this provides a template to create a social media strategy, governance and a business case, loaded with social media statistics it is intended as a resource to inform executives of the importance of a social media strategy.

1. How to create a
Social Media Strategy,
Governance and Business Case
Catherine Elder
September 2015

2. Purpose of this document
 To get executive buy-in for additional
resources to support social media
 To provide understanding of how social
media can
◦ Support the brand identity and reputation
◦ Drive awareness to support promotion and
lead generation
 To formalize governance, policy &
protocols
 To inform and begin to shift culture of
organization to using social
2

3. Executive Summary
 Clients, prospects, competitors, media
and employees and potential
employees are all using social media.
 Social media needs to be strategic
and planned.
 Governance needs to be formalized
as the brand is impacted.
3

4. Goal
 Develop a social media program that
will support business objectives by
◦ increasing brand awareness
◦ fostering customer relationships
◦ attracting new customers
4

5. Objectives
 The social media strategy has been
developed to best support a diverse
range of business and marketing
objectives.
◦ Support Brand awareness targets
◦ Increase social media share of voice
(followership)
◦ Increase inbound traffic and support lead
generation
5

6. Benefits of a social media
plan
 Social media supports:
◦ Brand positioning and awareness building
◦ Credibility and reputation management
◦ Search engine rankings
 improves the ability for our content and services to be found
on search engines through supporting search engine
optimization
◦ Lead generation by driving traffic to web forms for
thought leadership
◦ Increasing customer engagement and data collection
◦ Maintaining competitive position in marketplace
◦ Public relations and news release reach
◦ Recruiting reach
◦ Customer service and customer interaction
6

7. Contents
 Why social media
 Who is using it
◦ Competitor review
◦ Client review
◦ Employees and prospects
 Strategy
◦ Objectives
◦ Tactics
◦ Audiences
◦ Content
◦ Reporting
 Governance
◦ Policy
◦ Current state
◦ Roles and responsibilities
◦ Process
 Business case
 Recommendations and next steps
7

8. 8
Why social media? – It makes
business sense.

9. Why using social media makes
business sense
 Social is part of the digital experience
◦ Over 70% of B2B decision makers use social media as a source
of information
◦ 68% of users spend time reading about brands that interest them
◦ 60% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading
about it
◦ 53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and products
◦ 65% of social media users learn more about brands, products or
services
◦ 53% compliment brands
◦ 50% express complaints or concerns about brands or services
◦ 64% of consumers made a first purchase because of a digital
experience
9
Sources:
• IBM the Interactive Marketing eBook
• http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/basics-setting-up-twitter-business
• social media today
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
• sales stats - http://www.slideshare.net/JakeAtwood1/20-shocking-sales-stats?related=1
• Hootsuite “A definitive guide to social selling)
• https://apps.ioninteractive.com
• www.marketingprofs.com
• http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
• http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/business-guide-to-being-social-on-social-media?utm_source=Wordtracker+Subscribers&utm_campaign=919926036d-
• Search Engine Journal
• Forbes
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/new-social-media-research-uncovers-the-big-problem-for-businesses/

10. Why using social media makes
business sense
 An alternate approach to traditional marketing is needed
◦ 78% of consumers say that the posts made by companies on
social media influence their purchases.
◦ 81% of people say that posts by their friends on social media
influence their purchases.
◦ 63% of marketers believe traditional branding methods are losing
their effectiveness
◦ 70% of people would rather learn about companies through an
article than an advert
◦ 72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal
recommendations.
◦ Consumers indicate they expect brands to be available in an
average of 3.5 social media channels,
 around 80% of consumers expect brands to be present on Facebook.
◦ Consumers expect brands to engage on consumers' terms
 62% of Millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social
networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer.
 nearly 50% of people have used social media to praise or complain about a
brand in the past month.
10
Sources:
• IBM the Interactive Marketing eBook
• http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/basics-setting-up-twitter-business
• social media today
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
• sales stats - http://www.slideshare.net/JakeAtwood1/20-shocking-sales-stats?related=1
• Hootsuite “A definitive guide to social selling
• https://apps.ioninteractive.com
• www.marketingprofs.com
• http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
• http://cdn29.elitedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015_EliteDaily_MillennialSurvey3.pdf
• http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/new-social-media-research-uncovers-the-big-problem-for-businesses/

11. Why using social media makes
business sense
 Social is being used to support sales
◦ 96% of respondents in a Sales Management Association
study use LinkedIn at least once a week and spend an
average of six hours per week on it
◦ 73% of respondents in a Forrester study have engaged
with a vendor on social networks;
 relevant context to connect with vendors is one of the top reasons
buyers use social networks for business
◦ 52% more leads were generated when marketers spent 6+
hours a week engaging on social media
◦ 85% of IT decision makers use at least one social network
for business
◦ 60%-70% of the buying process in a complex sale is
already complete before prospects are willing to engage
with a live salesperson
◦ 95% of B2B buyers prefer shorter content formats
11
Sources:
• IBM the Interactive Marketing eBook
• http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/basics-setting-up-twitter-business
• social media today
• http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
• sales stats - http://www.slideshare.net/JakeAtwood1/20-shocking-sales-stats?related=1
• Hootsuite “A definitive guide to social selling)
• https://apps.ioninteractive.com

12. Social media is part of
business
 96% of survey participants indicated they are
participating in social media marketing
 92% said social media was important to their
business
 84% of marketers agreed that they have
integrated their social media and traditional
marketing activities
 66% of marketers plan on increasing use of
Twitter, YT and LI
 93% of marketers are using Facebook and
62% plan on increasing FB activities
 57% of marketers use video in their
marketing
12
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/

13. 13
Who is using social

14. 14
Competitors are on social

15. Competitors are on social
Competitor LI Twitter FB YT
Other (blogs
etc)
15
Audit your top competitors –
visit their website and look for
the social icons; conduct
searches in social

16. Competitors’ Activity on social
channels
The table on the following slide highlights:
• The volume of activity in social media varies with
global firms having considerable influence (i.e.
followers)
• Followership volume ranking differs from LinkedIn
to Twitter, i.e. different companies have different
strategies for the channels they are using,
16

17. Competitors’ activity on social
channels
Competitor
LI –
Followers
LI –
employees
Twitter
followers
Tweets
17
Provide detail in your
competitor benchmarking –
who has the most followers,
how active are they? Add
social media channels that
you feel is relevant for your
business

18. 18
Clients are on social

19. Our clients are on social
Clients Comments LI Twitter FB YT
Other
(blogs
etc)
19
Audit your top clients – visit
their website and look for the
social icons; conduct
searches in social

20. 20
Employees and prospective
employees are on it

21. Employees and prospects are
using it
• # employees on LinkedIn
• # followers on LinkedIn
• Employees following on Twitter
• Employees on Facebook
• # presentations on YouTube and SlideShare with your brand
21
How many of your employees are on
LinkedIn? Are any employees using
your corporate brand in their handle
on Twitter? Have you had requests
for Facebook? If you search on
YouTube and SlideShare – does
your brand show up?

22. 22
Social Media Strategy

23. Objectives
 Brand awareness
◦ To increase awareness/visibility of the brand
◦ To expand the reach of the brand and show ourselves as thought
leaders
◦ To engage with key influencers
 Maintain customer relations
◦ To nurture relationships through sharing valued information/content
 listening and responding
◦ To support/maintain improved customer satisfaction, reputation,
loyalty and retention
 Support customer care
 Attain new customers
◦ To drive traffic to other properties to increase awareness of services
and drive lead generation through gated thought leadership and
event registration
◦ To engage with prospects through established subject matter experts
& expertise
23Source: Marketo - 2014 SAMPLE TACTICAL PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA

24. Objectives by channel
Objective LinkedIn Twitter Slide
Share
YT Facebook Blog Wikipedia website Email Digital
Ad
Maintain and increase
brand awareness and
familiarity
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Maintain customer
relations
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Attain new customers
(support)
● ● ● ● ● ●
Attain new employees -
Highlight company
culture
● ● ● ●
24
• LinkedIn has 347 million users
• Twitter has 316 million users
• SlideShare has 70 million users
• YouTube has over 1 billion users
• Facebook has 1.5 billion users
• Wikipedia has over 100,000 regular participants
and now shows on Google result pages
http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
http://www.wordtracker.com/blog/business-guide-to-being-social-on-social-
media?utm_source=Wordtracker+Subscribers&utm_campaign=919926036d-
_301_Google_autocomplete_final_7_30_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_17557ad12d-919926036d-
290926293&ct=t%28_301_Google_autocomplete_final_7_30_2015%29
Source: Marketo - 2014 SAMPLE TACTICAL PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/
http://www.slideshare.net/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcoming_committee/Welcome_to_Wikipedia

25. Tactics by objectiveObjective Maintain and increase
brand awareness and
familiarity
Maintain customer
relations
Attain new clients
Increase planned
LinkedIn updates
• add showcase pages to
provide an integrated
view of initiatives
• Promote events and
drive traffic for
registration (including
workplace learning)
• Promote thought
leadership, especially
through web forms
Increase planned
Tweets
• Continue to follow and
engage with:
• clients and their
associations
• industry events
• media, including
trade media
• Incorporate SEO
strategy for hashtags
• Follow all clients
• Engage with clients by
retweeting and sharing
their relevant content
• Be prepared to quickly
respond to customer
comments
• Follow prospects (e.g.
list of rfps we are
responding to)
• Engage with hot
prospects by retweeting
and sharing their
relevant content
• Be prepared to quickly
respond to comments
and questions
Expand to other
channels
• Use SlideShare for
presentations and
YouTube for videos
• Create a Wikipedia page
• Launch blog to highlight
subject matter expertise
• Explore Facebook
especially for B2C and
recruiting
• Use SlideShare for
presentations to educate
clients on topical issues
and related services
• Assess Facebook
especially B2C offerings
• Use SlideShare for
presentations to promote
subject matter expertise
Strategic initiatives • Incorporate social media
response into customer
25

26. Rationale
26
Maintaining and increasing brandawareness and familiarity
• 90% of marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated
more exposure for their business
• Increasing traffic is the second major benefit [of using social media] with
77% reporting positive results
Attaining new clients
• 80% of B2B social media leads are generated from LinkedIn, with
more than 86% of conversions among LinkedIn-generated leads
coming from LinkedIn discussion groups
• In B2C, Facebook and Twitter are the social media used most to
directly reach consumers.

27. Tactics for increasing
impressions and interactions
 Increase photo and video use within social channels, incorporate
short demos, highlight integrated views
 Increase thought leadership with strong alignment to integrated
services
 Promote at least one major activity a month
 Identify key influencers, follow them and engage with them to
gain support for relevant initiatives
 Assist subject matter experts and spokespeople in creating
◦ Their own social profiles (e.g. through LinkedIn and Twitter tip
sheets and training)
◦ Creating content (e.g. LI Pulse)
 Encourage employees to create LI profiles and follow us,
support our updates
◦ Make employees aware of social media policy and acceptable
use
◦ Encourage employees to support us on Twitter
27

28. Tactics to use social at every
stage of the buying cycle
Stage Strategic
purpose
Tactic – Channel Tactic – content
type
Measurement
Attention/
awareness
Branding • Web pages,
• ads,
• social
• thought
leadership,
• Sessions & views,
• Clicks
• Impressions
Interest Engagement • Web,
• email,
• social
• video,
whitepapers,
• Leads,
• Opens & CTR
• Impressions, likes
Desire Information
dissemination
• Blogs,
• groups,
• social
• articles • RFPs
• Comments/
interaction
• Impressions, CTR
Action Sales enablement • Ecommerce portal,
• Web - contact us
• Social *(Twitter ads enable
ecom)
• demos, • Sales meeting/
presentations
Loyalty Customer
experience
• Customer service
portal,
• CRM,
• Social community
(Groups)
• Nurture
(newsletters/
emails)
• Customer
satisfaction,
• Testimonials
• Case studies
• Retention
28

29. Tactics - social advertising
 Advertising in LinkedIn, using Google
Ads and Twitter sponsored updates
will
◦ increase exposure for expanded reach for
the brand
◦ Increase website traffic
◦ Improve search engine
optimization
◦ Support our “owned”
digital properties
◦ Improve our earned media
29
http://www.slideshare.net/PresentationAdvisors/social-media-for-business-
5456817?related=1

30. Tactics – identify key
influencers
 Identify influencers in order to assist
them in supporting content and
building awareness
◦ People with large audiences in social
channel who provide relevant,
professional content – including
journalists and bloggers
◦ Identify influencers and nurture
relationships by providing them with value
add content
30

31. Target audiences in social by
content intent
Content
intent
Clients
B2B
Custome
rs B2C
Prospect
s
Media
(influence
rs)
Recrui
ts
Employee
s
Investor
s
Factual
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Thought
leadershi
p
● ○ ● ● ○ ○ ○
Articles
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Brand
messagin
g
● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Culture
messagin
g
○ ○ ○ ○ ● ● ○
Interactio
n in
social
● ● ● ● ● ● ○
Advertisin
g ● ● ●
31
● High need for this content
○ Medium/low need for this content

32. Content management
 Social media schedule
◦ A content calendar can be created based on
marketing strategies and tactics
 Content management strategy and plan
◦ Asset creation – identify content per target and
channel
◦ Asset optimization – incorporate keywords to support
brand and ability to be found in search
◦ Asset distribution – appropriate channel selection
 Keyword strategy
◦ For search engine optimization keywords need to be
infused into all content
◦ Keywords should be incorporated into social posts
 Hashtags used in Twitter need to be strategic
32
• 75% of B2B buyers want brands to furnish content of
"substance," that helps them to research business ideas
Source:Search Engine Journal)
Forbes

33. Focus area
Content distribution by
channel
33
https://apps.ioninteractive.com
Focusing content in the main
channels will enable us to
achieve maximum exposure

34. Content marketing – Social tops
the list
34
https://apps.ioninteractive.com
80% of B2B content
marketing assets
require registration to
access – lead
generation is an
expected online
behaviour
Promote content in
social to drive
people to lead
generation forms

35. Content creation - multiple
formats
 Providing content in multiple formats increases engagement and
exposure
◦ Video can be incorporate into several social channels and can
include demos and learning segments (between 9 seconds and 2
minutes)
◦ Presentations can be repurposed on SlideShare
◦ Photos add a personal perspective and increase engagement
◦ Short content needs to be created specific to the channel, i.e.
content shouldn’t be cut from other vehicles but be created
specifically for the channel in order to achieve strategic objectives
35Source: eContent 2015 Sourcebook, According to a report by MarketingProfs and the
CMI
• 76% of B2B marketers use video as a content marketing tactics
• 69% use illustrations/photos
• 65% use online presentations
• 62% use infographics
• 92% use Social media content other than blogs
Social media posts are increasingly being illustrated with graphics, photo images,
and video. The ability to offer information in a variety of formats provides the
flexibility to meet audience needs.

36. Content Schedule
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
e
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
36

37. Reporting - Performance
metrics Analytics and reporting is becoming more complicated as more data is becoming
available therefore an alignment to the objectives needs to be established so that there
is an understanding of what is being achieved and where there are gaps and room for
improvement in any of the tactics and campaigns
 Some of the items to be considered for reporting are:
◦ Conversions
 Direct revenue, event registrations, downloads, campaign activity
 Note: there is currently no lead generation being utilized on thought leadership – this should be
implemented
◦ Traffic
 To website or other off-social destinations using traffic referral and tracking codes
 Quality and value of traffic – can do comparison of social referrals vs. referrals from other sites and
advertising
◦ Reach
 Number of followers and interactions including impressions, retweets, likes, shares and comments
 Development of community – increase in followership and from whom; retweets and shares from media
and key influencers
◦ Key Metrics
 number of posts/month (connect to other activity – events and releases)
 number of impressions/month – growth over previous month
 Audience growth—unique and return visitors
 number of visits/month – growth over previous month – to morneaushepell.com
 Subscriber growth – can any subscribers be attributed to coming from social
◦ SEO improvement
 Are search results improved for keywords used in social
37Sources Falcon Social - HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL CONTENT STRATEGY FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

38. Reporting – Monthly and YTD
Metrics
38
#% growth in social referral to
corporate site compared to January
2015
Twitter
Twitter followers
Tweets in month
Total tweets
Twitter impressions for month
Following
#% growth in Twitter followers
2015 YTD
LinkedIn
LinkedIn followers as of b
New followers
updates
Total Impressions in month
Employees on LI as of
• #% growth in LI followers YTD
• #% increase of employees on LI
YTD
TRAFFIC Month
Direct
Referring
Organic Search
Social referral
Email referral
(Other)

39. Monitoring
 As our participation in social increases
it will become increasingly critical for
us to be able to monitor social with
automated tools
 There needs to be a well defined
process for managing customer
service that comes through social
 There needs to be a defined process
for managing negative messaging
39

40. 40
Social Media Governance

41. Governance
 Social Media Policy
 Current situation
 Roles and responsibilities
 Processes
41

42. Social media policy
 Create/update social media policy
 Communicate to employees (include
in new employee orientation) what the
sanctioned use for
◦ social media is, and
◦ brand use within social
42

43. Our brand on social
 Do a social audit for your company
43
“The average company can access 20 times as much
information about you and your competitors as they
could access five years ago” Professor Neil Rackham
What do our social properties say about our brand?

44. Social properties today
User Twitter LInkedIn Face Book YouTube
(Google +)
SlideShare Glassdoo
r
44

45. Current - Twitter accounts
 List any handles using corporate
brand
45

46. Social
Corporate website CRM
Email
campaig
n
software
E-
newsletters
E- blasts
3rd
party
Blogs
News
wire
Search Engine
Marketing (ad words)
Lead
generation
forms
LI Pulse
Apps
LI
Showcas
e
LI Groups
Current digital ecosystem
46
Social media – monitoring and
analytics software

47. Current social use
 Who is using social?
 Recruiting?
 Corporate social responsibility?
 Charitable sponsorship?
47

48. Current governance for
corporate social
Channel URL Handle/
identity
Status Compo
nents
Importa
nt
dates
Access Comments
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
Glassdoor
Google
+analytics &
adwords
48

49. Roles & responsibilities
 Corporate marketing
◦ Oversight into all social properties and the
use of the brand, as part of policy
◦ All requests for use of social media should
be reviewed and approved
 Corporate social media
◦ Strategy and management of social media
is by ____
◦ _____ provides back up for social media
49

50. Marketing social media focus
 Create Tweets and LinkedIn updates
for:
◦ News Releases
◦ Thought Leadership
◦ Events
◦ Adhoc requests
50

51. Current social media process
 Outline your process – writing,
approvals, translations, posting
51

52. Process for interactions in social
media
 Any complaints or comments on currently
forwarded _____
◦ Managing complaints
 From employees
 From customers/clients
◦ Crisis management
 Social media counteracts the #1 criticism of all crisis
response – Failure to speak promptly - Source: CNW
webinar
◦ Customer Care
 Social care -> Customer service
47% of customers are turning to social media vs. calling
with an expectation of a response within the hour
◦ Responding to comments
◦ Social posting by employees (use of brand, logo or
corporate name in any way)
52

53. 53
Business case

54. A case for social
 Our competitors are using it
 Our clients and prospects are using it
 Our competitors can engage with our
clients on it
 Brands are using it
◦ social advertising, real-time customer
service, participation; being authentic and
providing sme (brand lift & awareness);
sentiment
 Social can be used for qualified lead
generation and online sales
 Social has a positive influence on brand
positioning in major search engines
54

55. People resources
 Identify who currently :
◦ Strategizes,
◦ monitors,
◦ manages,
◦ creates and posts
 Time: consumes approximately 3 to 10 hours per week
 If no dedicated resource, indicate other duties
 For social media to increase an FTE is required - Social media
specialist
◦ 1/2 hr /day monitoring
◦ 1 hr/day Twitter & LI posting
◦ 2 hr/day collecting/initiating content incl. images
◦ 1/2 hr/day supporting LinkedIn Showcase pages and blogs
◦ 1/2 hr/day planning & meetings
◦ 1 hr/day reporting analytics
◦ 1 hr/day supporting additional channels (e.g. YouTube, SlideShare, Wikipedia,
Facebook, LI Groups)
◦ 1 hr/day supporting digital advertising and monitoring
◦ 1/2 hr/day providing adhoc support (e.g. recruiting)
55
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
.

56. Business case - hours
 Does your marketing plan have a heavy requirement for
social?
 Other than advertising and new development, cost for social
is considered “free” and therefore dependency and adhoc
requests are increasing
 An FTE would enable social media to grow exponentially and
provide the ability to support new initiatives and new channels
56
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/report2015/
More than half of marketers who’ve been using social media for at least 2 years report that
• It helped them improve sales.
• New partnerships were gained
Marketers plan to increase use of:
• Twitter 66%
• YouTube 66%
• LinkedIn 66%
• Facebook 62%
73% plan on increasing use of visuals

57. Technology
 Are you using social media
sensing/monitoring software or do you
need it to be a budget request?
 Risk – without an aggregated view of
mentions, negative comments may not
be viewed or addressed in a timely
manner impacting reputation and
brand
 Cost – once you’ve defined your
requirements you can get a range of
costs from various vendors
57

58. 58
Next steps…

59. Next steps
 Update the social media policy and
acceptable use of social and the brand in
social
◦ Include request for use, including for:
 Charitable initiatives
 Recruiting
 Customer Service
◦ Communicate it to employees
 Request closing of any unused/abandoned
properties
 Standardize use of corporate social
references including icons (e.g. last page on
every presentation, signatures)
 Update social identities
59

60. Next steps
 Prepare and plan for increase demands
on social media by:
◦ Hiring a FTE social media specialist
◦ Incorporate social care into social media
◦ Incorporate social media into crisis
management plan
◦ Implementing social media monitoring
software
 Develop a social marketing ad campaign
 Identify key influencers
◦ Develop a strategy to engage with them
 Develop social media plans for each
business aligning with marketing plan
60

61. Next steps
 Develop a content management strategy (purpose/intent)
◦ Identify formats – text, photos, graphics/infographics,
video, presentations
 Ad more photos, repurpose video etc
◦ Define channel use
 LinkedIn (company, career & showcase pages)
 SlideShare
 Twitter
 Facebook
 Wikipedia
 YouTube
 Blogs
 GlassDoor
 Other (instagram, pinterest etc)
61