The ultimate guide to social media for small business tủ tài liệu bách khoa

How and When is this going to impact our bottom line?" Every business is different, but there are a number of exercises that business need to conduct in order to create a strategy and ex

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The Ultimate Guide to Social Media

For Small Business

Table of Contents _

Intro 3

Business Goals 4

Strategy 5

Tactics 6

Listening & Monitoring 7

Web Content 8-9 Channels 10-17 Converting Website Traffic into Sales 18-25 Conclusion 26

Intro

If you own a small business or are an employee

of one, you are probably asking yourself several

questions, "How do we get started? What steps

do we need to take? How and When is this going

to impact our bottom line?"

Every business is different, but there are a

number of exercises that business need to

conduct in order to create a strategy and

execute a successful social media program

In this guide, we will explain all of the steps your business needs to take in order

to position yourself for the greatest impact on lead generation, sales, and

customer loyalty

Business Goals _

In the very beginning of any social media program, you will have limited

resources Therefore, it is important to set your eyes on 1 or 2 specific targets You do not want to stretch yourself

too thin As you get successes under

your belt, budget will be allocated

to the activities that are working

Some of the business goals that you

can achieve are below:

 Increase Website Traffic and

Leads

 Increase Foot Traffic to Your

Location

 Lower customer acquisition costs

 Reduce Customer Service Costs

 Increase Brand Awareness

 Customer Retention

 Reduce Employee Recruitment Costs

So as an example, your business goal is to increase your website lead generation 25% month over month Now with this in mind, you will have to come up with a strategy and tactics for achieving this business goal This is where investment in resources like staff, content, and software will be vital

Strategy

When developing your social media strategy, some of the things that you will need to think about are: who is my audience, what do they care about, how do they behave online, what is our current marketing strategy, and how can social media fit in?

The main reason why a business needs to ask itself these questions is: you need

to create content that is valuable to people This is the first step to being trusted The type of content ranges from

short form status updates to full

blown 30 minute videos

What subjects are you going to

create content for? If you are a

start up business, you will need

to do some experimentation, and

over time you will find content

that resonates with potential

customers If you are an

established business, you should have enough data and historical knowledge to find out what your customers care about

After you conduct the preliminary research, you will be able to form a beginning social media strategy We say 'beginning' because you will need to be nimble enough to change directions if your strategy doesn't pan out Always have a

backup plan

If your business goal is to increase leads by 25% month over month, you have to come up with a strategy to support this goal One potential strategy is: Thought leadership through educational content and digital relationship building Very simple Now your job as a leader is to preach this strategy throughout the

organization It provides clarity and focus for the next phase of your social media marketing plan: Tactics

utilizing to communicate with your

prospects and customers

So some of the questions you will need

to answer within the tactics section are:

 What pieces of content are we

going to use to draw people to

our website?

 Resources needed for the content

production process

 What social networks are we going to share our content with? Think

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Forums

 What influencers are we going to target? Think people with massive

audiences that can influence buying behavior

 Once people reach our website, how do we convince them to submit their contact information?

 How do we nurture these leads once we have their contact information?

 How will we respond to negative and positive comments?

 Do we have someone that will monitor the web for mentions of our brand?

 Do we have current staff that will create content, community manage, and measure the results, or do we outsource all of these activities?

Listening & Monitoring

Before jumping into this section, we want to point out the difference between listening and monitoring This is something we learned from the Social Media Success Summit

from Kelly Feller of Intel

Listening is one of the most unique aspects of social media, in that you can extract insights from the millions of conversations that

are going on about brands, subjects, industries,

hobbies, among others Your company can

gain a competitive advantage by listening to

objective conversations from your target

customers

Monitoring is the process of listening and

responding to questions, concerns,

compliments, and other conversations that

your audience is having about your product,

executives, company, brand, and other factors connected to your business So not only are you gaining market insight, but you are also taking an active approach to

participating in conversations that are happening

Over the past couple of years, many tools have come about that can help you listen and monitor conversations Some of the free tools include: Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Social Mention, Google Reader, and many others Paid tools include: Radian6, Alterian SM2, and Sysomos

Steps to establish a listening and monitoring program:

1 Do keyword research with Google's keyword tool (there are others, but this is a free tool)

2 Choose your listening & monitoring tools

3 Build monthly listening reports that matter to your business goals and analyze

4 Monitor conversations happening about your brand, products, executives daily and respond to positive and negative mentions

5 Make business changes upon analysis

6 Repeat monthly, quarterly, and yearly

Web Content _

In order to get noticed in search engines and social networks, you will need to produce amazing content Content comes in many different forms, and in order to help you weigh your options, you can refer to this list when thinking about the types of content that you will use to get your business on the map Remember: Play to your strengths If you know you are not good on camera, try doing audio instead

1 Writing

The majority of web marketing is based on text, therefore it is in the best interest of any business to produce lots of written content This can be in many forms from status updates, blog posts, e-mails, landing pages, to e-books and white papers

Use blog posts and status updates to increase awareness for your business by increasing your visibility in social networks and search engines Once you get people to subscribe

to your content, you can use e-mails, landing pages, and e-books to guide the prospect further down the buying cycle

2 Video

Video is one of the most powerful types of content today Innovations in technology have lowered the cost of shooting high quality video pieces, and it only strengthens the value of your content strategy It makes it easier to do business with you by providing videos that concentrate on how-to's, customer testimonials, inspirational stories, common uses of your product or service, as well as a simple thank you from the CEO or employees

3 Podcasts

With the invention of the iPod, people can listen to music practically anywhere This doesn't stop with music though On the way to work, people can catch up on the latest information that hopefully your company is providing about the industry you are in Podcasts are inexpensive to produce, and people can access replays in iTunes and other podcast sites

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6 Widgets

Similar to applications, widgets can be embedded just about anywhere on the internet Some of the common uses of widgets are donations, e-commerce, branded links for spreading awareness about your website, plus more Widgets are highly customizable and just might reward you with on-going exposure

7 Pictures

Incorporating pictures into all of your marketing communications helps people visualize the point you are making Much like videos, pictures can help form a connection with your audience When is the last time you read an article that included a picture that described the entire story? This is something you can do easily today

Channels

Channels are the platforms that you will use to share the amazing content that you produce Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blogs, or E-mail, it is important to do research on where your audience hangs out online The following pages will explain what each type of social network or online

marketing channel is, and how it benefits a small business.Note: Tools and

channels always change, so always make sure you are up to date on the latest trends

Facebook _

From a marketing perspective, Facebook serves two purposes 1 To create

relationships with other people 2 To promote your own content Let's explain

Creating relationships on Facebook comes in different forms:

 Sharing other people's content

 Asking your fans questions

 Providing helpful information to your fans

 Connecting with other Facebook Pages

Promoting your own content also comes in different forms:

 New blog posts

 Videos produced by your company

Twitter _

Twitter is another social network where sharing will create lasting relationships for you If you stick with it long enough, the hard work will pay off You have to be consistent and authentic with your interactions Do not get into the automation game This is counter-intuitive to what "social" media is all about

Promoting your content on Twitter will help drive instant traffic as well as position your company as an authority in your field

What are the components of a normal Tweet? Let's explore in the following

example:

Blog Posts Accumulate Traffic with Time [Stats] http://ow.ly/6dNG6 via @social_media_hq

Title of the article Link to article Attribution to source

If you are sharing someone else's content or promoting your own content, you will want to format your tweet to get the most clicks Having a captivating title will entice readers to click on the link The link will need to be shortened in order

to abide by Twitter's 140 character rule, and finally, you will want to give credit to the original source of the content If you are promoting your own content, there is

no need to insert via @twitterusername at the end of a Tweet

LinkedIn _

LinkedIn can serve many different purposes Recruiting, LinkedIn Groups, Sales Research, LinkedIn Answers, and

Company Pages are some of the most

used features on the platform Let's take

you through your options:

Recruiting doesn't have to be a time

intensive activity if you have a network

that you can tap for referrals The

number one way to find qualified

candidates is to simply ask your LinkedIn

network if they know of any candidates

that are looking for the type of position that you have available The key here is having strong relationships with your LinkedIn connections, or you will find that not many people will help you when you need it

LinkedIn Groups are a fantastic way to forge relationships with professionals that

you are not acquainted with Be sure to listen to the types of conversations

people are having before jumping in The number one mistake people make when participating in LinkedIn Groups is posting content that is out of context with the group norms Ease your way into the group community, and the results will show

Sales Research is at your fingertips with individual profiles and company pages

Collecting intelligence before you make that first phone call is crucial in

developing a lead

LinkedIn Answers can position your company as an expert in your field, or you

can ask questions that will be answered by an entire network of professionals with related experience Like Groups, there is opportunity for relationship

building as well

YouTube

Did you know that 45 hours of video are uploaded every minute on YouTube? There are more than 3 billion views per day!

These statistics are astonishing In fact, you are

missing out on a huge opportunity to get found

by potential customers by not implementing

video into your marketing plan Some of the

benefits of video:

 Increased search engine rankings

 Opportunities for converting website visitors into sales leads

 Increase Customer Retention through Education, Inspiration, and

Entertainment

 Many, many more

The key to getting found in YouTube:

1 You have to produce quality content (people smell laziness a mile away)

2 Insert researched keywords into the Titles, Descriptions, and Tags (use

YouTube's Keyword Tool)

3 Share your videos on other sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and your Blog

4 Interact with other YouTube users/channels to increase your social reach

Blogs

Blogs were one of the first forms of what is now called "social media", and they are still powerful vehicles for communicating your expertise Some of the benefits

of blogging:

 Increased search engine rankings

 Opportunities for converting website

visitors into sales leads

 Increase Customer Retention through

Education, Inspiration, and Entertainment

 Many, many more

When people think about blogging, they think

about only the blogging platform they own One

of the best tactics that you can implement is

called "Guest Blogging" What this means is

forging relationships with blogs that have large audiences and offering to submit

an article as a guest writer You will gain awareness, links to your site for search engine rankings, as well as an opportunity to be viewed as an authority in your field

Converting readers or watchers into sales leads can be done by including calls to action in several places in your blog The most successful placements in the past have been in the top right sidebar and below the blog article But remember, every company's target audience is different, so you will need to test which call to action locations generate the most clicks and lead form submissions (more on this later)