This document summarizes a social media strategy workshop. It discusses reviewing fundamental areas of social media like audiences, channels and tactics. It covers conducting an audit of an organization's current online presence and reputation. Key aspects of a social media strategy are outlined like objectives, audience mapping, channel selection, content tactics, integration, management challenges and metrics. Examples are provided of how different organizations have successfully used social media. The document aims to help organizations develop and implement an effective social media strategy.

1. Social Media Strategy Workshop

2. www.linkedin.com/in/paulmcgarrity
@paulmcgarrity
In PR and marketing since 2000
Started to focus on Digital and Social Media
marketing in 2008
Started in 2009
Write a fortnightly column in The Irish News.

3. About You?

4. Review the fundamental areas of social media
Find out about the core areas of social media strategy -
considering audiences, channels and tactics
Learn how to prepare a social media strategy
Discuss the most common issues and barriers to successful
social media adoption
Key
Learnings

5. Your
Experiences…….?

6. “We really
should be
using
And ”

7. We think about the tools,
but we should be thinking
about…..

9. Key Questions…
What does your current communications activity output look like?
Who do we need to reach?
What do you need to start to doing via Social Media ?
How can we be successful?
What will this look like in practice?
What changes do we need to make to our organisation and
communications?
How will we measure social media?

10. Overview of Social Media

15. Sharing

19. Social Media Strategy

21. Audit:
Assessing your current online footprint and
reputation

22. Need to assess where you are online.
An online / social media audit shows you the online
environment before you dive in
Some questions to ask include:
Q. How are other organisations using social media successfully
Q. What are people saying about your org online?
Q. Who are the main online stakeholders?
Q. what do they need to know and want to talk about?
Online Audit

23. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

24. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

25. Benchmarking
How are other organisations
performing at Social Media
Within your sector
Test competitors
Be Careful – they might not be up
to scratch!

26. Objectives:
What do you want to achieve from Social
Media

27. Do not think of fine detail and metrics at this point.
For example:
“Have 1000 facebook fans by September”
“Issue 5 tweets and 5 Facebook posts each week”

28. Why?
Sales?
Brand Awareness ?
Customer research?
Communicate in Real Time?
Reach younger demographic?

29. Promoting the brand / organization………….
• Successfully demonstrate the value of the organisation to key
stakeholders
• Explore opinions and attitudes of stakeholders towards us
Marketing / Communications ………………….
• Engage successfully with stakeholders through social media
• Successfully use new media to learn more about the needs of
Council communications.
• Improve the brand’s online brand presence
• Improve media relations with core journalists
Sample
Objectives

30. Lead generation……………..
• Indentify key audiences – customers, buyers, etc
• Network via social media channels
• Identify possible leads
Sample
Objectives

31. Audiences:
Who do you want to interact with?

32. • What types of audiences and
stakeholders do you want to reach?
• What social media are they using?
• What are they saying online?
Considering your
Audiences

33. Audience
Mapping
1. Create an map of current key audiences and stakeholders
For example: A local council might like to reach and influence:
• Local politicians
• NI and local journalists
• Community leaders
• Businesses
Next, find out where they are online. Start to list their online
profiles

34. Audience
Mapping
Note: this also includes members of the public – varying
degrees of influence.
Don’t forget the Age of User-Generated Media

35. Audience
Mapping
2. Assess their level of influence
Not all are equal on social media. E.g Stephen Fry
Identity the level of influence that people have online.
For example:
• Journalists - Stephen Nolan, local news editors etc
• MLAs and local councillors
• Charity CEOs
• Head of local chamber of commerce

36. Source: DW Publications: Whitepaper 14; Social Media in the Public Sector, 2011

37. Account Name Twitter ID Category Short Description No. of Followers
Discover NI @discoverNI Tourism 2012 tourist
campaign
2300
The Irish News @Irish_news Daily Press Local daily
newspaper
5012
Belfast Times @Belfasttimes What’s on What’s on guide for
Belfast and NI
2787
Alan Simpson @AlanSimpsonBBC Radio BBC Radio Ulster
Presenter
5196
Etc
Etc
Etc
Audience
Mapping

39. Source: DW Publications: Whitepaper 14;
Social Media in the Public Sector, 2011

40. Audience Mapping is fundamental to successful social media
Make sure you start the social media process with it
Ongoing activity – update regularly

41. Social Media Channels

42. Source: Brian Solis, 2009

43. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

44. Twitter UK Statistics
• Approx. 10 million UK users
• Age profile dominated by the 25-44 age
group, accounting for over 60% of users
Age in Years Percentage 12/2011 % Percentage 05/2011 %
0-17 3 4
18-24 14 13
25-34 35 34
35-44 26 26
45-54 15 16
55-64 5 6
65+ 2 2
Source: Mindjumpers, 2011

45. 7% of UK consumers (37% of active Twitter users) say
they check Twitter compulsively.
Overall, 18% of UK consumers are active Twitter users,
including 33% of consumers aged 25-34.
13% of UK consumers check Twitter at least once per
day
[Source: ExactTarget, November 2011]
Twitter UK Statistics

47. Source: Econsultancy / LBi / bigmouthmedia State of Social Report 2011, November 2011

48. Big problem with starting in at this point – selecting
Facebook and Twitter without a strategy
The online audit will have showed the channels your
audiences
Lots of channels – focus on the dominant ones that are
relevant to your org. Be Realistic.
Different orgs will focus on different types of channels.
Social Media
Channel selection

49. Tactics and Engagement

50. Main reason for social media failure:
• Not having anything to say
• Afraid of saying the wrong thing
• No content
• Fans don’t care!
……… any experiences?

51. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

52. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

53. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

55. The Problem?

56. • Offline marketing: Include Social Media Icons on your
marketing - Billboard ads, posters, and brochures
• Integrate with other areas of digital – email
newsletters, Website etc.
• Integrate with PR – great fit with social media
Traffic Building:
Integration

60. Avoid corporate news updates, press releases etc!
Think about types of content that people want to share,
comment on, ‘like’, think about etc
Social Posts

61. Social Posts:
Promotion• Promote Giveaways
• Call to action
• New case study
• Event photo or video
• Promote upcoming event

62. Social Posts:
Enquiry /
Customer ServiceRespond to request for info
Respond to negative comment
Solicit feedback
Launch a poll
Ask about the weather or holidays!

63. Social Posts: NewsPublish a latest news post
Make an observation
Provide “best of” list
Announce winners
Share latest research
Celebrate a milestone

64. Social Posts: Share
Digital Content
Share links
Share video/pics
Start a debate
Post interviews
Share teaser to forthcoming news
Post presentations

65. Online Video of events, vox pops
Ask yourself “Why would people
want to watch and share”?

67. Case Studies

68. B2B Case Study:
Social Media in the Legal Sector

69. Why should the legal sector use social
media?
• To engage with existing client base
• To become thought leaders
• To boost solicitor profiles
• To improve online presence and Google
rankings
• To attract prospective clients

70. Example: Hattons Solicitors

71. The Blog…

72. Twitter…

73. Facebook…

74. LinkedIn…

76. Management
and Resources

77. 1. Lack of understanding from senior management
2. Little or no engagement on social media channels
3. Access to social media is blocked by IT Dept
4. Sign off for all communications
5. No / little integration with the rest of business and
communications
Top Problems for
Orgs embracing
social media

78. 6. Lack of time
7. Lack of equipment – iPhone
8. Lack of trained staff to manage social media
9. Difficult to understand success
10. No plan or strategy
Top Problems for
Orgs embracing
social media

80. Convincing
Management

81. Online
Reputation Risks

82. • Negative comments on your social channels
• Brand attack online – show in SERPs
• Crisis PR angle – spread via social media
• Damage caused by employee misuse of Social media
• Poor use of social media – brand damage
Online
Reputation Risks

83. “Let’s hurry home and follow the
earthquake news. And don’t forget
to order your favourite KFC menu”.

84. PR / Corporate Comms Unit need to:
Monitor relevant keyterms online – find out about online
sentiment throughout the internet
Monitor and manage online comments and activity on Facebook
and Twitter
Then reply / react as required
Online
Monitoring

85. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

86. Social Media Policy

87. Social Media Policy Guide – Free
Download!
http://www.octaveoc.com/downloads.asp
Designed to help managers and directors
understand more about social media risks and
how they can develop a social media policy for
their organisation.

88. Control of Social
Media

90. Organisational Structure
• What tends to happen:
- Owned by Marketing/ a “Bright Spark”
- Has a Board level sponsor
• What should happen:
- Adopted business wide
- Integrated with all communications
• It’s a cultural change for most
• It’s not easy and can’t be forced
Source: Econsultancy, 2012

91. Where things go wrong…
The best strategy is useless if:
• The business aren’t genuinely
behind it
• There isn’t cross departmental buy in
• Results focus is purely “conversions, metrics and sales”
• “Social Media” is seen as an “add on”
• It doesn’t form part of the everyday way of working
Source: Econsultancy, 2012

92. Companies are using social media for a range of
different purposes:
Econsultancy: State of Social Report 2011

94. The Challenges of the ‘Always On’
Multi-Channel Marketing Function?

95. Training and
Continuous
Development

96. Integration

99. Metrics

100. Source: Econsultancy, 2012

101. Metrics: Tools
Use ‘Insights’ tools
But be careful!

102. Number of likes: Popular metric – but needs to be
treated with care.
Estimation of percentage of key stakeholders who like
/ follow you and their level of interaction
Number of retweets
Social conversations – increase in number of people
talking to you / asking questions
Popular Metrics:

105. www.linkedin.com/in/paulmcgarrity
www.OctaveOC.com
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