Social Media StrategyMake ‘social’ work for your business

ALICE JENNINGS

Agenda• Introductions

• Goals for today

• What is ‘social media’?

• 5 steps to a social media strategy

• Next steps

Our sponsors…Fastershire - http://www.fastershire.com/

Women in Rural Enterprise – www.wire.org.uk

Government Equalities Office (but only women allowed!) https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-equalities-office

A bit about me…

• 15 years experience IT/Project Management/Training in corporate environment

• Social Media training

• Started my 18 months ago

• Member of WIRE for over a year

• Passionate about helping small businesses use technology

A bit about you…• Name

• Business or Business Idea

• Goal for today. What do you want to walk out with?

What is ‘Social Media’?

“Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking”

There are currently 211 platforms!!

Why use ‘Social Media’?

The Magnificent 7...• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google+

• LinkedIn

• Pinterest

• Instagram

• YouTube

5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

1. Your business2. Your customers3. Your platforms4. Your goals5. Your plan

Step 1 – Know your Business• Be able to clearly state what you do/offer/sell

• Know what makes you special

• Have a list of words that describe you

• Task 1

5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

1. Your business2. Your customers3. Your platforms4. Your goals5. Your plan

Step 2 – Know your customer• Understand your ideal customer in detail

• Create an ‘ideal customer’

• The more detail the better

Exercise 2

Define your ideal client

5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

1. Your business2. Your customers3. Your platforms4. Your goals5. Your plan

Step 3 – Choose your platform• Once you understand your customer you can find them more easily

• Look at the demographics of the different platforms

• Think about what your customer is likely to be doing and what they would like to hear

Pinterest

• Collect and share inspiring links

• Very visual, great for products and creators

• + Strong, audience with buying power

• + Generates most revenue per click of all platforms

• - Hard for brands with little web presence/ecommerce

• - Female dominated

• 80 M users (20M Active), around 80% female

Pinterest

• 87% of pinners made a purchase because of Pinterest to plan a purchase

• 93% of users have planned a purchase because of Pinterest

• 80% of users are on mobiles

• Create an account

• Create public or private boards

• Curate content that people will repin

• Great for visual businesses

Twitter• Microblogging site – 144 characters or less

• Fast moving

• Can take a bit of getting used to!

• + strong customer service tool

• + Great analytics

• - short lifespan of posts

• - Ads are expensive

Twitter• 320M Users (13M UK)

• 300K tweets every minute

• Users have a ‘handle’ @techladyuk

• Use # to join people together i.e. #gloshour

• Create lists to make it easier to manage

Facebook• Largest social network

• Polls, documents, video and pictures all easy to add

• 1.49BN users

• 30% of users age 25-34

• Create Business Pages, Groups and Events

• Great way to connect with your followers

Facebook• + Fans are 79% more likely to purchase than other platforms

• + Great for adverts and promoted posts. Powerful demographic targeting

• + Great analytics

• - Increasingly need to pay to be seen

• - Lots of traffic so hard to stand out

Google+• Google owned platform

• Great results for some businesses

• + Great for SEO (getting found on Google)

• - Uncertain future

• - Low activity of many users

• 300M users, mainly 25-34, 62% male

LinkedIn• Professional network

• Mainly Business to Business (B2B)

• + Establish yourself/brand as industry leader

• + great recruiting tool

• - Unlikely to drive sales unless B2B

• 414M users, predominantly white collar, urban

Instagram• Primarily Mobile (300+M users)

• Share pictures and 15 second videos

• Great for style oriented businesses

• + Underutilised by brands

• + Facebook owned

• - No links, analytics or scheduling

• - Advertising is in early days

• 37% 18-29yo, 68% female

YouTube• Not often considered as a standalone platform

• 2nd largest search engine (Owned by Google)

• Allows easy sharing of videos

• Great way of providing useful, shareable content

• 1B users / month

Task 3

Choose your platform

5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

1. Your business2. Your customers3. Your platforms

3a. Coffee Break4. Your goals5. Your plan

Step 4 – Define your strategy

“If you chase two rabbits, you catch none.” Confucius

What is a strategy?

“Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.”

Goals on Social Media could include:• Increase your blog read readership

• Drive traffic to your website

• Increase your email list

• Track your competitors/ research

• Connect with business contacts

• ‘Meet’ specific individuals or brands (i.e. journalists, bloggers, retailers)

• Survey your customers

• Raising your profile

e.g.• Business strategy = to make £2k per month

• Average value of a sale is £100

• Need 20 customers per month to make target (20 x £100 = £2000)

• 20% of your customers are online (need 20 online customers)

• Goal to get 10 new customers via online advertising

• 10 new customers from social media activity

• Know 50 visits = 1 sale

• Need 500 hits from social media to get close to your goal

Task 4

Define your goals

5 Steps to a Social Media Strategy

1. Your business2. Your customers3. Your platforms4. Your goals5. Your plan

Step 5 – Plan your post schedule• Plan your posts out a week or month at a time

• Divide your post types up into•New content (70%)

•Sharing existing content (20%)

•Call to action (10%)

• Consider a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Buffer

Ideas for post types…Motivational/ funny quote Product review

Funny picture New product info

Product review Mystery photo

Link to new blog post Giveaway

Link to older blog post Share your best moment of the week

Fill in the blanks Share your favourite book/film/local shop

Ask a question Ask for customer photos

Share a funny video Ask for customer testimonials

Share a page you think customers would like Comment on breaking news

Run a poll or survey

Task 5

Plan your weekly strategy

And finally…

Regardless of your platform…• Set up your profile properly

• Link to your website

• Link to other social media profiles if appropriate

• Ensure it is REALLY easy to contact you (add phone number to cover photo etc.)

• Spell check!

Regardless of your platform…• Consider the timings of posts for maximum engagement

• Use pictures or video – shown to increase engagement by up to 120%

• Respond to comments, thank new followers, be polite

• Ensure that your pictures are the right size and not copyrighted

Questions?