Social media gives individuals and businesses a voice to connect and engage in conversations. It allows opinions about brands and products to spread organically through trusted social connections. By actively participating in social communities and nurturing conversations, businesses can earn trust and credibility to build brand advocates over time. Effective social media strategies require defining goals, audiences, channels, voice and engagement approaches to maximize impact and measure results.
2. Why do social?
Because social media gives everyone a voice
• People spend less time consuming broadcast media &
more time having conversations in online
communities
• People talk about brands & businesses 24/7 via social
media. They seek out opinions before making
purchases - Opinions are trusted more than reviews
on your company website, and much more than
conventional broadcast marketing & advertising.
• By building your own community, participating in
honest and meaningful nurturing conversations, you
can earn the credibility which allows you to gain trust,
brand advocates and ultimately create better
products, services and experiences.
4. Don’t forget
YouTube
and Google+
• 1.3 billion YouTube users. 60% Male
• 80% of users aged 18-49
• The power of video content – but
make a good intro or you’ll lose 20%
of viewers after 10 seconds
• Why use both channels?
• SEO, community building & brand
awareness opportunities (Google+)
5. Why social?
Because
mobile and
social media
are
intrinsically
linked
• Facebook has 1.15 billion active
mobile users
• 79% of people keep their
smartphone with them for all but 2
hours per day
• 25% of people can’t recall the last
time their phone wasn’t next to
them
6. Social media
strategy
• Goals – Audience – Channels – Voice
– Engage - Measure
• Top goals: Brand Awareness.
Customer Service & Retention.
Increase Sales. Lead Generation.
Feedback
• Secondary goals: Website traffic.
Mailing list growth. Thought
leadership. Becoming a content
resource. Networking. Competitor
research. Influencing opinions
8. Consider
your
resources
• Do you have the time, money & expertise to
create content & regularly reply to posts
across several social networks?
• Setting up a social account and then
abandoning it (and not removing it) looks
worse than having no presence at all!
• TIP: Pick the best social network(s) for you
and your business and update regularly
rather than spreading yourself too thin
10. Engage
• In broadcast media or traditional
marketing, content is key. The same rules
apply for social media too BUT…
• The key to social networking is
networking! Nobody in this room would
turn up at a networking event, stand in the
middle of the room and shout loudly at
everyone in it, would they?
• Don’t be Anti-Social!
11. Engage
• Be helpful. e.g. share posts, offer advice.
• Build up trust within your community. Be
seen as a respected source and a go-to
business.
• Use social networking to harvest word of
mouth - the ultimate aim of social media
marketing – inspire people to talk about
you in a positive way
• Be polite. If someone comments on
something you’ve posted, always reply
(even if it’s just to say thanks for
reading!)
12. Growing your
followers
• Follow, follow, follow! 1 in 3 people will
follow you back just for following them
• BUT, no need to follow everyone!
• HOWEVER it’s good to connect with your
future customers
• People are less likely to unfollow if you are
following them
• Develop content that will grow followers
• QUICK TIP: follow people that your
competition follows
13. Measure the
impact
• What drives engagement?
• What channels work best?
• What posts work best?
• Sales associated with posts
• Growth of channels
• Calculate Return on Investment
14. Thank you
• Follow Zymplify
• Find us on Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
Google+ & Pinterest
• Subscribe to our Blog
• Contact us:
zymplify.com
zymplify.com/blog
Notes de l'éditeur
Are you using your voice? And are you making the most from the voices in your community?
The internet changed social interaction forever.
The Channels – the big 6: Fish where fish are to be found
Show of hands: Business user of: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Google+
Facebook
Mobile is Facebook’s cash cow. 1.15 billion daily active mobile users
The most common demographic on Facebook is age 25 – 34 (29.7% of users)
Users share 1 million links every 20 minutes
Facebook has 2.01 billion monthly active users
NOTE: Facebook organic reach is way down & this will impact B2C using social. In order to reach your audiences FB want you to pay for ads. For B2B the Explorer Feed is likely the place where your followers will see your content instead of on their timeline.
Twitter
Micro blogging social site offering 280 character posts
There are 6,000 tweets on average every second
Twitter has 328 million active users worldwide
LinkedIn
Business oriented social networking site
Brands that are participating are corporate brands giving potential and current associates a place to network and connect
70% of LinkedIn users are outside the U.S.
LinkedIn has 106 million monthly active users
Provides great potential for B2B organisations
Instagram
Social sharing app all around pictures and video
Many brands are participating through the use of hashtags and posting pictures consumers can relate to
The most followed brand on Instagram is National Geographic
Instagram has 700 million active users (Owned by Facebook)
Snapchat
App for sending videos and pictures that disappear after being viewed
There 10+ billion video views daily on Snapchat
Roughly 70% of users are female
Snapchat is the most used platform among 12-24 year olds
Snapchat has 300+ million active users
Pinterest
Social site that is all about discovery
Largest opportunities on Pinterest are in the home, travel, beauty, style, and food industries
Users are 20% male and 80% female
Pinterest has 150 million active users
Two other massively important channels: YouTube and Google+ (both owned by Google, so you can probably already see why these are important)
How to videos – show your product in action
New products
How to guides
Behind the scenes
Encourage others to video your product in use (3rd part endorsement)
Video content gets more shares than other types of content, possibly because videos are relatively quick and easy to digest.
Sharable content is your gateway to success in content marketing. If you can get your users to share your content regularly, or in high enough volume, you’ll gain access to thousands of new potential followers, earn tons of referral traffic, and you’ll gain permanent links that boost your domain authority, and your website’s potential to rank higher in Google searches.
We live in a mobile world. Your business is connecting with customers and potential customers through their smartphones
This is the link between social media & mobile
Your strategy will depend on your business but here are the basics
Set your goals, define your audience and personas, develop your voice, engage and nurture with content and then measure the results
After you’ve set your goals its time to define your audience(s) & personas
Map out your audience on your social channels and develop appropriate content for these audiences. Post at optimised times. (Evening & weekends for Facebook – Business hours at natural breaks in the day for Twitter and a mix of both approaches for LinkedIn)
Take a step back before dipping your toe into the water…
Don’t try to do it all at once. Focus on the priority channels first and develop competency and knowledge on that channel before introducing extra channels.
Bear in mind that it takes time to grow a following and you’ll need content to engage with your followers. Always consider your resources.
With your goals set, your audiences defined and your resources considered/channels selected, it’s time to find your voice and develop your social media voice and your personality – all of which is directly related to your specific business.
There are no rules. No one size fits all. Your voice will evolve over time and evolve constantly. The key thing is to start using your voice.
Find your social media voice – will depend on these four points. Emoji’s are fine for Facebook (B2C), but probably worth avoiding on your LinkedIn Company Page (B2B)
Once you’ve found your voice, then it’s time to engage.
The main rule of social engagement and social networking is DON’T BE ANTI-SOCIAL
The key to social networking is networking. Give people valuable content that helps them rather than taking the broadcast approach
Some top tips for engagement:
Be helpful. Both to customers, prospective customers and other companies who can complement your services e.g. share their posts, offer advice.
This will allow you to build up trust within your community, to be seen as a respected source and a go-to business.
This networking harvests word of mouth, which is the ultimate aim of social media marketing – inspiring people to talk about you in a positive way, essentially doing some of your marketing for you.
Be polite. Remember if someone comments on something you’ve posted, always reply (even if it’s just to say thanks for reading!)
Follower growth (and increasing your reach) is one of the metrics you will need to measure – But you want the right people to follow you - as defined in your audience definition.
How can you influence this?
Here are some suggestions as to how to go about growing your followers.
Follow, follow, follow! 1 in 3 people will follow you back just for following them (Consider this approach for Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest)
BUT, there’s no need to follow everyone
HOWEVER it’s good to connect with your future customers
People are less likely to unfollow if you are following them
QUICK TIP: follow people that your competition follows
Content that will grow followers
Think about giveaways and competitions to grow your audience, Follow, like and share etc
Share content
Comment on content
Put your opinion out there
Look to repurpose other peoples content
You cannot manage that which you don’t measure, so be sure to include measurement in your social media marketing
The cycle goes: Measure, report, adapt, repeat
Your data allows you to tweak your approach & improve your social media efforts to improve your future social media ROI.
Having data is nice but you also need to account for the indirect benefits you get from social media.
For instance, getting retweeted or shared on LinkedIn by an influencer may not result in direct sales, but can be hugely beneficial by exposing your brand to new people.
So while these types of returns can be difficult to track, it’s important to keep them in mind when you’re reviewing the ROI of social media campaigns.
So I hope it has been a useful social media overview for you and your business today?
If you’d like free content that helps grow your business just follow Zymplify’s social channels to get your hands on it and reap the rewards.
You can contact us through our social channels, website & blog if you’d like to connect and continue the conversation.
