social media: creating your path to success in 2015

Path to Social Media

Success in 2015

Your 12-month Plan to Boost Your Social Presence

Homer Nievera

To reach a huge goal, break it down to less intimidating goals.

Divide your plans quarterly

Then list your Big Ideas for each month to reach

your annual goal.

Q1: Take social media

inventory

January

Social Fitness

January: Knowing Your Social Fitness

• Are you entirely new to social media?• Are you a veteran?• What social sites are you using and how?• How would I rate my company’s use of social

media?• Where are there opportunities to grow or

improve your social media presence?• In what areas do you excel at using social media

in your business?

February

Revisiting Social Goals

Revisit why you are using social media and evaluate its importance

in your business.

Revisit your Social Goals

• Better customer engagement: % • Revenue generation: %• Better customer experience: %• Increase thought leadership: %• Operational efficiency: %• Other/s: %

Benchmark Social Goals

• Better customer engagement: 78%• Revenue generation: 51%• Better customer experience: 47%• Increase thought leadership: 41%• Operational efficiency: 14%• Other/s: 10%

*Source: 2012 Intuit Study

Establish Ways to Measure Success

March

Establishing success metrics in advance is important for evaluating

social media efforts.

Ways to Measure Success

• Social presence: Number of followers or fans• Traffic to website: Google/Alexa• Social mentions across platforms: hashtags,

tags, comments• Share of social conversations: versus

competition or the industry• Social influence

3 Free Social Listening Tools

HowSociable measures a brand’s presence across social media.

HowSociable measures a brand’s presence across social sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn — up to 36 in all — and computes a numerical score to quantify it.

Social Mention aggregates results into a single stream.

Social Mention is a free social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user-generated content from across the web into a single information stream.

Not only does it pull content in real-time, Social Mention analyzes the data to reveal metrics such as reach, sentiment, and share of voice. 

WhosTalkin is useful for getting a snapshot of conversations.

WhosTalkin is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations based on topics. While not as full-featured as the sites listed above, it can be used to get a snapshot of conversations taking place across the social web at a given time.

Q2: Work on relationships

April

Be a better listener

Devote more time to listening in.

Social media isn’t just about outbound communications.

Be a Social Listener

• 79% of social media marketers say they monitor social media for mentions of their business several times a week.

• 73% of social media marketers say they monitor social media for industry conversations several times a week.

Communicate in New Ways

May

Diversify your content

Some Suggestions

• Post company updates• Share industry news and developments• Ask questions• Hold contests• Put out shareable coupons or giveaways

June

Activate your digital brand

Find ways to connect with your online audience with offline

activities

Some Suggestions

• Selfie-Fansign Contest• Raffle off event tickets (you’re a sponsor)• Invite followers/fans for a Plant Tour or Store

Visit and they get goodies• Organize a Grand Meet-up

Q3: Integrate everything

Integrate all your social platforms

July

Don’t do it alone. Use social media management

apps like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Seesmic.

Integrate with Facebook such as Twitter and Instagram.

August

Integrate other inbound activities

Make your social platforms do their double-duty with other

marketing efforts

Some Suggestions

• Direct followers/fans to join email lists• Ask followers/fans to refer your business to

others• Build your customer profile with information

from your followers/fans• Boost PR efforts by reaching out to journalists

on social sites

Integrate team members

SEPTEMBER

Socially mature enterprises incorporate more people in the company’s social media efforts.

If resources allow, consider training more members to assist.

Some People Who Assist from Socially Mature

Businesses

• 1 to 3 people: 26%• 4 to 5 people: 23%• 6 to 10 people: 22%• 11 + people: 30%

*Source: 2012 Intuit Study

Q4: Look back then forward

October

Don’t be discouraged by challenges

Many businesses face the same challenges you do.

Stay up-to-date with available tools and trends.

Challenges Faced by Social Media Marketers

• 57% have difficulty measuring ROI• 44% are challenged in managing and growing

social presence• 34% find it hard to monitor social media as a

whole

*Source: 2012 Awareness Networks Survey of 450+ Social Media Marketers

Learn from the Year-in-Review

November

Take some time to review your year in Social Media, then establish

ways to check-in regularly to identify social media successes, challenges, and opportunities.

Some Options

• Monthly or quarterly meetings• An internal discussion board• Discussion groups with other industry

colleagues

December

Look to the Future

Plan ahead for the coming year, outlining areas for improvement and places to invest time and resources.

Top Areas for Investment66% - increased presence across social media platforms56% - increased frequency of content publishing50% - better social integration with other marketing objectives38% - more robust social media monitoring37% - more robust social marketing management35% - better integration between social marketing and the rest of the organization28% - mobile social media presence

*Source: 2012 Awareness Networks Survey of 450+ social media marketers

Websitewww.homernievera.com

www.bootstrapdigitech.com

Emailask@homernievera.com

homer@bootstrapdigitech.com

Twitter @bnievera | @nievera