Introduction
Interviewing the Client
Setting Goals
Market Research & Keywords
Registering Social Media Identities
Social Media Content Flow & Linked Accounts
Building Clout through Automation
Social-Media-Fu: What to Post (And When)
Metrics, Adjustments & Maintenance
A Social Media Campaign Outline
"Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." - Captain Picard
The following is a brief guide for running task oriented goal based social media campaigns. It is by no means all inclusive. Each social media campaign uses different tactics, technology and services, but the general framework for choosing which tactics and technology suit the campaign and implementing them remains the same.
There are some misconceptions about social media- that only teenagers and college kids use it, that its not relevant to small local businesses, that the Internet is home to (male) geeks and that “people who buy my product aren't on social networks”.
The average age of a Twitter user is 40. Groupon has proved that regional social network campaigns put people in brick and mortar stores. Women spend 85 percent more than males on Virtual items. No product or store comes with a maximum age limit to purchase. While only 3% of social networks are made up of the over 65 age group the 35-55 age group outnumbers them ten to one. In just a decade the 65 and over age group will be the largest demographic on social networks.
This document is designed to guide us, step by step, in creating and managing a social media campaign.
"If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are." - Captain Picard
The initial client interview, even if they are you, sets the tone for the style and tone of the social media campaign. Knowing your limitations as well as your strengths allows you to pick the best vehicle for your social media campaign. If you are awkward on camera, for instance, a video blog may not be in the cards. If you're a writer then a wordpress blog shows off your talents better than a badly maintained tumblr.
The “Voice” of a social media campaign is the style of posts you will make. The “voice” for your social media campaign should be as close to your natural style as possible, just tweaked a little bit. Write a list of your interests, where you go hang out, what your hobbies are and what you like to talk about most. If none of those things are related to the product you are selling then reconsider if you want to run your own social media campaign.
Later in the process you'll evaluate your potential customer base and you'll find where your natural interests and style overlap. If you can't speak with authority on a subject its best to avoid it and focus on those things with which you are comfortable.
If your natural style is quirky you'll want to remain consistently quirky on your social media networks. If you're generally rather serious you'll want to avoid making quirky posts which will confuse your followers. Develop an approach to social media posting you can consistently maintain without forcing something that isn't there.
While everyone wants to be completely original, you will also have to consider your audience. In some cases having interests outside of your market may brand you as a unique business and set you apart from the rest. But there's also the risk that this difference may not speak to your audience or worse make them critical of you- and since the point of a social media campaign is sales you'll have to ignore that which does not drive your customers and embrace that which they embrace.
Its best to simply write down a general description of your tone and a small list of things you like to talk about, maybe three items, and confine your social media posts to those topics. If your followers are expecting you to talk, for example, about Science Fiction books with a dry wit and occasionally mention your favorite video games and anecdotes about your cats, then posting a serious political analysis of a breaking story throws a wrench into the personal brand you are developing.
Be consistent. Be familiar. Be yourself.
Consider your level of tech-savvy. Your ability to use and understand social media and smart-phone technology (the most common platform of social media) determines the scope of the campaign. Your ability to integrate multimedia components (videos, photographs) and geo-specific posting (foursquare, list / feed posting) depends on your ability to produce and use these features autonomously. If you can't post a video from a promotional event, you cannot, for instance, check in at that event via Foursquare and post a twitvid inviting those attending to engage. You should not stray too far out of your comfort zone. If it doesn't come naturally to you then you won't do it well. Build around your strengths while remembering your weaknesses.
If a particular method of posting to social mead speaks to you own it- even if its behind a computer screen. Knowing what you can do well will open you up to taking full advantage of that medium. If, for example, you find you have no problem taking quick cellphone videos about where you are and what you're doing then by all means get a tumlr or send twitvids. If you're a total computer wizard you can take advantage of multiple avenues- videos, images, audio, blogs etc. But still, focus on no more than two skills.
If you're terrible at videos, images, audio or writing longer blogs then stick to micro-blogging (twitter) and simple status updates (facebook). You can do a lot as long as you're doing it well. Don't feel compelled to use every fancy tool because others are doing it.
Collect all the material you can on your product.
If possible, collect:
Biography or Company history
Product list + images
Promotional Images (raw and editable formats if possible)
Company Logo
Promotional Videos
Current and pass press kits
Personal Contact information
Geographic Location and Public Contact Information
After gathering all this info you should know exactly what you have to work with, what you are capable of doing with it. This means you could decide to do an all out Youtube, Tumblr, Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, Klout and LinkedIn campaign, because you have the skills to produce consistent new content for all these sites, or you could stick to the “Big Two” Facebook and Twitter and simply share links and information about your product. You should also have a good sense of the type of posts you're going to make and a limited list of topics you won't stray from.
“Things are only impossible until they are not.” - Captain Picard
Setting a goal for the social media campaign dictates that campaign's content. Without a clear goal we cannot gage the success or failure of our effort. How we measure social media also dictates the form in which goals take.
General themes such as “making the product a household name” or “making myself a star” are impossible to measure and worse are not sales strategies. Popularity and visibility are not ends, but means to sales.
Social media metrics take the form of impressions and interactions. The number of impressions, as mentioned before, means how many people see a post and the number of interactions means how many people respond to a post.
Sheer volume of impressions can be fabricated through certain social media tactics (discussed later) but volume is useless unless the people those impressions reach have an interest in or need for the product being marketed. Sheer volume of impressions is an investment of time and resources, and unless you get a return on that investment you've wasted time and effort. The return on social media investment is interactions, and different types of interactions have different weight. But for goal setting purposes there is only one type of interaction that matters: A response to our Call To Action.
Call to action is a social media marketing term and means, “When people do the thing we ask of them in our posts.” How to craft and use CTA's will also be discussed later, but for goal setting it means sales and customers.
Set firm, measurable, sales goals you intend to generate through social media.
"Dr. Fesbinder gave an hour long dissertation on the ionization of warp nacelles before he realized that the topic was supposed to be psychology." - Captain Picard
After defining who you are in the social media sphere and what you are selling the next step in developing a social media campaign is defining who the customer is and how they purchase, search and interact on social media. Knowing the language of the customer is instrumental in communicating your Call to Action. You must know your customer in order to provide relevant posts.
Search similar brands, products and personalities. No brand, client or product is so unique it does not have an existing market (even niches). Begin this search by finding communities, web forums, social networks and websites similar to your voice and product. Take notes on both the posts by the similar products and people and the followers they have. If unique phrases, ideas, words or slang show up write them down. Also take note at where the most discussion (interactions) are taking place, as knowing where to reach customers guides the direction of the social media campaign.
Also take note of the method of interaction. Length of posts, depth of replies, use of images and video all indicate the customer's social media lexicon. Once you've scoured twitter, facebook, tumblr and youtube for repeated phrases and communication style begin a keyword search.
Using tools such as Google's keyword search engine, input general phrases describing both the your product and similar products. Evaluate the return by taking note of the most searched terms associated with your product and the competition for these terms. If the most searched terms have the most competition is there a way to build a unique phrase off of them? (Competition means how many other people are using that same phrase, if a lot of people are using the same phrase in marketing campaigns its difficult to make your voice / posts stand out from them.)
For example, your client sells discount movie theater tickets and the most searched term related to that business is “Cheap movie tickets”. But it also has the most competition. Did you try, “Cheap movie tickets in Atlanta” ?
Continue to input phrases, drawing upon the notes taken while surveying social media communities related to the product. Evaluate the competition for and the frequency of search for the phrases most relevant to the client or product.
Using the information gathered from keyword search identify the terms most relevant to people searching for your product- balancing frequency of search (or how common people put those terms into search engines) with competition for these terms (how often your competition uses those phrases). Select five key words or phrases from your research which accurately match your product to what customer's are looking for. Select five topics the community (customers) identifies with.
These keywords and key topics guide your social media posts by providing relevant and familiar content that is easy to find and identify with for your customers.
These keywords and topics also make your posts relevant to common searches made by those looking to buy your product, enable all sales posts (Where the call to action is “buy the product”) to meet the right audience.
“Make it so.” - Captain Picard
Once you've defined where your interests match your market and found what key words are familiar and easy for your customers to find you're ready to take the first step to the market: registering with social media networks. Once you've signed up for the social media networks you can begin connecting to other users so you can tell them about your product.
But before registering social media sites select a single identity (username) for all social media sites. The username must be simple, short (usually under 12 characters) and easy to verbalize and remember (nübau7enchkith would be a bad choice). Check the availability of the name on all relevant social media sites, even if you don't plan to use them in your campaign as you may branch into different social media services as the market shifts. You may want to register the identity with those sites simply to control the brand, but if you are not actively using an account set the privacy to to “private” to avoid zombie accounts.
Zombie accounts are unused, updated accounts. The problem with zombie accounts is that if a user should come across them and find them unused they may conclude the client is not active and engaged. If possible include a message forwarding users to active accounts. But even if the zombie account links to the website and / or other social media networks and may add to your “sheer volume” of followers, it does not convey the message or call to action. The point of social media marketing is engagement, not volume. Volume is a tool and that which does not engage wastes marketing time.
Begin registering your social media sites by creating a single email address to make maintenance easier.
The “shotgun” approach to social media sites means registering with any and every social network. While the shotgun approach may seem to maximize engagement by maximizing potential audience it dilutes the message and creates serious problems in managing the content across too many platforms. Each social network shares content differently and the users of each social network have unique expectations for how and what content is shared. A “one update fits all” approach will not work and you will never be able to keep up with users in every market. And what's the point of having an untended flock?
While services exist to link accounts linking all accounts and posting identical content across the board means the agency is using one social network to its maximum potential, and missing out on the unique potential of all the others. No one can hand maintain every single social network, and blind cross posting reduces your ROI.
For an initial campaign select up to four social media networks which best reflect your voice and the consumer's habits. Register the simple and memorable identity you chose previously with the social media networks using the shared email. These accounts will be linked, but only according to a Social Media Content Flow scheme discussed in the next chapter. After the initial campaign drive other social networks may be added, but generally only when there's a demand to expand to that network.
When choosing which social networks to begin your campaign consider your market research. Facebook and Twitter are a must have in the current market, but if the audience expects videos, images, or live broadcasts in their niche then consider sites such as tumblr, youtube, or livestream. If you're a corporate or professional personality sites like Google Plus, Plaxo and LinkedIn may contain more potential clients than Bebo or Habbo. Sharing content in a way familiar to the audience is as important as what content you share and who the audience is. Wherever you found the most active or largest communities during your market research is where you begin your social media campaigns.
Use the existing art you mined during the initial interview phase of your social media campaign to select a single image (or “avatar”) for all social media networks. Choose an image recognizable at both 400x400 pixels and 100x100 pixels. Fill in biographical and other user data based on the information and press material gathered during the interview phase but include the key words and key topics uncovered during the market research.
Provide simple, information, factual biographic and user data with natural sounding keyword implementation. Consider filling our social media profiles from the potential customer's point of view. A user should be able to glance at a profile and know who the client is, what they've done, where they do it and come away with a call to action, even if that call to action is nothing more than “add this user”. Also indicate the type of content being provided by the social media account so users can make the call if they want to receive it. A user who wants to receive your content produces sales, while a user who does not is a waste of shelf space. Fifty followers who are listening produce more leads than one hundred who are not and results in a more efficient social media campaign.
Posts should be short. Even blogs. The average Internet user tunes out after 300 words.
“With the first link, a chain is forged.” - Captain Picard
Linking social media networks streamlines both organic and automated posting.
Organic posting means a human sitting behind a screen typing an update for a social network. It can be a blog post, microblog, status update or sending a photo or video blog, but a human is sitting there in real time doing the hard work. In the early days of social networking a user who created an update and wanted to share that content on other networks had to post the content or link to that content on each network individually. While organic updates are necessary, they are also time consuming and when they are done by the client difficult to direct. To make posting simple for the client while also reaching the right audience with the right content you must Link social media networks.
Linking social media networks means the content posted on one account automatically posts to another. Not linking accounts increases your investment (time) without affecting your return (sales). However, simply linking all accounts without engineering a content flow means neglecting the expectations and needs of users on each account. In a situation where the agency is posting in a manner not consistent with the expectations of users on a particular network we lose potential interactions and diminish our impressions as users tune out.
When linking social networks you choose which direction the content posts. While a facebook page may post to a twitter account, that twitter account needn't post to the facebook page. When choosing which direction content flows consider the type of content shared on the social networks, the frequency of posting expected and the character limits associated with the social network.
There are as many content flow designs as there are clients and how a client creates posts depends entirely on their own personal comfort level. As an example, lets take an “old school” novelist who is comfortable with words but not comfortable with the Internet beyond email. She might not understand character limits or keywords, but wants to take an active part in providing content for his social media campaign.
A blog is best if she's not interested in status updates or tweeting. Building a Wordpress powered website for the her and enabling email updates allows them to post blog content, short stories or anecdotes they want to share with readers, from a comfortable place: her email client or webmail account.
After instructing her to post all their content to that email go into the Wordpress dashboard and edit the “Sharing” options under the “Settings” bar to connect to the clients Twitter and Facebook Fan Page. Now when the author posts from her laptop the update will automatically send to the social networks with a character limit appropriate autopost. That way she can just write her blogs but also have her “must have” social networks remain active.
This point, however, is where content flow management enters the picture. Depending on the way you choose to manage or your Automated content the Facebook fan Page may be set to auto-share all updates. In this situation the blog post would update the Facebook Fan Page and the Fan Page would send a link to twitter, but that link would track back to Facebook- not the blog. It would also result in double-posting. You want Wordpress, in this case, to post to twitter as the posts are tailored to twitter user expectations, but you don't want Facebook posting the same content in a different place to twitter.
You'll have to control your content flow by disabling the option on the Facebook Fan Page which posts blogs / notes to twitter, while keeping status updates.
This is just one example, another setup might be as simple as setting up ping.fm groups and training the client to use group tags via email, if at all.
Generally, organic content flow follows a few simple rules.
Microblogs don't post to status updates, but status updates can post to microblogs.
Neither status updates or microblogging feeds to blogs, but blogs feed to both.
Text driven social networks don't post to media driven networks, but media networks post to text networks.
The end game of content flow control is to get as much coverage out of a single update as possible while staying in the context of the network.
“He kept talking and talking in one incredibly long unbroken sentence...” - Captain Picard
Before engaging users with organic content or driving them toward sales via automated CATs build an audience via third party auto-friending softwares.
The idea of automated or “mass” friend adding on social networks seems to fly in the face of their very nature: SOCIAL networks. No one wants to interact with a software any more than they joined facebook, twitter or tumblr to be marketed to.
But think of it like a rock concert. Bands don't go to every individual fan's house and play the set, they call them together at concert halls. Think of their music like content. When dealing with a mass audience you are still dealing with social interactions, and in fact the large scale nature of the message in fact defines it. You've done your market research, and you'll use that research to reach out to users who have expressed public interest in similar brands as the one you represent. You'll get their attention by adding them and they can choose if they want to be part of the community that listens to your posts or not. The beauty of this is that its all based on mutual consent to a social contract between Brand and Users.
If the social media platform permits (facebook fan pages do not allow brands or groups to add users) then you use your automated adding software to invite users to follow you by adding them. Auto-adders allow you to choose which users to add by inputting certain criteria. This is where you'll use your keywords and key themes from the market research. You'll want to set your auto-adder to search for and add every user using your keywords in discussion or in their profiles. You'll also want to set your auto-adder, if possible, to only ad users active within a certain time frame, usually the a week to a day.
Once your auto-adder has added a certain number of people you wait. If your auto adder is up to snuff it provides statistics on how many users have followed you, how many have not, how many have followed you and who has not been active lately. Watch these numbers and unfollow those users who are not engaging you which will give you more room to add users who match your key terms or show interest in your key themes.
This Add-Unfollow cycle is ongoing and when you meet your follow quota, if you have one, you may choose to stop the cycle and begin engaging with organic posting. You may also choose to unfollow the bulk of the group, it depends on what type of campaign your running and what type of public image you want to maintain. The point is for any social media campaign to have reach you must have an audience and giving users the chance to follow you via automation is the only way to achieve this audience and maintain a winning ROI.
During the add-unfollow cycle you'll need to make automated posts, as well, to demonstrate your brand or client's relevance to the users and to begin driving your base towards your call to action: sales.
“Engage!'” - Captain Picard
In a social media campaign there are three type of posts: Informational calls to action, Engagement call to action and organic.
Informational and Engagement calls to action may at times overlap, and this is desirable. Informational posts contain information about your brand or product preceding a link to the brand or product's website, blog or product. The “call to action” in these posts are simple: click the link.
Depending on the product these Informational posts may also include posts about the key themes discovered in your market research. For example if you're selling Diet Coke, you may choose to post important events in Coke's history, examples of Coke in the media, or other things directly relating to your product. Or you may post information about Coke Classic, Aspartame, or healthy food recipes which are all themes relevant to diet coke drinkers.
Engagement calls to action are those which are intended to create a direct interaction between you and the customer- and make use of engagement psychology. Currently Self Determination Theory has the highest standing in the psychological world as an answer to the question, “What makes people stay engaged with an activity?”
There are three fundamental elements of SDT:
Autonomy
Inclusion
Competence
Autonomy means a user has a feeling of individuality and uniqueness. Inclusion means feeling that they are also part of a group. Competence means mastery of a task or subject.
This may seem difficult to achieve in a single post especially with the 140 character limit on Twitter, the most fertile ground for new leads. But with a little creative thinking and knowledge of your market research a simple, engaging, post can take less than 140 characters. For Example:
When did Jason Voorhees first don the hockey mask? First to DM the answer gets a coupon code for our new horror product.
This post gives users a feeling of Inclusion, those within the Horror Movie community, Competence, knowing the answer, and Autonomy, a Direct Message exchange. And it also includes a reward- but not a giveaway. The reward is earned not given away and it reflects their achievement. Followed up by a retweet of the winner and a message thanking everyone for their answers you've managed to engage users in a meaningful way and plug your new Horror Product without simply saying: buy our new product. Its the ideal social media execution.
A tweet for a book on grammar might take this form: “Washington was our first President.” What's wrong with this sentence?
Followed by a tweet several minutes later, “Washington still is our first president. The past tense implies someone else is now our first President.”
These types of informational tweets, followed by a link to the book, are also engaging and can be completely automated.
Four tweets such as the examples above every day are enough to demonstrate your product's relevance to the user base you created via your auto-adder. Once you have a large enough following you'll need to introduce organic tweets and personal interactions at least three times a day to maintain your audience and humanize your brand.
By combining engagement theory with keywords and organic interactions with a massive audience you will drive users toward your call to action (buy our product).
But each social network is different. Twitter is a real time dialog and requires frequent posts to make an impact on what are typically fast moving news feeds. Facebook, however, takes a more leisurely pace and users commenting on a facebook post are as likely to interact and respond to each other as they are the poster.
Most data shows that facebook is a great tool for managing users who have already purchased your product and become fans or champions of it. At facebook you can hold long discussions and conversations and, at a glance, know people's thoughts on it. Posting twice a week on facebook is enough to remind users that your brand exists.
Blogs, even short ones, require most users to go a little beyond their comfort zone. They have to leave their social media client to read your content. Blogs also usually provide more in depth data and content. Whereas a twitter conversation consists of 140 characters, facebook conversations a few sentences- discussion in a blog can often involve lengthy in depth comments and discussions. Posting one post a week of 300 to 500 words, facebooking that post once, and then sharing it on twitter three times a day is sufficient to drive users to your website and demonstrate the appeal of your product.
Blogs are also a great place to let your keywords and key themes fly.
Be relevant, be consistent and engage.
"There is a way out of every box, a solution to every puzzle; it's just a matter of finding it." - Captain Picard
The most time consuming, and important, aspect of a social media campaign is often Metrics. Metrics involve analyzing data on Impressions, Interactions, clicks, searched terms and link sharing. Careful analysis of your social media metrics lets you know which keywords are drawing users, what type of content creates the most Interactions and other data that lets you know if you're doing it right, wrong or neutral.
Use of different analytic services can provide minute by minute updates traffic to your client's website.
A nuanced analysis of this data will help you understand how to adjust your social media campaign. If, for example, a huge spike occurred at 3:30 PM on a weekday from the east coast followed by one four hours later from the west coast then you can assume your content for the day appealed to high school age users checking their feeds when they got home from school. Similarly if you find that your twitter posts are not generating sufficient site traffic then you must consider if the problem is your keywords, your content, your style, the timing of the posts, the frequency of the posts or if you've got the wrong message for the wrong audience.
Your keywords must be regularly researched and updated and your content refined by listening to user response and watching it via analytics.
A note on Hashtags: Hashtags do not make your posts more visible to searches. Hashtags do not generate interactions unless you're commenting in a hashtag community. Hashtags do, however, allow you to track impressions on certain posts. By creating a unique hashtag and posting it at the end of your tweet you can track the impressions and type of impressions that hashtag has through several tracking websites.
The bottom line on metrics is to check them at least once a week and change tactics which don't generate hits and take advantage of tactics that do.
Maintain your social media campaign, there is no one size fits all “by the numbers” approach. The relevance of keywords shifts with public opinion. The interest of a demographic shifts with new product lines. The importance of certain social networks waxes and wanes. Adapt and change. Follow the sales, follow your market and give them what they already want.
Interview the client and recover all existing multimedia and promotional materials.
Set solid sales oriented goals within a specific time frame for the social media campaign.
Do market research and discover where and how your market has conversations.
Identify keywords & Ideas associated with your brand (what the market talks about).
Identify which social networks best serve the campaign (the “what” and “where”).
Create an update timetable for each social network which you will later automate.
Register your social media accounts and fill them with your keywords.
Design your content flow, including how to automate and update.
Begin the Add-Unfollow cycle to create impressions through volume.
Begin posting to these social networks using keyword driven automated posts to issue a call to action.
Introduce organic posts for deeper engagement, still focus on a call to action.
Analyze your campaign and adjust your tactics to improve interactions. Repeat.
The Social Media Worksheet
Are you Ready for your Campaign? Fill this out before you start!
Preferred Person Social network (Where are you most active?):
Existing Social Network Links:
What is the product?
Describe the Client Voice:
Name Three Similar Products:
What Is the Sales Goal?
What Is the time line to meet this goal?
Describe the potential customer and what social network they meet on:
5 Keywords:
5 Key Phrases:
150 Chacater Bio:
300 Word Bio:
Now, with the data you collected register a Twitter Account and a Facebook fanpage. Use a single name and aesthetic when tweaking the appearance of and avatars for these and all social media accounts. Sign up for a maximum of four social media networks (blogs are included) based on where the customers converse.
Social Media Universal Identity:
List of your networks for this campaign (4 max):
Create a daily post schedule for automated posts, include an equal mix of informational and engaging posts, each with a link to the client's product or service. Use your keywords and phrases to attract and satisfy the potential customer. Craft a simple call to action for each post. Automate this post schedule for the next two weeks. Try to post at least six times to twitter a day, twice a week on facebook and once a week for blogs.
One example informational post:
One example engagement post:
The Call To Action for the product:
Daily Post Schedule for Twitter:
Daily Post Schedule for Facebook:
Daily Post Schedule for Network1:
Daily Post Schedule for Network1:
Before you make your first posts- Have you checked your Content Flow?
Use automated software to being the Add-Unfollow cycle while maintaining your post schedule.
Schedule time daily to provide organic feedback to messages on your social networks.
Run the Add-Unfollow Cycle once every two days for two weeks.
After two weeks check your analytics and metrics and redo your keyword and key phrase research. Abandon tactics which are not showing growth and focus more on those which are. Continue the add-Unfollow cycle while crafting new posts and calls to action.