My presentation from Forward Ladies Positive Women's Day 27th February 2014 - focusing on where to start with social media - including setting objectives, KPIs, choosing platforms and key messages and audiences.

1. Positive Women’s Day
Developing your Twitter and overall
social media strategy

2. Outline of the session
•13:45 - Social Media Key Principles and the REACH
model
•14:00 - Your social media strategy - Setting
objectives and defining your audience
•14.40 - Twitter fundamentals and benefits
•14:55 - Managing your social media
•15:05 - Q & A – Ask me anything!

3. What’s social media really
all about?

4. What is Social Media?
SOCIAL =
anyone (& everyone)
can have their say
MEDIA =
they can say it any way
they want to

5. What is Social Media?
“In an affluent society, we value our time and our
money, so before we invest either of them in a
purchase or an activity, we want to know if it is
worthwhile. To figure that out, we turn to other people,
listening to their advice and observing their behaviour.”
Craig McMurty
Microsoft Developers Weblog

6. What’s social about
Social Media?
The aim is to get trusted referrals. . . from people
who authentically evangelise your product or
service for you.
Steve Holzner
“Facebook Marketing”

7. Where are these influencers?
• 62% of UK adults aged 35 to 55 use
social networks
• 1.23 billion users on Facebook
• 645 million users on Twitter
• 58 million Tweets sent a day
• 277 million users on LinkedIn
• 540 million users on Google+
• 218 million users on Instagram
• 70 million users on Pinterest
• 100 hours of video uploaded every
minute on YouTube
What’s social about
Social Media?

8. o Marketing – broadcasting promotional messages
o Increase your online visibility and search ability
o Establish your expertise and showcase your experience
o Customer service – make your customers feel valued
o Become a valued member of people’s online network
o Connect with industry experts/influencers
o Catching up with what clients and competitors are up to
What can you use social
media for?

9. Social Media Benefits
• Evidence your experience and expertise
• Establish trust and loyalty
• Instant feedback to inform your service development
• Influence & Amplification
• Engage hard to reach audiences
• Develop a voice in your sector
• Professional development & networking
• Celebrate your successes

10. Before you dive in –
what’s your strategy?

11. What to consider
Who are your three aspirational
audiences?
What are your three key messages?
What three offers or calls to action
do you have?

12. Objectives
• Increase your online/social visibility in a
competitive market
• Spread awareness of your business and its
services
• Showcase your character and expertise
• Keep customers happy & informed with up to
date information & provide good customer
service
• Drive web traffic = enquiries, bookings & sales

13. Objectives
• Keep up to date with the news and trends in
your industry
• Increase engagement with customers – keep
them coming back
• Keep an eye on competitors
Link social media to your current business
objectives – how can it help you achieve them?

14. Audiences
• Potential customers – new & existing – define
by type – which platform best for demographic
• Potential collaborators or suppliers – non-
competing useful contacts to make
• Industry experts and influencers
• Current offline contacts – genuine online/public
recommendations made easier & more visible
• Local businesses for awareness & referrals
• Potential employees – social recruitment?

15. KPIs
• Likes and followers - What do they mean for you
though, what is their value?
• Engagement - @ mentions, retweets, direct
messages, direct enquiries, response rates
• Website traffic driven from social
• Number of followed links for all shared content
• Social media referrals
• Direct sales conversions – online or offline – Do you
ask where your leads heard about your services?

16. So what about Twitter?

17. • Most public of social platforms - easiest to do outreach to
find audiences to engage with
• Tweets more likely to be seen by a wider audience –
through hashtags, @mentions and retweets – All Public!
• Easier to build your audience - Follow to increase your
own following
• Can send a tweet to any user you like
• Easier to share other people’s updates through retweets -
amplification
Why use Twitter

18. • Great capability for listening – valuable research on topics
in your industry, consumer trends, competitor activity
• Public customer service – transparency of your values
and service
• Public recommendations can be easily amplified
• Using industry hashtags can get your content more easily
noticed
Why use Twitter

19. Twitter Strategy Tips
• Decide on your message and identity – optimise your
profile with keywords – what do you want to be
found for? How are you going to represent yourself?
• Find relevant users to follow - People & organisations
who tweet relevant & useful information in your
industry
• Listen and Learn - use the search function to find
your keywords, what are others doing in your field?

20. Twitter Strategy Tips
• Follow public industry Twitter lists and create your
own – credible sources you respect to establish your
expertise
• Link to your other online presence as evidence of
your expertise - web content, blog, LinkedIn profile.
• Tweet opportunities, tips & advice, thank contacts
for recommendations, local events/news, general
business opportunities

21. Tweeting Tips
• Retweet useful information and add your own
opinion. The key to Twitter is expanding the
reach of your brand and messages through
amplification by getting retweeted
• Be seen as a valued, helpful member of
someone’s network
• Find top tweeters in your area of interest that
you can follow and engage in conversation

22. Find the right people to
follow
• Following strategy – To increase your
following, you need to follow!
• Do you follow users who engage with you?
• Do you follow influencers in your field?
• Do you follow local influencers?
• How can you reach the audience of your
competitors or non-competitors?

23. Hashtags
What are the conversations in your industry?
Some examples #ukemplaw #hr #banking #socialmedia
#financejobs
Find some of your own http://www.hashtags.org/
The more niche the better!

24. Useful Twitter Tools & Features
• Twitter Advanced Search & Followerwonk –
Find relevant users to engage with
• TweetDeck or HootSuite – management &
scheduling
• Twitter Lists – find relevant users
• Hashtags – find relevant conversations
• Kred – measure influence
• Goo.gl - URL shortener & tracker

25. Twitter etiquette
• Twitter is a new form of customer service. Consumers expect
you to be there to be found and contacted.
• It’s about building relationships, not just broadcasting your
messages.
• It is important to be helpful & responsive on Twitter to build a
strong, trusted reputation.
• It’s not a hard sell - it’s about trusted referrals and
recommendations.
• It’s all about getting re-tweeted to increase your reach,
spread your messages across different audiences, with help
from the Twitter community.

26. Remember…
• Be professional on Twitter but be yourself
• Not just your own information, your own
messages, it’s not all ME ME ME!
• Share richly sourced content with your
network so they keep coming back.
• Retweet and credit your community to
encourage engagement
• Remember – social is about conversations!

27. Managing your presence on
multiple platforms
own website?

28. Scheduling - Maximise your social
media efforts
• Avoid bulk status updates when messages aren’t time
dependent. If you post more than two or three times in a
row, you may flood the timelines of your followers
• If you have updates to share, spread them out over time so
more users are likely to see them.
• You can schedule tweets through Buffer or using social
media dashboards like HootSuite or TweetDeck.
• But remember – automate the task not the conversation!

29. Schedule activity
Hootsuite – Use a social media dashboard to
schedule & syndicate content where relevant.

30. Best times to tweet & post
• Maximise activity by scheduling your content
• When is your target audience online? Test it
yourself to see the engagement you get at
different times.
• First thing in the morning – 9:00am, lunch
time and early evening 17:00-18:00pm.

31. Social Media Risk
• Loss of competitive advantage by not using it – less
visibility than competitors on popular social
networks
• Missed opportunity to control the social space where
customers have conversations about your brand
• Missed opportunity to amplify positive messages and
feedback about the brand to reach a wider audience.
• Risk of damage to brand reputation if social media is
not done well

32. Any Questions?

33. Positive Women’s Day
Lucy Goetz Social Media Trainer & Consultant
Keep in Touch
www.lucygoetz.com
lucy@lucygoetz.com
@Goetzy on Twitter
www.linkedin.com/in/LucyGoetz