Strategy, Community & Creativity

Growing your Business with Social Media

Deborah Crawford

RunPee

Where are YOU now?

What’s your position/reputation/brand?

Do you have a website? How’s it doing?

Business social media accounts & profiles?

Personal social media?

Content? Blog, photos, video, etc?

Where is your industry?

Check out industry leaders

Check out your competition (and keep checking)

What are they doing that works?

How do they interact with the community?

Where are your customers, prospects and referrers?

Are they using social media?

Are they using social media to interact with brands?

How do they use SM? For Business? Purely personal? Not at all?

Strategy – Part One

Your Business Plan/Brand Promise/Mission/Values

Your goals—revenue, customers, markets, communications

Your customers—who are they? Your prospects—who might be a

customer? Your referrers? Who can send you

business?

Strategy – Part two

How can social media HELP you? What types of social media fit best? What resources can you allocate —

people, time, money? What do you have that can be adapted

to social media? Collateral, content? Work social media into your plan—not

vice versa!

Social Media Goals

Set some! Steal from your business plan. Write social media goals and a

marketing action plan. › Goal or Objective, Action steps,

Measurement, Target Date, Results

Community

Find them & help them find you Start with the community you already

have – friends, colleagues, networks Seek out your target markets,

prospects & referrers Join the conversation Listen & learn

Be a good citizen

“Me, me, me” is NOT being a good citizen

BUY FROM ME is even worse Be personal, even on your business

pages Not THAT personal! Build trust Build relationships

Community Building Tools

Respond! › It’s social media gold.

Retweet Share Favorite Comment Recommend Refer

Creativity

Keep your brand & goals in mind Have fun Brainstorm STEAL ideas Then, modify them – no plagiarism Promo calendar so you can always

have fresh ideas – holidays, questions, Get your community involved!

Creativity

Tell your stories. Educate your community about what

you know best Engage & connect with people Causes & current events

› Good connection points› Good for the community

Measure & Evaluate

If you set measurable goals, measurement is easier.

Give it time to grow. Things you can

measure—friends/followers, conversations, comments, traffic, leads, sales

Evaluate—what works, what doesn’t Tweak—what can you do better? What’s

a waste of time? What gets the best ROI?

Recap

Take time to do the ground work Integrate social media into your

business plans Have a strategy, but be ready to

respond to results Build your community and be a good

member of it Keep putting good, unique content out

there

Deborah Crawford Contact Info:

Twitter: debcrawford Facebook: Deborah Crawford LinkedIn: Deborah Crawford Bellaonline: Small Office/Home Office Email: debocrawford@gmail.com