1. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY IN 7 EASY STEPS FROMSUPER SMALL TOSUPER BIG So, for just about anybody.BY MANOAH KLAASSE

2. Social media are media for social interaction, using highlyaccessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social mediauses web-based technologies to turn communication intointeractive dialogues. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein alsodefine social media as a group of Internet-based applicationsthat build on the ideological and technological foundationsof Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Businesses also refer to social mediaas consumer-generated media (CGM). A common threadrunning through all definitions of social media is a blending oftechnology and social interaction for the co-creation of value. 3. CONTENTS BEFORE WE START STEP 1 FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW STEP 2 FIND OUT WHAT YOUR CLIENTS WANT STEP 3 START ENGAGING & ADD VALUE STEP 4 BECOME A PLATFORM STEP 5 TELL A STORY STEP 6 START YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK STEP 7 GO AND DO IT! ABOUT THE AUTHOR 4. Viral marketing and viral advertising, (buzzwords), refer tomarketing techniques that use pre-existing social networksto produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve othermarketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virusor computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth deliveredor enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viralpromotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flashgames, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, oreven text messages. The goal of marketers interested in creatingsuccessful viral marketing programs is to identify individualswith high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create viralmessages that appeal to this segment of the population and 5. BEFORE WE START This is a guide which can be used by people with different levels ofexperience with social media. To find out what steps are relevantfor you, please find out who you are, based on the list below.BEGINNER REAL REGULAR USERI DONT HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA ExPERIENCE ATSOCIAL MEDIA IS PART OF MY COMMUNICATIONALL. I DONT EVEN HAVE AN ACCOUNT YET. AND EVERYDAY PRACTICE, BUT I WANT TO ExTEND MY POSSIBILITIES.Lucky you! Because youre about to discoversomething revolutionary. Start with step 1. Then You might want to start at step 4.read step 1 again. Then again. It is really, reallyimportant that you understand it. If not, contactEXPERIENCEDme on and I will explain it to you personally. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT COMES AFTER HAVINGThe last steps will seem to be a bridge too far forA COMPANY ACCOUNT.you, yet. Use it as a goal to focus on and base yoursocial media strategy on it. Start at step 6.REGULAR USER EXPERTI AM ACTIVE ON SEVERAL PLATFORMS AND I KNOW MORE OF SOCIAL MEDIA THAN YOUHAVE qUITE SOME FOLLOWERS/FRIENDS, COULD EVER DREAM OF.NOW WHAT? Please contact me asap, and tell me everything youSee Beginner. Really, only opening an account andknow.having added peers to your network does not makeyou a regular user. 6. Not convinced yet of the benefits of social media?Perhaps this movie can change your mind.Depending on your skills, you might encounterterms or concepts that you dont understand, forinstance co-creation or app. This guide is tooshort, though, to explain everything concernedwith social media. But heres the good news: socialmedia takes place on the web, so everything thathas to do with it, is on the web too. So you can lookit up! Cant find it? Contact me, and Ill explain.Additional note: everywhere she or her is used,he or him can also be meant. Social Media Revolution 2010 by Social Media Energy 7. Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., whichoffers a social networking and microblogging service, enablingits users to send and read other users messages called tweets.Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayedon the users profile page. Tweets are publicly visible bydefault, however senders can restrict message delivery to theirfriends list. Users may subscribe to other users tweetsthisis known as following and subscribers are known as followers. 8. STEP 1: FORGET WHAT YOU KNOW So you want to start using social media. Could I ask you why exactly? Oh, let me guess. Because everybody does it? Come on, you know thats not the real reason. Ah, because you want to have more customers. No? Well then, perhaps because you want to sell moreWHAT IS THE RESULT FOR YOU? products. Wrong again? Let me think because you are looking for cheap ways for your marketing The answer comes from Stef de Jong: communication? I knew it. In the Netherlands, products are priced on Well, think again, because these are all the wrongVergelijk.nl, rated on Kieskeurig.nl, judged on reasons. Let me explain why.Radar.nl and sold on Marktplaats. John from Rotterdam has a better online shop than the Internet enables people to connect to each otheradvertiser, he sells through eBay. Pete from on a huge, global scale. Okay, I hear you say, thats The Hague replies quicker and more extensive nothing new. It isnt. But social media gives peoplethan the customer service, she is on Tweakers. miles and miles away from each other tools to Nu.nl loses the scopes to Twitter and there are interact like they are in the same room, not only more people on Hyves (+/- 8,9 mln) than live by clinical text messages, but with movies, pictures, in Switserland (+/- 7,3 mln). In other words: games and blogs and forums full of discussions, the power lies at the feet of the consumer. [1] experiences, opinions, news and facts. Almost like real life.[1] DE JONG (2010) SOCiAL MEDiA MARKETiNG: COMMUNiTY MANAGEMENT. 9. Tip: Ive written a thesis which describes the history of social mediaand 2.0. You can download it here.Repeat that last sentence. Repeat it again. Andagain. Now, take a black marker and write it onyour forehead. Record it into your clockradio asa wake-up tune. The power lies at the feet of theconsumer.Now you know why all the reasons on the top of thispage are not valid. They are about what you want.SOCIAL MEDIA IS ABOUT WHAT YOURCLIENTS WANT. 10. Facebook is a social network service and website launched inFebruary 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook,Inc. As of July 2010 Facebook has more than 500 millionactive users. Users may create a personal profile, add otherusers as friends and exchange messages, including automaticnotifications when they update their profile. Additionally, usersmay join common interest user groups, organized by workplace,school, or college, or other characteristics. The name of theservice stems from the colloquial name for the book givento students at the start of the academic year by universityadministrations in the US with the intention of helping studentsto get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone whodeclares themselves to be at least 13 years old to become a 11. STEP 2: FiND OUT WHAT YOUR CLiENTS WANT How do you find out what somebody wants? Well, she will probablytell you, if you just listen. So start listening!If you havent created one or more social mediaWho exactly is your client? What do you know aboutaccounts, for instance Facebook, Twitter orher? If you would sum up all characteristics of allLinkedIn, this is the time to do it. Dont botheryour clients, take the average and thus combineopening an account for your company yet, just startthem into one person, who would that person be?with a personal account for yourself. Search for the That is your key individual, your stereotype client.online accounts of your clients and add them toMost companies do not have one key individual,your network. Next to only adding your clients, it isthey have several. You probably, too. Start makingalso wise to add other parties and stakeholders to a list of them, and be as extensive in your detailsyour network with whom you have contact being aas possible: age, sex, educational level, politicalcompany. Think of suppliers, developers, experts orinterests, hobbies, social class, etcetera. We will useadvisors, local politicians or financial institutions, this list in the next step.shareholders, peoplefromyour community,colleagues and friends. Later well see why this Now, find out what activity those people have online.is important. First, lets focus a bit more on yourWhat are they doing? Where do they participate inclients. conversations or post content? Find out what they have to say and where they say it. First, this has to be done manually. In later stages, you might want to start using monitoring tools, programs which automatically search for relevant interactions.Tip: examples of monitoring tools are Google Blogsearch, GoogleInteractions about you, for instance!Alert, Technorati or Backtype.com, just to name a few of themany out there. 12. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Foundedin December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly usedfor professional networking. As of 2 November 2010, LinkedInhad more than 80 million registered users, spanning more than200 countries and territories worldwide.The site is availablein English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.Quantcast reports Linkedin has 21.4 million monthly uniqueU.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally. Unregistered users canwatch the videos, while registered users are permitted to uploadan unlimited number of videos. Videos that are consideredto contain potentially offensive content are available only toregistered users 18 and older. In November 2006, YouTube, LLCwas bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and now operates 13. STEP 3: START ENGAGiNG & ADD VALUE Now that you have located the places where your clients interact, start engaging in these interactions. Add to the conversation! But how? And how often? What are the rules of engagement? Well, you have to understand that social media isOf course, telling people about yourself and pretty much a digital version of real life. Really,your activities is a good idea. However, its very exactly the same rules apply. For instance, imagineimportant to not only do that, a mistake made by yourself going to a bar. You enter the bar, step lots of companies (I use Twitter to keep my clients inside and shout something to the crowd, theninformed). People will start to ignore you if you walking out the door again. Its pretty unlikely you only talk about yourself, even if the content is of the will get the message across, let alone make anyutmost relevance. Compare it with somebody with friends [2]. Only when you visit the bar more oftenthe greatest job in the world always talking about and start talking with people, people will start toher own life. Despite the fact that she probably recognize you and become friends with you. Sodelivers very interesting content, people will feel theres your answer. Act online like you would doignored in conversations with her. People who only offline. Translate your offline social behavior to antalk (about) themselves are considered annoying, online one. Every time you use social media, think ofand will be ignored themselves in the long run. yourself being in bar. Engage in conversations and Successfully engaging in conversations is two-way, add value by helping people out, sharing expertise not one-way. or knowledge, amusing them with videos or photos or linking them to other people. [2] BELLEGEM, VAN S. (2010) WHEN ON TWiTTER, ACT LiKE YOURE iN A BAR.Tip: You can download an example of thementioned list here. Feel free to use it yourself! 14. Do you have accounts on multiple platforms? Then a social media aggregation tool is what you need! Yoono is probably the most well- known. Xobni integrates social media with your e-mail (Outlook).Just like in real life, in order to have a successfulinteraction you need to adjust yourself to the onewho is opposite you. This is a good time to startusing your list of key individuals. Expand the list withan overview of dos and donts per key individual.Also, on the list indicate which tools are suitable forinteracting with each key individual, and how thesetools can be used.All these engagements will build your online identityand attract more and more peers towards you,thus building your online network. In this phase,you will be the face of the company. Once you haveestablished a firm identity and have a significantnetwork, you can start building the online identityof your company or brand by creating its socialmedia account and directing your peers to thataccount. 15. YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload,share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees createdYouTube in February 2005. The company is based in San Bruno,California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to displaya wide variety of user-generated video content, includingmovie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateurcontent such as video blogging and short original videos. Mostof the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals,although media corporations including CBS, BBC, Vevo andother organizations offer some of their material via the site,as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregisteredusers may watch videos, and registered users may uploadan unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered 16. STEP 4: BECOME A PLATFORM Okay, so you have opened a social media account for your company.And your personal peers are slightly leaking in. What are you goingto do with it?Sure, you could start by posting news and updates After a while, hundreds of people contribute to it,about your company. Or, a step further, post contentresulting in the topic hitting a top-10 place in Googlelike, for instance, videos giving a look behind the rankings. People are starting topics theirselves, inscenes, or interesting pictures or information. which they post and discuss everything of relevancefor painters and painting.But remember from the previous step that onlyposting content is not enough. The idea is that you This goes on and on until, after a while, your pagestart with interaction, or: facilitate it. How couldis known as the place to be when it comes toyou do that?everything having to do with painting. Great, youprobably say, whats in it for me?Image being a painter, opening a social media page.Imagine starting a forum on that page and inviting aWell, if you think people will leave it to onlyfew people to discuss on the first topic. Apparently, exchanging knowledge, think again. Ever heardits a hot topic because the discussion is lively and of top-of-mind position? (No? Google it, quick!)more and more others are invited to join, causing You will become the first theyd call for a paintthe number of replies to grow rapidly.job. You have earned the status of expert, peopletrust you because of that and trust is the basis ofdoing business. This is new marketing: attractingcustomers by giving them something first. Welcometo the Pull era, say goodbye to good old Push. 17. Being the center of information exchange can Also, co-creation is a great way to come on one Tip: this step doesnt have to be limited to the digital domaineasily be linked with facilitating ways for people level with clients and make them feel part of theto meet each other, on basis of what they do orcompany. It really puts the customer in control.only. Rent a space somewhere and start organizing inspiration-,know. Something that enhances this even more,It generates many ideas from all corners of theis for instance interviewing business relations or world, is not bound to place or time, consults information and discussion evenings! And: co-creation canputting spotlights on customers in newsletters orhundreds at once which all, in turn, are possibleblog posts. Also, sorting all network-relatives into clients. It thus saves costs on development and on become a lively happening, if you announce (ideas for) newdisciplines might be a good idea, making it easy for marketing(communication).people to see who does what. products or services at those evenings and give room for feedback. Either way, its important that the online identity of your company or brand grows. The more fans, You can even divide people into think-tank groups and let them followers or peers, the bigger the identity. This can be sped up even more by telling a story. come with solutions, improvements or elaborations. The result will be an optimal win-win situation: Yourclientfeelslikeshehasworkedwithyouontheproduct(whichactuallyistrue) Becauseofthat,shegetsacustom-madeproductforthepriceofamass-product; Yourclientwillthereforelongforthemomentthatitbecomesavailable; Theylltellothersoutofenthusiam; Yougettohavevaluablecustomerfeedbackforfree. 18. Co-creation is a form of market or business strategy thatemphasises the generation and ongoing realisation of mutualfirm-customer value. It views markets as forums for firms andactive customers to share, combine and renew each othersresources and capabilities to create value through new formsof interaction, service and learning mechanisms. It differs fromthe traditional active firm - passive consumer market constructof the past. Co-created value arises in the form of personalised,unique experiences for the customer (value-in-use) and ongoingrevenue, learning and enhanced market performance driversfor the firm (loyalty, relationships, customer word of mouth).Value is co-created with customers if and when a customer isable to personalize his/her experience using a firms product- 19. STEP 5: TELL A STORYA step further in engaging in conversations and interactions, is totell a compelling story of yourself, or create one around you.An example comes from David Perez, creative There are numerous ways to get attention online.recruiter at advertising agency. To get attention The ultimate would be to become viral, which meanson the Lions Festival in Cannes, he invited people that people automatically forward and distributethrough Twitter to give him all kinds of assignmentsyour message for you. David Perez action is a goodto do at the Film Festival. Everything Perez wouldexample of that.do, was filmed from his point of view by a camera inhis glasses, and put online. This was a huge success: Another nice example of a viral is a Youtube moviehe got more than 20.000 assignments including called Hunter Shoots Bear [3], with as description:taking a tattoo and making a helicopterflight (he A huge bear attacks after being shot by a hunter.has fear of heights). In reality, it is nothing more than a commercialfrom Tippex. The viewer gets to choose whetherthe hunter shoots the bear who, in the end, refusesto shoot him. He erases the shoot from the titlewith a huge Tippex unit. Then its possible to type insomething that the hunter should do with the bear,and, if possible, the command is being executed.The movie has over eleven million views up untilnow.[3]HUNTER SHOOTS BEAR ON YOUTUBEHunter Shoots Bear by Tipp-ex 20. A similar example is on http://theuglydance.com/. You could think of a similar thing. Perhaps a smallIts from the Swedish band Fulkutur. On the site is application could be made with which users can playan extremely funny dancing person, which you canwith something that has to do with your company.give your own face by uploading a picture. After that This could also be an app. The app must howeveryou can choose from three sorts of clothing, andbe more than just product portfolio and be usefulthen a song starts making the person start to dance in some way. Its a waste of money if people wouldin a way that you can choose by clicking differentinstall the app, use it only once, and then delete it.dance moves. Fulkutur claims to want to release an Also, it would be even better if the app went viral.EP so are in need of new equipment, and after theThis can only be the case if its worth sharing, forsong, the viewer is given the possibility to donate.instance because it has a fun factor. Also, the appcould provide people with news or updates fromthe industry. In any case, the app should be worthwhile checking regularly. The Ugly Dance by Fulkutur 21. Top of mind awareness (TOMA) is When people think of youfirst to fulfill their product or service needs. Traditionally,TOMA has been achieved through traditional channels such asnewspapers, television, and magazines. Increasingly companiesof all sizes are moving towards social media like Twitter andFacebook over against traditional channels. Chicago Nowreports, Close to four-in-ten employers (37%) plan to put agreater emphasis on social media in 2010 to create a morepositive brand for their organization. Therefore, TOMA refersto percent of respondents who name a brand or product firstwhen asked to list companies in that industry sectorincluding,but not limited to traditional advertising channels. TOMA hastraditionally been defined as the percent of respondents who, 22. STEP 6: START YOUR OWN SOCiAL NETWORK So now you have your own social media place on the web.Congratulations! But did you ever realize that none of the mediayou investigate so much time in, is your possession? You are hiringit. What if Facebook or LinkedIn go bankrupt one day?There goes your five years of building your preciouson social media, he built his own networknetwork, gone in a flash. Oh no! What to do?MyBarackObama.com. Members of the networkcould share, interact and engage with each other, inAgain, compare social media to real life. It is other words do quite the same they could do whenperfectly normal for new companies to start Obama would have had a Facebook or LinkedIn page,out in rented buildings. Renting however meansbut in a self-designed, self-controlled surrounding,depending on an external party, which can alwaysand with great added features like the possibility todecide to sell the place or end the contract. Thissign up for campaign activities and keeping track ofis not such a problem with small companies as your personal making a difference-index.they are flexible and have a small reputation. Butimagine a company doing business for years andYour owned, closed social media world can becomeyears in a certain building, suddenly not being there a place of exchange between you and clients, oranymore. Especially if the building is a place whereclients and clients, but also between all peers asclients do lots of transactions, for instance a bankdescribed in step 2. It should become a platformor a shop, this could be a disaster. This goes thewhich creates an experience for its members.same for social media. When having established aSomething that will take this experience anothersignificant online identity, its time to buy your very step further, is making it into a co-creationown office on the web: start your own network. So platform, a Second Life-like virtual environmenta platform like Hyves, Facebook, or LinkedIn, but where participants can move around with theirthen not hired, but owned and controlled by you.online identity and are able to choose what projectWhat are examples? The most outstanding one they want to contribute to. This way you createcomes from Barack Obama. Being the first US a total online experience, which ensures that thepresident ever who based his election campaignright people add value in the right places and canMyBarackObama.com 23. also invite other people to do so. This can have aSo, what are we waiting for? I hear you say. Letshigh entertainment value (and therefore could start this network! Sorry, but I must disappointgrow very fast) but at the same time, its just tough you. At this moment, starting your own network iscommunity building. An example is IKEAs Design something financially not possible unless the nameYour Own Life, a site on which you can make a of your company is CocaCola, Nike or Virgin. Thepicture of rooms in your home, and then place IKEAreason that I am telling you is because technologyfurniture in it. After that, you can invite others to develops in such a rapid pace that it wont be longlook at it, or visit others yourself and comment on before it will be available for SMEs as well. And goodtheir furnishing. for you, because it is essential for a sustainablesocial media approach. The most important is, thatAnother example is Amstel Teamlink, a kind of now you got the picture of what social media canonline soccer canteen in which you gather withdo for you.your friends to discuss team results. 24. App is the cool way of saying cell phone application. Theseapplications are add-ons or bits of data added to a cell phoneso it can perform functions usually unrelated to makinga phone call. Cell phones always did come with a few extrathings unrelated to making phone calls, but these have greatlyexpanded, and now many people download the extra the appsthey want. Many of the early cell phone app programs weredesigned to make a cellphone more like a computer. They oftenintegrated some of the computer elements into the phone.While many of these early programs continue to be updatedand used to track things like business performance or email,they are only the tip of the iceberg in modern cell phone appofferings. Applications on a cellphone can provide the phone 25. STAP 7: GO AND DO iT! Like everything in life, beginning is the hardest part. Start bymaking it an everyday practice to spend time on social media byimplementing it in your planning. Find the places where theinteractions take place that you can add value to.After a while you will recognize patterns and logicin it, which makes things easier. The advantage ofthe strategy in this document, is that you can startreally small. Every tiny step that you undertake,every minute that you spend on social media willbring you slightly closer towards step 6. There is nohurry. And yet there is. The world is changing fast.So get out there and claim your online space! 26. Pay-What-You-Want is a new participative pricing mechanismwhereby consumers have maximum control over the pricethey pay. Previous research suggests that participative pricingincreases consumers intent to purchase. Sellers using PWYWface the risk, however, that consumers exploit their control andpay nothing at all or a price below the sellers costs. The authorsfind in three field studies that prices paid are significantlygreater than zero. They analyze factors influencing prices paidand show that PWYW can even lead to an increase in sellerrevenues. Participative pricing mechanisms, such as auctionsand Name-Your-Own-Price, can be seen as innovative, here inthe sense of unconventional, by involving consumers in theprice-setting process. Hence, innovative pricing models can 27. ABOUT THE AUTHORI am fascinated by the 2.0 revolution because I think it makes thisworld a better place . It is therefore my personal goal to inspirepeople from all over the world to embrace the new mindset thatcomes with it.I love adding value by participating in everythingthat has to do with 2.0, social media and lifehacking.So dont hesitate to contact me!In case you want to hire me for a longer period oftime, to develop strategies or even set things up foryou, then this is also possible. I work according toPay what its worth (Waardebepaling achteraf).This is a Dutch system which is not yet used muchoutside of Holland, so unfortunately the bestinformation is only in Dutch, but here is also somein English.Good luck!MANOAH KLAASSEmanoahklaasse@gmail.comTip: Please see my next e-book called How to becomeThis eBook is designed by Bernard Westerdijk, astunningly good graphic designer whom I recommendentrepreneur of the year 2021 in 7 simple steps (working title). working with. Go and check out his website:bernardwesterdijk.nl.Contact me if youd like a copy. 28. AUTHOR MANOAH KLAASSEDESiGN BERNARD WESTERDIJK