social media 101: an integrated approach

Social Media 101Overview of current social media landscape and how to reap the rewards of an emerging digital marketing trend.

Prepared by Jonathan Berthold

What is Social Media?

Organizing Your Social Media Strategy

Social Media Networks

Social Media Tools

Social Media Resources

A Blog can be the source from which you publish valuable content and share to social sites – think of blogs + social media sites as a spoke-and-wheel.

“Forms of electronic communication (as web sites for social networking and micro-blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”~Merriam Webster

“Social Media is digital content and interaction that is created by and between people”~Sam Decker, Mass Relevance

Regardless of traditional definitions, the most important aspect of social media is that it can create career opportunities and help establish an online presence for your brand.

Sources:

Merriam Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media

Sam Decker http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media

Network with people within your niche

Help you develop your online brand and increase exposure

Build active communities and jumpstart viral campaigns

Target niche audiences via advertising platforms

Build profiles in multiple channels and unique landing pages

About.me is a great resource

About.Me Example

What are your goals?

Who is your target audience?

Which metrics decide the success of a campaign?

Which social channels are most appropriate?

Brand yourself as an expert and establish credibility

Educate and inspire your audience

Be honest and true to yourself

Create “ripples” and make a lasting impression

Become an influential member within your network

Blogging Platforms

Position yourself as an expert in your field by producing fresh content

Create a central platform for your online brand – connect all social media profiles

Build an interactive community by encouraging users to subscribe and comment

Easy to setup with WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr

Publish content directly to Twitter and setup a live Twitter stream on you blog via widgets (custom Blogger and WordPress blogs can set this up easily)

Facebook

There are over one billion monthly active users, of which 669 million are active on a daily basis

Great social networking site for community building and contests

Employers actively inspect potential candidates’ Facebook profiles

Sophisticated advertising platform can help you increase exposure via promoted products and regular display advertising

Can engage audience with contests and promotionsSources:

Facebook Investor: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=780093

Display Advertising

Regular display ads on the right side or through the new feed –can be used for retargeting (through Adroll and soon, Facebook) or driving traffic to external landing pages.

Promoted Page Advertising

Cost-effective method of building up a targeted audience.

Promoted Post Advertising

Generate exposure for content & offers via extensive targeting platform.

Facebook Example: Oreo

Twitter

Over 500 million registered users: over 200 million users are active on a monthly basis

Cross-posting can be enabled from most popular social sites

Easy-to-use microblogging technology makes it easy to publish content and build a following

Trending topics/hashtags (#) originated on Twitter and provide ample opportunities to increase a brand’s visibility

Can leverage Twitter’s self-serve advertising platform to increase exposureSources:

Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-total-users-active-and-registered-2013-9

For larger campaigns, you can leverage the viral power of Twitter’s promoted advertising products to increase brand awareness

Twitter’s Advertising includes:

Promoted Individual Tweets

Promoted Individual Accounts

Promoted Trends ($$$$$)

Although it is defined as “paid media”, Twitter ads are less obtrusive, more organic, and do not take away from user experience compared to other forms of advertising

Append Hashtags to your tweets to improve the visibility of your content

Don’t overdo hashtags though –

integrate them seamlessly within 140 character content on Twitter

Use consistent hashtags across all networks

*Don’t join the wrong conversation – use hashtags strategically

Twitter Example: Oreo

Other Social Media Sites

LinkedIn currently has 238 million registered members across the globe

Known as the world’s largest B2B social networking site

Its platform provides opportunities for both job seekers and job posters to find employment and candidates respectively

Company and group pages provide ample opportunities for networking

LinkedIn Ads continues to evolve and provides ample targeting opportunitiesSources:

LinkedIn: http://press.linkedin.com/about

Regular Display Advertising These ads appear on the right side of the site and allow brands to target niche

audiences

Sponsored Updates Similar to Facebook’s Promoted Post advertising

Ad Targeting: you can target users based on: Location

Industry

Job Function or Job Title

Demographics

Groups

LinkedIn Personal Profile

LinkedIn Company Page

World’s second largest social media site with over 359 million active members

Google+ profiles can be synchronized with YouTube, Gmail, and other Google products

Communities and branded pages offer opportunities for increased exposure

Connecting Google+ profiles to blogs (Google+ Authorship) can help boost click-through rates for blogs posts

Sources:

Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-plus-is-outpacing-twitter-2013-5

Google+ Business Page

The photo-sharing site reached 70 million members in June 2013, of which 20 million are active

Important social platform for e-commerce sites: users are more engaged on Pinterest than Facebook

Highly visual images and interesting videos can go viral

Use of hashtags and pertinent keywords can increase visibility of visual content

“Rich Pins” and future Promoted Pin advertising add creativity to platformSources:

Read Write: http://readwrite.com/2013/04/17/social-networking-for-marketers-pinterest-crushes-facebook-infographic#awesm=~oj9cQes48qRSWN

Pinterest Example: Oreo

Instagram has over 150 million monthly active users

It has become popular for the photo editing features available within the application, pushing Twitter, Facebook, and other companies to follow suit

Simplistic photo sharing ability allows users to upload images easily and ubiquitously

Photos can be shared to other social networks

New Instagram ad platform provides opportunities for increased brand exposureSources:

Mashable: http://mashable.com/2013/09/08/instagram-150-million-monthly-active-users/

Instagram Example

Instagram Example

YouTube is the world’s largest video sharing site, with more than 1 billion unique visits each month

It is a more popular search engine than either Bing or Yahoo

Many brands have leveraged YouTube effectively to jump-start their marketing activities and increase brand exposure

YouTube ads allow channel owners to monetize traffic and brands to generate more exposure

YouTube’s interface makes it easy to upload and share videos to other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.Sources:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

The video generated 4.75 Million Views in the first three months

12,000 people signed up within the first 48 hours of the debut on YouTube The site crashed within 3 hours due to the amount of orders

Production costs totalled $4,500

$9.8 million secured by investors in November 2012

Source:

Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224282#

Source:

Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224282#

YouTube Success Story

40 Million registered users

Most downloaded app back in April 2013 in the Apple store

Used by brands such as McDonalds, GE, Virgin Mobile, Microsoft

5 Tweets per second contain a link to Vine

Top industries are fashion, sports, automotive, technology, and printSources:

Digital Buzz Blog http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-vine-the-facts/

The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/20/4641980/vine-hits-40-million-registered-users-but-how-many-are-active

Social Media Resources

There are a variety of tools that can be used for both reporting and content publishing, such as:

HootSuite: https://hootsuite.com

Radian6: http://salesforcemarketingcloud.com

SocialReport: http://socialreport.com

Sprout Social: http://sproutsocial.com

Wildfire: http://wildfireapp.com

The following platforms can be used to manage contests and community building activities:

Offerpop: http://offerpop.com

WooBox: http://woobox.com

GroupAd: http://groupad.com

Extole: http://extole.com

ViralNinjas: http://viralninjas.com

Referral Candy: http://referralcandy.com

Blogging can be the central platform from which you launch your social media marketing strategy

Leverage the popularity of the biggest networks and integrate them within your social marketing

Networking is significant to get introduced to a wealth of career opportunities

Your social media content needs to be both authentic and unique

Refrain from posting content that can damage your online brand

Mashable: http://mashable.com/social-media/

Social Media Today: http://socialmediatoday.com/

Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

Jeff Bullas: http://www.jeffbullas.com/

Search Engine Watch: http://searchenginewatch.com/

Marketing Land: http://marketingland.com/library/channel/social-media-marketing

Tech Crunch: http://techcrunch.com/social/

Advanced Social Media Marketing, Tom Funk

Audience: Makreitngs in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers, Jeffrey K. Rohrs

Jab, Hab, Hab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World, Gary Vaynerychuk

Jonathan Berthold

Email: jonberthold@gmail.com

LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/in/jonathanberthold/

Blog: http://jbertho.com/