Why social media? The average U.S. consumer spends 15 hours per week on social media. It is where your customers are. This ebook is intended to help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media.

1. SMALL STEPS FOR CREATING
BIG RESULTS WITH
SOCIAL MEDIA

2. INTRODUCTION
Celebrating Small Business Week
1
Why Social Media? Consider the Benefits
for Your Business
5
Finding Your Customers Online
12
Creating Streams of Content
18
Creating a Content Schedule
22
Social Media Timesavers
25
The Website Connection
29
Bottom-Line Time: Is All This Working?
33
More Resources for Achieving
Social Media Results
INTERNET | VOICE | TELEVISION | NETWORK SERVICES | CLOUD

3. INTERNET | VOICE | TELEVISION | NETWORK SERVICES | CLOUD
INTRODUCTION
To Our Valued Customer,
During National Small Business Week, we celebrate the hard work and dedication
of all our small business customers. We also recognize the role you play in our econo-
my. Small businesses employ more than half of all working Americans1
and generate
$5.5 trillion in revenue across North America.2
At Time Warner Cable Business Class®
, we did not want this week to go by
without expressing our gratitude for all you do and for being a valued customer. As a
thank-you, we’d like to share a new, complimentary ebook, Small Steps for Creating
Big Results with Social Media.
Why social media? The average U.S. consumer spends 15 hours per week on social
media. It is where your customers are. This ebook is intended to help you navigate the
ever-changing landscape of social media.
The expert tips and insights provided in Small Steps for Creating Big Results with
Social Media have been compiled specifically for business owners. You don’t have to
be a technology expert and you don’t have to spend hours upon hours learning the ins
and outs of every social media platform out there in order to leverage social tools in a
way that can make a positive impact with your customers.
Marketing your businesses with social media does not have to be resource inten-
sive, and you can achieve revenue growth in a way that is efficient and manageable
for you.
Time Warner Cable Business Class is committed to helping our small business
customers succeed. We hope this ebook will help you achieve some of your goals.
Sincerely,
Maureen Link
Group Vice President, Small Business
1
Nazar J: 16 surprising statistics about small businesses. Forbes.com 2
LinkedIn and TNS Survey, 2014

4. WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?
CONSIDER THE BENEFITS FOR YOUR
BUSINESS
1

5. 2 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
As a business owner, you have more on your plate at any given moment
than most other people could handle in a given day. So adding Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and whatever other social media platform
pops up in the coming months might seem like an extra burden for an
already long to-do list.
But, in the 10 years since Facebook launched and the 12 years since
LinkedIn began, social media has grown into an essential tool for any business
to help bring the brand message to a wider client base and strengthen the
loyalty of existing customers. This is especially true for small business owners,
whose close involvement with their company makes them an ideal voice
for the brand. Social media removes barriers between customers and your
business and provides access you might not have otherwise.
One obvious reason why social media has become so effective: It’s where
potential customers are. According to Pew Research, 71% of all Internet
users are on Facebook, including 56% of those ages 65 and older. The number
of users in this demographic has growm in every other major social media
platform this past year as well. According to the same study, LinkedIn grew
its followings in professionals and college graduates over the past year,
while Twitter and Pinterest saw steady increases in a number of demographic
groups. While there are questions of which platforms make the most sense
for a small business owner to use (see Chapter 2 for more on this topic), there
is little debate about the value of having a social media presence.
“The beauty of social media is that it is in many ways a level playing
field,” says Kenneth Hein, marketing director for global advertising agency
gyro. “Any size business can quickly establish itself across important
channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.”
He adds that as a business owner, you can set your company apart by
sharing insights relevant to your target audience and serving as a source of
knowledge to first earn trust, and then additional business.

6. 3
WHY NOW?
The public’s expectation is that businesses of any type or
size should have some type of social media presence. As
social algorithms focusing on location-based services have
improved, this has been a boon for business owners trying
to deepen their connection to local customers. Visually
oriented platforms like Instagram and Pinterest make it
easier than ever to share high-quality photos of a company’s
products; and improved enablement of ecommerce across
Facebook and elsewhere means a small business can sell
directly to online customers easier than ever.
An active social media presence provides benefits in
other, less obvious ways. Google now includes tweets in
its ranking algorithm, enhancing a company’s search engine
optimization (SEO). The steady, regular presence in front of a
customer helps your brand stand out in the long term.
BRAND BEFORE BUILD
The wide range of uses social media can offer may actually
deter an owner from fully embracing its advantages. That
is why before diving into LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, you
should take a careful look at your goals as a company, and
the benefits you hope to gain from social media. This is a
process that Karen Leland, branding and marketing strategist
for Sterling Marketing Group, calls “brand before build.”
“Before setting up social media or a website, companies
need to think through their branding messages in terms of
unique branding proposition, energy of the brand, and story
of the brand,” says Leland.
Why Social Media? Consider the Benefits for Your Business
PRO TIP
It takes a lot of
effort to keep social
media accounts
up to date and
compelling.
The best course
of action is to start
with one channel
and then add on
as you get into the
groove. Before you
know it, it will
become a part
of your regular
routine. And, of
course, there are
plenty of skilled
professionals who
can help.
Kenneth Hein,
marketing
director for
gyro

7. 4 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
During this process, think through the sort of messaging you want to
present to followers and, more importantly, what benefits you hope to gain
from social media. Will it primarily serve as a brand-marketing platform?
Will it prompt followers to sign up for the company newsletter? Will it
encourage them to order products through the brand website or visit your
physical location for a consultation?
Your answers to these questions will shape the way you will use social
media and where your energy will go.
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter
71
28 28
26 23
PERCENTAGE OF ADULT INTERNET USERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Write down your business goals for your social media efforts
and what you hope to accomplish with an active online presence
(more visitors to your stores or events? more online sales? greater
awareness of your brand?). These goals should be the foundation
on which you build every piece of your social media efforts.
Source: Pew Research Center,
September 2014
NEXT
ACTION

8. 2
FINDING YOUR CUSTOMERS
ONLINE

9. 6 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
The term “social media” encompasses a fast-growing collection of
platforms, forums and formats where you can express yourself or
promote your company. Not all of them are helpful to your business, nor
should you attempt to create a strong presence across the many venues
now available. The ideal approach is to find one or two in which to engage
deeply and focus marketing energy. But which ones make the most sense?
While every platform offers its own benefits, as a small business owner,
you will want to consider your marketing goals for social media, and select
which platform to focus on from there. For example, if you are using social
media to generate leads among other businesses, LinkedIn is clearly the
go-to choice. If you are looking to target users by their location and promote
a local event, Facebook is ideal. Each offers its own benefits.
LinkedIn: This platform is ideal for B2B companies looking to reach
potential clients. It’s a place to share business and industry insights while
learning about new technologies and services—more for words than
pictures. LinkedIn is also a great place for lead generation, networking with
professionals in similar industries, and sharing and discussing industry topics.
Facebook: With more than 1.4 billion users, this is where to go in order to
reach a wide audience with B2C offerings. It’s a great place for a business
to promote local events, target users based on location/proximity, and
gather analytics using Facebook Insights. It appeals to a wider range of
ages than any other social media platform out there.

10. 7Finding Your Customers Online
Twitter: This site is a good place to develop casual connections with
customers, responding to their questions and feedback, without necessarily
trying to make a sale. It is used by only about a fifth of the U.S. adult
population, but by some of the most engaged and active users online,
making it a good place to go to post news and announcements and to get
immediate feedback on contests and special offers.
Instagram: This platform is ideal for visual-oriented businesses like
restaurants, retailers and travel destinations. Fifty-seven percent of users
are on Instagram daily, making it a good place for frequent updates. Its users
also skew younger. Since it is all about images, it is a good place for photo
contests or for businesses to post behind-the-scenes and product pics.
Pinterest: Like Instagram, visual businesses in areas like fashion, arts,
travel, and food will get the most out of this platform. It is ideal for reaching
a female-heavy audience (according to RJMetrics, 80% of Pinterest users
are women). It is also a good place for targeting users based on their
interests.
Google+: The users are two-thirds male and most are in technical fields,
making this a better platform for small businesses in tech or marketing.
Google+ is a good place to share content targeted to particular Google
Hangouts. It is an especially valuable place for those looking to improve
their company’s SEO as posts and reviews will show up on Google rankings.
Here are some other stats to consider about the various social media
platforms.

11. 8 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
TOP USES FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Facebook: Promoting local events, targeting users based on location/
proximity, gathering analytics using Facebook Insights
LinkedIn: Generating leads, networking with professionals in an area and
similar industries, sharing and discussing industry topics
Instagram: Sharing/editing photos and videos, ideal for visual-oriented
businesses like restaurants and retailers
Twitter: Responding to customer questions/feedback, developing relation-
ships with current/prospective customers, posting news and announcements
Pinterest: Especially for visual businesses in fashion and the arts, reaching
a female-heavy audience, targeting users based on interests
Google+: Targeting local businesses, promoting events, improving SEO
with posted customer reviews and comments
Facebook
Facebook
LinkedIn Instagram
1.41B
73%
347M 300M
12%
Pinterest
Pinterest
Google+
Google+
Twitter
Twitter
300M288M 70M
12%
17%
18%
NUMBER OF USERS1
HOUSEHOLD INCOME $75,000+2
1
Statista: Leading social networks worldwide as of March 2015. http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users 2
Pew Research Center: Social
media 2013—user demographics for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-user-demographics/479579
Instagram

12. 9Finding Your Customers Online
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Instagram
Instagram
Instagram
Pinterest
Pinterest
Pinterest
Google+
Google+
Google+
Twitter
Twitter
Twitter
USE BY B2B MARKETERS3
USE BY B2C MARKETERS
3
Social Media Examiner: 2014 social media marketing industry report: how marketers are using social media to grow their businesses. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/
SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf 4
Content Marketing Institute: 2015 B2C content marketing trends report
89%
97%
88%
59%
19%
34%
59%86% 41%
51%81% 51%
(Percentage of B2B marketers using each platform)
(Percentage of B2C marketers using each platform)
CONTENT MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS4
(Marketers rank platform effectiveness)
58% 36% 49%
23%52% 41%
Social media can be an effective marketing tool for businesses in almost any industry.
Surveys show B2B marketers are as active on social media as B2C marketers.

13. 10 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
B2B LEAD GENERATION EFFECTIVENESS5
(Percentage of leads generated by platform)
6.73% 80.33%
0.21%12.73%
ECOMMERCE SALES EFFECTIVENESS6
(Conversion rates by platform)
1.85% 0.47% 1.08%
0.99%0.77% 0.54%
DID YOU KNOW
The fastest-growing demographic on Twitter is the 55–64
age bracket. The 45–54 age bracket is the fastest-growing
demographic on both Facebook and Google+.
Every second, two new members join LinkedIn.
You have 1 hour to respond to a mention on Twitter: 53% of
users who tweet to a brand expect a response within an hour.
5
Business 2 Community: 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn. http://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/80-social-media-b2b-leads-come-linkedin-infograph-
ic-0813659 6
shopify: Social commerce: which social media platforms drive the most sales? http://www.shopify.com/infographics/social-commerce
Facebook LinkedIn Instagram
Pinterest Google+Twitter
Twitter
Facebook LinkedIn
Google+

14. 11Finding Your Customers Online
The first step to building an audience
is, paradoxically, shrinking your focus.
Instead of trying to get as many
followers as possible, drill down to a
few specific categories of followers—
thought leaders in your industry,
employees of companies you hope
to sell to, or contacts in your city or
region, for example.
Beyond following these individuals,
engage in conversation with them:
reply to their comments, tag them
in your posts and focus on being an
active, engaged member of the social
community. Consider offering social
incentives, such as exclusive discounts
or special offers available only to your
followers.
CONVERSATION IS KEY
Keep your focus on helping your
followers and members of the industry.
Offer practical insight that customers
can use in their daily life (if you are
a hardware store, share a how-to
guide on a small home repair). As you
position yourself as an expert in your
industry, followers—and prospective
customers—will move your way.
To help ensure you are part of
the larger conversation about a
given topic or discussion thread, use
hashtags in your comments. Tools
like IconoSquare, Tagboard and
Talkwalker can help you to see which
hashtags are generating interest
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
and elsewhere to help increase the
likelihood you will get spotted by
others with an interest in the topic
being discussed. On LinkedIn, join
the active LinkedIn Groups in your
industry, engaging in discussions
and alerting members of your posts
(though be sure not to only focus
on your own promotion — this is
about sharing insight, not just selling
yourself). Create Showcase Pages on
LinkedIn to promote specific products
or events in order to more carefully
target your company message and
attract those likely with an interest in
your offerings.
If you’d like to boost your following
a bit more, consider paid, targeted
advertising, which can get your
message in front of the specific
audiences you are looking to reach
and draw them to your page.
With your social media goals in mind and a knowledge of the
audience you are trying to reach, select one or two social
platforms on which to dedicate the bulk of your efforts. Focus
on building a strong, active presence on these platforms before
expanding to others.
TIPS FOR GENERATING AN AUDIENCE
NEXT
ACTION

15. 3
CREATING STREAMS OF
CONTENT

16. 13 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
After you decide what social media platforms will have the greatest
impact for your business, the next step is deciding what content
should get posted.
Posting on a consistent basis is imperative to achieving your social
media marketing goals. However, sitting in front of the blank computer (or
smartphone) screen, trying to come up with pithy updates, putting together
insightful comments and trying to find relevant links to share can be very
frustrating. This can be especially vexing with social media, which is sup-
posed to be an outlet for casual conversation, not a source of stress.
But finding the right wellsprings for creative inspiration can ensure you
are rarely stumped for your next tweet or status update. Here are some
solid sources for jumpstarting ideas for content:
CONTENT CALENDAR
A valuable long-term strategy for keeping ideas flowing is to create a con-
tent calendar, which lays out general topics, services or products that your
business should cover during particular days or weeks. We could write a
whole chapter just on this topic alone—in fact, we did. See Chapter 4 for a
more in-depth discussion of how to create this sort of content guide.
BECOME A RESOURCE
When it comes to social media, offer your expertise with a no-strings-
attached policy. By becoming a resource for customers and prospects, you
earn their trust and, as a result, will win more business.
Identify the main problems you solve for your customers and then use
that information within your content. Create unique content that leverages
your professional insight. You should also consider curating other industry
professionals’ content and adding it to your mix. If you demonstrate your
value, rather than trying to sell your audience on it, you will be able to
connect with customers and prospects on a deeper level.

17. 14Creating Streams of Content
COMPANY NEWS
The next source of social media content comes from your
company’s own announcements: new products and services,
special offers and sales, or upcoming events of which loyal
customers should be aware. However, your posts should
not read like mini-press releases. Beyond just reporting
this news, effective social media promotion should get as
much mileage as possible from any developments at your
company. Post photos of a new product, perhaps in a funny
pose, on Instagram; live-tweet a special event; or post the
comments of customers who come in to redeem a coupon.
Finding ways to make your company news more personal is
what social media is all about.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Along these lines, one of the more fun elements of social
media is the way it can provide a behind-the-scenes look at
what goes on at your business. Think about what happens in
a given day—the arrival of a new product, a meeting with
a long-time client, or the manufacture of a new item—and
consider how it can be turned into a LinkedIn update. While
the work of some organizations is inherently more interest-
ing than others (a bakery’s photo of cupcakes baking is likely
to get more likes than an accountant’s pile of tax returns),
the right humor and personal touch will interest followers.
TAP YOUR TEAM
Resources can also be found in the people throughout your
business. Your employees and customers can be sources for
great ideas about what topics, questions or observations
PRO TIP
Listen to your
employees and
customers. They
are front-facing
with your clients
and know the
most frequently
asked questions,
concerns and
positive reviews
about your brand.
Christine
Rochelle,
director of digital
marketing and
operations,
lotus823

18. 15 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
PRO TIP
Content creation
should be
consistent with the
business and the
individual posting it.
Accountants should
not be posting
marketing content,
and marketing
pros should not be
posting about real
estate.
Bill Corbett,
president of
Corbett Public
Relations
to raise on social media. These can come from casual
conversations in person or online (look at what customers
are discussing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and
elsewhere), or more formal discussions.
“Team brainstorms are key in gathering all of your ideas
at once,” suggests Christine Rochelle, director of digital
marketing and operations for digital marketing firm lotus823.
“Spend 30 minutes each month as a team looking at a
calendar and developing content ideas for your channels.”
GENERAL AND INDUSTRY NEWS
Of course, successful social media strategy goes far beyond
self-promotion. Your posts should comment on and share
content about your industry and the wider world. It’s what
Bill Corbett, president of Corbett Public Relations and a per-
sonal brand consultant, calls the “give-to-get philosophy.”
“Look to the news, your industry, and always think about
ways to help people when coming up with ideas for what to
post,” he says.
Beyond the conversations taking place on your own social
media platforms, a well-curated RSS feed of general interest
and industry content and news can be a great go-to for
creating a tweet or post. A few popular RSS readers include
the web-based My Yahoo, NewsFire or NewsLife for Mac,
and Omea or GreatNews for Windows. Also consider
setting Google or Yahoo alerts for keywords most relevant
and engaging about your business. This will deliver a list of
news and articles by topic via email each morning, providing
a readymade jumpstart for a morning tweet or Facebook post.

19. 16Creating Streams of Content
HOLIDAYS, BIRTHDAYS AND FUN FACTS
Any day of the calendar year can offer some significant information or a
silly fact that can serve as a great social media post. Sources such as
National Day Calendar and The History Place provide easy fodder for
shareable posts. Did you know June 1 is National Pen Pal Day? Someone
tweeting for an office supply store should know that date.
MEASURE RESULTS
While social media focuses on the immediate present, looking at the past
also can help stoke ideas. That is, an owner should review his or her social
media analytics from the previous months and see what topics or types of
posts (photo, question, inspirational comment) drew the most interest.
Then use that as a template, or at least a suggested direction to help
devise more ideas for content (see Chapter 6 for more about using analytics
to shape marketing goals).
NEXT
ACTION Set up an RSS feed that aggregates industry and general news
sources, as well as Google or Yahoo alerts for keywords that are
relevant to your business. Now you have a stream of on-topic,
timely material to help devise your social media posts.

20. 17 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
One of the major benefits
offered by social media is
its reach and the chance it
provides to help your con-
tent go far beyond just your
followers—in a word, to go
viral. While it’s impossible
to ensure your content
goes viral, there are a few
steps you can take when
creating posts to increase
its shareability.
A good way to get
people to share your stuff?
Make it unique and easy to
understand. This is easier
said than done, but it can
simply mean the difference
of the format for a post
or the way you convey
information. For example, if
you’re an attorney creating
a post on “5 Things to Re-
member When Preparing a
Will,” consider making it an
infographic or video rather
than a blog post.
ENTERTAINMENT
AND VALUE
“The trick with a weird
attention-grabber is to
follow up with value,” says
Kay Svela, vice president
of business development
and digital strategy for
marketing firm Cyberwalker
Digital. Any shareable post
provides a laugh, gives
information to helps solve
a problem, or provokes
thought.
She gives the example
of a small business client
that sells materials-
handling products like
forklifts. For April Fools’
Day, they created a fake
product in the company’s
online store called the
“Anti-Gravity Forklift” and
promoted it through social
media channels. The traffic
to the company website
quadrupled.
ENGAGE INFLUENCERS
The content can’t just
be sent out into the ether
with the expectation some-
one will notice it. To really
propel content, be sure it
is shared with social media
influencers that have large
and engaged followings.
Tweet at them, tag them in
the post, or send a Linke-
dIn message along the
lines of “Thought you would
enjoy this.” If they share
it, that will increase the
chances it will spread fast.
CREATING VIRAL CONTENT

21. 4
CREATING A CONTENT
SCHEDULE

22. Why Social Media? Consider the
Benefits for Your Business
19 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
When (and if) you engage in social media in your personal life, it’s
often about up-to-the-second updates and breaking news, such as
sharing a great article you just read, posting a picture of your family at a
baseball game or reading friends’ reactions to an international event. But,
as a savvy business owner, it is more efficient for you to take a longer-term
approach to posting.
To create an effective balance of content from week to week, and to
ensure posts are getting as much attention as possible, a content schedule
that outlines what to post and when will give you greater control over
your social media
messaging.
Approach the
content schedule
from a couple of
levels: daily/weekly
and annually. The
daily/weekly level
considers when,
how often, and on
what platforms to
post throughout the
day and week.
How often you
post depends on the
platform. A quality
Facebook post can remain near the top of newsfeeds for hours, while a
Tweet is buried a few seconds after posting, making it worthwhile to post
more often to Twitter. Compounding this is that Facebook and Pinterest use
algorithms that selectively hide content from users’ newsfeeds, making it
Courtesy of
NFIB.com

23. 20Creating a Content Schedule
detrimental to post too often on those platforms. On the other hand,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ reward frequent updates.
Use the content schedule to set parameters about the time of day a post
goes up. Theories about the best time to post vary. Experts generally agree that
the morning and early afternoon are most likely to get the highest volume of
readers, as they start their workday and settle back in after lunch, respectively.
As far as what type of content you should plan to post: Photos and video
do tend to get bigger responses on social media than straight text, but that
does not mean you should include a photo with every post. “Just keep in
mind, as you’re scheduling your posts, that you should be using a healthy
mix of visual and textual content,” suggests Marcus Krieg, personal
branding coach at Authority Unleashed.
Schedule follow-up posts of related content, building on the topic.
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and
used to help users search for messages on a specific topic. In this way,
Twitter users who come across those hashtags will then see the related
posts and may be more likely to follow or respond.
STAYING ON SCHEDULE
After you decide what type of content you are going to post to what
platform and when, implement a tool to help you stay on schedule with
efficiency. Popular scheduling tools include Buffer and Hootsuite, which
allow the user to set a daily schedule for each social network, create posts
ahead of time and set times for posts to go live (see more about these
time-saving strategies in Chapter 5).
On that note, social media is meant to be a two-way conversation, so
beyond the original scheduled posts going up, set aside time—perhaps
just five or ten minutes once or twice a day—to respond to comments and
replies from followers.

24. PRO TIP
Post your social
updates within a
few minutes of
the hour, because
a lot of people
use social media
between meetings,
which tend to start
or end at the top of
the hour.
Marcus Krieg,
personal
branding coach
at Authority
Unleashed
STRIKING A BALANCE
In addition to helping you stay consistent with your posts, a
content schedule helps you strike a balance across the
different topics and themes. This could mean making a goal
to post at least once a week about each type of product
or service available from your company. For example, a
hardware supplier could make sure he focuses on plumbing
equipment one week, and paint supplies the next. The sup-
plier can then plan to mix it up by posting a link to an article
about this year’s hot paint colors, or how to snake a drain.
A content calendar can also be handy for strategic
re-posting. If you want to get as much attention as possible
to a particular item—a company announcement, research,
blog post or article—a content schedule is the ideal place
to put reminders to re-post it. To get maximum page views
or feedback, consider posting about a week or two after the
original post, and then again three to four months after that.
Finally, be sure to stay flexible about the content
schedule. It will require you to make frequent adjustments
as you determine what works for each platform. Once a
solid schedule is worked out, it will likely need to be revisited
every couple of months to make sure it’s keeping up with the
fast-changing social media landscape.
Draft a content schedule using the content schedule template
pictured in this chapter and modify it to your company’s needs.
Be sure each area of your business is covered and that you are
varying the format and subjects covered in the posts.
21 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
NEXT
ACTION

25. SOCIAL MEDIA
TIMESAVERS
5

26. PRO TIP
There are millions of
businesses sharing
cat pictures each
day in the hopes
that doing so will
retain customers …
but to what effect? If
your dentist were to
tweet and post three
times per day about
anything (dentistry
included), you would
eventually tune out.
Thomas
Holland,
president of
The Dark Horse
Group
One of the most common reasons business owners have
for neglecting their social media efforts is the amount of
time it takes. Posting daily updates, brainstorming a content
calendar and analyzing impact can have anyone reaching for
another cup of coffee. Fortunately, with the right tools and
tactics, operating an effective and impactful social media
strategy can be reduced to just a few minutes a day.
CURATE
First, keep in mind that on social media curating content
is as important as creating it. It can feel overwhelming to
imagine that success on LinkedIn and elsewhere requires
composing thoughtful posts on a regular basis. Instead,
share compelling research or news, with a quick thought of
your own—the effect is often as powerful as if you’d creat-
ed the shared content yourself.
To save time when curating, cut back on the number of
sites you visit. Use RSS feeds and similar tools to aggregate
the various outlets you would want to review in a given day.
For ideas of what to share, you only have to visit one site
instead of dozens. Using an app like Swayy, you can do the
same with the social media feeds you follow, offering a list
of content you are likely to have interest in, based on the
keywords you post.
You can save time by tapping others in your industry
to submit content—for example, with guest blog posts or
LinkedIn articles that you can post to your business page.
Customers can also help you create content: If your business
is on Yelp or another platform that generates lots of reviews,
23 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media

27. 24Social Media Timesavers
you might consider putting a “Testimonial Tuesday” in place where you pull
a positive review of the company and send it out to your followers.
SCHEDULE
Many business owners find the idea of pausing work throughout the day to
post something on LinkedIn or Twitter a huge distraction. For the latter group,
there are free tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Dlvr.it and Twitter’s own TweetDeck
platform that allow you to schedule your social media posts all at once. This
means you can designate a period of time during the week to sit down and
compose a handful of posts to go up over the next week. Business owners
find this “set it and forget it” approach an enormous timesaver.
Even better, these tools allow you to post on multiple social media plat-
forms simultaneously, so there is no need for going one by one from Twitter
to LinkedIn to Facebook and so on. These tools allow you to reply to posts
or direct messages within the platform, track analytics and create streams
that let you do marketing research in real time.
GO MOBILE
All of these tools can, and should, be connected through your smartphone.
This will allow you to share or post during those spare minutes between
meetings, waiting for an oil change, or dozens of other times that are not
ideal for handling bigger business decisions, but are ideal for quickly
hopping onto Hootsuite.
Set up an account on Hootsuite, Buffer or a similar scheduling tool
and set up posts for the next week or two. You’re likely to find it
takes less time to sit down for an hour to set this up than it would
to remember to make the posts each day.
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ACTION

28. 6
THE WEBSITE
CONNECTION

29. Why Social Media? Consider the
Benefits for Your Business
26 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
Asmall business may have a strong following on LinkedIn, an engaging
Twitter feed and thousands of Facebook likes, but it does not add up to
much if that engagement fails to turn into conversions. Clear calls-to-action
that drive traffic to a user-friendly website are key to leveraging your social
media presence into tangible business success.
As discussed back in Chapter 1, before beginning any social media
effort, your brand must be clear on the goals of these marketing efforts: Is it
to encourage followers to place an online order? Do you want them to call
for a consultation? Sign up for your e-newsletter? Visit your store or attend
an event? Whatever the end goals, the company’s website is where you can
move followers down the path toward conversion.
Simplicity is essential. Keep the site focused on what visitors should do
next. If the priority is to get visitors to join your company’s mailing list, include
a prominent field in which a visitor can quickly type his or her email in order
to receive future updates. If the aim is to make sales, the site could serve as a
full e-commerce store, or seamlessly connect to another site where the order
can be placed. Whatever the goal, the site should be squarely focused on
drawing the visitor into taking that action or actions.
Chris McElroy, owner of online marketing firm Traffic and Lead
Generator.com suggests turning your site’s sidebar into a useful conversion
tool by displaying products and calls-to-action there.
For major events or promotional pushes, take calls-to-action a step further
by creating custom landing pages that will direct visitors to take a specific
action before they even visit your main website. By way of example, on an
accountant’s website, this might mean a landing page with details about how
to prepare for tax season along with a calendar to sign up for an appointment;
for a retailer holding an end-of-season sale, it might be a page about the
event with “share” buttons for posting on social media.

30. 27The Website Connection
CROSS-PROMOTION IS KEY
One overall goal for any small business is to create
consistency and cross-promotion across all of the organi-
zation’s online platforms. Every social media profile should
include a prominent link back to your company’s website.
Facebook, for example, has call-to-action buttons that can
be used in posts to invite followers to “Shop Now,” “Watch
Video,” “Use App” and so on. As a business owner, you will
want to use these tools and incorporate similar direct calls-to-
action throughout your social media platforms and website.
Likewise, your company’s website should include social
media icons with links to every other platform on which it
has a presence—at the top of the page, not just buried at
the bottom with copyright info. Because the social media
outlets themselves are updating frequently (for example,
Facebook fans became Likes, and group pages were
eliminated), your business will want to ensure that the
buttons linking back to these sites are also up to date.
Beyond this integration, Karen Leland, branding and
marketing strategist at Sterling Marketing Group, urges
small business owners to include “social proof” front-and-
center on the website as well.
Social proof includes testimonials, name-brand clients who
have used you, or press.
ENABLE AND ANALYZE
These days, a website that looks nice on a desktop is not
enough. Especially when drawing users from social media
sites, ensuring a company website is enabled to be just
PRO TIP
Consistently drive
followers from
Twitter to your
website for further
info, saying ‘read
full article here,’
and if you do that
enough, they will
probably give you
their email.
Karen Leland,
branding and
marketing
strategist,
Sterling Market-
ing Group

31. 28 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
as usable and attractive on
a smartphone or tablet is a
growing objective for anyone
designing a website. But it is
something most small business owners still are not thinking about. According
to a recent survey, just 9% of small businesses had a mobile-optimized site.
Yet more than 50% of new traffic to the web comes from smartphones and
other mobile devices.
Enabling your site for mobile is not as complicated as it may sound—it
involves simplifying the interface, avoiding Flash or Java, and switching to
mobile redirects. Social Media Examiner offers a helpful breakdown of how
to make your site a good fit for phones.
Just as analytics can provide useful direction for social media efforts,
the same is true of a brand’s website. Owners have no shortage of tools
to help in these efforts, from Google Analytics’ detailed statistics about
visitors to Crazy Egg’s “heat maps” of what visitors click on when visiting
your website. These tools can help a small business make its good website
even better, identifying what is working and doing more of it.
Consider using social media analytics (see Chapter 7 for more on this)
alongside website analytics. Tools like SproutSocial allow business owners
to compare web and social media data side-by-side, helping to identify
when and why traffic spiked at certain times.
of small businesses
have not optimized their
websites for mobile91
Check that each of your social media accounts directs visitors
back to your website. Check that your website’s landing page
clearly directs visitors to the next action you want them to take
(visiting your e-commerce store, signing up for the company
newsletter, etc.).
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ACTION

32. 7
BOTTOM-LINE TIME: IS ALL THIS
WORKING?

33. 30 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
Sticking with best practices and posting consistently engaging content,
you should see your company’s social media following steadily grow.
But beyond the number of followers, connections or Likes, you may want
to take a deeper look at the data to understand how well these marketing
efforts are working, and what could be done more effectively.
Most major social media platforms offer their own analytics tools.
Facebook’s Page Insights delves into information about a page’s perfor-
mance, including demographic data and details about followers’ engage-
ment level and the impact of posts. Twitter recently enhanced its free
Analytics program, providing a snapshot of followers, profile visits and
tweet activity. LinkedIn’s Who’s Viewed Your Profile reports include graphs
that look at profile visits over time, which can be separated into visitors’
geographic region, profession or other data.
But for a broader look at your business’ overall social media effectiveness,
you might consider some of the more advanced tools available. Hootsuite has
now integrated this real-time social data into its dashboard of engagement
solutions. It allows users to segment audiences by demographic information
(gender, location and age) and to note real-time spikes in brand sentiment
(whether positive, negative or neutral). Simply Measured offers reports as
wide-ranging as tweet distribution by country, top videos on YouTube and
Vimeo, and top keywords and frequency within posts.
Another popular tool is Buffer, which provides details such as the
number of people who interact with your posts, giving a sense of the posts’
impact. DashThis is another option that tracks analytic information from
Google Analytics and can integrate with the API information from Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and more.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
The metrics you examine will depend on your company’s marketing priorities.

34. 31Bottom-Line Time: Is All This Working?
For example, if driving visitors to your company website is a
main goal, Google Analytics can provide traffic data, with
details on which social media sites visitors are coming from
(see Chapter 6 for more about getting the most from your
company website). While social media is generally a branding
tool that helps keep your company top of mind for follow-
ers, looking specifically at interactions is where you can get
a sense of how social media is helping move from brand
marketing to more tangible business results (website views,
e-newsletter signups and so on).
Look closely at the level of engagement coming from
your followers. This means not just the number of followers
your business has, but how many of those followers are
clicking through to articles or links posted, how many are
commenting on posts and how many are recommending
your brand to their own followers.
To compare your social media activity to how well that
activity is meeting marketing your goals, look to see if
engagement levels steadily improve over time. If you in-
crease marketing efforts on social media behind a particular
product but do not see a corresponding rise in followers who
click through to the website, it is time to reassess whether
your social media strategy is working.
“Either the social media content is not of high quality,
it’s not something followers want to see or it’s more of a
hard sell than good, valuable content that people want
to see,” says Paul Dworianyn, owner of digital marketing
firm Awesome Dynamic, which works with a number of
small businesses to enhance their online and social media
PRO TIP
Social media
metrics are not as
much about hard
numbers as giving
a sense of which
direction you are
moving—forward
or backward.
Marshall
Sponder, CEO of
WebMetricsGuru,
and professor
of social media
analytics
at Rutgers
University

35. 32 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
marketing. “If you improve your content, that’s how you
can get the click through rates to go up.”
At the same time, social media metrics should not take
on an outsized place among your marketing efforts. If you
have limited time and resources, it does not make sense to
dive as deep into the numbers as a major brand might need
to do. “A lot of analytics tools that exist are for bigger busi-
nesses, where far more money is being made or lost,” says
Marshall Sponder, CEO of WebMetricsGuru and professor
of social media analytics at Rutgers University.
Sponder recommends that instead of getting buried in
graphs and obscure numbers, a business owner would be
best served by doing what he calls an “analytics selfie.”
This involves assessing a company’s performance across
a handful of social media sites, compiled onto one chart,
which can be used to get a general sense of the company’s
performance over time.
“The small business owner is close to all aspects of
the business and can see up close the effects of market-
ing on the business,” adds Sponder. “They can already
see the details in an up-close way that metrics won’t
always necessarily illuminate.”
32 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
56
Source:
LinkedIn/TNS study,
February 2014
of small
and
mid-size
businesses
increased
their social
spend from
2013 to
2014
Set up an analytics account with Hootsuite, Dashthis or a similar
service and start tracking your social media performance. Look
specifically for the level of engagement and interaction your
posts are garnering and seek ways to deepen this.
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ACTION

36. 8
MORE RESOURCES
FOR ACHIEVING SOCIAL MEDIA
RESULTS

37. 34 Small Steps For Creating Big Results with Social Media
Now that you have a broad understanding of the goals and best
practices for managing your social media, here are a few useful
resources to help you put these plans into action. This list is by no means
comprehensive but should give you some good places to take your social
media efforts to the next level, or to dive deeper.
ONLINE READING
• Mashable provides news and trend stories on what’s happening in social.
• Adweek’s SocialTimes blog covers marketing and social media news.
• Social Media Examiner serves as an in-depth blog with practical
social media tactics and in-depth research.
• Social Media Explorer is a marketing agency as well as a helpful blog
of marketing expertise.
• HubSpot is an Internet marketing firm offering a library of free marketing
resources, including ebooks, webinars and infographic templates.
• Social Media B2B is for small business owners targeting other
businesses. This site offers a helpful blog and newsletter.
• SmartBlog on Social Media is a newsletter about the latest
developments and best practices in the social media space.
• 90+ Ultimate Social Media Marketing Resources for Small
Businesses. As the title indicates, this one page contains links to 90
helpful articles and ebooks.
LINKEDIN
• LinkedIn Small Business, the platform’s page with tips on marketing
and sales for small businesses.
• An Introduction to LinkedIn for Business, a free ebook from HubSpot
offering a comprehensive guide to setting up and succeeding with LinkedIn.

38. • A Visual Guide to Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Company Page,
a fast, useful and free read that walks you through how your LinkedIn
company page should look.
• Essential LinkedIn Marketing Resources: A Complete Guide,
Social Media Examiner’s library of articles and tips on everything from
creating the right header profile image to managing a LinkedIn Group.
• The Ultimate Guide to Using and Managing LinkedIn Groups, a
step-by-step video from digital marketer Holly Fawcett on how to get the
most out of LinkedIn Groups.
FACEBOOK
• Facebook for Business, Facebook’s official page targeted at
businesses that are considering using ads.
• The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing, a deep dive into
how to create a business page, generate traffic with check-in deals and
promote events on Facebook.
• Facebook Marketing, Greg Brooks’ in-depth take on how to use
Facebook advertising to get business results.
• Facebook Marketing for Small Businesses, a very in-depth video
series on every aspect of Facebook marketing, from Heyo CEO Nathan Latka.
TWITTER
• Twitter blog, Twitter’s brand blog.
• How to Attract Customers with Twitter & Vine, HubSpot’s free ebook
on using Twitter for lead generation and optimizing brand awareness search.
• The Tao of Twitter, newly expanded and very popular guide on getting
the most from Twitter.
• How to Make Money With Twitter, a guide on marketing and
monetizing with the social network, a good fit for small business owners.
More Resources for Achieving Social Media Results 35