how to build a social media strategy... and why!
TRANSCRIPT
Presented/Narrated by: AJ Gerritson
“How to Build a Social Media Strategy… And Why!”
Who Is Our Presenter?AJ Gerritson
Founding Partner of 451 Marketing
Frequent Speaker (Regionally and Nationally)
12+ Years of Interactive Marketing, Digital PR, and Traditional Comm.
7% Who Is 451 Marketing?Founded in February, 2004
Located on School Street in Boston
A collaboration of 20 industry veterans committed to being best-of-breed social media, public relations, and creative specialists
Clients include Allstate, Westin Hotels, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Recently launched the MassItsAllHere.com website for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I never learned how to Tweet.
Coca-Cola has 3.6 million fans on
their Facebook Fan page.
Major corporations are using the tools to stay in touch with their vocal
customers.
Social NetworkingCollaborative Tools
YouTube, Flicker Blogs
300,000,000 users (that’s 300 million!)
10 million “fans” sign up to commercial
“brand pages” every day.
Perez Hilton
a.k.a. Mario Lavanderia
2004 Launched a celebrity gossip website
Average 24 - 45 posts per day
Earns $111,000 per month in ad sales alone.
Heather ArmstrongForbes Magazine - “Most Influential Women in Media” 2009
Made famous for her website www.dooce.com
National Advertisers
New research found that companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased
revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period.
Source - Wetpaint & Altimeter Group
GOAL: Employee Retention and Recruitment
TACTICS: Microblogs, Wikis, Podcasts
HELPED TO: Extend Communications, Deliver Trainings Globally,
Employee Engagement, Perform Jobs More Effectively
GOAL: Develop Customer Service-Centered
Brand
TACTICS: Twitter
HELPED TO: Deliver Swift Customer Service, Engage Customers,
Humanize Brand
Blog - $0Podcast - $0 and $2000
Video - $0 and $10,000 - $15,000 Wiki - about $6500 a year
Community - $0 (Ning) up to $100,000
The greater cost is staff and Content Creation to fill up the social media / new media channels.
How Long is Your Content Effective?
3, 6, 9 months?
1 minute, 1 day, 1 week?
Resources needed to run a campaign effectively
Reputation Management
Content Research
Technologist
ContentDevelopment
Strategist
Day to DayManagement
Practitioner ofSocial Media
CoordinationOf all corporateactivities
Measurement
Design Skills
Reasons for Failure
Lack of STRATEGY (understanding your customers, crafting relevant messaging, being consistent, monitoring, etc.)
Lack of internal resources to manage
• 10.5 million coupons were downloaded, only 4 million were redeemed
• #KFCFail became a trending topic on Twitter quickly
• Oprah and KFC’s brands damaged
• According to Zeta Interactive, when KFC pulled the promotion without explanation, negative ratings shot up to 33% from 11%.
When It Does Work
YouTube increased Blendtec’s sales by 800% in less than two years with their “Will it
Blend” videos.
Dell can directly track $3 million in sales from
using Twitter.
Building a Social Media Strategy
Step 1 – Define Goals and Objectives
• Generate more brand awareness?
• Help recruiting and retention?
• Monitor brand reputation?
• Increase sales?
Step 2 –Where is Your Audience?
• Where can I find my audience?
• Who and where are my evangelists?
• What sites are the most popular with these groups?
Step 3 – Audit Your Resources
• Content?
• Staff?
• Consistency?
• Technology?
• Tools?
Step 4 – Assign Roles and Responsibilities• Social Media Strategist: defines strategy• Social Media Manager: assists in defining the strategy as well as in executing it• Public Relations: interacts with bloggers, assumes blogging responsibilities• Social Media Metrics: measures social media, reports• Legal: ensures FTC laws are followed, provides guidance on user generated content on corporate domain• Privacy/Security: protects online corporate assets, privacy law enforcement• Customer Relations: responds to customer issues on the social web• Advertisement Sales: sells ad space within a social network or community• Content Developer: constantly creates relevant and timely content
Step 5 – Define Your Measures of Success
• How many sales/leads were generated?
• How many people are talking about your company?
• How have you reduced operational costs?
• How have you helped recruiting?
• How many downloads?
• How many people viewed a demo?
Step 6 – Establish a protocol1. What information do we want to keep private?
2. What kinds of information would we benefit from making public?
3. What personal social media use is appropriate? Inappropriate?
4. How will we measure which rules are helpful and which are not?
5. Who are our quality followers? How can we continually engage them?
6. How can we consistently send our messages?
7. Should we have a set of rules for proactive social media use? Reactive social media use?
8. How do we respond to positive engagement versus negative engagement?
Step 7 – Execute Strategy
Step 8 – Measure results• Have your networks grown or changed? How?• Are there new social media roles to explore?• What worked?• What didn’t work?• What can we do differently?• What should we eliminate?• What should we focus more on?• How much time is spent on each social media initiative?• What is our most valuable feedback?• How is social media changing right now?• Are we ahead of our competitors?
Campaign Goals
1. Find elusive candidates
2. Drive applicants through the website
3. Build better relationships
4. Create USP
Execution• Developed Strategy • Optimized Website• SEO/PR• Created Social
Communities(3 Blogs, 8 Twitter Feeds, 7 LinkedIn Groups)
• Trained Staff (Utilize Tools)
• Launched “Recruiting 2.0”
Results• 65% Increase in
monthly traffic from Google
• Pre-campaign 3,486 monthly visitors, last month 15,910
• LinkedIn Groups have become a tremendous applicant and lead source
• Over 100k PR impressions
• USP “Recruiting 2.0”
How Can we Help You:Develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy
Instruct and train corporate groupsHelp setup digital initiativesEvaluate your ongoing efforts, provide recommendations
What You Can Expect:Increased lead flow and retention rateImprove ROI and efficiencyMore meaningful customer engagementCulture of business developmentReduced strain on internal resourcesDecreased operational costsEmployee retentionStronger recruiting efforts
AJ Gerritson, Founding Partner
451 Marketing
21 School Street, 3rd Floor
Boston, MA 02108
617-259-1605 x 204
www.451marketing.com
www.451heat.com
www.Linkedin.com/in/ajgerritson
@ajgerritson