social media marketing

Social Media Marketing

Checklist For SuccessBy

Colum Devine

Social Media Marketing – Checklist for Success

"A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share

interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and

activities of others.Most social network services are web based

and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging

services."


Before jumping into a list of things that we should all be doing to get the most out of our social media networks we must first

think about where we stand now... who is our audience? What is the best social

platform to address them? And where do we take them?


BLOGSet up a professional blogMake sure website is liked to blog and vice-versaPost every blog to social networks:

•Facebook •Twitter•LinkedIn groups•Digg•YouTube (if applicable)

Make it easy for people to find you on:•Facebook•Twitter•Any Others

Make blog interesting and enticing (use guest blogger once a month)


Facebook•Set up business / community page•Set up Facebook groups for your business•Using Facebook groups send bulk emails to relevant groups•Configure you Facebook for SEO purposes:

•Choose the right name•Select keyword focused vanity URL•Use “About” text box to insert keyword-dense phrases•Use “Info” tab to include more keywords and links•Create “static FBML” boxes for more descriptive lengthy content•Post direct links to your website

•Manage smart conversations in your groups while promoting your products/services•Add an ‘Opt in’ feature to your Facebook profile

Continued on next page


Facebook•Link Facebook with social sharing feature available from Vertical Response then share it with everyone•Use Facebook Events to alert ‘Friends’ of upcoming open, closed or secret events•Enable Facebook notes which lets you import RSS feed from blogs•Take advantage of Facebook Marketplace – post classified FREE ads •Make sure you profile information is available for search engines to index (good way to increase PageRank from Google)•Become ‘Fans’ of Suppliers and Buyers – endorse those you ‘Like’


Twitter•Sign up for an account•Use “Find People” follow relevant people•Use Search function and email contacts to get a kick start•Set up Twitter facilities to get the most from your account, to monitor your brand and your competitors

•Hootsuite.com•Tweetdeck.com•CoTweet.com

•Set up ‘Groups’ based on who you want to track•Set up favourite customers in a group and monitor what they are saying•Use BackTweets.com to see who is retweeting your posts-follow them and participate in their posts•Add a human touch where possible by inserting a nickname or initials


LinkedIn•Create a personal profile•Create a business profile•Make use of widgets

•Blog•Twitter•Google Presentation•SlideShare

•Create a group that is closely related to your business – invite connections•Join all relevant groups in your industry•Gain market knowledge with polls (Share Results)•Take part in discussions, ask and answer questions



LinkedIn•Include LinkedIn URL on marketing material, business cards and email signatures•Give and ask for recommendations•Buy a LinkedIn direct ad that only people in your market will see


YouTubeor alternatives; Howcast or Vimeo

•Choose good name reflecting your•Make sure to add your Logo•Use template tools to color your channel to reflect your homepage•Interact with users (reply to comments-drop a comment into their page)•Post good/funny/interesting content (the better they are the better chance they will go viral•Let people know when you post a video

•Facebook•Twitter•Other Channels

•Encourage friends and business acquaintances to subscribe to your channel



YouTubeor alternatives; Howcast or Vimeo

•Ask to post your videos on friends or partners blogs – the more contacts on your side the better•Make video ‘viral ready’ do not use music or video that have copyright•Embed your brand before and after your video (FREE Advertising)


Flickr•Set up Pro-Flickr account (recommended) $24.99/year•Start uploading images/Logos/headshots immediately•Create strong keyword rich, catchy titles for photos, (each photo boosts your Visibility so think of ways to get it clicked on)•Write good descriptions giving people a reason to want more•Add links in your description to your WebPages (use keywords)•Add local place names to boost your local search engine visibility •Tag each photo with important keywords•Keep an updated Flickr profile•Share photos with:

•Facebook•Delicious•Other Channels


FourSquare•Open Free account and ensure you’re on the map•Integrate with other social networks for location updates

•Twitter•Facebook•Others

•Appoint a mayor•Offer specials – this could be discount or reward for people who check-in, or for a first check-in or something even more special for the Mayor•Give tips to your customers – in the advice section of their entry•Use the ‘to do’ list facility to show customers what you are aiming to improve upon in your service•Learn from peoples comments – use feedback to improve



FourSquare•Interact with your customers live when they are online•Sponsorship – well funded businesses might want to sponsor a ‘Leaderboard’ which shows the 100 most active users in an area•Hold a FourSquare-themed party or event to encourage multiple check-ins at once, instantly boosting your brand recognition on FourSquare and other related applications•Encourage all the above to come at one time to a location – make it viral!!


Measuring Success

The final and most important step for integrating social media into the marketing mix is tracking performance. It's a wise strategy to track and manage the results after using social media tools and

tactics.

The problem with social media marketing activities is that they are the least measurable. The metrics that can be monitored would be

an increase in unique visitors to your site (via social media and search), an increase in brand "buzz", and an increase in sales. But what is most difficult is to get an idea on

your return of investment (ROI). This is hard to calculate.


Measuring Success

B u z z Tr a c k i n g will tell you what people are saying about your business. Tools include:•Pipes for RSS tracking – Tack Twitter, Blogs and mentions of your company•Google Alerts Track the latest Buzz via email from Blogs, News & Groups•KeoTag easy to track if someone tags a page using your company or product name•Compete for keyword referrals and site referrals •NeilsonBlogPulse to discover trends, buzz and conversions


Measuring Success

•Addictomatic gives a visual representation of what people are saying about you on YouTube, Digg, Flickr and much more•Trendistic used for seeing trends in Twitter •BoardReader searches through forums and message boards to discover how people feel about your brand•Social mention real time engine that pulls data from range of social media

There are more tools to help measure your success but this is a great place to get to grips with how you are performing!!


Now that you have a strategy on how to attack your marketing through social media, it is now important that you keep a weekly log & plan of

activities for a sustained, measured & organized approach.

I would be happy to provide a weekly checklist which will help your company make the most out of the social networking environment. Please

email me for more details

[email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/thomascolumdevine

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomascolumdevine

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