Most social media marketers struggle to measure ROI. Why? It’s not always easy to see how likes and shares relate to your core marketing and business goals. Escape the “posting just to post” mentality and learn how to focus your social marketing efforts on what will have the most impact for your brand. This presentation is perfect for social marketers who need to prove the ROI of their efforts, C-level marketing execs who aren’t sure what social media is supposed to do for their business, and anyone looking for a common-sense approach to social media that actually helps drive real results. Originally presented to the Uptown Marketing Professionals Breakfast by Megan Van Groll, Digital Journalism & Content Strategy at Richards Partners. Special thanks to Uptown Dallas, Inc. for organizing these quarterly breakfasts for marketing professionals in the Uptown neighborhood!

1. Uptown Marketing Professionals Quarterly Breakfast

2. HOW TO CREATE A KILLER
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Megan Van Groll, Digital Journalism
and Content Strategy at Richards Partners

3. TWEET ALONG
#UptownMarketing
@UptownDallasInc @RichardsGroup @meganvangroll

4. COMMON ROADBLOCKS
1. Don’t understand what role
social media can or should play
in our marketing mix
2. Don’t know what our goals
are or should be
3. Relying on vanity metrics alone
to measure success

5. 1. BE HUMAN AND AUTHENTIC
2. TELL STORIES PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR
3. MAKE FRIENDS

6. Social media represents
a vast frontier for building
awareness, education,
advocacy, and affiliation

7. …and it plays several roles within
the traditional sales funnel

8. Awareness
Consideration
Usage
PATH-TO-PURCHASE FUNNEL
“I’m generally aware of this
brand/product/service/cause”
“I’m thinking about buying/
joining/donating to this”
“I’ve initiated a purchase/made
a call/signed up/donated”

9. Sharing engaging, useful
content and stories
Continued engagement,
building familiarity
Direct
response
ads
WHERE SOCIAL COMES IN
“I’m generally aware of this
brand/product/service/cause”
“I’m thinking about buying/
joining/donating to this”
“I’ve initiated a purchase/made
a call/signed up/donated”

10. Awareness
Education,
affiliation
Sales
RELEVANT SOCIAL METRICS
Engagement
Website traffic
Attributable
conversions
Impressions
Reach

11. STRATEGY
ROADMAP

12. OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

13. OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

14. OBJECTIVES KPISSTRATEGIES
What role does
social media
play for
our brand?

15. OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

16. What do
we want to
happen?
KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

17. OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

18. How will we
achieve this?
OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL

19. OBJECTIVES KPIS
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

20. What does
success look
like?
OBJECTIVES
ROLE OF
SOCIAL
STRATEGIES

21. STEP 1:
Determine what you want
social media to accomplish
for your brand

22. POTENTIAL ROLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Supporting our
marketing
awareness goals
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION
Getting more
people to consider
using our product
or service
CONVERSIONS
Driving sales,
quotes, sign-ups,
usage, etc.
What role does social play for our brand?

23. POTENTIAL ROLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Supporting bottom-
line sales and
business objectives,
from awareness
to consideration
to usage
BUSINESS
SUPPORT
CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
Doing what’s right
for our customers,
members, or clients
ADVOCATE
ENGAGEMENT
Getting our best
advocates to engage
on our behalf
What role does social play for our brand?

24. POTENTIAL ROLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Support our
fundraising goals;
influence donation
decisions
FUNDRAISING
SUPPORT
DISASTER
RESPONSE
Be a real-time
resource for
those impacted
by disasters
REPUTATION
MANAGEMENT
Educate people
about the mission
and identity of
our nonprofit
Nonprofit examples

25. POTENTIAL OBJECTIVES
Create more
understanding of
who we are
and how we
add value
BRAND
EDUCATION
BRAND
AFFILIATION CONVERSIONS
Drive more
people to become
customers
or donors
Help more people
understand who
our brand is for
What do we want to do?

26. POTENTIAL OBJECTIVES
Help employees
understand
how to engage
on social
EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
BRAND
CONSISTENCY
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
Position our
brand as a
thought leader in
our industry
Portray a
consistent brand
across all
touchpoints
What do we want to do?

27. POTENTIAL STRATEGIES
Create and share
engaging content that
demonstrates the value
of our products and
services in our
customers’ lives
BRAND
AFFILIATION CONVERSIONS
Use social ads to target
fans, look-alike
audiences, or email
subscribers with direct-
response messages
(Facebook Ads,
Promoted Tweets)
Create and share content
that stands on its own
merits as entertainment,
storytelling, or
useful information
How will we accomplish this?
BRAND
EDUCATION

28. POTENTIAL STRATEGIES
Create and distribute
plain-language
employee social media
policy that makes
regulations clear;
incentivize reading
and compliance
BRAND
CONSISTENCY
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
Be a resource for
information about our
industry; engage with
other thought leaders;
leaders to publish
editorials, blogs, etc.
Create and adhere to
social visual style guide;
templatize social creative;
provide digital bundles to
agents, field employees,
franchisees, etc.
How will we accomplish this?
EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT

29. POTENTIAL KPIS
Increase in engagement
with brand education
content; increase in site
traffic referred by
brand education
messages
BRAND
AFFILIATION CONVERSIONS
Increase in attributable
conversions (tracked
via conversion pixel on
landing page); increase
in social referrals to
website; increase in
quotes or leads
Increase in engagement
with affiliation content;
increase in positive
sentiment; Net Promoter
Score; increase in self-
reported affiliation via
brand tracking study
How will we measure success?
BRAND
EDUCATION

30. POTENTIAL KPIS
Increase in percentage
of employees following
guidelines and policies
BRAND
CONSISTENCY
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
Increase in reach and
engagement of thought
leadership content;
increase in percentage
of tweets sent to
other industry
thought leaders
Increase in percentage
of posts that adhere to
brand visual creative
guidelines; increase in
brand recall in brand
tracking study
How will we measure success?
EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT

31. STEP 2:
MAP OUT YOUR STRATEGY
BY CHANNEL

32. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS

33. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS
Facebook once had high
organic reach, but it has
recently become more of
a paid media channel

34. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS
Twitter is the best channel
for real-time content and
one-to-one conversations

35. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS
Instagram is best for
sharing visual expressions
of your brand

36. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS
LinkedIn is best for professional
networking, thought leadership,
recruiting, and sharing
corporate content

37. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL CHANNELS
YouTube is a video-sharing
website that acts as a distribution
platform for content creators
and advertisers

38. STEP 3:
DETERMINE YOUR
CONTENT PILLARS

39. POTENTIAL CONTENT PILLARS
INFORMATION
Truly useful,
relevant, and
interesting advice
and tips
EMOTION
Engaging,
collaborative
stories that bring
the brand to life
and inspire
affiliation
PROMOTION
Direct-response
content, ads, and
messages that
drive sales and
conversions
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
Facts, figures, and
opinion/editorial
that position the
brand as a leader
Bring your brand and your strategy to life with your content

40. FOLLOW THE 80/20 RULE
CONTENT
AD BUDGET
Awareness and engagement Conversion
Conversion
Awareness and
engagement

41. STEP 4:
ALIGN YOUR REPORTING
TO YOUR NEW KPIS

42. Awareness Advocacy
REPORTING BEST PRACTICES
Streamline reporting to align with KPIs
Focus on true insights, not vanity metrics
Provide visuals and contextual information for data
Close with clarity, content ideas, and next steps
Summarize all insights
Provide actionable recommendations and content ideas

43. DIGITAL TOOLS AND RESOURCES

44. GOOGLE SPREADSHEET: TAB 1
Awareness Advocacy

45. GOOGLE SPREADSHEET: TAB 2
Awareness Advocacy

46. GRAB THE GOOGLE DOC
bit.ly/rpsocialstrat

47. GORGEOUS FREE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY
thestocks.im

48. FREE QUALITY ICONS
iconfinder.com

49. QUESTIONS?
@UptownDallasInc @RichardsGroup @meganvangroll