wholesale florists & florist supplier association: social media 2013

Social Media Strategies & Best Practices

with Yvonne Ashton

Director of Marketing

Today’s Audience

Yes - ok/

good43%

Yes – major issues

22%

No35%

Facebook Participation

TYPICAL PROBLEM…

Marketing Challenges We Face

• It takes somewhere around 7-12 impressions/touches for an idea to stick

• 70% of the buying process is completed prior to sales engagement

• We have less than 7 seconds to catch attention• How do we know that our efforts are successful?

Outbound vs. Inbound• Outbound Marketing:– intrusive, interruptive, and a style of one-way shouting at our

customers .• Inbound Marketing:– conversations, collaboration, communities, and word of mouth.

WHAT COMES FIRST?SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT MARKETING

OR

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. – Content Marketing Institute

What is Wrong with These Posts?

Content Creation – Best Practices

• Change your mindset from marketing to publishing – creating content that educates or entertains.

• Brainstorm – what are your customers’ pain points, FAQs, related topics of interest, etc.

• Start a company blog• Create consistently• Speak like a human• Care & have passion• Involve other company employees

Content Creation Types

• Evergreen/Original

• Curated

• Repurposed

Evergreen/Original Content

Curated Content

Repurposed Content

You Created Content, Now Go Be Social

http://kathleendeggelman.com

Social Media Best Practices

• Get buy in from executives, sales teams, and other stakeholders

• Identify the best social media channels for your business

• Experiment to find out what types of content works the best

• ROI – know how you can track your social success

• Have a plan to deal with negative situations/posts

Social Media Strategies

• Define Your Social Media Purpose• Post Consistently; be reliable• Scheduling capabilities

– E.g. Hootsuite, Argyle and TweetDeck• Keywords

– Tools like Google Alerts help you track what your customers think is trendy; Your Sales People

• Collaboration– Employee buy-in, help with social management, tools to

collaborate (Hootesuite/Twitter parties)• Reporting

– Facebook Insights and Google Analytics• Blogging – this is the hub for your content

A Few of my Fave Resources:http://www.marketingprofs.com

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com

http://academy.hubspot.com/

http://www.marismith.com/

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/

Connect with me:yashton@mayesh.comhttp://www.mayesh.com/blog.aspx(LinkedIn)

Connect with Mayesh:https://www.facebook.com/MayeshWholesale https://twitter.com/Mayeshhttp://www.pinterest.com/mayesh/http://instagram.com/mayeshwholesalehttps://www.youtube.com/user/MayeshWholesale

15 Killer Questions to Spark your Content Creation

• What specific needs do my customers have?• What are the common pain points of my customers?• How do we add value or provide benefits to our customers?• What service or product examples could be effectively highlighted with case studies?• What is new (products, services, research, theory) in the industry?• Why do customers like using us or what keeps them coming back?• How are we different and what makes us stand out from our competitors?• What company information, news or behind the scenes tidbits will people find

interesting? • How can we effectively create a connection with potential customers?• How can we maintain and strengthen relationships with our existing customers?• What common questions do customers ask us?• How can I promote my content once it is published?• Is it possible to make the content evergreen, so that in a years time it will still be of value?• How can we help our customers complete desirable goals?• How can we effectively communicate our brand values?

http://socialmediatoday.com/ubersocialmedia/1615906/15-killer-questions-spark-your-content-creation