Understanding these 10 key aspects will help you develop the right social media strategy, to help connect with your customers online.

1. 10 Things You Must Know
BEFORE
Starting Social Media
Written by John Young
Learn more about social strategy and
real-time communications at johnyoungblog.com

2. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
Terms and Conditions
The publisher has made every effort to be as accurate and complete as possible in this eBook,
notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents
within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
While all attempts have been made to verify information in this report, the publisher accepts no
responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter within. Any
perceived slights of specific persons, peoples or organizations are unintentional.
This eBook is to highlight general requirements for a social media strategy. In practical advice
books like this there is no guarantee of outcomes. Readers are cautioned to rely on their own
judgment about their individual circumstances and abilities to act accordingly.
This eBook is not intended to be used as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial
advice. All readers are encouraged to seek services of competent professionals in the legal,
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All Rights Reserved
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3. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
Introduction
Thank you for downloading this eBook. My aim is for you to understand the basic
requirements of incorporating Social Media into your business.
If after reading this you have any questions, please ask them on any of my social
networks or via my website, johnyoungblog.com.
The strength of Social Media is through content sharing. Let your friends know you‟re
reading this ebook by sharing on Twitter or Facebook.
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4. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“The strongest of all warriors are these two -- Time and Patience.”
-- Leo Tolstoy
1
ROI (Return of Investment) will not happen overnight
Investment: Noun: The action or process of investing money for profit or material result
Thought I would attack this point early on. This ebook is not about getting rich
quick or making thousands of „friends‟ overnight. There are plenty of other
ebooks making those outrageous claims. This ebook will arm you with the right
knowledge to put into perspective social media and your business.
Networking takes time. Any overnight success is usually the result of many years
of hard work. Social Media is about connecting and networking with people
through an online environment. Trust, like in any relationship, is developed over
time. There is no fast track.
The aim will be to work on developing connections with key influencers in your
industry. They will be the ones to share your message with a large audience and
help grow your network.
The return of investment from Social Media will be large, provided you
understand it will take time and effort on your behalf to grow. Some connections
will take months to develop, so be prepared, this is a long term strategy.
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5. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
How can you measure ROI? This will depend on your focus. What are you trying
to achieve through Social Media: Sales? Customer loyalty? Lead generation?
Brand exposure? Newsletter signup? Enquiry phone calls?
When you have defined your target, you can build some metrics to measure,
which can include:
 Facebook likes
 Retweets
 LinkedIn and other shares
 Reblogs
 Links back
 Comments
 Time spent on page
 Average page views per visitor
 Followers
 @mentions
You can also go deeper and measure:
 Quality of leads
 Retention period
 Lifetime value per lead
 Length of sales cycle
 Number of new customers referred by lead
There are many tools that allow you to measure these kinds of interactions,
however before you search for the tools, make a clear decision on what you
want to achieve.
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6. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“The single biggest problem in communication is the
illusion that it has taken place.”
-- George Bernard Shaw
2
This is a communication strategy, meaning you need to
communicate, i.e. be social.
Communication: Noun: The imparting or exchanging of information or news
Social Media is a communication tool, but fundamentally a social tool. That is, in
essence, what it comes down to.
Social Media has proven to be a quick response mechanism. If you only plan to
„check in‟ every now and again you will miss discussions. You need to have
monitoring in place and contribute to important discussions as they happen.
This is real-time communication, if you cannot respond in a reasonable
timeframe, your followers will lose interest. Your online community needs to see
you are available, they want to know there is no contact barrier, this means you
need to have the right processes in place to monitor and respond.
Social Media is about being public, available and communicating.
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7. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day,
and at last we cannot break it”
-- Horace Mann
3
People rarely change their habits; work on fitting into their lives.
Habit: Noun; A recurrent, often unconscious, pattern of behavior that is acquired through
frequent repetition.
We all have habits and patterns of behavior which are repeated, in some cases
daily. This means many people have little time to do things outside their comfort
zone or outside their habits.
Even websites people visit are habitual. This is a point to really stress. Don‟t
expect your content to change habits, people are too busy these days. Change
could happen, however it will be far easier to fit with their schedule and
environment.
Some people prefer to access content via Facebook, some prefer Twitter, others
will listen to podcasts and others will have their own preferences. Avoid trying to
change how they access content, work on fitting into how they prefer to
consume it.
Determine their habits through research and then provide your content in a way
that meets their pattern of behavior.
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8. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can
listen twice as much as we speak.”
-- Epictetus
4
Listen before action.
Listen: Verb: Make an effort to hear something; be alert and ready to hear something
You could dive right in if you like, but there is etiquette on each social network.
Social Media is about customers and their need to be heard. Let them discover
who you are, but don‟t shout your message at them.
It‟s easy to go in and start talking about how good you are, but how does that
solve their problems? Listen to what they‟re saying and asking before you start
acting. Provide solutions by first understanding their problems.
Some tools to help you listen are:
 socialmention.com - Real-time social media search and analysis
 kurrently.com - Real-time search engine for Facebook and Twitter
 google.com/alerts - Email updates of the latest relevant Google results
 technorati.com - Leading blog search engine
 trendrr.com - comparison graphing to show relationships and discover
trends in real time
 radian6.com - complete platform to listen, measure and engage
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9. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents
the wise choice of many alternatives.”
-- William A. Foster
5
Quality
Quality: Noun: The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar
kind; the degree of excellence of something
Content is something there is not a lack of online, however quality content is not
as abundant. Don‟t contribute to noise, why would anybody listen? Quality is one
of the pillars of success.
People don‟t have the time to waste on poor content (remember point 3
regarding habits and busy schedules). Provide quality and people will make time
for you, provide quality and people will want more from you.
If you aren‟t confident about your writing skills, hire a copywriter, this is
definitely worth the investment. If you want your content to be shared, make
sure it is worth sharing.
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10. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“Part of courage is simple consistency.”
-- Peggy Noonan
6
Consistency
Consistency: Noun: The achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly
in quality over time
Again I will reference the habits of people. If you can provide consistent quality
content, you will have a better chance of fitting into the routine of your
followers.
If you‟re inconsistent, if you don‟t post often or at regular times, you‟re making it
harder to become a part of someone‟s habit, making it more difficult for you to
be seen. Once you are part of their habit, it will make it easier to connect.
It may mean a post per day or one video per week or an update at a regular
interval. Whilst you don‟t need to be a slave to social media, if you can develop
consistency, your content can become integrated into the busy schedules of your
followers. They will begin to expect content at regular intervals. Pick a timeline
you can manage and stick to it.
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11. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“Social Media puts the “public” into PR and the “market” into marketing.”
-- Chris Brogan
7
Are your customers online; is Social Media worth it?
Customer: Noun: A person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or
business
Social Media isn‟t for everyone. Surprised to hear that? Just because you can have a
Twitter account, what does that mean? What are you trying to achieve?
Is your business one that requires a social presence? This is a question you need to
really ask yourself. Social Media will make it easier for you to connect with customers,
but it will also make it easier for them to connect with you – make sure you are ready
for them.
Also make sure your target market is online. You may go to a lot of effort only to find
out they‟re not interested or involved with social channels. Just because Facebook and
Twitter have millions of users, this does not mean they will all start following you.
I‟m not saying don‟t use Social Media, because it is a valuable communication
tool. I am saying you should first understand why you are using it and second
what you should expect from your target market online.
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12. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“There are a lot of brilliant people in all walks of life. That doesn't make you a manager
of people. Our jobs are about managing people, crisis management on a daily basis. If
you don't have people skills or the experience, things can snowball.”
-- Brian Sabean
8
Do you have the right team to manage the social strategy?
Manage: Verb: Be in charge of (a company, establishment, or undertaking); administer;
run
You are busy, that is a fact of life, we all have „things‟ to do. Do you have the right staff
or even enough staff to manage your social strategy?
Social media requires monitoring, engagement and communication. There are
tools which can assist, but the information still needs to be digested, monitored
and replied to. Tools will bring you information, it‟s the people that sort through
it.
Allow at least one hour of your time per day, if not more. Now, that hour could
be broken up over the day, eg 10 min blocks, depending on what you are trying
to achieve. The key is to have the right team in place to ensure it works well,
which comes down to strategy.
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13. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“We don't think that any one hardware platform can meet everybody's
needs and we provide multiple platforms for that reason.”
-- John Patrick
9
It’s not all about the platforms
Platform: Noun: An opportunity to voice one's views or initiate action
I hear many people say they need to setup a Twitter account for their business. Why?
What makes Twitter so good? Look at Facebook, it‟s huge, but does that mean you must
have a Facebook profile or Fan Page?
Look past the platforms and consider the message and what that means for your
customers. Any platform is just another way to facilitate communication and
engagement.
It comes down to understanding
 What you communicate
 Who you engage with
 Consumer preference for content format
When you know these things you can choose the right platform/s to use.
Look for the platform which will have the best outcome for you and focus on that.
Choosing the right platform will be a result of your listening research, look for activity
and engagement. Become a master of a single platform, then branch out from there.
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14. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
“Leaders establish the vision for the future and set
the strategy for getting there.”
-- John P. Kotter
10
Strategy
Strategy: Noun: A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim
I‟ve been alluding to this in most of the previous points.
Strategy is the key to your success, if you walk in blind, you won‟t know where
to go. Spend time listening, when we listen, we learn more about our customers
and we know the preferred platform for communication.
Remember to listen and have the tools in place to enable ongoing monitoring.
Return of investment won‟t happen overnight and without a strategy, it may not
even happen. Ensure you communicate with your audience, this is the
foundation of social media.
When you consider the tips within this guide in great detail, you are on your way
to developing the strategy for success. Not all strategies are created equal, what
works for one person will not necessarily work for another.
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15. 10 Things You Must Know Before Starting In Social Media – John Young
If you need ideas or advice on what to do next, I encourage you to join the
conversation at my website, johnyoungblog.com, at my Facebook page, or via
Twitter.
If you found this guide useful please share on Twitter or Facebook.
Thank you for your time.
John Young
@johnfrankiej
Facebook me
Google+
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