Tips on building a social media audience on Facebook, Twitter, and through email.

1. building your digital audience
(how to gain more fans, followers and subscribers)
Angelina Tagliafierro
October 3, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

2. everyone wants a
bigger audience
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

3. but maybe they should aim for a
better audience
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

4. social media is all about the social
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

5. lation ships
build ing re establishi
ng trust
social media is all about the social
sharing with friends
telling a story
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

6. so how do you, as a publisher, enter this
discourse?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

7. by being a human being
(and not a marketing robot)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

8. Facebook
Twitter
Email
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

9. Facebook
Twitter
Email
Pinterest
Blogs
Google+
and everything else...
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

10. a few things to keep in mind across platforms:
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

11. recency
relevancy
regularity
engagement
authenticity
consistency
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

12. Facebook:
increasing exposure
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

13. Facebook: external stuff!
embed widgets on your website
-searching for “social plugins” on
developers.facebook.com brings up 10+ options
invite email subscribers
-give them an incentive to click, e.g. exclusive content
link from your email signature
-don’t send out an email without a link to your social
media presence!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

14. Facebook: more external stuff!
print media (the old fashioned way!)
-put the Facebook logo on everything...business
cards, newsletters, ads...
link to Twitter
-and vice versa. Twitter will auto-crop and post
everything you write on Facebook, but be careful
because not all content works well on both platforms!
-this is not a substitute for tweeting!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

15. Facebook: internal stuff!
get fans to share/tag photos from your page
-every tag is putting your page into fans’ News Feeds,
and their friends’ News Feeds
facebook ads
-like Monique’s Scaredy Squirrel example, carefully
targeted ads can work!
run a contest
-requires a third party app like Wildfire, but it can bring
big numbers in. people like free stuff.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

16. Facebook: more internal stuff!
tag pages/share stuff/like stuff/comment on stuff
-shows off your page name to other people’s followers
DON’T FORGET EDGE RANK!
-edge rank is Facebook’s way of ranking News Feed
posts
-based on the level of engagement between a fan and
a page (“affinity”), the type of content in a post
(“weight”), and how quickly that content is responded
to by fans (“time”)
-determines where, and if, your post will show up at all
on a fan’s News Feed
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

17. Twitter:
getting followers
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

18. Twitter: external stuff!
embed widgets on your website
-twitter.com has their own custom-widget builder
use an app to schedule tweets
-e.g. Hootsuite, which allows you to have a voice even
when you aren’t at work
-free version also conveniently measures RTs, link
clicks, demographics and other handy metrics
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

19. Twitter: external stuff!
link to Facebook
-but be careful, because the tweets need to be
frequent to have impact, and will probably look
spammy on a Facebook page
avoid spammy auto-follow services
-yes they might increase your numbers, but these
numbers are probably artificial and could get your
account frozen
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

20. Twitter: internal stuff!
get your twitter handle out there
-shows off your page name to other people’s followers
-talk @other users (especially important people with
lots of followers)
-RT things
-offer opinions
look for people you know (at least sort of)
-e.g. Hey @ataglia, great seeing you at the launch
party last night!
-follow people in your industry: what are they talking
about, and can we join in the conversation?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

21. Twitter: internal stuff!
play with trending topics
-#Vancouver might be a little broad to find a specific
audience, but #minitoc or something similar might
connect you with more relevant people
-don’t underestimate a #FF
post smart
-socialmediaexaminer.com suggests you look at
tweets as small blog posts: tell a story in 140
characters!
-be timely. how many people will see that tweet at
midnight on Sunday?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

22. Twitter: internal stuff!
run a contest
-people always like free stuff. but use sparingly,
because they might just be there for the free stuff, and
not for your amazing tweets
organic followers
-the most valuable on Twitter (and probably
everywhere on the web, because they came to you)
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

23. Email:
getting subscribers to the prehistoric
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

24. Email: external stuff!
use an email manager
-services like MailChimp help you avoid spam filters
-also allow personalization of mass emails (e.g. Dear
So-and-so)
action-based incentives
-subscribe now to receive (x)% off!
combine platforms
-if your email updates aren’t interesting enough to talk
about elsewhere, they should
be. link from Facebook
and Twitter!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

25. Email: internal stuff!
write good email headers
-if it doesn’t hook them, they’re already lost
careful about spam filters and spam laws
-if your emails are getting caught in the net, no one
sees them
-be careful with language, punctuation, etc.
-the laws are always changing, but recipients need the
right to unsubscribe
Wednesday, October 3, 2012

26. in the end...
no method is perfect,
every audience is different,
and things are always changing,
so trial and error is the key. react
to what works and quit doing what
doesn’t!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012