How to Setup Social Media Marketing for Business: …...How to Setup Social Media Marketing for...

How to Setup Social Media Marketing for Business: Your Roadmap to Success

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Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 4

#1 – Establish Your Goals, Strategy And Tactics .............................................................................. 5

#2 – Get Input And Cooperation From Stakeholders And Your Team ........................................ 6

#3 – Determine Who And Where Your Customers Are .................................................................... 7

#4 – Determine The Right Social Channels For Your Company And Set Them Up .................. 8

#5 Map Influencers And Evangelists ................................................................................................... 9

#6 Map Responsibilities ........................................................................................................................ 10

#7 Establish The “Company Voice” And Content Strategy .......................................................... 11

Three Examples Of SM Voice: ............................................................................................................................. 11

Now Let’s Address Your Content Strategy. ................................................................................................. 12

Strategy Is The Why – Not The How. ............................................................................................................. 12

So What Do You Want To “Build” With Your Content? ......................................................................... 12

#8 Customize And Optimize Your Social Media Channels ........................................................... 14

#9 Set Up Tactics And Metrics ............................................................................................................ 16

#10 Set Up Your Social Media Strategy Framework ...................................................................... 18

#11 Develop A Social Media Policy ..................................................................................................... 19

#12 Publish Your Initial Content ......................................................................................................... 21

#13 Test, Monitor, Measure, Adjust, Improve, Report .................................................................... 23

#14 Harness The Power Of Your Internal Networks ....................................................................... 24

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 26



Introduction

t P5 Marketing, we’ve helped many kinds of clients establish their brand, create engagement and produce ROI with social media marketing (SMM) over the past seven years. From experience we have developed this roadmap to help

you be successful.

This list is not necessarily a “To Do” list to be done strictly in order. Some of these steps will be happening at the same time or in conjunction with other steps. Others cannot be done until previous steps have been completed.

It is most important to remember that each step is key to your social media success in the long run.

How long it takes you be successful with your SMM will depend on creating a clear path with set goals, how many resources (time and money) you commit to your success.

There are three stages to social media. Understanding the three stages allows you to recognize where you are at AND set appropriate expectations for results. You will find a preliminary explanation of the three stages under Step #12.

A



#1 – Establish your goals, strategy and tactics

You cannot be successful if you don’t know what you want to accomplish with your Social Media Marketing (SMM) and have a written plan of how to budget (time and money), execute and measure your company’s progress. We have developed a worksheet, “Social

Media Marketing Goals, Strategy,

Tactics and Tips”, to guide you through this critical step. It also supports you with tying your SMM with your overall marketing plan. You can download it here (it includes “The Three Stages of Social Media”).

TIP: Do this step first but you may be doing it in parallel with several other steps.



#2 – Get input and cooperation from Stakeholders

and Your Team

Social media done right avoids the “silo effect” from the beginning. As simple as it sounds to make sure your team is involved and communicating, this is often not the case. Many marketing dollars and hours of time are wasted by this effect. Plus, you will create more buy-in from your stakeholders and entire team by making sure they understand that their input is welcomed and in fact needed. The more involved they are in implementing step #1 the more they will be engaged going forward.

That is not to say you want disjointed, frequent emails and endless meetings. Instead, hold a very focused reporting and brainstorming meeting 1-4x per month depending on what works for you. Ideally, everyone on the team should be expected to engage with your activities on social media, which also improves organic results.

TIP: This step will not only increase your results, but your rewards will be visible sooner. Besides, following step #2 makes your SMM budget more effective, some times by a lot.

https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/social-media/getting-social-media-marketing-content-silo/



#3 – Determine Who and Where Your Customers Are

Surprisingly few companies take the time to establish Buyer Personas (BP). BP’s allow you to laser focus all of your marketing efforts to the right consumers, increase engagement and convert leads more often. In this day and age of shrinking organic reach on all social channels, every bit of insight, every post and every bit of content needs to help you hone in on the right people.

TIP: This step needs to be executed with the person / people responsible for meeting your expectations and producing results, e.g., owners, stakeholders, marketing and sales department and other team members.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr



#4 – Determine the Right Social Channels for Your

Company and Set Them Up

You might think this step should be done sooner. The fact is until you do steps 1-4, it would be a good guess at best. Each social channel has its own demographics, its own appeal and different strategic use.

This step set can be done in concert with other steps but should not be finalized until you have established your buyer personas, gotten a good idea of where your influencers and evangelists hang out. Now go back to step #1 and look at the channels you chose initially and see if you need to add or change anything.

TIP: Important considerations for choosing the most effective social media channels are the mix of Millennial, Gen X and Boomers, mobile use vs. laptop, income, education and buying habits, just to name a few.



#5 Map Influencers and Evangelists

Let’s look at influencers first. During the last year, Influencer Marketing has taken off. Smart people or companies who jumped on the digital bandwagon years ago have gained such a large audience and so much social proof, that they can now sell their influence in the form of mentions, blogs, sharing your content, tweeting, posting, snap chatting and more. It’s smart to factor influencer marketing into your marketing budget as you pay for them to share your company, product, story, services, etc. For example, which would you derive more visibility and credibility from; publishing a blog on your website or on The Huffington Post?

Customer evangelists are worth their weight in gold! These are your customers or fans that are passionate about your company and love your product or service. They are essentially unpaid sales people that spread the word about your coupons, specials, brand and new products. They jump in and have a natural desire to share their new found excitement with their networks. They are people to cultivate, nurture and reward. These fans share because they like you and often want to help you succeed. They do it for fun, acknowledgement and contribution, not for money.

TIP: Make a spreadsheet list of your top influencers and fans. Nurture and acknowledge them often. Kept track of posts, dates and rewards, even set this up as a tactic with metrics to track effectiveness.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomward/2017/06/26/this-is-the-future-of-influencer-marketing/#1cab9fc6142c

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-proof/



#6 Map Responsibilities

Put who does what in writing. What are the respective team members accountable for and to whom they report? Examples of tasks include: gathering content and managing the editorial calendar, posting, monitoring engagement, tracking metrics, writing monthly reports on statistics, goals and strategy effectiveness.

It may be all done by one person, or it could be a team. In any case, make sure the lines of responsibility and communication are clear, especially if there are multiple people involved. Check to make sure it working and if not, streamline the communications and reporting process. A bottle neck will slow down your results and frustrate the team.

TIP: Make sure the person or people accountable for the results has the resources AND access to the people they need to meet or exceed your goals.



#7 Establish the “Company Voice” and Content Strategy

Let’s talk about your company voice first. Think of your social media as the face and voice of your company on the internet. It is how potential and current customers relate to you. Establishing a consistent, professional voice for your content is important for three reasons:

◉ The writing style in all your content should be consistent and evocative

◉ You may have different people managing your social media over time and a new team member must have a guide to step in flawlessly

◉ Your company voice needs to reflect your brand appropriately

Three examples of SM voice:

1. You are a travel agency whose customers are mostly Baby Boomers: Your company voice could be - friendly, evocative and knowledgeable

2. You are a tech company that targets Millennial and young Gen X’s who are early adopters: Your company voice could be – edgy, geeky and fun

3. Your business offers services primarily used by families, people with children and older singles. Your company voice could be – professional, concerned and informative



Now let’s address your content strategy.

You have determined your company voice, which you will use throughout your content, such as posts, blogs, web pages and company materials.

As with your overall Social Media strategy, get your content strategy in place before you start writing posts, blogs, eBooks, etc.

Let us say a few words about strategy.

Strategy is the why – not the how.

Strategy seems abstract and that is why people often go directly to tactics. Tactics feels more tangible. Curb your itch and make your plan first. Very much like building a house you shouldn’t buy materials before you have the blueprints of what you want to build. First get your mindset straight. Using social media means long term commitment. You can’t’ hack it with four-week blitz. You have to be there for the long haul.

If you are still not clear about the difference between Strategy and Tactics, refer back to the infographic under topic #1.

So what do you want to “build” with your content?

Why are you doing content? To establish expertise or generate leads? Drive traffic to your website? To feed your sales funnel? Once you have all your why’s the how’s will follow.

TIP: Turn what you do into a simple message that gives you a place to start with all your strategies and content. Example: We are a travel agency. What we do is send families and couples all over the world to make memories and learn about new cultures.

Write your message here:

____________________________________________________________________________



____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________



#8 Customize and Optimize Your Social Media

Channels

Your social media channels serve several functions.

1. They are brand statement

2. They are your online “face” and voice of your business

3. They serve as social proof of what others think of you

4. They are marketing platforms to engage your customers and drive new business

5. They are vehicles to help your business get found on the internet

For all the reasons above, you must have a consistent brand look and feel and be instantly recognizable to visitors. This is where customization comes in. Each channel needs its own unique URL and be pleasing to fans or potential ones.

Social Media



Each social channel can and should be optimized for your single most important keyword or phrase, usually what your homepage is optimized for. It should not be your name unless you are a big name Coca Cola or AirBnB.

Each channel should clearly represent your brand look and feel, including having your logo as the profile picture consistently from channel to channel.

Make sure each section is filled in and have a compelling, short description early on so visitors and search engines know what you are about.

TIP: All the About sections should be filled out and include the keyword above as this is the section that Google crawls to make the connection to your business. Be sure your channel name and custom URL mirrors your website.



#9 Set Up Tactics and Metrics

Tactics are the “how” you are going to achieve your marketing goals. Examples are:

◉ A company blog that is at the center of your social media that tacitly uses the keywords and phrases you want to be found for or seen as an expert. How frequent do you need to post to achieve your goals?

__________________________

◉ Tying your SEO into content and optimizing your SM channels for your primary keyword

◉ Posting on your SM channels with optimum frequency

◉ Maintaining an 80/20 balance of non-sales vs. sales posts

◉ Ask for Yelp or Trip Advisor reviews from happy customers



◉ Utilizing paid promotion on SM to build your channels and to promote engagement

◉ Using Google Ad Words to support SM

◉ Once your target buyers are determined, using the social channels where they are found in the greatest numbers

◉ Using Twitter to announce limited supplies of products or sales (retail businesses)

Metrics are the “what” to measure so you if your goals are being met and when you need to adjust your tactics to improve results. Examples are:

◉ _____ new page fans on Facebook, _____ new Instagram followers, _____ new Twitter followers, ____ new LinkedIn Company followers each month

◉ 250 new visitors to the blog per month

◉ Move up 2+ positions on Google for organic ranking of each main keyword

◉ _____ of new Yelp or Trip Advisors reviews monthly

◉ Increase SM reach by ______ % each month

◉ Increase SM engagement by _____% month

◉ Get ______ of Twitter handles, new LinkedIn connections each month

◉ Generate sales leads monthly _______

◉ Sell _______ in $ or _____ products per month

TIP: You can’t track what you don’t measure. This is a critical step to your long-term success. Make sure your marketing budget is sufficient to produce your goals.



#10 Set Up Your Social Media Strategy Framework

This step is best understood graphically and you can download the infographic here.

The essence of your social media engagement framework is it is the visual, helicopter view of all the components that help you develop your SM strategies. Here is a quick overview:

Think of this as a two-story house:

◉ The foundation is your Goals which equal your Business Objectives

◉ The lower floor is Strategy which house People, Content and Platforms

◉ The upper floor is Setup: Monitoring, Analytics and Reporting

◉ The roof would be your Internal Organization – who does what, who is responsible for results

TIP: If you would like to a complete copy of our Social Media Framework Infographic and explainer document, you can download at www.P5Marketing.com/resources

https://p5marketing.com/resources

http://www.p5marketing.com/resources



#11 Develop a Social Media Policy

Why is this important and what does it entail? Here are the common reasons you need a social media policy. Thank you to HootSuite for this information:

1. Protect your reputation - A social media policy lowers your risk of legal issues and helps protect your brand by outlining potential risks and the steps to take in the event of a misstep or account hack. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to protecting your brand.

2. Set standards for employee use - A social media policy gives you the opportunity to establish clear guidelines and expectations for employees. With a policy in place, employees can feel empowered to exercise creativity and show their personalities without having to worry that what they’re sharing on social media could negatively impact their career.

Your employees may not understand what is and isn’t appropriate to say online—deciding instead to post nothing at all. Your business can benefit from the engaging social media presence of your employees—a social media policy helps that happen.



3. Create consistency across channels - You’ve worked hard to establish your company’s voice, but one inappropriate or off-brand social media post can put this in jeopardy.

Use your social media policy to outline expectations surrounding brand voice and tone. Having a strong brand voice is beneficial to your business as it increases awareness, showcases personality, and helps users connect with your business.

If you have public facing employees, you also need to make sure they are aware of any brand standards regarding the appearance and tone of their social media accounts. For example, you may want your employee’s social channels to include a reference to your brand.

What your corporate social media policy should include:

Rules and regulations - The two areas you need to cover in your policy are how employees are expected to use their own social media accounts and how your company uses its owned channels.

Definition of roles - You have a much higher chance of your social media policy being successful if you can establish everyone’s roles prior to the implementation. Your employees need to be clear on who is taking ownership of the social media policy and all of its elements.

Potential legal issues - The last thing any company wants to deal with are legal issues. To ensure you’re creating an airtight policy, this is a section best tackled with the help of your legal team.

Safety and security guidelines - Threats such as malware, phishing scams, account hacking, and human error can be avoided with a clear social media policy. There are many risks your employees might not be aware of, and a policy can help educate them on and fill in these gaps.

TIP: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or hire and attorney. Here are 50 examples of SM policies across a variety of industries.

http://davefleet.com/blog/2010/07/26/57-social-media-policy-examples-resources/

http://davefleet.com/blog/2010/07/26/57-social-media-policy-examples-resources/



#12 Publish Your Initial Content

If your social media channels are light on content or the content is old, you are essentially starting over. It’s helpful to think that way, as now you have a much clearer picture of what, why and when to post.

Get two or three blogs ahead and pepper your channels with fun posts, links to your blogs, updates about your company and staff and other things of interest targeted to your ideal customer. Nothing makes people think you are not a real business like seeing old or sparsely populated channels.

There are three stages to social media for business. The first stage is developing your channels and creating an audience to engage with. Unless your channels are humming with engagement (second stage), you are in stage one regardless of how long you’ve has your social media channels.



The third stage of social media is where you can expect ROI. First you have to build an audience, second you have to boost and have consistent engagement and then third, you can expect to your social media to produce business leads and sales. The rate at which move through these stages depends on two things. Time and money. The more time you dedicate to your SMM and the more money you allocate to its’ budget the fast the results will come – provided you have set up your SMM for success. The all too common, “throw some spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks” approach cannot be tracked or effectively budgeted for.

TIP: Don’t strangle your efforts from the start by tacking SMM to someone’s job and allocating pennies to the promotional budget. No one can meet your goals under those circumstances. These two factors, frequently seen together, are the #1 reason

for the failure and abandonment of SMM.



#13 Test, Monitor, Measure, Adjust, Improve, Report

This is often where SM managers drop the ball. You do all the right things to get set up and get rolling and then…off the cliff you go!

This is the step where the rubber meets the road. If #1 was knowing where to start, This step is knowing where your are. Your social media efforts will be more successful, faster if you are rigorous about test content for effectiveness, doing more of what works and less of what does not work. You’ll naturally find yourself making assumptions about what your fan base will like and respond to, but if you test those assumptions, you’ll get good, surprising feed back. Make adjustments based on customer feedback, engagement (or lack of) and keep the 80/20 rule in sight at all times. Watch abandonment rates. If people are leaving your channels almost as fast as they are joining, your posting ration for sales and non-sales and/or self promotion is too high. Each month be sure and have a formal reporting structure that mirrors the metrics you set AND keeps the tie between SM and SEO in mind. Your SM channels should be optimized for your most important keywords so that it helps build your overall marketing results.

How many new fans, traffic increases to each channel and to your website are just a few of the important metrics to track.

TIP: Set up a spreadsheet or use a reporting tool like SocialBakers to track performance on a monthly basis (minimum). The advantage of an online tool is it gives you dynamic, in-depth data tailored to your needs and makes the Test – Report process easier.

https://www.socialbakers.com/suite?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=social%20media%20report&utm_content=suite&utm_campaign=search-800913999&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7eTpgaLI1QIVQoezCh2t1ANkEAAYAyAAEgL6p_D_BwE



#14 Harness the Power of your Internal Networks

It’s surprising at how often this simple advantage is overlooked in boosting your SMM efforts. What do we mean by Internal Networks? Here are some examples:

◉ Your team

◉ Your web traffic

◉ Your email lists

◉ Your email signatures

◉ Your stakeholders

◉ Your family and friends

Create simple, fun ways to get your groups to participate in your social media posts by liking, sharing and commenting. All social channels give more views to pages and posts that have organic engagement. You may have dozens, even hundreds of people that would be happy to engage with your content and help you succeed. You can make your social media take off if you do this right.



It’s important to make sure the web traffic you are working hard to drive, gets the most for their click. As you build your site traffic, great content, gated content and offers get people to stay longer and interact with you. DO NOT let your website be a

lazy slacker whose pages are placeholders that never change and have no way from clients to engage.

Email lists are gold for sharing news, offers, fun social media posts. Always have a purpose, always have a call to action and coordinate email blasts to coincide with your new blogs and offers on social media and your website. All outgoing emails and from your staff should have your channel icons and an invitation to connect.

TIP: Look around you. There are likely more examples for you to harness the power of your networks.

Bonus Tip: Use a social media aggregator like Hootsuite, Sprout, CoSchedule (my

favorite) and many others. This will allow you to post across all your channels efficiently,

create an editorial calendar, do advance scheduling of posts, content and campaigns

weeks, even months in advance and collect tons of data for your reporting. You will

always have the option to post spontaneously, but nothing will make you feel more

organized and in control of your SMM than using an aggregator.

Here are some free tools that will boost your social media success.

https://www.socialbakers.com/free-social-tools



Conclusion

We hope the eBook “How to Set Up Social Media Marketing for Business – Your Roadmap to Success” and the Infographics are valuable to your business.

You can download the two Infographics as well as “The Tale of Two SEO Houses” on our website here.

Call us if you would like to set up a complimentary 30-minute chat to help you on your road to success.

Irene Donnell

Partner – P5 Marketing.com

https://p5marketing.com/resources/

https://p5marketing.com/resources/

https://p5marketing.com/contact-us-about-your-seo-marketing/

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