Slides from "Developing and Maintaining a Social Brand Persona" given to the Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce in September 2012. The presentation focused on how to build and maintain an online personality consistent with your company’s core traits and values, specific engagement strategies, and strategies for optimizing your social content. Tactics discussed include creating content, providing customer service, conducting market research, and building loyalty.

1. Developing and Maintaining
a Social Brand
Mike Lesczinski, September 12, 2012

2. Agenda
1. Developing a Brand “Persona”
2. Tactical Approach
3. Optimizing Content & User Experience
4. Case Study - Penske

3. 1. Developing a “Social Persona”
 You must define your personality before
you enter the “social arena”
 Social manager is living embodiment of
your brand
 Engagement must uphold principles and
values of your organization

4. Ask Yourself – Why Social?
 What is the purpose of using social media for
your business?
 What would you like to accomplish?
 Who is your audience?
 What do you stand for? What are your core
values?
 What traits do you want associated with your
brand?
 How do we craft an image that holds true to
those values?

5. Building Your Brand
 Your „persona‟ must be established prior
to setting up a social media account
 Every action reflects on your brand image
 Consistently engage – it takes six to seven
impressions to leave an imprint
 Conduct research – what are people
saying about your brand?

6. II. Tactical Approach
Facebook
 Over 600 million
users; 1.6 million “Fan”
pages
 Average time spent:
46 - 55 minutes per
day
Twitter
 Over 140 million users
 Real-time information
sharing

7. Tactic: Content Creation
Create touch points between you and your
customer
 Share relevant and valuable information
 Offer demonstrations or testimonials
 Solicit feedback and “master the ask”

8. Tactic: Offer Customer Service
 Reactive - Facebook
 Ask and answer questions, offer solutions, post FAQs
 Don‟t fear “bad” publicity – show you are caring and responsive
 Proactive - Twitter
 Seek out problems to solve through search function

9. Tactic: Integrate Worlds
 Run contests or promote upcoming events that require
both virtual and real-world application
 Remember to use “soft” language: “Event” vs “Contest”
 Bring conferences and workshops to life
 Offer insights into your own experiences
 Generate conversation between attendees
and outside world through Twitter hashtags!

10. Tactic: Market Research
Facebook/Twitter
 Study the culture of an
individual network
 Fan/Follow profiles
relevant to your industry
 Competitors, bloggers,
journalists, clients
 Apply what you learn to
your own social
engagement

11. Tactic: Build Loyalty
 Identify & create new ambassadors by building trust
 Lift the veil on the inner-workings of your company
 Q & A‟s with new employees
 Video interviews with management
 Photos from company outings

12. Remember: Maintain Expectations
 Social is world of soft sells – focus on raising awareness
and building loyalty to create ambassadors
 Consider recent Monetate report:
 0.59% of visitors from social make purchase
 4.25% conversion from email
 2.49% from search
Source: Monetate, “Ecommerce Quarterly; EQ2 2012”, August 2012

13. III. Optimizing Content & User Experience
 Social Media Optimization (SMO)
 Optimize content for distribution through use
of relevant keywords, call to action
 Use third-party apps such as HootSuite
 Utilize back channel
 Focus on the visuals – Don‟t tell, show

14. Not Just What, But When
Facebook
 20% higher engagement for updates posted outside
normal business hours
 27% higher engagement on updates containing 80
characters or less
 15% higher engagement rate for posts that end with a
question
 Peak engagement hours: 7am, 5 pm, 11 pm eastern
Source: Buddy Media, “Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A Statistical Review,”, 2011

15. Not All Tweets Are Created Equal
Twitter
 17% more engagement on weekend Tweets
 30% more engagement on Tweets posted during
business hours
 Tweets using # earn twice as much engagement yet
comprise only 24% of Tweets
 Tweets with images have twice as much engagement
 Ask for a RT! 12x higher retweet rate
Source: Buddy Media, “Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review”, 2012

16. Case Study – Penske Cares

17. Penske – The Plan
 Goal: Raise awareness, engage with
customers and offer customer service
 Plan: Conduct research for an entire year
before implementing the social media plan
 Learned how customers used Twitter and
terms used to describe “moving” experiences
 Trained call-center employees

18. Engagement Strategy
 Retweeted tweets from customers discussing their positive
experiences
 Actively provided customer service
 Created touch points
 Encouraged customers to enter Penske “photo” contests
 Shared “packing tips” redirecting readers to company website
 Positioned company “personality” by discussing pop culture

19. Offering Customer Service

20. Facebook Contests
Photo Sweepstakes

21. Competitor Response?
“(Budget Truck Rental) isn‟t a brand that‟s
relevant to Twitter users‟ everyday lives.”
-Unnamed Budget Vice President

22. Questions?
Contact Information: Social Connections:
www.MikeLesczinski.com
Michaellesczinski
@MikeLesczinski
Gplus.to/MikeLesczinski