Presented at the request of Raleigh SCORE, the presentation reviews marketing 101 basics, makes a case for using social media marketing for business, offers resources to choose which social media network to select for a business, underscores the importance of a business website as the center of social media marketing efforts, and provides some tips for Facebook and Twitter marketing. This is mostly a primer, but the tips for Facebook and Twitter near the middle of the presentation are useful to anyone.

1. Presented by: Stephen Peacock
http://peacockcreative.net
Twitter: @stephenpeacock
LinkedIn
Leveraging Social Media for Small
Business Success

2. Today‘s Agenda
1. Review Some Marketing 101 Basics
2. Why Social Media Marketing Makes Sense
3. Your Website: The Center of Your Social Media Strategy
4. Review Tips and Strategies for Facebook and Twitter
5. Overview of Measuring Success
6. Identify Additional Resources
7. Time for Questions

3. Social Media #1
SOCIAL MEDIA HAS OVERTAKEN PORN AS THE
NO. 1 ACTIVITY ON THE WEB
We all knew social media was popular, but this
popular? Apparently it‘s the most common thing we
do online
From Fast Company 10 Surprising Social Media Statistics
That Will Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy

4. Marketing 101 SBA Style
―In order to successfully grow your business, you‘ll need to attract and then
work to retain a large base of satisfied customers. Marketing emphasizes
the value of the customer to the business, and has two guiding principles:
1. All company policies and activities should be directed
toward satisfying customer needs.
2. Profitable sales volume is more important than maximum sales
volume.
To best use these principles, a small business should:
 Determine the needs of their customers through market research
 Analyze their competitive advantages to develop a market strategy
 Select specific markets to serve by target marketing
 Determine how to satisfy customer needs by identifying a market mix‖
http://www.sba.gov/content/marketing-101-basics

5. Why Social Media Marketing
Social Media has changed the way people
connect, discover, and share information.
 Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
Pinterest are the places where social interactions
happen (discovering & sharing).
 Social media marketing is the way to use that
technology to build relationships, drive repeat business.
and attract new customers through friends sharing with
friends.
 Sound familiar? That‘s because social media marketing
is really just word-of-mouth powered by technology.
http://www.socialquickstarter.com/content/1-why_social_media_marketing

6. Marketing Plan
 Develop goals for your marketing. What is it you want
to achieve?
 Social media marketing should be one part of a larger
marketing and communications strategy
 You should develop a budget that includes both funds
to be set aside and considers other resources (e.g.
staff time)
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-setup-a-social-media-business-strategy/

7. Social Media Marketing Goals
Social media marketing goals may include:
 Number of views, overall reach
 Engagement: number of likes, comments, and
shares (+mentions, retweets)
 Number of friends/fans who follow links
embedded in posts
 Growth of followers
 Qualified leads generated
 Growth in sales

8. Who is Your Audience

9. Create ―Personas‖
―A persona is a kind of mental model—an
imaginary person with a name, history, and
story who has a way of doing things. A
persona should have enough psychological
detail to allow you to conveniently step over
to the persona‘s view and see your products
and services from her perspective.‖
http://www.tronviggroup.com/customer-personas-what-sally-can-show-you/

10. More Resources
HubSpot provides a free Guide to Creating Personas
Get HubSpot‘s Guide to Creating Personas

11. Personas and Social Media
 Personas can help you decide which
social media platforms to use to engage
current and potential customers
 Personas help you develop engagement
strategies by anticipating what your
prospects will react to or interact with
 As you interact with customers and
prospects on social media you will be
able to further refine your personas
based on results to better build
relationships and drive conversions

12. Network Demographics
Visit the Pew Research Internet Project to
view the Demographics of Social Media
Users
Also view their Social Media Fact Sheet

13. Network Numbers
 Facebook 1.2 Billion
 YouTube – 1 Billion
 Google+ 540 Million
 Twitter – 240 Million
 LinkedIn – 277 Million
 Instagram – 150 Million
 Pinterest – 70 Million
 Foursquare – 40 million
Google says about 1.5 billion
photos are being shared on
Plus each week. Facebook
recently said about 350 million
pictures are being shared per day,
or more than 2.4 billion per
week. Millions more are
shared on Instagram, which
Facebook bought last year.
Read more: Daily News
*these numbers are constantly growing and changing these are the most recent I could find

14. Your Social Media Marketing
Strategy
Starts with your website!

15. Your 2014 Website Must Haves
 Responsive – your site works well and looks
great no matter what device is used to view it.
 Social Sharing buttons – allows visitors to easily
share your content on social media
 Original and engaging content – that speaks to
your audience (personas)
 SEO optimized – keywords in title, url, h tags,
meta data, alt image tag etc…
 Blogging capability – so you can publish new
content easily

16. Social and SEO
Your
Website
Instagram
Twitter
FBGoogle+
LinkedIn
Social signals are emerging
as ranking factors as search
engines determine how to
leverage our social
interaction and behavior.
Danny Sullivan, Search
Engine Land

17. Local Mobile Searches = Sales
http://searchengineland.com/study-78-percent-local-mobile-searches-
result-offline-purchases-188660

18. 10 Commandments of Social Media
1. Thou Shalt Socialize, Not Advertise
2. Thou Shalt Be a Human Being, Not a Company
3. Thou Shalt be Passionate About One‘s
Vocation, but Not Be a Salesman
4. Thou Shalt be a Good Listener
5. Thou Shalt Contribute
http://www.kunocreative.com/blog/bid/86184/The-10-Commandments-of-Social-Media-Marketing

19. 10 Commandments of Social Media
6. Thou Shalt Play Well with Others
7. Thou Shalt Empower Thy Community
8. Thou Shalt Share Thy Expertise
9. Thou Shalt Praise Others
10. Thou Shalt Respond in a Timely Manner
http://www.kunocreative.com/blog/bid/86184/The-10-Commandments-of-Social-Media-Marketing

20. Set Your Goals and Measure Progress

21. Facebook Tips
 Read more about the following tips in an article by Belle Beth
Cooper on the Fast Company website

22. Facebook Tips - Photos
 Photos get 53% more likes, 104% more
comments and 84% more click-throughs on links
than text-based posts.

23. Facebook Tips – Photo Galleries
Wishpond‘s data says that overall, photo posts get 120% more engagement
than the average post, and photo albums actually get 180% more
engagement

24. Facebook Tips – Post Length
 Shorter posts under 250 characters get 60%
more engagement

25. Facebook Tip – Emoticons
 Emoticons ( :D :) :-O ) increase comments by
33% and get 57% more likes

26. Facebook Tip – Ask Questions
 Questions containing ‗should, would, which or
who‘ increase engagement

27. Facebook Tip – Pick Your Days
 Engagement rates on Thursday and Friday are
18% higher

28. Facebook Tips – Encourage Fans
 42% of fans like a page to get a coupon or
discount

29. Let‘s Talk Twitter
The following tips are from Belle Beth Cooper on the Buffer Blog

30. Twitter Tips
Twitter engagement for brands is
17% higher on weekends
If you‘re posting tweets with links,
Dan Zarrella‘s research shows that 120–130
characters will be your sweet spot.

31. Twitter Tips
Twitter‘s fastest growing demographic
is 55–64 year-olds
Tweets with hashtags get 2x
more engagement

32. Twitter Tips
Twitter users who
mostly use a mobile device are
181% more likely to be on
Twitter during their commute
Your tweets have a 12x higher chance
of being retweeted if you ask for it,
and 23x higher if you actually spell out
the word ―retweet‖

33. Measuring Social Media
You must measure social media campaigns to
gauge their effectiveness.
 Install Google Analytics (free) on your website
 Use Google‘s Url Builder (also free)
 Use Facebook Insights (free)
 Use Twitter Analytics (free)
 Try Third Party Analytics (not all free)

34. Use Google‘s Url Builder
Campaign Source
(utm_source)
Required. Use utm_source to identify a search engine, newsletter
name, or other source. Example: utm_source=facebook
Campaign Medium
(utm_medium)
Required. Use utm_medium to identify a medium such as email or
cost-per- click. Example: utm_medium=cpc
Campaign Term
(utm_term)
Used for paid search. Use utm_term to note the keywords for this ad.
Example: utm_term=running+shoes
Campaign Content
(utm_content)
Used for A/B testing and content-targeted ads. Use utm_content to
differentiate ads or links that point to the same URL.
Examples: utm_content=logolink or utm_content=textlink
Campaign Name
(utm_campaign)
Used for keyword analysis. Use utm_campaign to identify a specific
product promotion or strategic campaign.
Example: utm_campaign=spring_sale

35. Custom Campaign Tips
• If you are building many custom campaign urls you
can use an excel spreadsheet template created by
Google. Link below
• Custom Campaign Urls work with url shortening
services such as bit.ly, owl.ly
• Consistency in using custom campaign Urls is critical
to this method of evaluating your marketing efforts.
http://www.google.com/analytics/apps/about?app_id=1276007

36. Facebook Insights
Facebook provides a wealth of data to administrators of pages with
30 likes or more.

37. Twitter Analytics
Twitter also provide analytics data but to track url clicks
you must use custom campaigns or use ‗Twitter Cards‘

38. Additional Resources
 Social media not working? Great article on Social
Media Examiner
 7 Ways Brands Are Using Social Media to Build
Customer Loyalty in 2014
 Social Media Today
 12 Awesome Social Media Tutorials on HubSpot
 Social Media Tutorials from Socialbrite
 LoyalBlocks – added after the presentation
because we discussed social customer loyalty
apps in the session.

39. Get this presentation online:
http://www.slideshare.net/stephenpeacock