Jump Start Your Small Business Using Social Media

Our discussion today:

• Why social media works for small businesses

• How to listen first before launching your campaign

• How to create a social media strategy

• What elements make up a successful campaign

Does your business currently have social media included in your 2013 plan? a. Yes b. Not yet, but planning to c. No plans in 2013

Presented by

• Brenda ArndtSocial Media Manager - Deluxe Brenda has 12+years in small business

and corporate eMarketing.

Facebook.com/deluxecorp@deluxecorp

Social Media – Why the Buzz?

The landscape

Will Social Media Work For You?

• People buy from

you for your

expertise, social

media will help your

expertise become

more well known.

How Do You Get Started?

1. Listen first

2. Create a Strategy and a plan before jumping in

3. Create a profile that helps people verify your legitimacy

How Do You Get Started?

Where Do You Get Started?• Yelp http://

www.yelp.com/minneapolis

• Twitter http://www.twitter.com

• Facebook Pages http://www.facebook.com/pages/

• Blogging• http://wordpress.com/• http://www.typepad.com/

• YouTube http://www.youtube.com/

• LinkedIn Company Page http://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show

• Pinterest https://pinterest.com/join/signup/

• Google+ https://plus.google.com/

Identify Objectives

•Restate your objective so that it is “SMART” (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based)

•Tie your objectives back to your overall company goals

Objective Tie to your overall goalsIncrease “client” base by 10% in next 6 months, recruit new “clients”, draw traffic to website

To make money and to stay in business

Keep the local community updated on happenings, discounts, events in increase sales by 5% in the next month

To increase the number of new “clients”

Understand how “clients” use social media and monitor what “clients” are saying about your company increasing client engagement by 20% year over year

To stay connected with clients and provide better customer service

Sample Strategic Plan

Create Your Strategy

• Identify Audience– Who do you need to reach to meet your objective? Why this

target group?– Is this a target group identified in your company’s

communications plan?– What key points do you want to make with your audience?– What social media tools are they currently using?– Where do those people live online?– Do you have a built-in community, or do you need to create one?

Create Your Strategy

If I told you that you could listen in on your customers and prospects?

Would you listen?

What type of impact do you think a listening platform would have on your business?

a. Respond to Reviews d. Brand Monitoringb. Customer Service e. Not sure what a listeningc. Reach out to Prospects platform is

Build A Listening Dashboard

Turning Strategies into Actions, Find & Follow, Listen & Learn

13

Build A Listening Dashboard

www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

www.google.com/alerts

Google Blog Search

RSS

• RSS (Real Simple Syndication) allows you to subscribe to any website that has one of these in the address bar. You can then track every site you’re subscribed to without having to go to each individual site.

www.google.com/reader

Build A Listening Dashboard

https://twitter.com/search-advanced

www.YouTube.com

www.socialmention.com

Current Social Media Inventory

• Sample Summary of Existing Online Presence• Facebook

• Page established• Lack of consistent activity, maintenance, management

• Twitter• No presence

• Blog• No presence

• Yelp• Listing established• Issues with listing, management at less than 1 hour/week

Sample Strategic Plan– Facebook

• Purpose: To increase recognition, increase social engagement, establish online social network, searchability

• Metrics for Success: “Likes”, shares, comments, comments that are referrals

Sample Strategic Plan– Twitter

• Purpose: Increase recognition, increase engagement, stablish network, establish brand, searchability

• Metrics for Success: Followers, Retweets, referrals

Sample Strategic Plan– Blog

• Purpose: Increase recognition, increase engagement, searchability

• Metrics for Success: Number of posts, audience growth, comments/likes, subscribers, SEO improvements, referrals

Ideas for ContentTestimonials

Events

Giving back to your community

Specials

Create Your Strategy

Who will implement?– Can you allocate a minimum of five hours per week to your

strategy once you've passed the learning curve?

– Do you have the most efficient work flow and tasks in place?

– Do you need any outside expertise?

– Will your work depend on any other resource or person?

Guidelines

• Be transparent and state where you work • Never represent yourself or your organization in a

false or misleading way• When disagreeing, keep it appropriate and polite• Behave diplomatically if writing about competition• Never comment on anything related to

legal matters• Never participate in social media when the topic

being discussed may be considered a crisis situation

• Be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and your company’s confidential information

What Do You Take Away?

• Put a plan in place before you jump in• Your blog or website should be the center of your

social marketing efforts• Establish a consistent habit of posting, and stick to

it• Mix up your content types• Integrate, integrate, integrate• Use calls to action to entice people to stick around• Keep an eye on what people are saying about you

and your competitors

32

Above all, remember…..

The author is responsible

Questions?

Brenda ArndtSocial Media Manager, Deluxe Corporation

Brenda.Arndt@deluxe.com

@deluxecorpFacebook.com/deluxecorp

YouTube.com/deluxecorporationlinkedin.com/company/deluxe-corporation