The goal of Social Starter is to get your company off to a great start in the world of social media.

2. Social Starter presentation guide
―If you are going to have a public conversation about
your brand, you might as well do it on the first page of
Google...‖
Michael Walsh – CEO and founder, Social Starter Srl

3. Social Starter presentation guide
1. Marketing and Communications

4. How does Social Media work?
Normally, when you want to talk to your customers, you have
to pass through the marketing and communications
department. Vice versa, when your customers want to talk to
you, they have to go through customer support.
Not only is this communications system wrong because the
ears and the mouth of your company are disconnected, it’s
wrong because you put filters between you and the very
people you spend a great deal of time trying to capture.
It’s time to find your voice again, and start as many
conversations as you can with it. It’s time to bring this model
bang up to date.

5. How does Social Media work?
Now you’re talking! Used correctly, social media jumps
straight over traditional information channels and creates a
remarkably powerful yet friendly and intimate platform through
which you and your customers can talk freely to one another.
This way everyone’s still in the picture but the communication
between them is more open, more transparent and a lot better
as a result.
Marcoms can see what Customer Support has to deal with
and even react in real time as a result. Likewise, Customer
Support is now part of the dialogue with customers and as it’s
no longer confined to the final link of what is a very unhappy
chain you discover that there’s a lot more value in that
department than you ever thought possible.

6. Too good to be true?
Social Media is not something you just buy and plug in to
your company’s communication strategy, it has to be
learned, understood and then embraced by the company
if it’s going to have any chance of success.
It takes effort and dedication, which is why we dedicate
one month to meet up and talk about how social media
can help your company and what will happen should you
decide that this is right for your company.

7. Too good to be true?
Used correctly and the returns of using social media as part of your corporate communications mix are
tangible in all of these areas:
Trust Authority Immediacy
Loyalty Following Insights
Respect Empathy Reputation
Relevance Community Popularity
With all this at stake, it’s no wonder Social Starter makes sure that you do it right from Day 1.
Starting with setting clear objectives.

8. How do we get there?
1. Know where to start
In principle, there are two questions you should have clear
answers to before you start:
• What are our objectives?
• How are we going to get there?
What are our objectives?
The hardest part of starting a social media campaign is
knowing what to expect from it.
There are so many variables (and technologies) it can very
quickly descend into a random game of hit and miss with
very few demonstrable returns.

9. How do we get there?
In reality, as your customers, employees, stakeholders and
anybody else interested in your brand are already talking
about you, you are effectively joining conversations that are
already underway, so the question you should actually ask
yourselves is not what you expect from social media, but what
those people already using it expect from you?
So how do we get there?
Listen.
Once you’re thinking with your customers in mind, you can
start to balance their needs with your own set of objectives
and priorities that will allow you to find your true voice.

10. How do we get there?
2. Follow the rules
As a business, your social media efforts must bring some form
of tangible returns in order to justify the commitment you’re
inevitably going to have to put into it so before you start, you
need to establish a set of guidelines, policies and procedures
that will make sure your social media strategy stays on track.
Setting down the rules will also ensure that everyone from
management and employees to customers and stakeholders
knows what they can expect and, just as importantly, what’s
expected of them.

11. How do we get there?
3. Walk before you run
Make no mistake: social media is hard work and you shouldn’t
expect to transform into a social media sensation overnight.
Building relationships with customers online takes time,
determination and a considerable amount of humility. Just
like a long-distance race, you have to pace yourselves and
set realistic objectives that you can reach over time.
No less important is the need to apply the same amount of
―openness‖ to your social media strategy as with existing
communication efforts, at least in the beginning. Anything
unexpected will just end up coming across as unauthentic
and will be far more difficult to maintain long term.

12. How do we get there?
4. Get into the habit of using Best Practices1
As with all business activities, social media has its own set of best practices that, while by no means set in
stone, do tend to help produce the best results over time.
• Emphasize quality, not just quantity
Engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a
Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. It’s also about keeping your blog content fresh and
replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status. Don’t just check the
box; engage with your customer audience.
• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job
Social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead, it’s important for
everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes
each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.
1 Charlene Li: engagementdb.com

13. How do we get there?
Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something
The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your
most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your
organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start
you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general
online experience.
• Find your sweet spot
Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full
engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to
acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be
consistent and participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.

14. Social Starter presentation guide
2. Search Engines

15. What is a search engine?
Some say a search engine is...
a coordinated set of complex programs that includes:
A ―spider‖
A fast database called an ―index‖
Data retrieval software
We say a search engine is your home page
Apparently*, getting on the first page of Google will bring around 20 times more traffic than a website on
page 2 of Google...
...and 50 times more traffic than a site on page 3 of Google.
So if you are on page 4... you may as well be on page 100.

16. SEO in 2 minutes
The biggest secret in search engine optimization is that there really aren’t any secrets*.
SEO simply boils down to doing five things right:
Developing a keyword strategy to target the right searchers
Building a well-structured web site
Creating good content and doing basic ―on page‖ optimization
Promoting your site to get links from the rest of the web
Avoiding technical ―mistakes‖
*There is a lot of technical detail, yes, but no real secrets.
1. Going after the keywords that reach your desired audience (what that means is going after the market (keywords, Topics, Themes, Problems, Solutions), NOT the product - understanding the searcher’s intent is critical. You don’t
need traffic - you need targeted and responsive traffic. Different keywords represent different goals. Not just for you but also for the searcher and when you can align your goals with the searcher’s goals then you have a good
keyword).
2. Using those keywords on the page in an intelligent way so that when someone searches, you’ve got a chance of being found
3. When you link to those pages from within your own
4. Get other people to link to you (with or without keywords - linking is always good)
5. Don’t try and fool the search engines. Don’t spam with low value content that isn’t designed for users as this a problem for the search engines.

17. Social Starter presentation guide
3. What We Offer

18. The Social Starter Platform
Social Media “Base” Site
Articles (corporate, products, opinions) designed to communicate with and engage your brand’s customers.
―How-to‖ videos, instructions, guides, reviews, advice or anything else your customers are waiting for you to publish.
―Lead generation‖ and ―sales‖ videos published on the major social networks (if required)*
―Expert Voices‖ – an entirely 100% community-driven section in which customers are encouraged to share their expertise
and knowledge of your products.
Forum designed to encourage open discussions and support in a centralized location.

19. What’s in the box?
We can provide everything you need to get your brand off to a great start in social media.
Analysis of current social media standing (brand Vs. competitors).
Determination of objectives and KPIs.
Preparation of custom social media guidelines and procedures.
In-house training for participants/employees at every level
A single-branded online presence across all social networks.
A custom social media site built on the Social Starter platform (+ hosting).
Real-time monitoring of all major social networks and blogs.
Regular search engine-optimized corporate and product articles written by professional copywriters.
Active participation in off-site discussions (outreach).
Active participation in relevant satellite sites (video/images/micro-blogging)
Search engine-optimized videos distributed through the most relevant video hosting sites (social broadcasting).
Monthly reports tailored to your needs.

20. Social Starter Digital Map
Social Starter Digital Map
Main
Site
External
Web Outreach
Reference Strategy
s Social
Media
Site
Video Image
Hosting Hosting
Sites Sites
Micro Social
Blogging Sharing
Sites Sites

21. The result.
Combine the unmatched communication opportunities of social media and peerless search engine
optimization techniques of Social Starter and you have a brilliant opportunity to engage with your
customers wherever they are and whenever they need you.
Social Starter srl
Via Giacomo Leopardi, 29
20123
Milano - Italy
socialstarter.com
+39 02 87236272