Getting Started with Social Media

Copyright © 2011 Crow Communications, LLC. SocialMediaDIYWorkshop.com

Getting Started

Tools & Program Building Social Media Concepts,

An Introduction to

A Newsletter Subscriber Bonus

Social Media With

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About This Ebook Social media is everywhere. You can’t read anything about business these days without hearing about social media issues and tools.

It’s like the whole world is social media crazy.

Who Should I Read This? Social media is a great set of tools that you can use to grow your business, whether you run a small business, a non‐profit, or a government agency.

You should read this if you are:

Ready to jump into social media. Already using social media but are not getting the results you want.

Your Business Social Media Journey This ebook is a great first step or early step in your business social media journey. It provides an overview of social media and focuses exclusively on business use and benefits. It explains the basic concepts and answers the most common questions.

Armed with this information, you can begin to create a customized program that meets your unique business challenges. When you are ready for more practical, hands‐on information, visit the Social Media DIY Workshop.

How To Read You can read this ebook from your computer screen. Any text in orange is a link to an article or website. Just click on orange text and you’ll be taken to the destination without any web address typing. You can also print this ebook.

Charlene Kingston Social Media DIY Workshop

This ebook is for Social Media DIY Toolbox newsletter subscribers only. Copyright © 2011 Crow Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

Version 1: May 2011

Do you know other people who would benefit from this ebook? Have them sign up for our newsletter to get their own copy. New subscribers can sign up at: SocialMediaDIYWorkshop.com/subscribe/

Do you have the latest version? We occasionally update this ebook with new information. Check our newsletter for more information about this and other subscriber bonus items.




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Why You Need This Perhaps you are considering using social media for your business. Or perhaps you are already using social media and are not sure if you understand the big fuss.

Social media provides a new set of tools that businesses can use to connect with their customers and the general public. Social media tools can be used to get new customers, increase sales, and turn existing customers into your most powerful sales team.

But social media is about more than just using these new tools. Social media requires a new way of thinking about your business and your customers.

Questions Every Business Should Ask To be successful with social media, you have to invest some time thinking about your business. Here are the important questions your business should ask about social media:

Why should my business use social media?

How is social media different from other ways that I talk with my customers?

Is my business ready for social media?

Is social media just a big hype, or can it really help my business?

How can I make sure that my time on social media really benefits my business?

Should I learn social media myself, or should I hire someone to do it for my business?

What social media tools should I use?

What do I talk about on social media?

What is the secret to social media success?

Why are my current social media activities so disappointing?

How can I build a successful social media program customized for my business challenges?

Where can I go to learn more about social media?

This ebook answers those questions.

Let’s get started!



Social Media Launch Pad

With Social Media Getting Started

Part 1:

Your



Let’s talk about your business.

First, a question: What is the greatest business asset that you don’t own and can’t control?

The answer: Your customers.

A business without customers is just an idea, a business plan with overhead and expenses. It’s the customers that convert your brilliant skills, products, and services into your business.

It’s About Customer Relationships Social media gives you an entirely new way to understand and know your customers. It allows you to see them outside of a business exchange. It puts them into a broader context, a more social context.

Social media lets you see your customers as whole people. And social media lets your customers interact with your business as a person. Your business exchanges are transformed into human interactions.

With social media, you think of your customers as business friends. Or customers with benefits.

Customers With Benefits Social Media Benefits So why would a business want to invest time, effort, and often money, to build these strong customer relationships?

Your customers are already buying your products and services. What more could you want?

Here’s what social media can give your business:

Word of mouth advertising. How about creating an army of evangelists who brag to their friends about how smart they are because they are your customer? Repeat sales. What about getting more repeat business from your existing customers because they feel like you really listen to them and understand what they need? New business ideas. What about getting some great new business ideas from people who already love your business and can see business opportunities in your blind spot? Shorter product development cycles. How much faster could you get new products and services to market if you have input from customers starting from the moment you have the first idea?

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Increased visibility. What about having your loyal customers introduce you to new people who can change the course of your business growth? People like suppliers, vendors, future employees, and maybe even business partners or investors.

Wouldn’t that change your business for the better? Isn’t that worth a little time and effort in your already busy schedule?

Relationships & Conversation Your business builds relationships with your customers through conversation. And social media tools enable you to have conversations with your customers.

The idea of talking with your customer isn’t new. What’s new is:

Where you talk. You are going to have your customer conversations online using social media tools. The amount of conversation. You are going to have more conversation with your customers, engaging them more often through social media.

Customers With Benefits Technology & Conversations Companies have always used technology to talk to their customers. In the last 100 years, companies have adjusted from newspapers and radio to television, billboards, direct mail, and the internet with websites and email.

Throughout all of these technology changes, the basic conversation strategy remained the same.

It’s been a one‐way conversation. Businesses talk but don’t do any listening.

Two‐Way Conversations With social media, companies can now have tw0‐way conversations with their customers. The technology tools today let you talk and listen to your customers.

Your customers have a lot to say. Your business needs to listen to them if you want to build relationships that turn them into customers with benefits.

You don’t have to wait for them to talk to you. With social media, you can start the conversation. You can ask them questions and hear about their experience directly from them.

[CONTINUED]



There is no guarantee that simply using Facebook or Twitter will bring social media success.

Every business has a unique experience with social media. Some businesses spark a fire on social media, while others slosh around without really gaining much traction. Some social media efforts go viral, while others go unnoticed.

What makes the difference?

Many factors work together to influence how your business does on social media. There is no universal recipe for social media success. However, as the owner or manager of a business, there are some things you can control that influence your experience on social media.

Your Business Culture Each business has a personality, a business culture. Your business culture starts with the personality of the business owner and expands to include how business management interact with each other, with the employees, and with the customers.

Take a few minutes to honestly evaluate where you and your business stand on these important issues for social media success.

Social Media Readiness Customer Experience Focus. Is your business focused on providing an outstanding customer experience? Do you invest time in walking through your business from a customer’s point of view so you can anticipate their questions or needs? Do you work to design the optimum customer experience? Or you do expect your customers to appreciate your efforts and adjust to your business and your vision for the business?

Community Focus. Are you excited about the benefits of being surrounded by an online community? Is your brain busting with ideas for questions you want to ask your customers and with ways you can make your customers feel like family? Or do you see community interaction as just one more task you must take on with your already busy business operations?

Open To Suggestions. Is your business set up to encourage your customers to provide input about your products, services, and operations? Do you encourage your employees to provide suggestions so your business can constantly improve? Or do you feel that you know best? Is it your way or the highway?

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[CONTINUED] Willing To Experiment. Are you willing to try new things, to experiment with your business operations, and to keep aiming at a moving target? Can you adjust to something that is always changing? Or are you more likely to set up a process and keep doing it the same way on autopilot forever?

Customer Readiness There are social media success factors for your business that are out of your control. These factors involve the personality and activities of your customers.

Do you have these customer factors working in your favor?

Customer Passion. Some customers are more passionate than others. Does your business have customers who care deeply about your products and services, and who love to talk about your business with their friends? You can build on the passion of these customers to fire up your social media efforts.

Social Media Readiness Technical Customers. Some customers are more interested in technology than others. Your business may have loyal, passionate customers who are not inclined to use social media. But if you have customers who use smart phones and who use social media, you can find and engage your customers through social media.

You can be successful on social media without these two customer readiness factors, but it will take a bit more effort.

Success Checklist To summarize, businesses that perform well on social media have these characteristics:

Focus on providing an excellent customer experience.

Enjoy engaging in conversation with a growing community of business friends.

Always look for a business growth opportunity in conversations and feedback.

Willing to rethink what they do and try new things.

Have customers who are loyal and passionate fans of the business.

Have customers who use technology and social media.



Right now, everyone is talking about social media and everyone is working to get on social media. It’s changing the way we do business and the way we market our products and services.

But does every business have to do social media?

Is Social Media Right For Every Business? The short answer is: no. However, if you are reluctant to dive into social media, here are a few things you need to understand.

Social media is not a fad. This is not a blip in the universe. Things are not going back to the way they were. The business world has changed. What customers expect has changed. Social media is your introduction to the future of your business. Social media is going to become completely mainstream. It’s going to become the normal way of doing business. When that happens, social media tools won’t make the cover of magazines and won’t be the focus of news stories. Instead, social media tools will be part of the way we communicate every day. Just like the telephone. Social media centers your business around your customers. Until now, most businesses have created their products and services with very little customer

Do I Have To Do Social Media? interaction. Perhaps you have a customer service department or a team of people in customer‐facing positions. Going forward, customers are going to demand that you engage them more, and almost every department and staff member will be involved with your customers.

Brave New World You might get away with avoiding social media for a while. But soon, your business will be at a disadvantage if you are not using social media.

Based on this, here are my recommendations:

Don’t just tolerate the new level of customer interaction and importance, embrace it! Start getting used to the idea that your customers have an opinion about how your business should run. If you don’t listen, some will walk away. Look for creative and practical ways that you can start to pull customers deeper into your business operations and planning. Start getting to know your customers as people. Think of them as business friends if you want them to become customers with benefits.

The journey of running a business just got a lot more interactive!



The way most people talk about social media, it’s the cure‐all for every business ailment. They make it sound like just creating a Facebook business page or Twitter account brings throngs of potential customers ready to throw money at you.

If only social media were really like this.

Myth Busting Let’s cut through the mythology of social media and deal with some real world facts. Here are some basic principles you must understand about social media.

“If you build it, they will come” happens only in a movie. Many businesses today use social media and compete for the attention of your customers. You have to do more than just show up. People want to learn things that make their lives better. Take an inventory of the things you know because you run your business. How can you turn your knowledge into valuable information to help others? How can you add value to their lives? These

are the topics your business should talk about in your social media conversations. It’s about how you can help them. People want to connect with other people, not companies. Do your posts sound like a press release? Or a marketing brochure? Let your personality shine through. Talk to people, let them see that you are a real person, and that your business is made up of real people. Your social media success isn’t based on the size of your online community. Many people think that having a large following means success. While it might be flattering to have a large following, what’s more important is having a community who wants to buy your products and services. Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Don’t be tempted to measure unimportant things. You can’t measure your success if you don’t have a goal. If you are wandering aimlessly in social media, there is no way to know which tactics are most effective. Or to know when you are wasting your time. Social media goals and objectives provide the skeleton for your online activities.

Now that you understand the truths about social media, you are ready to start creating social media goals customized for your business needs.

Social Media Principles



Before you invest any time with social media, take a few minutes to define your social media goals. Your goals are the reasons why you use social media. Every activity should support your goals. They should be specific, measurable, and relevant to your business performance.

Social Media Business Goals Your social media goals should support your business goals. For example:

Engage my existing customers online to get their feedback and experiences with my business. Share timely information about my products/services with my online community to encourage them to continue using my products/services. Find potential customers for my business and begin building relationships with them.

These are good goals because they are relevant to your business performance. And yet, these goals are not specific and measurable. There’s no real way to measure how successfully you have met these goals.

Define Business Objectives When you have a solid business goal, you need to break it out into specific and measurable objectives. Many businesses may have similar goals, but the way you break down goals into objectives reflects your unique business challenges and situation.

To define an objective that is specific and measurable, you add:

Strategy. What action will you take to meet these objectives? Relevant numbers. Any numbers that let you measure quantity and quality. Dates. When do you expect to perform your activities?

When you are starting out in social media, it’s best to focus your objectives on things you control: your behavior.

Create objectives that guide your online behavior and watch how your community responds. Over time, you can fine tune your actions so you can get the best responses from your community.

Social Media Goals

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Social Media Objectives For example, you might create the following objectives to meet your social media goals:

Use Twitter to reach out to potential customers who live or work within 3 miles of your location. Use Facebook to share a photograph of your dinner special at 4 pm every Tuesday in June. Use Twitter and YouTube to share a video of how to use one product each Friday in the third quarter. Use Twitter to talk with neighbors (existing and potential customers) about an upcoming community event for 3 weeks before and 1 week after the event.

Your objectives are important because they drive your actions on social media. They also give you a way to measure your success with social media.

Multiple Objectives Often, you will have a different set of objectives for each slice of your online community. For example:

You may have different objectives for existing customers and potential customers. You may have different objectives for each social media tool. Or, you may use the same objectives for several tools.

Benefits of Goals & Objectives Your social media goals and objectives come from your business goals. They help you to:

Define and measure your social media success. Customize your social media activities to meet your specific business challenges. Make sure that your business gets the full benefit from your social media activities.

Take the time necessary to define your social media goals and objectives. If you’ve been using social media without any goals, it’s not to late to start!

Social Media Goals [CONTINUED]



What Should I Talk About? staff, your sales staff, and even your receptionist to find out the most common questions people have about your business or industry. Money Saving Tips. Everyone loves to save money, so tell your online community how they can save money with your products and services. Don't forget to mention your sales, promotions, and discounts! Promote Other Businesses. Here is your chance to promote businesses that you feel provide great products and services. They might be located in your neighborhood, in a related industry, or even supply your business with essential products and services. Promote Your Customers. This is about sharing the accomplishments of your customers with your online community, not about name dropping. Always get permission from any customer before you talk about them online. Share Your Backstory. Most of your efforts go into providing products and services for your customers. But what would a customer learn as a fly on the wall in your business? Did you celebrate an employee anniversary? Get new office equipment? Bring in lunch to celebrate a business goal you reached?

Look into what you already know to find topics that add value to the lives of people in your online community.

Social media is all about building relationships through conversation. So what is your business going to talk about on social media? It's worth investing a little time to create a list of conversation topics. Here are some ideas.

Customer Education. Every business spends time educating new customers. Why not include this information in your social media conversation and start educating potential customers, too? Practical Advice. You know things about your business and industry that other people don't know. Many of these things can help people make better choices, be prepared for potential problems, and resolve problems when they happen. Industry Trends and News. What can you tell your online community about changes coming in your industry? Give them information they can share with their friends before it becomes public knowledge. Answer Questions. What common questions do your customers ask? Check with your customer service




Social Media Tool Box

Part 2:

Your



There are no rules about which social media tools you should use, or how many tools you should use. In fact, you can start out using just one tool and build out slowly over time.

Here are some questions to help you select the most effective social media tools for your business.

Where do your customers hang out online? This might take a bit of detective work. You can survey your customers or routinely ask them where they are online. Go where your customers are!

Where are others in your industry? For example, if you run a local pizza place, you’d look to see where Pizza Hut or Domino’s are in social media. Are your customers already trained to look for similar products and services on specific tools? Take advantage of that!

Do you have a lot of information to share? A blog is the best way to communicate long messages and many short messages. Blogs also help your website turn up higher in search engine results.

What Tools Should I Use? Does your business routinely make videos of your products and services? If you already have video, you can use YouTube to share your videos with a larger audience. You can also share videos on Facebook and your blog.

Are you primarily B2B? Are your customer’s employees on LinkedIn? If so, you might benefit from creating a company profile on LinkedIn to make it easier for people to refer you to their friends and the people they know who can purchase your products and services.

Do you already have an active blog? Twitter is a great tool for driving traffic to blog posts. Adding a Twitter share widget to your blog makes it easy for your blog visitors to share your posts with the people they know online.

Do you need local customers? Twitter allows you to add people from your neighborhood to your online community, and allows you to reach out to strangers. It’s a powerful tool for local businesses (storefont and service area businesses).

Next, we’ll look at each of the major social media tools and how they can help your business.



A blog is a place where you post articles about topics related to your business. Many businesses include a blog area on their website.

Your business uses a blog to share information with your customers and other blog visitors.

How Blogging Works 1. You write a an article (blog post) and publish it on your

blog.

2. People stop by your blog to read the article. Some people may subscribe to your blog and receive new articles by email, RSS feed, or on their Kindle.

3. People comment on your blog posts.

Blog Benefits A blog lets your business share information with your customers. Blog posts appear in search engine results to help potential customers find your business. Blog post comments give your online community a way to share feedback and make comments on your business.

A Company Blog Lifting The Hood A blog runs on special blogging software. The most common blogging programs are WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr.

Blogging software is free. However, your business may have expenses for hosting (getting your blog online), a domain name (web address), and customizing your blog’s look with your logo and brand identity.

Blogging software lets you write and publish articles on your website without any technical knowledge. Writing a blog post is almost as easy as writing an email.

While writing blog posts is relatively easy, the process of setting up and maintaining your blog does require some technical skills. You may need to hire help for this.

Blogging Resources To learn more about blogging:

Social Media DIY Workshop: blogging articles Read blogs in your industry to see the variety of blog styles and information. To find blogs on any subject: AllTop and Technorati. ProBlogger’s Guide To Your First Week of Blogging Books: Blogging For Dummies, WordPress All‐In‐One For Dummies

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Facebook is a social networking site originally designed to help college kids connect. Today, Facebook has over 500 million users and an important tool for businesses to keep in touch with customers.

How Facebook Works 1. You create a business page.

2. People (and other businesses) like your Facebook page by clicking the Like button.

3. You post information on your page wall, and Facebook publishes your post in the news feed of people (and businesses) who like your page.

4. People comment on your post or like your post.

Facebook Benefits Facebook allows you to post information, a link to your blog (or any other online information), photographs, videos, and ask survey questions. Facebook events allow you to invite people to events at your business and manage the guest list. Your Facebook page is public and appears in Google search results.

Facebook Lifting The Hood Facebook is a free service that lets your business build an online community of Facebook users. However, Facebook protects the privacy of its users, so it never shares the contact information for the people who like your business.

You can customize your Facebook page with a landing page that promotes your specials, lets people sign up for your newsletter, and other activities.

You must obey the Facebook terms of service or Facebook may suspend your account.

Facebook pages do not work exactly like Facebook (personal) profiles and have fewer features.

Facebook Resources To learn more about Facebook pages:

Social Media DIY Workshop: Facebook articles Create a personal Facebook profile and interact with other businesses. Facebook’s blog and help center Facebook blogs: All Facebook, Inside Facebook, and Mari Smith

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Twitter is a short message communication service. Many businesses use Twitter to share information and links with their online community. Twitter is available from computers, smart phones through Twitter applications, and cell phones through text messages.

How Twitter Works 1. You send out a tweet, a message up to 140 characters

long.

2. Twitter publishes your tweet to everyone who follows you (subscribes to your tweets).

3. People may reply to your tweet or retweet it to their followers (republish your tweet).

Twitter Benefits Your community immediately receives your messages. You can drive traffic to any web location (blog, website page, video, photograph, etc.) Twitter is an easy way to collect input and feedback. People share messages they like with their online community, giving your messages greater visibility.

Twitter Lifting The Hood Twitter is unlike any other communication tool. Because of this, it can take a little time to understand.

You follow Twitter users when you want to see their messages. Other people follow you when they want to see your messages.

People include links in their tweets using web address (URL) shortening services to save space.

You can reach out to strangers on Twitter, and you can locate Twitter users based on their location (geography).

There are many companies that create tools you can use with Twitter to provide specialized features.

Twitter Resources To learn more about Twitter:

Social Media DIY Workshop: Twitter articles Twitter for Beginners (free ebook) Twitter blog and help center Twitter tools directory: OneForty

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LinkedIn is a resume sharing site that allows people to collect recommendations and connect with former colleagues and classmates. Many people use LinkedIn to find a new job or to get recommendations for qualified candidates for job openings.

How LinkedIn Works 1. Your business creates a business profile.

2. Individual people create a LinkedIn profile based on their resumes.

3. Each time someone adds your business to their LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn connects the person’s profile with your business profile.

4. People can follow news about your business on LinkedIn, generally about new people you hire.

LinkedIn Benefits Your business profile can help you attract well‐qualified candidates for jobs. The groups feature allows professionals to discusses issues and news in your industry. Your participation gives visibility to your business.

LinkedIn You can share blog posts, Twitter messages, presentation slide decks and other materials within your community.

Lifting The Hood Your company can create a business profile that automatically creates a list of every LinkedIn user who ever worked at your company.

LinkedIn provides a wide range of services that allow you to promote events, share blog posts, share slide presentations, and post questions for people in your industry. You can answer questions to raise the visibility of your company.

LinkedIn offers free and paid membership levels.

LinkedIn Resources To learn more about LinkedIn:

Social Media DIY Workshop: LinkedIn articles Post your resume, create your business profile, and begin using the LinkedIn features. LinkedIn blog and learning center LinkedIn blog: Linked Into Business

Social Media Tools:


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YouTube is a video sharing service. It contains videos created by individual, businesses, and from television.

Your business can use YouTube to store and distribute videos about your company, products, and services.

How YouTube Works 1. Your business creates videos.

2. You upload a video to your YouTube channel.

3. People subscribe to your channel. Or they do searches and find your videos through search results.

4. People view your videos, comment on them, and share them with their friends.

YouTube Benefits YouTube is the largest video sharing service online. Posting a video on YouTube makes it readily available for a much larger audience than any other video hosting location. Video lets your business how how easy it is to use your products and services. Video lets your business show its personality more than any other type of information.

YouTube Lifting The Hood YouTube provides video hosting services for free. There are some restrictions on video length and commercial use of the site. However, your business can create a YouTube channel for your business videos within these restrictions.

People do more searches on YouTube (for videos) than they do on Bing or Yahoo (for all types of information). If YouTube was a search engine, it would be the second largest one behind Google.

YouTube translates your video to a nearly universal format that allows for the widest possible viewing including Apple mobile devices (iPhone and iPad). YouTube has smart phone applications that allow anyone to play your videos on nearly any smart phone.

YouTube Resources To learn more about YouTube:

Create a personal YouTube account and use the service as a video consumer. YouTube blog and help center

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Social Media Program

Part 3:

Your



Here are some things to get you started on social media, whether you are just jumping in or you want to reboot your current social media efforts.

Get The Big Picture of Social Media Social media is not a place where you simply rebroadcast your existing marketing messages. Social media is where you go to have conversations with your customers.

One way to learn social media is to use it personally. This lets you experience social media the way your customers experience it.

For example:

Thinking about starting a blog? Start reading blogs. Thinking about Facebook? Get a personal profile and start interacting with businesses.

Observe Social Media Success As you explore the social media world, you find businesses

who are doing a great job. Take a few minutes to look at what they are doing.

Which social media sites do they use? How many times per day (or week) do they post? Create a list of posting categories (product news, community update, customer news, etc.) Which items get the most response? Count the number of responses for each post, and see if you can find a pattern.

Every business has a different experience on social media. But having an idea of how other people are finding success can help you set realistic expectations for your own social media use.

Set Social Media Goals & Objectives After spending a little time getting your feet wet in social media, it’s time to start creating goals. In the beginning, the smartest social media goals should focus on your behavior, not the behavior of others.

For example, instead of setting a goal for a number of people you want to like your Facebook Page (out of your control), set a goal to post two items to your Facebook Page every business day for three weeks (in your control).

Where Do I Start?



It’s easy to put together a social media program for your business. Your program needs these five components:

Social Media Goals & Objectives. Start your social media activities with goals and objectives. These provide direction and give you a way to measure your results. Social Media Tools. Select one or more social media tools that best fit your business and your customers. Build out your business profile on each tool, and learn how to use the tool features. Online Community. Find your existing customers on the social media tools you use. Reach out to potential customers, vendors, contractors, peers, and neighboring businesses. Keep building your community every week. Conversation. Talk with and listen to your community every business day. Create a plan so your employees are empowered to speak for your business. Get

prepared for any negative comments or reviews so you can turn these situations around. It’s important that you spend time both talking and listening online. Results. Periodically, stop and see how your social media efforts are paying off. Use your goals and objectives to measure progress. But remember that many of the social media benefits are not measurable, but they do influence your top and bottom line.

Each time you measure your results, it’s time to refine your goals and objectives. Then, jump back in with new projects and new tactics for building your business with the support of your customers. That’s why we call them customers with benefits.

Your Social Media Program



One important question small businesses ask is: Should I hire someone to do my social media?

Like everything else about social media, this is an important and extremely personal decision for each business. There is no such thing as a one‐size‐fits‐all social media solution.

There are two main reasons why I believe that a small business should do its own social media.

No one understands or cares about your business as much as you do. Social media is about people and conversation. How can you hire someone else to be the authentic voice of your business on social media?

At the same time, many business people feel unqualified to start their own social media program. Doing your own social media doesn’t have to mean that you are flying solo. You can blend the expertise of others into your own efforts.

Blended Path Options Here are a few practical ways your business can blend in

expert assistance while still maintaining control over your own social media program.

External education. Invest a little time and money to learn strategy and tools from people who offer these services so you can do it yourself. Coaching. Find a social media consultant willing to support you as you launch your efforts. You get the benefit of their experience applied to your unique situation. Monitoring. Hire a social media consultant to provide an ongoing review of your social media efforts over time and schedule check‐up sessions. They help you fine‐tune your efforts for maximum results. Hire talent. Find a social media savvy person to add to your team. With this person as an anchor, your business can grow its social media program and team internally. Outsource your strategy. Find a social media consultant to help you develop your social media strategy while you develop your staff to take on the daily social media customer interaction.

For most small businesses, a blended solution provides the support you need while empowering you to tackle social media on your own.

Social Media DIY Option



Many businesses jump into social media filled with optimism, only to walk away disappointed a few days or weeks later.

How Does This Happen? Here are some common reasons why businesses get disappointed with social media.

Incorrect expectations. There’s a lot of myths about social media that are not true. Social media is a marathon and not a sprint. Results don’t happen quickly. Lack of vision. Some businesses think that social media can make things better, but don’t really know what better means. It’s important to have a vision for what’s possible so you know what good things to look for. Missing fundamentals. Remember, if your business doesn’t have social media goals, you don’t have any way to measure your success. You might have fun. You might waste time. You might get some benefits. Who knows?! Focus on distractions. It’s so easy to measure your social media success using the obvious numbers: followers and likes. While these things are important, they are not what you should measure.

Disappointed With Social Media? The good news is that all of these can be easily fixed!

Turn It Around Wherever you are today on social media is just your starting point. It’s the launching pad for your future success.

I suggest that you read this ebook at least twice before you start making a plan for your social media program. Then, use the action plan to kick‐start your new efforts.

Your goals are the skeleton of your social media program. Without goals, everything is just jelly. You must measure your progress toward your goals using your objectives.

If your goal is sales, you measure new customer sales. If your goal is loyalty, you measure customer retention. If your goal is enthusiasm, you measure repeat business from existing customers.

Before you can measure your progress, you have to know what you currently have. This means doing some research and coming up with baseline numbers. Without a starting point, a baseline, there is no way to measure your results.

So take a deep breath. Make a smart plan. And start all over again from where you are today.



Every few months, there is a news item about someone getting fired because of what they said on social media.

The truth is that many of your employees are using social media, and some of them are venting about work. You may believe that your employees have freedom of expression to talk about anything with their friends. But what if they are using the same tools to vent that you use to build your community?

In a related topic, do you allow your employees to use social media sites from work?

Some people feel that it is contradictory to have the company use social media but prevent employees from accessing the same tools during the work day. Other people worry about employees wasting time on social media. Still others argue that social media actually improves productivity by allowing employees to ask questions related to their job tasks.

These are complicated questions.

Social Media Policy A social media policy defines what you expect from your employees on social media both during and outside of work hours. This way, everyone understands the rules up front, and the consequences for breaking the rules.

Your company should work with human resources and employment law professionals to define your social media policy. It’s important that your policy is both fair and within legal guidelines. Your employees have rights that must be included in your policy.

Communications Plan Does your business have employees responsible for using social media to represent the company online? For those employees, you need to define a social media communications plan that defines how your social media program works on all social media tools.

Make sure that you empower your employees to talk on your behalf in routine conversations. Provide guidelines so they know when to escalate a conversation to senior management.

One critical component of your communication plan covers reputation management, how you respond to negative comments about your business online. It’s important to decide your response before you need it.

Social Media & Your Employees


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What’s Next?


Part 4:



Here are some practical things you can do to put your learning into action.

Your Social Media Launch Pad Make a list of your existing customers that you would consider customers with benefits.

Review your existing company communications and count how many places where you allow two‐way conversations.

Where does your company rate (from 1 to 10) on each of the social media readiness factors? What can you do to improve your rating?

Review your current business goals and create at least 3 social media goals to support them.

Define at least 5 social media objectives from your social media goals.

Make a list of at least 20 conversation topics for your social media conversations.

Your Action Plan Your Social Media Tools If you are currently not using any social media sites, select your first tool, set up your account, and start learning how to use it.

Figure out 3 ways you can ask your customers where they are on social media.

Research how 5 companies in your industry use social media. Look for smart ideas that you can borrow and adapt for your own business.

Use the resources list in this ebook to learn more about a new social media tool.

Find at least 5 blogs in your industry and start reading them.

Your Social Media Program Evaluate the social media skills in your company and decide where you might want to blend in the expertise of a social media consultant.

Start researching the social media policies in place at other companies. Many businesses share their social media policy documents online.

Start the outline for your social media communications plan.



Congratulations! You’ve learned how to start (or restart) your social media program. Here are a few tips to help you stay focused on the big picture.

Social media is a journey, not a destination. You can’t accomplish everything at once. Small, steady steps—doing one thing every week—will bring you success. Customers with benefits are created through conversation. The time you spend talking with your online community contributes to your business strength and growth, even though you can’t directly measure a return on investment (ROI) for your time. Think about what you can do for your customers, not what they can do for you. Stay focused on providing value to your customers in your conversations. They will love you for it, and that will motivate them to buy more, refer their friends, and help you do better because you helped them first. People want to connect with people, not businesses. Make sure that your social media voice is real, has personality, and is friendly.

You Can Do This! Just when you think you’ve got it covered, the game changes. Social media is a moving target. New tools appear, new features are added to existing tools, and companies break through with new strategies that change everything. Stay curious. Keep an eye on what other businesses are doing, always looking for ideas you can borrow and adapt for your situation. Big brands pay big bucks for consultants and you can follow their example for free. Stay open to new ideas. Be willing to mix it up, make small adjustments, and try radically new things. You never know what will click with your customers. Just because you’ve never done it before is no reason not to try it! Get help on the hard parts. You are running a business, not competing in a triathlon. You don’t have to do it all. Find people with expertise that compliments your business and bring them in. This lets you stay focused on the important stuff, where your business really needs you. Everything takes time. It will probably take longer to build a vibrant online community than you imagine. So focus on your progress each week, and celebrate each accomplishment as it happens.



Learn More Social Media DIY Workshop The Social Media DIY Workshop™ is for small business people who want to learn more about social media. Here you can learn about a wide range of social media topics that can help you grow your business.

Learn at your own pace. Explore topics that interest you. Build on what you already know.

You've come to the right place. You can do it yourself!

From the site you can:

Read nearly 150 free articles about social media topics, updated so the information stays accurate

Download my free Twitter for Beginners ebook

Sign up for our newsletter so you stay connected to the latest social media information and materials

Purchase our How To Use Social Media To Grow Your Business webinar that explains the 5 Easy Steps to Build and Maintain Your Social Media Program

Purchase services that help you answer your burning social media questions

Hire Charlene Kingston for 1 hour or more to help you create customized solutions

Charlene Kingston Charlene Kingston is a small business owner, writer, educator, and business strategist with more than 25 years experience. When she is not advising people about social media or writing about social media, Charlene spends a lot of time using social media.

Find Charlene online: Follow Charlene on Twitter: SocialMediaDIY (business) and Kinchie (personal).

Visit her website: Social Media DIY Workshop

Like the Social Media DIY Workshop on Facebook

Message From Charlene I’ve been a small business owner since 1995. I love helping small business people harness the power of social media.

How can I help you build an army of customers with benefits around your business?


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Getting Started with Social Media

Social Media

Transcript of Getting Started with Social Media