How to Become a Social Media Superstar

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to get set up on social media accounts, engage potential customers, drive web- ... lar social media channels that market
HOW TO BECOME A

We all know that we need to be on social media.

IN FACT, A RECENT REPORT FROM Social Media Examiner found that 64% of marketers saw an increase in website traffic after spending six hours per week managing their social media accounts. But, who has the time, right? Don’t worry, you can do it, and in this ebook you’ll find everything you need to get set up on social media accounts, engage potential customers, drive website traffic and earn the trust of your target audience. Even better, you’ll find the tips and shortcuts you need to do so quickly and effectively. But before we jump in, let’s consider your objectives. What do you ultimately hope to gain by establishing a presence on social media and taking the time to create engaging content to share with key audiences? Whether you want to grow your list of email subscribers, send prospects to your website or convert followers into customers, all of that can be done with the right social media mix.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EBOOK This ebook homes in on Facebook and Twitter, two of the largest and most popular social media channels that marketers are using to attract and engage customers, as well as drive sales and brand awareness. Get ready to learn how to blend organic content and paid ads to create a solid social media strategy, as well as set ad budgets and analyze the results of your campaigns. While Facebook and Twitter are the focus of this ebook, everything you learn here can be applied to other social channels, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. At the highest level, social media is all about connecting with interesting, engaging and share-worthy content, and if you do it right, you and your business will be rewarded. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s go!

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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Facebook

More than half of marketers consider Facebook to be the most important social media channel for their business. Unfortunately, most marketers aren’t really sure their efforts on Facebook are effective. Maybe it’s because organic reach is at an all-time low. A recent Ogilvy & Mather report found that just 6% of your fans on Facebook may ever see your posts. Organically, that is. With this in mind, an ad spend on Facebook must be a part of your marketing mix. Fortunately, it can be quite effective to get your messages in front of a super-targeted audience on Facebook, but first let’s get a presence set up on this social channel.

SETTING UP YOUR BRAND PAGE If you haven’t yet set up your brand page on Facebook, do it today, like right now. This is where you showcase your brand, who you are, what your voice is and what you can do for your followers. It’s an extension of you and your business. Follow these five steps and you’ll be set up in less than 30 minutes.

➊ Add a Rockin' Cover Photo. The image that sits above your company profile is your cover photo. Don’t waste this space with a photo or design that doesn’t speak to what your business does. Make sure the name of your business and your business branding are front and center within the 851x315 space that you have to use. Try to update your cover photo every four to six weeks to freshen up your page. For inspiration, look to the changing seasons, upcoming events (e.g., Thanksgiving, Super Bowl) or new product offerings. Don’t be afraid to use arrows to draw visitors to click on the like or call-to-action buttons. PicMonkey and Canva are great design resources to help you create perfect cover photos.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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➋ Don't Forget a Profile Image. The profile image sits in the lower left-hand corner above your company profile. It’s a 180x180 spot that is ideal for a company logo or an image that visitors can easily identify with your business. Due to the small size, the image should contain little or no text.

➌ Tell Visitors Who You Are. The About tab of your Facebook brand page allows you to share with fans and visitors the details of your business, like your address, phone number and website URL. You can also include any awards here, as well as an email address.

➍ Add a Call to Action. A customizable Call-to-Action button sits in the lower right-hand corner of your cover photo. It’s easy to add a button to encourage visitors to take a specific action, such as “Sign Up” to grow newsletter subscriptions or “Book Now” to set up an appointment or make a reservation.

➎ Use Your Timeline to Engage. The timeline is where you post status updates, like photos, videos and links to interesting articles. Now that your page is all set up, you’re ready to engage with visitors by asking questions, sharing advice and infographics, and being entertaining. What you share on your timeline can complement and bolster paid efforts to reach a larger audience on Facebook.

ENGAGING WITH KEY AUDIENCES ➊ Share Content Consistently. When it comes to sharing content on Facebook, consistency is key and is integral to building up and keeping an audience. Aim for at least one or two posts a day. Beef up post frequency as time allows, but remember to make your posts as interesting and engaging as you can.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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➋ Share a Mixture of Content. Share content that educates and entertains, as well as content that advertises and helps to develop leads. Consider the 80/20 rule—80% of content should engage, inform and inspire, while 20% should encourage users to take action whether to book a reservation or purchase a product from your business. As you create your content, think about what your followers would like to share (which then promotes you and your Facebook page when they do share). What content would you share? How would the status update be worded? Think about fun infographics, quotes, links to other articles, anything you believe your followers would want to share with their friends and family.

➌ Use Engagement Drivers. When composing status updates, don’t forget about engagement drivers. Beyond text and links, share compelling video and images. Look for content that’s the right mix of fun and business to entertain and delight your audience so they want to interact with your updates by liking, commenting and sharing.

ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOK You can no longer rely on reaching your audience organically with witty posts and quirky infographics. It’s a must to layer on a paid advertising campaign in order to reach a bigger chunk of your target audience. That’s just the way it is, but don’t get scared. It’s easier than you think to set up your first campaign. Facebook offers several paid solutions to meet the marketing needs of businesses. A great place to begin is with newsfeed ads for both desktop and mobile users. These ads appear as “sponsored” posts in a Facebook user’s timeline alongside other status updates. They look just like organic updates only they feature calls to action, like “Like Page” and “Sign Up.” There are several different types of ads on Facebook, including:

➤ Page Likes Ads For first-time advertisers, look to a Page Likes Ad. The goal of this type of ad is self-explanatory. It helps to grow your fan base on Facebook. To be viewed as a credible brand, a solid fan base (at least 500 to 1,000 fans) is necessary to establish trust in your business.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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It’s easy to target ideal fans that you can later message with organic content. Facebook’s robust targeting capabilities enable you to home in on those who are fans of competitors or related businesses, those with certain income thresholds, even those who are homeowners, iPhone users or parents of small children. If you already have an email or phone list of customers or leads, Facebook can match email addresses and phone numbers to Facebook IDs to target these prospects with ads encouraging them to like your page. Even better, by adding a Facebook-generated pixel to your website, anyone that visits your business website can be retargeted with ads on Facebook. Another idea: create a Lookalike Audience. Build an audience within Facebook’s Ads Manager tool that looks on screen like your current base of customers. Then, run an ad campaign to target them with a Page Likes Ad. With Facebook, you pay for ads on a cost-per-click basis, so you don’t want to get too broad with your ad campaign. As a general rule of thumb, plan to spend $.50 to $1 per newly-acquired Facebook fan.

➤ Page Post Engagement Ads Once you feel comfortable with Page Likes Ads, the second type of ad to get comfortable with is the Page Post Engagement Ad. This ad product allows you to give content you’ve added to your timeline extra juice to reach a larger audience on Facebook. Start by boosting posts that are already getting noticed by your followers. That’s a pretty good indication that the post may do well with an audience beyond those you were able to reach organically. It’s best to first target friends of people who like your page and those who share the interests of your target audience. A Page Post Engagement Ad is a great paid tool to use when you want to get more eyeballs on a contest you are running or an event you have scheduled. It’s also good when you want to share a coupon, for example, with a local audience beyond your current base of followers. Since organic reach is so low, use this type of ad to reach a greater share of your own followers, as well as relevant nonfollowers.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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CREATING YOUR FACEBOOK ADS There are a few general rules when it comes to creating ads on Facebook.

1. Use high-quality images. (Facebook has a library of stock images you can use for free). 2. Make sure the call to action is crystal clear whether you want to encourage a visit to your website or a sign-up for an upcoming webinar. 3. Make a connection. Your copy and imagery should engage Facebook users.

Objectives When creating your ads, you’ll first be asked about the objective of your campaign. Two of the most popular objectives are “send people to your website” and “increase conversions on your website.” For the former, drive traffic to the best performing page on your website. For the latter, pick a page on your website that encourages users to take some type of lead-generating action, like filling out a contact form.

Campaigns It’s optimal to run more than one campaign and mix up the content every week or two. A/B testing is also a good idea, running two different ads during a given time period to determine which option produces better results. Experiment with running ads on different days and times and choose very different images when ad testing. This alone can make a huge difference in engagement and clicks.

Your Budget For each type of ad, start slow and set a budget of $5 per ad type, per day. After a few days, review the analytics to see if the campaign is going in the right direction, whether any tweaks should be made and whether you’re ready to jump to the next level of ad spending to meet your overall campaign objectives.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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Twitter

With more than 50 million active users in the U.S. alone, Twitter is a social media platform to take seriously. Critical to the marketing mix, there are a number of ways to use Twitter to engage with fans, prospects and influencers as you grow awareness of your business.

SETTING UP YOUR PROFILE PAGE ➊ Choose Your Handle.

Start with a good Twitter handle. One that matches or closely correlates with the name of your business is best. Similar to the cover photo on Facebook, a good background image is a must to convey who you are, what you do and what you have to offer followers (and make sure it’s size is 1500x500 pixels).

➋ Set a Profile Photo. Use the same profile photo you use on Facebook in your Twitter profile to maintain consistency across your social networks (note that profile photos on Twitter should be 400x400 pixels). You’ll also want to create a short profile that describes your business.

➌ Craft Engaging Tweets. The next step is to get out there and start crafting engaging tweets. Similar to content you create for Facebook, your tweets should be a mix that ranges from entertaining to educational to informative with a handful of promotional tweets here and there that drive followers to take action, like visit your website.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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ENGAGING WITH KEY AUDIENCES ➊ Tweet Frequently and Use Hashtags. As you begin to craft tweets, try to tweet between 5-8 times daily and get hip to hashtags, which are used to identify tweets by topic and can help you get discovered on Twitter. Experiment with different hashtags that relate to your business. Use the free analytics tool within Twitter to see which tweets and hashtags resonate the best with desirable users on Twitter.

➋ Use Photos and Videos. Keep in mind that compelling photos and videos are a must to help your tweets pop amongst all the other tweets that show up in a user’s Twitter feed. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than those without images, so add images and videos where you can. You want to stand out, not get lost in the crowd.

➌ Leverage Twitter Search. Once you get into a groove on Twitter, use Twitter Search to seek out those eager for what you have to offer. For example, a travel agency may want to search for hashtags related to specific destinations or types of vacations (e.g., #Aruba, #familytravel, etc.). Then, engage with those users. It’s that simple.

➍ Seek Out Followers. Want more followers? Start following. Check out who other like-minded people and business are following, then follow their followers. Also, get involved with relevant Twitter Chats to position your business as a go-to resource in your space. Search for Twitter Chats by topic here.

➎ Focus on Quantity and Quality. And of course, tweet often and share consistently good content. While tweeting 5-8 times a day is an ideal starting point, it’s okay to tweet more often, but only if you are able to create well-crafted tweets with relevant hashtags. There’s no point in tweeting just to tweet.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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ADVERTISING ON TWITTER Just like Facebook, Twitter enables businesses to target and tweet ads to targeted users. When you craft an ad, it’s easy to set the tweet to go only to those in select geographic locations, those who follow competitors or those who have used certain keywords in their tweets or in their personal profiles. Even better, you can upload an email subscriber list for Twitter to cross-reference that list with associated Twitter handles. This will enable you to more easily get in front of current or former customers on Twitter. You can also add a pixel (which Twitter refers to as a “website tag”) to your website in order to retarget those who visit your website with your messaging when they are on Twitter. There are several different types of ads on Twitter, including:

➤ Promoted Tweets Promoted Tweets look like regular tweets, but they are targeted to the specific audience you have selected and sit atop a user’s Twitter feed. You pay when users click on the links in the tweets.

➤ Promoted Accounts For those who want to use Twitter Ads to gain followers, one option is Promoted Accounts. With this type of ad, your Twitter username will appear on a “Who to Follow” list in the upper-right hand corner of the page if your profile matches up with topics searched for by Twitter users.

➤ Twitter Cards In addition to Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, Twitter offers ads called Twitter Cards. These cards are designed to stand out from other tweets on Twitter. Two of the most popular Twitter Cards are Website Cards and Lead Generation Cards:

Website Cards Website Cards drive users to take action, whether to visit your website or sign up for your newsletter. They generally feature an image (800x320 pixels), a short bit of text, a link to your website and a call-to-action button, such as “Visit Now,”“Subscribe,” or “Donate.”

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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Website cards are another way to get in front of your target audience. When the user clicks on the Website Card he or she is taken to the page of your choice. This is a great way to drive traffic back to your website, but is not generally used to grow your follower base.

Lead Generation Cards Lead Generation Cards enable you to get a user’s information (that they’ve provided when they signed up with Twitter) without needing them to fill out a form. This tactic can be used when you want users to sign up for a free trial, enter a contest or subscribe to a newsletter. To boost the effectiveness of Lead Generation Cards, re-tweet them and also pin them to the top of the Twitter feed on your profile. This way, it will be the first thing visitors see when they come to your page. Regardless of the Twitter Ads you choose, you’ll want to experiment with different images, voice, content and language for your call to action to see what resonates best among target audiences. Review Twitter Analytics regularly to see what’s working well, what can be tweaked and what can be boosted.

What About Other Social Platforms? New social platforms seems to pop up every day, but it can be a real challenge to keep up with posting to them all. For this reason, starting with Facebook and Twitter is a smart idea in order to make the most of your early efforts on social media (and even beyond this ebook there’s much more that you can do on these two platforms to build your brand and drive growth). So for now, let’s rock out on these two communities. Don’t worry, in future ebooks and articles, we’ll help you make the most of your time on all those other social platforms, like LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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5 Must-Know Time-Saving Social Media Tips & Tricks Here are five tips and tricks to help you save time as you maximize social media efforts for your business.

➊ Batch Your Social Media Updates.

➍ Create Post Templates.

Think about different styles of social meCarve out a few hours one day a week to dia updates you can share, like “reader tips, write and schedule tweets and updates for “photo of the day” and “insider secrets.” the coming week. It takes far less time over Write out how you would word each type the course of the week when you can get of update and add these to your editorial into the zone and just write them out all at calendar so you have an even better idea of what you’re looking for when it comes once. It’s practically set it and forget it.   time to write social updates.

➋ Bookmark Go-To Resources.

Use an RSS Reader or simply bookmark in your web browser blogs and news websites that consistently have interesting, share-worthy content that you can quickly pick and choose from when it’s time to write out your social media updates. 

➌ Set Up an Editorial Calendar.

➎ Set Up Twitter Lists. Even if you don’t plan to use Twitter out of the gate, setting up Twitter Lists is a great way to compile content by influencers in your field, including news articles, infographics, even industry trends. You can use these lists to mine for ideas and posts worth sharing with your own followers.

Decide how many updates you want to share on Facebook and Twitter, then put together an editorial calendar listing out themes and topics for each day of the month. Having this calendar to refer to as you create your updates makes it a lot easier to get the creative juices flowing and craft engaging content.

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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About Social Bliss Social Bliss is a boutique social media marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses grow, drive sales and build brand awareness among key audiences through social media. We work with you to help you set social media goals, determine the best mix of social strategies for your business and succeed in reaching the right people with the right messages at the right time to help you grow your business. We can provide you with as much or as little support and guidance as you need to get you set up and succeeding on social media, including training and boot camps. If you like, we can also handle all the day-to-day management of social media so you can focus on the business of running your business. Give us a shout. We’re eager to learn more about you and how we can help you succeed.

Social Bliss 8 www.getsocialbliss.com 4  v t

(703) 728-2860 [email protected] /getsocialbliss @getsocialbliss

©2015 SOCIAL BLISS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. • HOW TO BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SUPERSTAR • ERIN GIFFORD

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