content marketing workshop: how to make social media a useful business tool
TRANSCRIPT
Content Marketing Workshop: How to make social media a useful business tool
Presented by Marie Wiese, Ashley Mayhew and Carleigh Sisson
Welcome: Agenda
• Why bother?
• Choosing the right channel and voice
• B2B social media case study
• Developing an All-Star LinkedIn profile/company page
• Social media advertising for B2B companies
• Wrap up and open discussion
You are what you post!
Confession Time
I hate social media.
It frustrates me
It makes me uncomfortable
It feel like a waste of time
I am no different than most small business owners.
Is social media a useful business tool or a waste of time?
• Canada ranks in the top 3 countries around the world in online engagement
• We also lead in social networking engagement
• 40% of Canada embraced Facebook or Twitter at the end of 2010
• 50% of Canada embraced Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by the end of 2012
Useful tool?
• 20 million people in the country expected to access social networks at least monthly this year
• 7 in 10 internet users, or 56.7% of the total population, will use social networks this year
• By 2018 those penetration rates will rise slightly to 70.6% and 59.9%, respectively
Canada vs US
• Penetration rates put Canada right in line with the US, where 55.9% of the population will use social networks this year.
• The vast majority of social network users in Canada are on Facebook. That translates to just over half the population using the social network monthly.
• Growth for the Twitter audience in Canada is still in the double digits
• 1/3 of social network users in Canada will use Twitter this year representing a 25% of Canada’s total population
• Twitter is more popular in Canada than in the US where 16.4% of the population use Twitter
The reach of social media
• Facebook has 19M Canadian users
• Twitter has 8.5M Canadian users
• LinkedIn has 7M Canadian users
– Visitors earn $75K or more
– Most active sectors: finance, manufacturing, high tech
– Most active cities: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa
Positive things about social media…
• It has reach and daily use
• It makes us think about our message/content
• It makes us think about search terms
• It blurs the line between company and individual
Company versus Customer
• Customers are not targets; they are people who are interested in solving their own problem
• People use social media not “companies”
• Social media business use has to been seen as a people tool, not a corporate broadcast channel.
The purpose of social media as part of a digital dialogue.
Unless your organization can survive in a commoditized procurement state, you MUST create a digital dialogue with your customers so you can engage them at the top of the sales funnel.
Trust is the cornerstone of any dialogue offline or online.
Common Mistakes
1. Social media can not be the main KPI for content marketing
2. Social clouds our judgment of good and bad content
3. Just because it takes 5 minutes to open a Twitter account does not mean we are good at it
4. We misunderstand the phrase “interaction”: a “like”, a “tweet” or a “share” is an action, not an interaction
5. If it’s not part of the your sales process then it’s noise
6. It needs to lead to a physical and measurable response
The difference between social content and sales content
Article #1:
Myths about marketing automation you need to know
Article #2:
Hubspot vs Infusionsoft: Which is the best marketing automation software
Which performed better? Get the answer here:http://www.thesaleslion.com/social-media-effect-content-marketing/
Before you open ANY account…
1. Set a clear goal
2. Choose the right voice
3. Choose the right channel and understand it
4. Track the results
Set a clear goal
• Most business owners think they should be on social media but don’t have a clear goal or target in mind
• FOCUS – not every channel is right for every business. Be brave and pick one
Choose the right voice
• Understand how your industry is using social media
• Understand the types of questions, groups and topics involved and their “tone”
• Without a clear value proposition and sense of customer, you can’t choose content or tone properly
• Decide if you are technical, helpful, thought leaders, etc.
Choose the right channel
• Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram are consumer channels
• LinkedIn, Google+, SlideShare are business channels
• Twitter, YouTube are both
Best practices
• Produce customer-centric content first, then decide where it needs to be shared
• Social is great for SEO and testing content
• Don’t let social media hinder what needs to be said
• Produce content your sales team needs today and resist the urge to be “liked” – Tweets don’t pay the bills
ASHLEY MAYHEW
Social Media Coordinator - Employee Experience, TD Bank Group
Leveraging LinkedIn to expand and support your online brand
Building your social profile, presence and professional network.
Today's Objectives
23
LinkedIn-The Basics
Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile
Building Your LinkedIn Presence
Building Your LinkedIn Business Presence
Anything else you want to chat about!
Social media is
now the #1 activity online.
LinkedIn 101
• 313M+ Members worldwide
• 2 new members per second
• 66% of members are outside of U.S
• 39 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn - fastest-growing demographic
LinkedIn as part of your digital strategy
• Promote your Customer Brand: Value Add (Products and Services)– General brand awareness
– Virtual relationship building and nurturing
– Add Value
– Drive website traffic
– Your story and value add for customers
– Thought Leadership/Industry Influencer
• Promote your Employee Brand (Why work for us/with me)– Recruitment
– Partnerships
– Retention
Steps to an All-Star Profile
1. Get serious about your photo.
2. Professional names only.
3. Professional Headline branding is critical & support it in your summary.
4. Optimize your location.
5. Align to your industry.
6. Customize your profile URL.
7. Your Activity will show your latest status update.
8. Think keyword optimization.
9. Build credible recommendations.
10. Build your online network from real relationships.
11. Manage your endorsements.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer
rather than http://www.linkedin.com/pub/neal-schaffer/4a/z89/145/
3 Critical questions to ask yourself - Before hitting Refresh on your Profile
1. What makes me great?• Brands are built around superlatives. W has the hippest
hotels. Volvo builds the safest cars. Apple is the most innovative. Paris is the world’s most romantic city.
2. What makes me unique?• Your expertise in a niche area
• Personality characteristic
3. What makes me compelling?• Who needs to know you? Who is making decisions
about you? Who can benefit from your services?
• Personal branding is not about being famous. It’s about being selectively famous.
Source: Forbes
How to leverage LinkedIn to strengthen your presence-
LinkedIn Profiles
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23
4
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1. Build your personal brand –Build your social network, search for people here to add
2. Explore people you may know-review the suggested connections and add people you may not have thought to connect with yet
3. Post Status updates- make yourself visible to your connections, provide interesting/relevant content
4. Join Groups- become an active member by participating in discussions and posting relevant content
5. Use Pulse News- to stay in the know and provide opportunity to easily share articles with your network
6. Engage with content- build and maintain relationships with your connections by engaging in conversations (liking, sharing and commenting)
Building Your LinkedIn Business Presence - Company Pages
1. Showcase your brand and tell your story
2. Share rich, relevant content through status updates
3. Engage with followers Leverage robust targeting capabilities
4. Measure your results through the built in engagement analytics dashboard
5. Be searchable by LinkedIn members (make sure you optimize your page content)
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CARLEIGH SISSON
Digital Marketing Manager, Marketing CoPilot
Social Media Advertising for B2B Companies
Twitter Promoted Tweets
LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
What is Paid Social Media?
• Similar to pay-per-click advertising but much less expensive
• Pay for people to engage with your social media posts
• Can target based on a variety of parameters – keywords, geography, job title, industry
Where there are people, there are opportunities.
Promoted Tweets on Twitter
• Target to search results (such as specific hashtag) or to specific users (your followers, or users like your followers).
• Shows up in the user’s search results or timeline as a Promoted Tweet
• You pay only when someone clicks, retweets, replies to, or favorites our tweet.
Why?
• Drive people off Twitter to a specific landing page of your choice
• Target based on keywords and interests
• Cheaper then Google AdWords for similar results
• Build your audience and brand awareness
Example: @mcopilot
• Campaign: 2015 Content Marketing Workshop Series
• Timeline: January 20 – Feb 6 (17 days)
• Budget: $100.00
• Parameters:
– Website clicks or conversions
– 1 location, Toronto
– 22 keywords, all based on content marketing, workshops, Toronto
– 4 tweets manually selected
Results: Promoted Tweets
• 44.2K impressions
• 223 total engagements
• $98.20 spent of budget
• 206 clicks on link
• 6 retweets
• 1 reply
• 10 new followers
Interpreting Results
• Increased followers and brand awareness
• 200+ new visits to website
• Audience was interested in content
• Great test on a small budget
• Did not drive sales
Sponsored LinkedIn Updates
• Choose specific target audience by location, company size, industry, job title, etc.
• Appears on audiences home feed as a promoted update.
• You pay only when someone clicks, comments, shares, or follows.
Why?
• Amazing ability to target your ideal buyer simply by choosing their job title, industry, company size, etc.
• Promote your business solution in a business setting
• Fairly new space with small competition… for now
• More cost-effective than other PPC alternatives
• Grow following and strengthen brand reputation
Example: Marketing CoPilot Company Page
• Campaign: 2015 Content Marketing Workshop Series
• Timeline: January 19 – Feb 3 (15 days)
• Budget: $100.00
• Parameters:
– Optimize click through rate
– 1 location: Toronto
– Industry: technology, professional services, manufacturing
– Job function: sales and marketing
– Seniority: all
Results: Sponsored Update
• 19.9K impressions
• 20 clicks
• 0.1% click through rate
• 3 social actions (likes, shares, comments)
• 1 new follower
• $102.73 spent of budget
Interpreting Results
• 19K new people in our target audience saw the post
• 20 people clicked through on content
• Great test on a small budget
• Achieved one sale
Is paid social media right for you?
Depends on your goal:
• Yes if your goal is brand awareness and building afollowing
• Yes if you have a specific target in mind
• Yes if you want to test something
• Yes if you have a small budget to test
• No if you only do it once and expect sales results
Key Success Factors
• Defining your purpose
• Identify resources to maintain
• Set budget to test
• Maintain inventory of social media assets
• Have a physical and measurable response to drive people to and track it
The power of using social media for your business…
1. It can be very powerful as part of a content plan and digital strategy
2. If you choose the right channel, it can help your sales process
3. If you give yourself 12 months to test you will see results
4. If you “share, listen, test and find your voice”, you will get results
QUESTIONS?
Let’s connect
Marie Wiese
@mariewiese
linkedin.com/in/marketingcopilot
Ashley Mayhew
@AshleyMayhew_TD
linkedin.com/in/ashleymayhew
Carleigh Sisson
@_carleighann
linkedin.com/in/carleighsisson
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About us
Since 2003, Marketing CoPilot has been providing small and medium-sized businesses with digital marketing strategies that produce measurable business results. Marketing CoPilot integrates deep technical and creative capabilities with a proven methodology to help organizations turn their websites into powerful lead generation and lead nurturing tools.
100% of the companies that implement the Marketing CoPilot Content Marketing Program have reduced the cost of lead acquisition and increased revenue.
Marketing CoPilot Inc is a registered trademark in Canada. Copy right @2014. Not to be reproduced or reused without full attribution.
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