Your Social Media Toolkit: Roll up your sleeves! Toronto August 20, 2013

Donna Papacosta

Discussion points today

•  Why social media? •  Review of tools •  Integration of social media into your

work

Traditional vs. social media

•  Broadcast vs. conversation

•  Control vs. lack of control

•  Static vs. frequently updated

Benefits of social media

•  Publish information easily and quickly

•  Market research, customer service

•  Increase brand awareness/SEO

•  Show human face of your organization

•  Build relationships

•  Be better positioned in case of crisis

IT’S NOT JUST NUMBERS!

Klout: Take with a grain of salt

How to listen •  Google Alerts, Feedly

•  Hootsuite/TweetDeck for Twitter searches

•  Socialmention, mention for searches

•  Engagio as a social dashboard

•  Radian6 and Sysomos (paid) monitoring services

Importance of integration into your strategy •  Social media is not a strategy

•  Facebook is not a strategy

•  Twitter is not a strategy

•  G+ is not a strategy

•  Pinterest is not a strategy

•  Get the idea? (More on this later)

Wait! Where is your audience?

Using social vs. being social

Let’s look at tools

Blogging

•  Linchpin of your social media efforts

•  Easy way to share content, including multimedia

•  Increases SEO

•  Positions you as a leader in your niche

Blog as hub

Blog  Twi)er  

Google+  

LinkedIn  

Facebook  

Pinterest  

Get known, get remembered, get blogging

•  Blog consistently, with your goals in mind

•  Write for humans, but think of SEO

•  Use photos, graphics, multimedia

•  Make it easy to share and subscribe

Tips for better blogging

•  Keep it short; use lists and subheads

•  Play off current events

•  Use someone else’s post as a jumping-off point

•  Comment on others’ blogs

•  Always be relevant!

What to blog about?

•  Industry news

•  Insights, opinions

•  Tips and how-to

•  Original content plus curated content by others

Since you asked …

•  I recommend WordPress as your blogging and content management system

•  NOT Wordpress.com

Twitter

About Twitter

•  Micro-blogging platform

•  140-character tweets

•  Can reply and send direct messages (DM)

•  Following is asynchronous (OK to NOT follow back)

Twitter benefits

•  More than 100 million users around the world

•  Follow news, industry leaders, smart people

•  Build relationships

•  Answer questions to establish credibility

•  Twitter links send traffic to your site/blog

For me, largest referrer

Twitter lists (TweetDeck example)

Twitter lists

Twitter lists

Easy to create a list

Add someone to a list (can also do in TweetDeck et al)

Twitter steps

•  Set up your account first

•  Be sure profile is complete, with photo AND link to your website or blog

•  Publish tweets before following

•  Be consistent

•  Be polite; no auto DMs or spam

Whom should you follow?

•  Your clients, business partners, suppliers

•  Your competitors or peers

•  Trade or professional organizations for your industry

•  Journalists covering your field

•  Smart people you want to get to know

Twitter success

•  Well-written bio with link to website

•  Monitor your company and brand

•  Follow interesting people; build relationships with influencers, potential clients, journalists

•  Promote news, articles, etc.

•  Share updates from trade shows, conferences

Twitter success – continued

•  Engage; don’t just broadcast

•  Use hashtags

•  Set up persistent searches

•  Create Twitter lists

•  Manage Twitter with TweetDeck or Hootsuite

•  Get Twitter on your smartphone

Twitter abbreviations

•  RT = retweet

•  MT = modified retweet

•  H/T = hat tip (can also use “via”)

•  CC = carbon copy

•  DM = direct message

Buffer: a smart way to tweet

TweetDeck

Hootsuite

Hootsuite vs. TweetDeck

•  Cost: TweetDeck is free, Hootsuite starts at $8.99 per month (30-day free trial)

•  Interface: TweetDeck easier on the eyes

•  Scheduling: both

•  Update multiple networks: Hootsuite wins

•  Features: Hootsuite offers bulk scheduling, Google Analytics and more

Twitter chats

•  Public conversation around a unique hashtag

•  Recurring around topic or event

•  Host one or follow one

•  Great for community building

•  Try Tweetchat tool

•  Examples: #blogchat, #b2bchat

Consider Twitter tools

•  Wefollow.com (people directory)

•  Twibes.com (directory of people, lists)

•  Twitalyzer.com (Twitter stats) Beware: Don’t get hung up on stats; engagement matters more.

Twitter #FAIL •  Twitter use not part of overall strategy

•  No room to retweet

•  #Too #many #hashtags

•  Broadcast only; lack of response

•  Excess automation; auto DMs

•  Incomplete or weak bio (why would I follow you back?)

Pros and cons: Twitter Pros

•  Low cost, real time

•  Ideal for customer service

•  Easy to connect with influencers

•  Can target conversations with hashtags

•  Searchable

Cons

•  140-character format

•  Frequent phishing

•  Scammers

•  Hashtag hijacking

•  Short shelf life

Twitter hands-on

•  Boost your bio

•  Set up TweetDeck

•  Create a list

•  Follow a hashtag

•  Investigate Bufferapp.com

Curating Twitter content with Paper.li

LinkedIn

Optimize your LinkedIn profile

•  Use business-like photo

•  Write keyword-rich headline; think SEO

•  Customize your URLs

•  Add Twitter handle

Don’t do this

LinkedIn tips

•  Update your status at least daily

•  Participate in group discussions; consider starting a group

•  Don’t let LinkedIn be a tombstone for your resume

•  Network before attending events

•  Always customize your invitation

LinkedIn company page

•  Tell company story

•  Highlight products and services

•  Engage with followers

•  Share jobs

Pros and cons: LinkedIn Pros

•  Most popular business social networking site

•  Professional

•  OK to talk business

•  B2B discussions in Groups

Cons

•  Sometimes drops popular features

•  Lots of noise in Groups

•  Limited interaction

LinkedIn hands-on

•  Review your profile; how can you optimize it?

•  Look for pertinent groups

•  Commit to posting an update at least once per day

•  Find someone to recommend or endorse

About Facebook

•  The social network for university students that became a 21st century phenomenon

•  Many still use it for social only, not business

•  Others have “business friends”

Personal Facebook profile

Facebook business page

Facebook tips

•  Know the difference between a personal profile and a page

•  Remember you don’t own the platform; Facebook can change on a dime

•  Facebook is a walled garden

Tips for effective Facebook posts

•  Always remember your audience

•  Keep it short

•  Use photos

•  Ask questions to increase engagement

•  Engage, engage, engage

Gaining “likes” on Facebook business page •  Be sure to get your vanity URL at

www.facebook.com/username

•  Give people a reason to come back

•  Engage

•  Ask and answer questions; reply to people

•  Make it fun or at least educational

More Facebook tips

•  Highlight your most important posts

•  Link to current events

•  Share your brand story

Pros and cons: Facebook Pros

•  Easy to use

•  Most popular, with more than 1B users

•  Highly targeted advertising

•  Easy to generate buzz, contests, etc.

•  “Like” button used all over the Web

Cons

•  Low business page visibility

•  Walled garden

•  Poor mobile experience

•  Platform changes without notice

•  Privacy concerns

Facebook hands-on

•  Check privacy settings on your personal profile

•  Is a business page for you? Plan before you create one.

•  If you have a business page, grab your vanity URL.

G+ benefits

•  Integrated with Google Search, etc.

•  Google Hangouts useful for video conferences, meetings

•  Networking, learning

•  Build yourself up as trusted authority

•  Create and nourish Communities

G+ Circles

G+ Communities

G+ tips

•  Use Circles to group people you follow

•  Learn to format posts (use * to bold)

•  Use + to mention people in a post

•  Add appropriate #hashtags to post (helps your SEO)

•  Add images, video

More G+ tips

•  Write a strong About page with links to your products/services on website

•  Be sure to authenticate Google Authorship to take advantage of SEO and boost visibility

Google Authorship

Pros and cons: Google+ Pros

•  Clean interface

•  No ads

•  Integrated with Google search

•  Supports rich multimedia

•  Communities add value

Cons

•  People you know may not be there

•  Google has history of dropping platforms

G+ hands-on: Create a profile; add me to your Circles

Pinterest

About Pinterest

•  Virtual pinboard

•  Digital scrapbook/curation tool

•  Ties into trend toward visual communication, curation, social sharing

•  Easy and fun to use

•  Drives more traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and G+ combined

Be a better pinner

•  Become an expert in a niche

•  Use browser extensions for easier pinning

•  Try mobile version

•  Go to “Popular” category to find trending pins

Instagram

Can follow people or hashtags

Instagram for busines s More than 40% of major brands use Instagram.

Better Instagramming

•  What does my audience want to see?

•  What will get them talking about my company?

•  Use people pictures when appropriate

•  Use hashtags!

Slideshare.net

Social media + content marketing

Content at centre stage – not self-serving copy

Always be interesting!

They sell solder paste!

•  73 blogs by 17 authors, mostly engineers

•  Increased leads six-fold

Become a social media power user

•  Use social media every day to learn and share

•  You do not need to be on all platforms; pick a couple

•  Always engage; be generous

•  “Think” social media; make time for it!

•  Keep learning

Design your social media roadmap

Suggestions for your roadmap

•  Know your business objectives and social media goals

•  Choose social networks (where is audience?) and automation tools (Buffer?)

•  Make sure your profiles rock

•  Always share great content

•  Engage with people; don’t just broadcast

Engagement tips

•  Ask and answer questions

•  Share links, photos videos

•  Run contests (check rules first)

•  Review books and events

•  “Give before you get”

Where to learn more •  Social Media Explorer

•  Social Media University Global

•  Social Media Examiner

•  Seth’s Blog

•  Six Pixels of Separation blog and podcast

•  For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report podcast

Please keep in touch

Donna Papacosta donna@trafcom.com 905.844.7645

trafcom.com @donnapapacosta