Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 by the Team at Table Of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................................2 Facebook...................................................................................................................................3 Twitter.........................................................................................................................................5 LinkedIn......................................................................................................................................7 Google+......................................................................................................................................9 YouTube....................................................................................................................................11 Pinterest....................................................................................................................................13 Instagram..................................................................................................................................15 Conclusion................................................................................................................................17 About MediaFunnel .................................................................................................................18 Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 1 Introduction Social media isn’t a fad. In fact, for most business, engagement on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has become a strategic necessity. In a world where people are increasingly engaged online, it has become critical for many businesses to get involved in social conversations about their industry, their brand and their customers. If you’re new to social media for business, you’re not alone – it’s new to a lot of people. The social media landscape is ever-changing. So whenever you decide to jump on board, it won’t be too late. However, sooner is better than later. A social media presence will increase recognition of your brand and, done correctly, will generate leads for your business. Just take a look at the chart below, which is provided courtesy of Hubspot. Social media isn’t going anywhere - it’s only becoming more influential in consumer decisions. In fact, while 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements ( Nielsen ). Take a couple minutes to watch Erik Qualman’s captivating video to learn just how large a part social media plays in our world today. It is our hope that this brief guide helps you learn how to use social media to generate business for your company. This guide is only the beginning; we have a regularly updated Social Media for Business Blog that will keep you informed about the latest tools and tips for your business. Now start generating leads! Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 2 Facebook With 800 million users on Facebook, it’s essential for your business to reach out to this captive audience. There are several ways to do so. Try to employ as many of the following strategies as possible. Create a Facebook Fan Page A Facebook fan page is the central point for your business on Facebook. Your Facebook Fan Page allows you to make announcements, interact with your fans, post images and videos, host contests, and launch products, to name a few ideas. All this activity will consistently keep your brand in the minds of potentially millions of people, allowing them the option to convert. To create a page, follow Facebook’s simple steps. Create Facebook Ads If you’re willing to put some of your budget into advertising, consider Facebook Ads. As you follow your ad campaign, examine whether visitors who click on your ads are actually becoming leads. Our Facebook Ad Guide will get you on your way. Launch a New Product With Facebook These days, a product launch doesn’t need to involve a million dollar TV ad campaign. With most consumers involved in at least one social network, promoting your new product through social media can be influential and cost effective. Here is a step-by-step guide. Add the “Like” Button When Facebook users “Like” fan pages, posts, or comments, all of their friends will see their actions and the effects are viral. Studies have shown that consumers prefer peer recommendations to traditional advertising. Therefore, you need to encourage Facebook users to Like really anything and everything about your brand. Place Like buttons on your company website, blog posts, and e-mails. To learn how to add Like buttons and Like boxes, visit Facebook’s instructions here. Add the “Subscribe to Facebook” Button If you have a member profile page in addition to your Facebook fan page, you can optimize it for marketing as well. Simply add a Subscribe button to it. Read our post to learn how to accomplish this. Host Contests on Facebook Contests are fun for everyone and a great way to bring your product or service to life. Here’s how to create one: Promotional Rules – As you plan a contest strategy on Facebook, it is important that you are aware of Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines. Make sure that you review and understand all of these before starting, or you’ll risk having your Page taken down. Vocabulary – Is your contest, competition, or sweepstakes considered by Facebook to be a “promotion”? See if it fits into any of the following definitions: Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 3 • contest/competition: a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria). • sweepstakes: a promotion that includes a prize of monetary value and a winner selected on the basis of chance. Facebook’s Guidelines only allow businesses to host social media contests, competitions, or sweepstakes through Apps on Facebook.com. Businesses cannot administer or communicate their promotion using Facebook features. • administration: the operation of any element of the promotion, such as collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners. • communication: promoting, advertising or referencing a promotion in any way on Facebook, e.g., in ads, on a Page, or in a Wall post. When using any social media platform for business, be sure to read the site’s terms, guidelines, and content policies for social media contests and any other ventures that might seem questionable. You’ll be able to have fun promoting your business using social media without having to worry. Use Facebook Insights Facebook has it’s own, free, built-in analytics system that will show you how your fans are responding to the updates that you post on your fan page. Learn more here. Related Must-Reads 6 Tips For Creating an Effective Facebook Welcome Tab 8 Tips for Marketing an Event Through Social Media 11 Tips For Getting More Facebook Fans What is Your Overall Facebook Fan Worth? Facebook Page Analytics for iFrame Page Tabs B2B Social Media Engagement on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 4 Twitter How Your Company Can Putt for Dough on Twitter Many years ago, professional golfer Bobby Locke coined the phrase, “you drive for show but putt for dough.” Driving and putting are both necessary components of the game of golf, but if a golfer is a great driver and a lousy putter, they will not receive any monetary rewards for playing the game until they bring their putting game up to the at least the level of their driving game. A lot of companies are on Twitter because, well, companies have to be on Twitter. However, executives may be asking marketers whether Twitter is all for show, or whether a Twitter presence can drive revenue in a measurable way. Unlike with a Facebook Page, a company cannot directly convert followers to leads or customers on the Twitter platform itself. On Twitter, as with golf, there are two, very important components to the game. We’ll look at each in turn. Driving for Show on Twitter Much of a company’s Twitter activity is driving for show, to the extent that a lot of activity does not lead to revenue generation in a measurable way. Non-measurable, but important and necessary Twitter activity includes: following individuals and companies (usually in the hope of being followed back); retweeting content that’s relevant to prospects and customers; engaging with others; tweeting generally useful or newsworthy information and the like. Social support is an extremely important aspect of a Twitter presence for certain types of companies, but its top line benefits are difficult to measure. All this Twitter activity is part of the game and is necessary for moving your company forward in the game. Tweeting for Dough But, how can Twitter lead to top line revenue in a measurable way? There are several ways to “Tweet for dough”. The processes differ slightly between businesses that have a sales cycle (service businesses, enterprise software vendors) and self-service subscription model businesses. Read more... Twitter Do’s and Don’ts With all the noise on Twitter, how do you make sure that your organization’s Tweets stand out from the crowd? Here are some Twitter do’s and don’ts: DO: Create a Twitter brand page for your company. You can customize the design of your page, which will be public, so that even people who don’t have a Twitter account can see your page’s content. Read more about brand pages here. DO: Leave enough spaces in your original Tweets for traditional Retweeting — specifically, leave room a character count of RT<space>@<your handle><space>. People don’t want to spend time deciding what words to remove from Retweets. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 5 DO: Recycle rather than repurpose content – it’s fine to repeatedly reference the same blog post over time in your Tweets, but avoid continually rehashing the exact same text. Mix up your “headline.” DO: Create catchy references to what’s behind your URLs - if possible, come up with a title that’s going to hook the person who’s reading the Tweet and make them curious about the content they will see if they click the shortened URL. DO: Retweet others’ content – tweeting your own company’s content is a great idea, but make sure you also Retweet content from other people and other companies that’s relevant to your audience. DO: Involve enough users in creating content – There are people in your organization with great ideas. Let them contribute to your Twitter stream. A social media management tool like MediaFunnel can help with this. DO: @Reply to customers who report issues – After our ISP originally set up their Twitter profile last year, they ignored customer Tweets for months, even when customers were Tweeting about outages. Don’t make this Twitter mistake – If you set up a Twitter presence, be prepared to respond to customers. DON’T: Do “Bursty” Tweeting – It’s much better to spread your content out throughout the course of the day rather than publishing, say, five new Tweets within five minutes — and then not Tweeting anything for hours. You can avoid this Twitter mistake by using a tool that evenly distributes your stockpile of Tweets across a timeline. DON’T: Link to biased content – If you’re going to drive people to your blog or to other Website content, it’s much better if the content is informational rather than promotional. If your linked website content is simply a slam on your competition, visitors will probably not be inclined to follow you. Related Must-Reads Twitter Brand Pages Are Here 10 Common Twitter Mistakes to Avoid How To Create Legitimate Social Media Contests How to Launch Your New Product Through Social Media 8 Tips for Marketing an Event Through Social Media 7 Tips to Get More Twitter Followers Five Examples of Great Customer Support on Twitter Become an Expert at Searching Twitter Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 6 LinkedIn LinkedIn is growing quickly, and as the social network created specifically for professionals, it should not be left out of your marketing strategy. Having a LinkedIn account will give you instant access to other industry professionals, potential clients who are researching businesses, and potential employees who are job-seeking. One essential tool at the disposal of businesses is the LinkedIn Company Page. Get started with the following steps. Create a LinkedIn Company Page 1. Sign into LinkedIn and click on “Companies” in the toolbar. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Add a Company” button. 2. Fill in your company information. Have your company logo and founding year ready to input. 3. Are you hiring? Post openings on the “Careers” Tab of your Company Page. On average, jobs are forwarded eleven times by LinkedIn members and receive over thirty applications. The jobs you post will also be automatically Tweeted by the LinkedIn Jobs Twitter account, further expanding your job posting’s reach. LinkedIn can also show you the profiles of members who might fit your job requirements. 4. Bring your company to life with Company Status Updates. Share news, product releases and more with one click. Your updates will be posted in your company page’s “Overview” tab and seen by members who visit. People who choose to “follow” your company will see these updates in their personal feeds. 5. Urge company employees to “Follow” your company page to increase its visibility. Make a couple employees administrators of your company page, so that they can help you to create and post updates. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 7 Create a LinkedIn Company Page Products/Services Tab Create an introduction to your company’s products or services through the Products/Services Tab of your Company Page. You can provide write-ups for each of your products or services, and LinkedIn members can “share” or “recommend” them. You can also create a slideshow banner of related images to place at the top of your page. Once you’ve made your company page live, you can also monitor its visits through your private Analytics tab. You’ll learn a lot about your audience after this fairly simple setup. All that’s necessary to create a LinkedIn company page is about ten minutes and a few images. Related Must-Reads: How to Network Professionally Through Social Media How to Launch Your New Product Through Social Media 8 Tips for Marketing an Event Through Social Media Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 8 Google+ Google+ (a.k.a. Google Plus) is more of a newcomer to social media, but it has become one of the more important social media platforms, the main reason being that Google’s search engine favors everything associated with Google+, and ranks its content above all other search results. Here are some ways to acquire leads through Google+. Create a Google+ Business Page Your Google+ Business Page, like your Facebook Fan Page, is a place where users learn about your brand and interact with it. Not having a Google+ Business Page will hide your business from potential clients, so follow these easy steps to creating one now. How to Make Your Google+ Business Page More Searchable You may be wondering exactly how to optimize your Google+ page for maximum traffic. The following are a few items to consider when building and updating your page. Tips For Google+ Business Pages Searches Google+ Shortcut in Google Search – Users searching for Google+ business pages can easily pull up a company page by entering “+” before the name of the company. If you would like your Google+ page to appear to searchers through this shortcut, you’ll need to install a Google+ Direct Connect code onto your website to confirm that your Google+ page is in fact, the official company page. You can learn how to do this here. Preview Search Results – When a user searches a keyword in Google+, seven results will be previewed in a dropdown menu under their search bar. These results are ordered by most similar spelling to the keyword and by how well optimized the keyword is on the Google+ business page. Therefore, you should try to include relevant keywords in your “About” section copy. Also use this space to link to your company website and other social media venues. “Best of” vs. “Most recent” - When a Google+ user searches a keyword, related public posts from all Google+ users will appear, not just posts by people in the user’s circles. The user can choose to see results that are most relevant to their keyword under “Best of.” They can also choose to see the related content that has been posted most recently under “Most recent.” Thus, it is to your business’s advantage to update your page regularly. Spam Detection - Google+ recognizes when profiles are only sharing, posting on, and “+1-ing” one page in particular, and it subsequently lowers the page’s quality value. Try to keep a balance between marketing outreach and over-posting so that your page doesn’t become labeled in this manner. Your Profile - Fill out as many profile fields as possible and continue to work on them over time. The snippet under your Page title in Google search results will include the first line or two from your Page’s “About” section. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 9 Your Tagline – Try to keep your tagline to about 30 characters. For example, if you search “MediaFunnel” in “People and pages,” you’ll see that rolling over the result prompts a pop-up containing the tagline, “Enabling the Social Enterprise.” If we had written a full sentence here, words may have been cut off. Public posts – Make sure that your posts are publicly visible. Be influential – Participate in the Google+ community across as many networks as possible; your Page will become more attractive to Google search engine spiders. Post regularly and be sure to “tag” other members, for example: “Thank you +Jane Doe, for your insightful comment about this article by +John Green.” Link Your Page to AdWords – By doing so, any +1’s that you receive on ads will be added to your Page’s +1 count, and any on your Page will be added to your ads’ count. Add +1 Buttons – Be sure to add +1 buttons to your website, blog, and e-mail newsletters. Follow these directions to begin. Link your website to your Page – Use the About and Website sections to link back to your official site. This will help your Page become eligible for Direct Connect. Follow these tips, keep your Google+ Page active, and your influence should grow steadily. Related Must-Reads Google’s Social Search Takes Over Google+ Pages Planned Features Google+ To Introduce Mobile App Deals With Check-In Capability Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 10 YouTube A Google product, YouTube is more powerful than ever. People are visual, and over 3 billion videos are viewed per day on YouTube. Thus, it’s important for your business to have interesting video content on the web. Setting up a YouTube channel is simple and free. Here are a few ideas on what kind of video content you can feature: • Tutorials on how to use your product/service • A view of your office/retail space • Lectures by company speakers • Award ceremonies • Customer testimonials • Company events - volunteering, parties, etc. So, I have a company YouTube channel. Now what do I do? Share your videos across the web by: 1. Embedding videos on your website. 2. Posting videos on your blog, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media. 3. Embedding videos into your company emails. 4. Commenting on popular videos within your industry. Your engaged commentary may incite curiosity about your own business. Other tips: - “Favorite” related video content uploaded by other users. - Create playlists to keep your videos organized and easily accessible by visitors. - Look at your Analytics to see which videos your visitors are watching most frequently. Here’s a blog post that will give you some more tips on how to examine your Analytics. - Promote your videos by participating in YouTube’s pay-per-click program. Learn more about the program here. The YouTube Analytics Tool YouTube has recently updated its Analytics tool (formerly Insight). Because of the partnership between Google and YouTube, Analytics is very similar to Google Analytics. YouTube has created a “more useful and interactive” interface for your video data, in addition to the following new features. New YouTube Metrics Reports • Summary Report: This report shows the main metrics for your account. Each metric links to a more detailed report. • Download Report: You can download a report that covers only the data displayed on your screen, rather than all of your data. (Changing your settings for “View By” will even affect what data is reported). Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 11 New YouTube Metrics Features • Data Filter: This new feature allows users to view data by Content type, Geography, or Date range. • Interactive Map: The map displays the geographic location of data points for a metric, over a date range. • Line Chart: This chart shows the behavior of whatever metric you choose, over a date range. There are two display options: Data Granularity (charts with data points in daily, weekly, or monthly segments), and Compare Metric (charts including side-by-side data from two different metrics). This user-friendly version of Insight is warmly welcomed by YouTube marketers. If the revised YouTube metrics reports seem unfamiliar, take a look at this glossary of terms and enjoy this improved, in-depth analysis of your video data. Related Must-Reads 5 Online Business Video Mistakes to Avoid 12 YouTube Video Marketing Tips Google’s Social Search Takes Over Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 12 Pinterest Pinterest is a new social media platform offering users virtual “pinboards,” and it’s getting more popular by the minute. In fact, according to a recent study by Sharaholic, Pinterest drove more referral traffic to other sites than Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Myspace combined in January 2012. So how does people posting stuff they’re “Pinterested in” help your business? It’s pretty simple, actually. As a business owner, you want photos and videos about your company to be “pinned” by someone so that everyone else on the site can see them and want to share them. This is an ideal medium for retailers, whose products are being constantly showcased by many current pinners. However, you can make Pinterest work for your business no matter what industry you’re in, just by posting relevant and eye-catching photos and videos. Here’s how to get started: 1. Create a Pinterest Page for your company. Here’s an example of Nordstrom’s Pinterest page. 2. Add a “Follow me on Pinterest” button to your company’s website, blog, emails, etc. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 13 3. Add a Pin-It Button to each of your products so that users can “pin” your items to their boards. Follow these instructions. Use this growing social bookmarker to your advantage and make some space on Pinterest for your business. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 14 Instagram Images are worth a thousand words, and mobile app Instagram is proof. Using Instagram, users can take photos, adjust them to their liking, and publish them to all their friends. With 15 million users and two new members joining per second, Instagram is another opportunity for businesses to brand themselves and attract more followers. Instagram for Business Marketing If you create a company Instagram account, you can publish your photos on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, and Foursquare, or send them to email addresses. Other Instagram users can choose to “follow” your company account, allowing them to instantly see your photos in their feed. From there, they can “like,” comment on, or Retweet your company’s photos, allowing them to go viral. The other day, MediaFunnel’s Content Marketer Denise walked around the SOMA district of San Francisco, the birthplace of Twitter and many other tech startups. Founders and employees happily posed in front of their company logos for some example Instagram photos below. The photos also appear on our MediaFunnel Webstagram account. (We’ll explain the term “Webstagram” later in the article). Click on an image to view information about the photo on an Instagram page. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 15 Instagram for Business: How Does It Differ From Other Image Blogs? What differentiates Instagram from other image blogs is the ability it provides the photographer to add filters to their photos. As a brand marketer, you can create a specific color, shade, and look for your photos to match the message or mood that you want your audience to sense. Don’t limit yourself on the types of images that you post; catch followers’ eyes, and then show the connection between the image and your brand. Instagram for Business: Are Users Posting About You Already? Instagram users may already be posting images related to your brand. To find these images or mentions, go to your Instagram app and tap “Profile” in the menu at the bottom of your screen. Tap “Search Instagram” and then “Tags.” Type in the name of your company or sub-brands, and let the images load. You’ll gain insight into the aspects of your brand to which people are attracted, and you’ll learn who your fans are. You can then Retweet these images to enhance the community feeling around your brand. Put Your Business on the Map Make sure to geo-tag your photos. In other words, make sure to note where your photos were taken before uploading them to your account. Your company’s location on the map is another valuable entrypoint for potential followers. To accomplish this, take a photo, tap the green checkmark, and tap “Enable Geotag.” Tap “location” to choose a location option. You’ll be automatically shown nearby establishments. If you don’t see your business, try entering your establishment in the “Search or add a location” bar. Your Instagram account is also viewable on the web on Webstagram. The URL for your Instagram account is simply http://web.stagram.com/n/<your username> Users can browse your photos on their computers, and not just their mobile devices. Let’s say you work at Macy’s in New York, and you’ve been geo-tagging your company’s Instagram photos there. If a user searches “macys” on Webstagram, your photos should come up, in addition to a Google Map of exactly where Macy’s is. Instagram for business is only growing; start capturing more mindshare today with this fun and fairly simple set-up. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 16 Conclusion We hope that this guide has given you greater insight into how much power social media has today, and how you can harness this power to get leads and recognition. With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, you can engage your target audience using images, video, ads, and contests. Most importantly, you can connect with the influential people who are using these social networks. Start out with the advice in this guide. After studying your audience’s behavior, you’ll begin to develop strategies of your own that are more tailored to your business. With time, persistence, and an eye on trends, you’ll find that social media will become a key part of your marketing and customer relationship strategy. Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 17 About MediaFunnel MediaFunnel is the easy-to-use, enterprise social media management system for securing and protecting your brand. Your team will generate more consistent and relevant content for your organization's audience by making it painless to engage more employees in the posting of Tweets, Facebook Posts and other social media content. Monitor your brand and communicate with your audience. Publish only appropriate content. Listen to what people are saying about your product or service on social channels. Solve your customers' service issues and echo positive comments from monitored conversations. Engage and win! Learn more here, or just sign up for a 30-day free trial. Feel free to contact MediaFunnel with any questions or comments about this guide or our Social Media Management System. Check out our Social Media for Business Blog, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @mediafunnel Good luck! Tweet this Guide! Guide to Using Social Media For Business 2012 18