Example: Maine Office of Tourism For pages with less than 600,000 consumers, post 3-7 times a week ◦ Example: Lowe’s For pages with over 1,000,000 consumers, post 3-7 times a week ◦ Example: Coke (run by consumers)

Best Ways, Days, and Times to Post Posts that contain less than 80 characters have a 27% higher rate of engagement. Posts that contain the full-length URL have a 300% higher level of engagement. The best times to post are: early morning, after work, and late at night. The best days to post are: Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Posting tips Post outside of business hours have 20% higher engagement rate. Post 2 hours before target audience is likely to read. Moms are a huge audience in AM. Dads are huge audience in PM. Algorithm swipes for keywords such as limited, today, time and dates. If you remove a post, tell people why.

Posting tips Engagement rates are three times higher on full length URLs (people don’t trust tiny URLs as much). 81% of posts are over 80 characters. Post less that 80 characters have a 27% higher rate of engagement. Tag likers in post so their friends see they “like” your brand.

More great posting tips Posts that end with a question mark get 15% higher engagement rate Provide A,B,C or D answers. Requires less energy for users and gets more engagement. Photos need to be recognizable in small boxes. Galleries are better for weekend posts.

More great posting tips Use the word “today” to increase Edgerank If you post a video, tell someone how long it is (2:40). More tips and tricks at

More great posting tips Negative posts add weight because they are authentic. Thursday is the best posting day (people are thinking about the weekend). Tease promotions or offers so people come back or want to check in on your page. Tell people what you want them to do…click, like, comment, etc.

Brands with good posting techniques Brands with good posting techniques People.com Maine Office of Tourism Old Spice Starbucks John Deere Gatorade Major League Soccer Carnival Cruise Lines SportsCenter Goodwill Oreo

Facebook Places vs. Foursquare Both are location-based platforms that offer deals, tips/comments Facebook offers more business friendly tools Foursquare is more gaming based with ‘mayorship’ and badge rewards Facebook has 7.5 million mobile users Foursquare has 200+ million mobile users

What to know when it comes to Facebook Places Still growing More limited Used in the U.S. only, but expanding soon! You can tag your Facebook friends and “check-in” with them

3 Ways Businesses can take Advantage of Facebook Places 1. Special offers: provide special discounts or promotional items for customers who show that they have checked during visit. 2. Promoting the business: Encourage customers to share their experience with your business. Promote that you can check-in with signage. 3. Rewarding customer loyalty: Share you last experience, get reward on next purchase or service.

What is Foursquare? is a location based mobile platform that makes cities easier to navigate, and more interesting to explore.

You need: A foursquare account A cell phone Passion for exploration and deals

Foursquare Users Over 8 million users worldwide 35,000 new users each day 2.5 million check ins a day

Marketing Strategies 1. Marketing is all about relationships 2. Twitter is about “Peripheral Connections” that are in sync with you 3. Twitter Marketing is about trust, trial, and teams. 4. Twitter Marketing is about Secondary Exposure. 5. Twitter Marketing rests upon the platform of “First Effectual Impressions”

Facts Facts T witter is used by just 8% of Americans (compared to 51% for Facebook). Brand Interactions Occur Predominately on Facebook Among the 25% of respondents that have followed a company in social media, 80% have done so via Facebook. Just 6% have done so on Twitter. 80/20 rule – 80% of content should be resourceful or helpful. 20% should be about your company.

Top 10 Tips to Growing Your Company 1. Copy what works 2. Customize your channel 3. Use keywords 4. Add your URL to the description 5. Plan your “Marketing Funnel” 6. Video responses 7. Create playlists 8. It is social media (interact) 9. Use multiple calls to action 10. Promote your video

Are you ? LinkedIn.com is a business-oriented social networking site. Connect with previous co-workers, get recommendations, etc. Great place to build your professional network. Good place to start for beginners because it doesn’t need as much maintenance. Highest level of professional content of all social media sites. Post and update your resume.

Social media responsibilities Managing engagement requires a structured team approach Community Manager role is one of the fast growing roles in digital media Community Manager must: ◦ Be authentic ◦ Listen ◦ Build relationships ◦ Be an expert of your product/company ◦ Engage both online and off

Social Media Policies in Place Social policy: Bridge PR, customer service, and human relations. Identify stakeholders, determine your objectives and benchmark best practices. Moderate comments, post relevant messaging, and mix up posts with news, updates, awareness, recruiting volunteers and fun things. Employee guidelines: Establish that employees are personally responsible for content, use disclaimer language and substantiate claims, respect laws and stick to their area of expertise. Don’t be misleading, provide confidential info, reference clients without approval, pick fights or comment on legal matters.

Social media experts often don’t understand your brand, and may be more concerned with themselves than the brand People that have passion get recognized more in social media and the press Hiring for Social Media: Who do you hire?

Social Media Management Community Manager – As the brand ambassador, the community manager must have outstanding communication and people skills. Metrics and Analytics – The 'optimizer' typically has lukewarm people skills, is known to speak quickly and is an expert at content optimization and penetrating Facebook's EdgeRank. Creative and Tech – This person is the muscle behind your Facebook efforts, and should be well-versed in working with photos, infographics and videos Strategy and Account – The brain of your Facebook strategy

Responding to Social Media Facebook posts receive 50 percent of their “likes” in the first 80 minutes. 80 percent occur in the first 7 hours 95 percent within 22 hours. New “Send” feature unveiled yesterday. In addition to clicking “like” many pages can create a “send” feature, making it easier to share content. Ex: Deals, promotions, gossip.

What are others saying about you? Socialmention.com NutShellMail.com Twilerts ◦ Don’t need a Twitter account. ◦ Delivered to your Inbox. ◦ Observation only. TweetDeck ◦ What are people saying about your community? ◦ Opportunity for you to respond.

Measuring Social Media Measuring Social Media Start with baselines. Create goals. Use Google Analytics to track Facebook referrals. Resources: - Meltwater Buzz - Radian 6 - New widgets are coming out regularly - Facebook Insights - Socialmedia.org

In Summary: Social media is not a trend. Be strategic in posting, know your audience. Find the right staff for your social media. Engagement, ask questions, get feedback. Consider advertising when applicable.

Questions? Questions? NOW LATER Nancy Marshall Agency Principal Greg Glynn Account Executive

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