Brian Groth’s Quick Guide

to Social Media

http://Twitter.com/BrianGrothhttp://BrianGroth.wordpress.com

May 2010

Overall Guidance: Earned Media(Earned Media=Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Fickr, Foursquare, etc.)

Be yourself:

• A real picture of you or the team behind the service’s online profile (such as http://Twitter.com/BrianGroth)

• Use your own voice; don’t speak like a press-release• Remember that this is relationship marketingThink of your strategy:

• Social media efforts are long term • Focus on your target segmentation • Solve the real needs of your community (people on different

services have different needs)• Amplify existing efforts (leverage your owned media) • Be cost efficient (think of your ROI)

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Overall Guidance: Earned MediaCommunicate:• No hard sales – support your customer, create something fun, etc.• Listen and share – it’s a two-way thing, not a one-way channel for your

message• Let your customer be the hero/celebrity • Follow/”friend” your customersAcquire customers/friends/fans/followers: • Share good, but relevant content• Reward followers with special offers• Re-tweet/like/share what your influentials in your industry sayGet your content shared/re-tweeted:• Name a follower or two in a tweet or comment• Give away stuff for re-tweeting/sharing your comment• Share breaking news• Use http://bit.ly to shorten URLs (& track them)

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Overall Guidance: Earned MediaDrive traffic to your site• Share the same content multiple times (1 per major time-

zone)• Pitch ideas to your community, asking for feedback• Have your profile point to your site or blog• Create unique metadata for your tweets (once released)Listen:• Read the comments on your Facebook wall, your blog, etc.• Create Twitter lists to follow/listen to influentials• Use TweetDeck, Seesmic, or other always-on tools to

participate• Use these same tools, plus Twitter Search,

http://twitterfall.com/, or others to track your brand4

Overall Guidance: Earned Media

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My Profile Examples:• http://twitter.com/BrianGroth• http://www.linkedin.com/in/bgroth• http://social.zune.net/member/bigbree1967• http://www.slideshare.net/BrianGroth• http://foursquare.com/user/briangroth• http://digg.com/users/briangroth• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Groth/119407968090116• http://grothadventures.spaces.live.com/• http://cid-817ed2a8693b5fc7.profile.live.com/• http://blogs.msdn.com/bgroth/

Overall Guidance: Owned Media(Owned media = your own web site, like www.BrianGroth.com)

• This is your web site with your message• Include your own blog, regularly updated (like

http://BrianGroth.wordpress.com) • Reuse content from your social media via Twitter

@Anywhere, Facebook Open Graph, Messenger Connect, and embedded YouTube videos

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http://briangroth.wordpress.com/ http://www.briangroth. com/

Overall Guidance: Paid Media(Paid Media = advertisements)

– Use ads to drive traffic to your owned and/or earned media, depending on your strategy

– Have the ad (image or text) match the tone-of-voice of the site you’re directing people to

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Example of a theoretical banner ad Search ad

Useful Links• Know your Social Currency:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/145/next-tech-five-steps-to-social-currency.html

• Twitter for Marketing: http://holykaw.alltop.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-marketing

• Facebook for Marketing: http://bagtheweb.com/b/fHWj3h• Facebook Page:

http://www.marismith.com/how-to-add-a-custom-landing-tab-to-your-facebook-fan-page/

• Good blog posting: http://www.copyblogger.com/blog-content-checklist/ • Words and phrases for Twitter:

http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-science-of-retweets-with-dan-zarrella