1. 10 Best Practicesfor Social MediaMarketingSuccess

2. In the evolvingworld of socialmedia marketing,it can be hard for a time-starved smallbusiness or organization to keep paceand know what to do when it comesto connecting with customers andmembers on sites like Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, Foursquare, Yelp, and otherspecialty social networks.While theres no one-size fits all approach,weve assembled 10 best practices for socialmedia marketing success that will help yourbusiness or organization, whether youre justgetting started or trying to take your effortsto the next level.210 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 3. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success1 Have a GoalLike most marketing and business efforts, its goodto have a goal in mind as you delve into social mediamarketing. It doesnt have to be anything audaciouslike increase sales 30% year over year. Somethingmore along the lines of improving company/brandawareness; adding a new channel to interact withcustomers, members, and prospects; or improvingsearch engine optimization (SEO) will work just fine.Its important to keep in mind that the return oninvestment with social media marketing cannot alwaysbe measured in hard dollars. While one can offerdeals and make sales, the real power of social mediamarketing is in building relationships and remaining topof mind with existing customers. Plus, the viral natureof social media can help you find and connect withnew customers.A July 2010 study by Gartner found that 74% ofconsumers rely on some type of social media networkto guide purchasing decisions. Thats because peoplerely on what others have to say about a product orbrand before making an investment themselves. Thesurvey points out that marketers should use socialmedia networks to target the people who influenceothers purchasing decisions. Doing so may not haveThe real power ofa direct ROI attached to it, but can indirectly helpsocial media marketinginfluence sales.is in buildingIf youre new to social media, set achievable goals thatrelationships and will allow you to get your feet wet and start buildingconnections with your existing customer base. As yourremaining top ofcomfort level and social media savvy grow, so too canmind with existingyour goals.customers. 3 4. 2 Know Who You Areand Portray YourselfConsistently Social mediaBefore diving into social media for your business ororganization, you should decide what kind of image marketing givesyou want to portray through your various social mediayou a uniqueoutlets. opportunity toSome argue that social media should be free and easy humanize yourgoing, and marketers should take a casual approach.Others disagree and think users should maintain a more brand.serious, buttoned-downed approach. The path youfollow is up to you and your business or organizationsculture. Either way, be sure to stay consistent with thebrand identity youve established.No matter which way you fall on the casual versusserious choice, make sure your posts sound human.After all, youre connecting with other human beings.Social media marketing gives you a unique opportunityto humanize your brand and to show your customers,members, or prospects that there are real peoplebehind the product or service people just like them.Use a conversational tone and forget the robot-speak.This helps people to relate to your business ororganization, and that goes a long way toward gettingpeople to know, like, and trust you. When peopleknow, like, and trust you, they are much more likely toshare your message with their friends. And its word-of-mouth (i.e.: the network effect) that makes social mediamarketing such a powerful marketing strategy.Additionally, youll want to portray yourself accurately inyour social media profiles. If youre using the companylogo as your avatar, make sure its the most up-to-date >4 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 5. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Successversion. If youre using a photo of yourself, try usingone that is no more than 18 months old. Chances aregood youll meet some of your social media followersand fans in real life, so youll want them to be able torecognize you.3 Be Where YourCustomers/Members AreSocial media marketing is important because today,customers want choices where they interact withbrands. For example, some may like to follow a brandon Twitter but not on Facebook. Social media givesthem that choice, so its important to have a presencewhere your customers are looking to interact with youand other businesses. How do you know which sitesare right for your business or organization? The simpleanswer is to ask your customers or members. Whenthey come into your place of business or when you seethem at an event, ask what networks they use. If theymake a purchase, add a social media question to yourfeedback survey to collect information about whatnetworks they use.If asking isnt an option, you obviously want to lookIts one thing for aat the big three first. With 500 million active users,customer to belongFacebook is probably the first place to start given itssheer size. Twitter, with close to 200 million users, andto a social network,LinkedIn, with more than 70 million users, round outbut if hes actuallythe top three.using that site, then Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have featuresthats the place youthat allow you to search for friends on the respectivenetworks by email address. An organization can usewant to be. this feature by uploading their email contact list to >5 6. the service to see how many matches come up. Youmay not want to use this method to instantly followand/or connect with people, though. Instead, use itas a survey tool to see what network(s) most of yourcustomers are using.Put links to yourAnother way you can identify where your customersand members are engaging is to look at your socialsocial media pagessharing data: On which sites are people sharing youron your website,content? After all, its one thing for a customer toin your emailbelong to a social network, but if hes actually usingthat site, then thats the place you want to be. This newsletters, and ininformation can be an important part of making your your personal emaildecision.signature.But dont just stick to the social networks. People thesedays are checking in using services like Foursquareand Gowalla, and posting reviews on sites like Yelpand Angies List. Its a good idea to make it as easy forthem to do so as possible. Search for your business onsites like Yelp, Foursquare, Citysearch, and Gowallaand claim your page so the information about yourbusiness is correct. (GetListed.org is a great resourcefor learning more about these sites.)4 Tell Your Customers andMembers Where You AreUnless you have a famous name (like LeBron James,Ashton Kutcher, or Bill Gates) or brand, your customers,members, and fans need to be told where they canconnect with you through social media. Put links toyour social media pages on your website, in your emailnewsletters, and in your personal email signature. Forstores, restaurants, and other businesses where people>610 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 7. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Successcongregate in person, put out signs telling peoplewhere they can connect with you on social media.Start with your loyal customer base: the people whoare already signed up for your email newsletter. Itsyour loyal customers who are most likely to find you onFacebook and follow you on Twitter; these are also thefolks who will share your posts and help you connectwith their friends and connections. Think about it: Ifyou stumble upon an organizations Page on Facebookand it has numerous fans, including a few of yourown friends, youre likely going to become a fan of ityourself, right? Seed your social media connectionswith your existing list to give yourself a head start ongrowing the number of fans and followers.In short: Any place you connect with customers andmembers is a good place to mention that they canconnect and interact with you online.5 Dont Just JoinConversations, AddValue to ThemAny place youSocial media is just that: Social. Its about havingconnect withconversations and engaging with people. Sites likecustomers and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn excel at makingconversations easy to start and easy to join.members is a goodWhat you dont want to do is jump into the middle of aplace to mention that conversation just for the sake of doing so or to make anthey can connect andobvious sales pitch. What you should do is add value tointeract with you the conversation at hand by sharing your expertise andknowledge as it applies to the situation.online. > 7 8. With Twitter, this applies to retweeting otherpeoples comments. If you do retweet somethingand theres room under the 140-character cap, add acomment of your own to the forwarded tweet. Thereare many user timelines that are made up entirely ofretweets and no original thought. Would you want toAnything you canfollow someone like that? Probably not. Make sure to do to be a partadd some value and original thought to your tweetsand other social network posts to differentiate yourself of social mediafrom the pack and demonstrate your expertise (andconversationspersonality).helps increase yourYou can (and should) reuse content from other sitesexposure.though. Its highly recommended to share on socialmedia: > New blog entries > Email newsletter archives > News and feature articles that relate to your area of business > New features on your websiteThe key is to share content (even at 140 characters)that provides value to your followers and keeps themengaged. Otherwise, they could tune you out or stopfollowing you all together.6 Be RelevantRelevancy is one of the gray areas of social media.Given the casual atmosphere, its easy to posteverything and anything, but do your customers andmembers really want to hear about your bad day? As abusiness or organization participating in social media,you want to stay relevant to your business and, whereappropriate, locale.>8 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 9. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing SuccessThis does not mean you need to write only about yourbusiness or organization. For instance, a restaurantmight post about food topics in general, includingbusiness trends, tips for preparing food, etc. The key isto not litter your wall, tweets, or status updates withjust sales pitches.As a local business or organization, you can post abouthappenings in the greater community. Did the LittleLeague team you sponsor win the championship?Post a note of congratulations. A member of thecommunity do something noteworthy? Congratulatethem. Or, is there a big national event going onor a trending topic, like the Super Bowl or anelection? Write a tweet that relates to that, and if itsappropriate, use the related hashtag (e.g., #superbowl).After all, its what everyone is talking about; anythingyou can do to be a part of social media conversationshelps increase your exposure. Keep in mind the humanelement and what connects us to each other aspeople.7 Be EngagingSocial media networks and by extension, socialmedia marketing as a whole tend to be more casualand conversational in tone and approach. People gatheron sites like Facebook and Twitter because they havecommon interests, because they want to be part ofIf you really want to a larger conversation, or because they want to be inderive value from the know. Its not formal communication, like a presssocial media, you release would be. Accordingly, messages are shorter,friendlier, and in many cases (but not all), more fun.need to engage withIf you really want to derive value from social media, youpeople. need to engage with people. Like any conversationalinteraction, listening is the key to being effective. You>9 10. need to listen to what people are saying to you and about you. When appropriate be sure to respond. But social media marketing is also about sharing your expertise, news, and even promotions. You can show your followers that you know your business and Dont just post industry by posting links to related articles, notes about other complementary businesses, and by interactinginformation; ask with others on the networks in which you participate. people what they Dont just post information; ask people what they think think of the article of the article youre posting. Ask thought-provoking questions that will encourage a dialogue. Post photos youre posting. or videos that show whats going on with your business or organization, and encourage your friends, followers, and fans to do the same. Social media is a two-way dialog, not just a one-way communication. Make the most of that whenever and however you can. 8 Be Active How often to post is another gray area in social media marketing. Do it too little and followers may not notice. Post too often and they may get annoyed. When posting something to Twitter, such as a link to a new blog post or special deal, you may want to post the same information more than once in a given day. Twitter feeds can be a fast moving stream, so if a customer doesnt see your original tweet, he may miss out. That said, while its alright to post something a couple times a day, its important to change up the wording a bit each time to freshen up the content. Otherwise, youll look like a spammer and people may unfollow you.>1010 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 11. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing SuccessFor Facebook, a single link to a blog post or deal of theday is enough since those posts tend to have a littlemore stickiness in a users news feed. The same goesfor LinkedIn updates.Generally, you can post multiple updates to Twitter,one or two to Facebook, and one to LinkedIn over thecourse of a given day without the risk of annoying thefollowers on each site. There are even ways to link yourTwitter feed to Facebook and LinkedIn, which can helpyou populate all three sites with a single update. Justkeep in mind: If youre updating Twitter quite a bit, youmay inundate your followers on the other networkswith all your tweets.Like with email marketing, knowing your audience willhelp you determine how often to post.9 Respond in aTimely MannerThe frequency advice only refers to original posts. Youcan and should reply to peoples questions and posts asoften and as quickly as possible, particularly when theymention a problem with your business, organization,When you respond, product, or service.its recommendedTwitter in particular is used to lodge complaints all thetime. Often, people are just venting and not expecting athat you nicely ask response from the company theyre complaining about.how you can helpBut, if youre tracking your company name, Twitterthe person, thenhandle, and/or key product terms via Twitter Search,you can easily spot these complaints and respond.attempt to take the (NutshellMail from Constant Contact is a great toolconversation offline. for monitoring Twitter Search results without havingto constantly sit at the computer.) We recommend>11 12. responding within a single business day if possible. Any longer and your response could fall on deaf ears. When you respond, its recommended that you nicely ask how you can help the person, then attempt to take the conversation offline, or to another channel Its a ask best like email or an instant messaging client. (meaning not in a public social media conversation) to deal with thepractice to share nuts and bolts of the issue. You dont want a he said/ links to relevant she said debate littered across Twitter, where it can bearticles, blog posts, and picked up by search engines and read by anyone, or posted on your Facebook wall, where it could have aother content with longer shelf life. your audience. Two things to keep in mind when it comes to using social media for customer service issues: 1. Keep a thick skin: Youre going to run into negative comments. Dont take them personally and try to turn that unhappy customer into a happy one. 2. Respond to the positive comments as well. If someone gives you a glowing review, respond with a thank you. It shows that youre paying attention to all of your customers, not just the squeaky wheels.10 Give Credit Where Credit Is Due Its a best practice to share links to relevant articles, blog posts, and other content with your audience. Social media networks make this an easy thing to do. One thing to remember, though, is to cite the source of the link if its not your own content. This is particularly important with Twitter, where shortened URLs can obscure the site being linked to. >12 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing Success 13. 10 Best Practices for Social Media Marketing SuccessThe best practice here is to add the person or sourcesTwitter handle (if known) when linking to third-partycontent. Doing so offers two benefits: One, youre notpulling a bait-and-switch by passing someone elsescontent off as your own (yes, the person clicking thelink will realize it soon enough, but that doesnt makeit right). Two, the person youre crediting will see thatyoure sharing his content with your own customers/members/followers since the tweet will show up in hisMentions timeline.This is not as much of an issue with Facebook since itautomatically includes headline, description, and evenimage thumbnails from the target page when oneshares a link, making it more obvious who the sharedcontent is from.Do Whats Rightfor YouWhen it comes to social media marketing, its goodto remember that its just another but verypowerful tool in your marketing arsenal and notWhen it comes a cure-all or replacement for other strategies thatare already working for you. These best practicesto social media will help you improve your social media marketing,marketing, its goodbut ultimately its about doing whats right for youto remember that its and your business or organization. You know yourcustomers best and what they expect from you.just another tool Delivering the content they want and engagingin your marketing with them, no matter what the channel, is the mostimportant thing. Over time you will learn from yourarsenal.fans and followers what works and what doesnt. Soget out there, experiment, and learn by doing! 13 2010 Constant Contact, Inc. 10-1666