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THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SOCIAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

04 What is marketing and why is it important?

11 Create a winning social media strategy

26 Choosing the right social media platforms

49 Social media

56 Developing a social media calendar

64 How to structure your social media team

67 Integrating social media into your omnichannel

73 Your social media stack

76 Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns

82 Conclusion Introduction WHY SHOULD I READ THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO ? Social media is one of the most powerful ways to reach and engage with your buyers. Because it’s almost universally used—by consumers and —social media is one of the most effective (and perhaps cost-effective) channels to connect with your audience.

Today, social media activity is higher While social media platforms started Social media marketing offers " Social media is becoming a real than ever, with the number of users as ways to stay connected with marketers vast opportunities to engage part of people's everyday rising to 2.77 billion in 2019, up from your personal and professional with their buyers across the entire lives (all people, not just social 2.62 billion in 2018, according to network, they have evolved to customer lifecycle on the platforms media marketers)." Statista.¹ become powerful ways for brands to they actively use. So, it’s critical that, as -Peg Fitzpatrick, Social Media Strategist and connect with buyers and engage in a marketer, you know how to leverage Co-Author, The Art of Social Media: Power instantaneous two-way conversations. social media marketing to build your Tips for Power Users Social media is now the status quo for , drive demand, and engage your a ’s digital presence, and users buyer. expect to see their favorite brands on social media. And that’s why social media marketing plays a critical role in the success of every business.

¹ N umber of social media users worldwide from 2010 to 2021 (in billions), Statista, 2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users

3 What is social media marketing and why is it important? What is social media marketing and why is it important? SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DEFINED Social media marketing uses social media platforms to communicate and engage with people—regardless of the goal of that engagement.

Because of its rapid rise and It’s important to understand that Social media marketing can be prevalence, social media marketing has social media marketing is more than done organically, with posts that are become a global phenomenon and a the traditional platforms that many displayed to your audience based on ubiquitous part of a marketer’s toolkit. marketers are familiar with—, . It can also be augmented Social media is no longer something LinkedIn, , , and by paid advertising, with posts that are that needs an introduction—most . There are many more activities boosted by a platform’s ad capabilities, marketers and their audiences know and platforms that marketers can making it more likely for your post to about it. and should explore to reach their be seen by your target audience. target audiences, engage them with relevant messages, and build lasting relationships.

GLOBAL DIGITAL SNAPSHOT A snapshot of the world's key digital statistical indicators

TOTAL ACTIVE SOCIAL UNIQUE ACTIVE MOBILE POPULATION USERS MEDIA USERS MOBILE USERS SOCIAL USERS

7.395 3.419 2.307 3.790 1.968 BILLION BILLION BILLION BILLION BILLION 54% Urbanization 46% Penetration 31% Penetration 51% Penetration 27% Penetration

Source: We Are Social 5 What is social media marketing and why is it important? WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS IMPORTANT The impact of social media transcends almost every aspect of our daily lives—work, , breaking news, and more. The rise in social media usage by marketers, and our audience, means that participation is no longer an option; it’s a necessity. With a majority of audiences actively using social media, we need to meet our audience where they are. To understand the social media marketing offers your organization, let’s look at how it helps marketers drive value across every stage of the customer lifecycle.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BRAND % of who say they use social platforms to research products

44% 39% 39% 39% 38% 38% 37% 36%

Source: Global Web Index What is social media marketing and why is it important? INCREASE DEMAND Social media offers marketers more than just a way to reinforce their brand.

It’s also great for driving people to a conversion or sale by bringing in new SEO marketable contacts for your database Social selling gives you a way to Many marketers use their as directly work together to build your and nurturing them across all channels. connect with your buyers. Your social the “home base” for their marketing website’s page ranking, social media is media marketing and sales team (if activities—driving visitors to their site to one of the easiest and most effective Develop offers, promotions, contests, you have one) can reach out to people engage and eventually convert them. ways to push out your content. and content that engage your on a one-to-one level and offer them An important part of getting people to audience more deeply and drive The incoming links from your social personal, relevant content, messages, your website is your ranking in organic conversion—from a form fill to a media shares can impact your bounce and offers to accelerate them toward search results, which is where search purchase. This can be done through rate and time-on-site engagement. a purchase. engine optimization (SEO) comes in. social media activity from your And if your content is good and or one-on-one through SEO is a strategic activity that can help people stick around to read it, those individual team members. marketers bolster their organic search engagement metrics communicate rankings on search engines like . value to search engines. While social media and SEO may not

" As social media becomes more personal, social selling, when practiced correctly, is becoming a very real channel to engage people with." - John Jantsch, Speaker and Author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and The Commitment Engine What is social media marketing and why is it important? OMNICHANNEL CAMPAIGNS

Social media does not work in a silo. Many great brands use social networks as critical components of their and . But it’s important to understand that social media marketing is most effective when its messages and content support and reinforce other marketing channels. Coordinated messages across channels allow marketers to carry on a continuous conversation with their audience over time.

8 What is social media marketing and why is it important? NETWORKING AND PEER-TO-PEER INFLUENCE One of the best ways to engage an advertisement, your customers and family 41% more than social media your audience is by providing them are less likely to take your word for it. recommendations.⁵  with a compelling reason to share In contrast, Nielsen says that around your message with their networks. 90% of people believe what their "Smart, innovative companies What does it take to do Word-of-mouth marketing and peer peers have to say about a brand.³ If are leveraging thought leaders social media marketing well? recommendations are extremely your target audience’s friends and throughout their entire Look at this checklist to make sure you have all powerful ways to increase brand colleagues are talking positively about marketing strategy in order to your bases covered when starting or improving visibility through social proof, as your product or service, you are more pull in new audiences." your social media marketing strategy: people believe their network of peers likely to gain their trust than by running -Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Create clear goals more often than a branded campaign. an ad campaign. Institute Have dedicated and trained staff Trust—an engagement factor in The annually updated Edelman Trust Produce enough relevant, quality content every product/service category—has Barometer evaluates consumer trust Understand the social platforms and sites your audience prefers become the indispensable connective with brands. And in 2018, only 48% Equip your other channels with the ability tissue between brands and customer of US respondents said they trust to share to social Commit to making every campaign social loyalty.² Because people view any .⁴ Americans value word of Track metrics to get insights about your brand-to-buyer as mouth recommendations from friends social media campaigns

² C onsumer trust becoming key to brand success, report, Digital Strategy Consulting, 2019. http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/intelligence/2019/01/consumer_trust_becoming_ key_to_brand_success_report.php

³ 4 0 Employee Statistics To Build A Case For Social Business, Tribal Impact, 2015. https://www.tribalimpact.com/blog/my-favourite-employee-advocacy-statistics

⁴ 2 018 Edelman Trust Barometer, Edelman, 2018. https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2018-10/2018_Edelman_Trust_ Barometer_Global_Report_FEB.pdf

⁵ T he 2018 Chatter Matters Word of Mouth Study, Talk Triggers, 2018. https://www.talktriggers.com/cm

9 What is social media marketing and why is it important? SOCIAL MEDIA DRIVES VALUE ACROSS THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE Brand awareness and peer-to-peer sharing are important, but social media marketing is not a soft metrics-only channel. Today, it drives real, trackable revenue. The level of innovation on social media platforms also allows Awareness Engagement Purchase Retention Growth Advocacy marketers to try new approaches & Loyalty to reach and engage their target audience. With the right tools, like marketing automation and a social media management platform, you’re able to listen and respond to your audience across channels, and track the revenue associated with your social media marketing activities—making their impact crystal clear.

10 Create a winning social media strategy Create a winning social media strategy UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE Before you jump into the tactical and practical details of your social media plan, it’s critical that you take the time to understand your audience. Who are they? What do they care about? This section will walk you through how to answer these questions and define your audience.

Build personas To understand your audience—from In that case, you may still want to go prospects to current customers—you’ll back and examine if those personas want to create personas that represent truly represent the audience you’ll the people within your audience. encounter on social media. Listening to Often, this information is already your audience on social media can be available from work you have done to a helpful way to confirm whether your segment and target audiences in other personas fit your audience. It helps marketing channels. you understand in real time what your audience truly cares about and shares.

12 Create a winning social media strategy: Understand your audience Build personas Sometimes, the personas you are trying to reach simply aren’t on social media. If so, you should craft content QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN BUILDING YOUR CUSTOMER PERSONAS: that will be valuable to them but may also reach people outside of your built personas. It’s important What companies are they from? What are their key job responsibilities? to understand and create content BACKGROUND What are their likes and dislikes about their job? What does their team for your audience, but on social, the structure look like? best practice is to avoid being overly exclusive with content. What are their business goals? How can your products help them GOALS achieve those goals? What are their challenges and pain points? If you don’t have customer personas How can you help address them? yet or are adapting them from the personas developed for different Where do they like to consume content (channels)? Are there specific SOURCE OF INFORMATION objectives, here is a set of questions social channels where they do and don’t engage? you will want to ask to get started: PREFERRED CONTENT TOPIC What content topics are they interested in?

MARKETING MESSAGE Which type of messaging speaks directly to them?

OBJECTIONS What objections do you anticipate from them during the sales process?

SPECIFIC PRODUCT Are they interested in a particular solution or product? INTEREST

ROLE IN PURCHASE What is their influence in the decision-making process? PROCESS

QUOTES What are some key takeaways that they have said during interviews?

13 Create a winning social media strategy: Understand your audience

Most companies develop personas If your business serves several types based on customer demographics of customers, you’ll want to develop ✍ and behaviors in addition to their multiple buyer personas. If you’re Why create personas? own understanding of customer a B2B organization, your personas Developing buyer personas requires some initial investment, but it pays off throughout the motivations and challenges. To distill may include an executive sponsor, customer lifecycle—for targeting not only your social media marketing campaigns, but also this into a persona, you can conduct decision maker, and the user. If you’re across all your marketing efforts. qualitative interviews and surveys a consumer company, you likely • They determine which kind of content you need: If you break your existing content of your customers and salespeople, will create your personas around down by persona, you can easily see which personas have enough content and as well as analyze the customer demographic information like age, which need more. demographic, firmographic, behavioral, , income level, and region. • They set the tone, style, and delivery strategies for your content: Some buyers and purchase data available in your For most organizations, somewhere respond best to light, conversational voice, while others trust a more formal tone. In creating your personas, you’ll find out the best tone and style for your audience. marketing automation platform between four and six personas is ideal, • They help you target the topics you should be about: Why speculate about or other systems. The better you although you might create fewer for a the topics your buyers care about when you could just ask? Personas will help you understand and humanize your less complex audience. generate a list of relevant topics. buyers, the more relevant your • They tell you where buyers get their information and how they want to consume it: marketing will be. Does your audience like to sink their teeth into 100-page guides, or do they prefer short, snappy graphics? Do they spend their time reading third-party reports, or do they comb through Twitter? This information will inform the way you create and distribute your content.

14 Create a winning social media strategy: Understand your audience Early-, mid-, and late-stage messages

You can deliver specific types of Mid: Mid-stage social media messages Late: Late-stage messages are messages on social media that are educational, engaging, and often educational, informative, and drive correlate to the goals you are trying to drive toward a goal. They should build conversions. However, it’s still accomplish. These early-, mid-, and trust with your audience and get them important that your message is on- Social media pitfalls to avoid late-stage messages work to nudge to engage with you further. Some brand and interesting. These messages As you plan your social media goals, buyers along the entire lifecycle—from examples include social contests, a could be a click-to-purchase, demo strategy, and activities, it’s important to avoid these common pitfalls: awareness to advocacy. free subscription to a newsletter, or an offering, or trial sign-up. These all • Don’t go in without goals. You need to invitation to an event. drive metrics that ultimately support a Early: Early-stage messages on social establish your objectives, goals, and ways to conversion—a new name, a sale, and media are fun, entertaining, and measure success. so on. educational. These could include • Don’t just brag or sell. Endless self- sharing or curating relevant news, will alienate your audience and offering helpful tips, or displaying irritate existing customers. visual content. • Don’t overlook measuring your ROI (return on investment). There are concrete ways to measure your impact (which we’ll cover later).

• Don’t assume every social media site is good for your business. It’s critical to understand how and when your buyers are using social " Once you know your target audience, you can look at the social media media. Social media requires you to actively landscape and see which social media platforms will work with your engage with your audience and can become message and will reach your audience. It's a combination of your goals a resource drain if you’re on too many and where your audience spends their time." channels.

• Don’t create a presence on a social site and -Peg Fitzpatrick then abandon it. Creating a presence means finding and building engagement with your audience. It’s a continuous process that takes time, but it’s well worth the effort.

15 Create a winning social media strategy: Map your goals to the customer lifecycle MAP YOUR GOALS AND MESSAGING TO THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE

As with any marketing strategy, it’s In this section, we will look at how to Awareness important to start by defining your define your goals for each stage of goals. To do this, we recommend the customer lifecycle and the types identifying your social media marketing of messages that will engage your goals for each stage of the customer audience. Engagement lifecycle. This creates a foundation for a solid social media strategy that’s flexible enough to react to an Purchase individual’s buyer journey while also providing a road map for determining which platforms, messages, and offers make sense for your buyer. Retention/Loyalty

Growth

Advocacy

"Fully understand the goals and questions your potential customers have at each stage. If you do that, you can effectively guide customers no matter where they choose to get their information and engage." -John Jantsch Create a winning social media strategy: Map your goals to the customer lifecycle The six stages of the customer lifecycle

Whenever you communicate with stages, both forward and backward. 2. Engagement 3. Purchase your audience, it’s important to This is how these stages can shape Buyers in this phase have displayed In this stage, your buyers are ready keep their buyer journey and the your social media marketing goals. interest in your company and are to purchase from you, so your job is customer lifecycle—from awareness 1. Awareness potential customers. Your goal is to to make the process convenient for to advocacy—in mind. Understanding Buyers here are at the beginning of the listen to their behaviors and then them. Monitor your purchase process where each individual is in their customer lifecycle. This is where good engage them with targeted messages to ensure an easy transaction for your unique buyer’s journey allows you to branding, a high ranking on search to nudge toward the next conversion. new customers. If other teams are have relevant conversations with them. engines, and a strong social media This includes creating specific offers involved, such as sales or support, Your buyers have a goal: to fill a need presence are useful. Your goal in this and nurture tracks based on their align your communications so that or solve a problem. To help, you need phase is to drive brand awareness and preferences and behaviors. Useful you’re guiding your buyers through the to understand the different stages of capture audience interest, reaching content is a great way to maintain transaction. the customer lifecycle, identify where them on the right channels with a connection with your audience, each buyer is in their unique journey, relevant, personalized messages. For educate them, and ultimately build a present a call-to-action (CTA) and tie your social media marketing, this lasting relationship. For social media each of your marketing activities to means offering plenty of early-stage marketing, this means incorporating business outcomes. messages and having a thorough mid-stage messages into your social At Marketo, we break down the understanding of the social media media editorial mix and using paid customer lifecycle into six main stages: platforms your buyers use so you can advertising to target specific audiences awareness, engagement, purchase, always reach them where they are. with content and offers that will push retention/loyalty, growth, and them forward to make a purchase. advocacy. Each buyer’s unique journey is fluid and can move between these

17 Create a winning social media strategy: Map your goals to the customer lifecycle The six stages of the customer lifecycle (cont.)

4. Retention/loyalty 5. Growth 6. Advocacy While converting a buyer into a Marketing doesn’t end after the sale. Engaging with customers throughout customer is considered a success Continue to provide value to your their lifecycle isn’t just about individual for most marketers, creating trusting, customers by identifying cross-sell value—it’s also about the value of long-term relationships with your and upsell opportunities. You can use their networks. Turning your loyal customers is one of the most effective your marketing automation platform to customers into advocates can expand ways to increase revenue. For social segment your current customers and your reach and promote your brand. media, this means understanding share that list with digital advertising It’s important that you treat your that your customers are part of your platforms, allowing you to target existing customers well by continuing audience and ensuring that you current customers with new offers. to engage them with special perks and continue to provide them value with incentives. Your goal is to offer a great relevant content and messages. It also to encourage means having a plan and process in your customers to become brand place when your customers encounter advocates. It’s important that you customer service issues, so you can show your advocates recognition, rapidly respond and deliver on your like with retweets, special offers, or brand promise. promotions.

WHY MARKET ACROSS THE ENTIRE LIFECYCLE?

The probability of selling The probability of selling to an Marketers that say they achieve a higher Repeat customers spend more to a prospect is less than existing customer is greater than ROI by focusing on engagement: than new customers by as much as 20% 60% 49% 67%

⁶ C ustomer Retention Should Outweigh Customer Acquisition, Adobe, 2013. Source: Marketing Metrics and Bain & Company⁶ https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2013/7/18/customer_retention.html#gs.8zjdvq

18 Create a winning social media strategy CREATING CONTENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA Now that you’ve identified your social So, in order to be successful, your media goals across the entire customer content needs to not only offer value lifecycle, it’s time to start achieving but also meet their expectations. Social media standards and code of ethics them. Because of the immediate, In order to grow your social media Businesses and people who participate on social media should consider adhering one-to-one nature of social media presence and hit your objectives, to the generally accepted code of ethics and guidelines set by the Word of Mouth marketing, your buyers expect your you need to create content that Marketing Association (WOMMA). WOMMA provides guidance for marketers brand to behave like any other person maps to each stage of the customer and businesses committed to engaging in practices and policies that promote an environment of trust between the consumer and marketer. on the platform. lifecycle and aligns with your buyers’ expectations on every channel. With the proliferation of marketing messages, the only way to break " Great social is really about great content. The campaigns that really through to your audience is with stand out are those with content that compel the user to participate, content that offers relevant, useful, to engage, to share, to amplify. Think about how you can make your and valuable information. audience part of the content. does a great job of this." -Matt Heinz, President, Heinz Marketing

19 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media DEFINE YOUR WRITING STYLE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA Your content is driven by the target helps you achieve. Does a particular Are you creating content that's Regardless of whether your asset has personas you are trying to reach asset help increase brand affinity? targeted? a broad or targeted audience, there on your social channels and your You may want to promote that post Every piece of content you create are a few things that you can do to objectives for each stage of the both organically and through paid should have an intended audience. create more relevant content. You can customer lifecycle. promotion to increase its reach and That audience may be broad, but you start by applying the 4 Rs—reorganize, should understand the purpose and Based on your assessment in the achieve your objectives. Is an asset rewrite, retire, redesign—to existing persona(s) you to speak to, inform, earlier chapter on personas, you intended to be educational and content. and educate. should have a solid understanding useful? Perhaps it should be promoted of what tone, style, and delivery to audiences who have previously Let’s explore what this looks like interacted with your brand. for a B2B organization. Practitioners strategies to use. Are you targeting would be interested in actionable practitioners on specific social Are you creating channels? Perhaps you will want to content that educates? content that walks them through use a conversational voice on Twitter As you consider creating content to “how-to” steps of accomplishing a or Facebook. Are you trying to reach support your social media marketing, task, whereas executives are more executives? You may want to use a frame your thinking around your likely to be interested in content that formal voice on a professional network audience’s needs and interests. Not addresses higher-level strategy and like LinkedIn. focusing on your audience will result best practices. in content that is blind to your buyers’ Whoever your target audience is, it’s needs and the value you aim to create important that you understand which for them. objectives each piece of content

" It used to be that we created paid ads, shared those on social media, and hoped they earned organic or "" brand engagement. That has flipped. Now, brands are creating great on their own platforms. If the content is good, it 'earns' social shares. Then paid promotion is placed behind it to maximize reach. Ultimately, it all starts with great content!" -Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group 20 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media SCALING YOUR CONTENT FOR SOCIAL The 4 Rs Because social media marketing requires content to fuel many of the conversations and interactions you want to have, you may need to get creative in how you resource your team and create that content. To maximize the value of your team, save money, and effectively create the content that you need, use the 4 Rs of content marketing for your social content.

Reorganize Rewrite Retire Redesign Maximize your efficiency and use Extend your investment by using Sometimes it’s best to remove In some cases, all your content sections of the same piece to pieces that already exist. Take a content that’s outdated. Social needs is a fresh design. Your asset create smaller breakout pieces. For look at your content library and media sharing is instantaneous, can feel old because the creative example, you could break up an determine where you can pull and the last thing you want to do visuals are no longer on trend. infographic into different visuals relevant information from. Even if is make your brand appear out of Sometimes you can update an (such as important stats and charts) an asset is outdated, there may still the loop. existing asset to make it relevant for to share on your social channels be relevant takeaways that your a segment of your audience or a and include a link to the full audience will find valuable. certain persona. infographic in your caption.

"When you create a great or that resonates with your audience, too often, marketers stop there. You must take that content and turn it into other pieces that fit other social platforms. For example, if you have a great Facebook Live video, take the best 1 minute clip and share it on Instagram." -Brian Fanzo, Change Evangelist & CEO, iSocialFanz, LLC 21 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media Create a variety of content

To keep your audience engaged, Your content can take many forms, make sure you’re creating content and your mix may look different that is shareable on social media depending on which platforms you marketing—YAY! or nay? while still helping you achieve your choose to engage with, your business People process visual information much faster than text, so using in your social media goals. Content is a great way to show type, and your audience. Common messages can help your audience grasp the message quickly, especially if they are scanning your expertise and your personality, pieces include: through their feed. However, it can be easy to go overboard with emojis, so it’s important to follow these tips: and there are many purposes for • Blog posts content, from building your audience’s 1. Use emojis tastefully. Emojis should help demonstrate your message, not be your • Tip sheets/checklists entire message. Publishing posts with emojis making up most of the content can perception of your brand to thought leave room for misinterpretation. leadership to simply posting fun, • Infographics 2. Use them for the right audience. If you’re building brand awareness and publishing shareable pieces. • Long-form content pieces fun or educational content, emojis can add more flavor to your post. On the other hand, if you’re trying to reach the C-suite with high-level messaging, it’s best to leave When you think about what types of (like and whitepapers) them out. content to create, it’s important to first • Photos and 3. Use them in the right context. Your emojis should complement your message, understand where you will be sharing not contradict it. Before you use emojis in your marketing, do a little research on • Fun visual content it (many social media platforms lend whether they mean the same thing to different people. (like memes and comics) themselves more naturally to specific types of content) and what types of • Slideshows content your audience consumes and • engages with most readily.

"One size content doesn't work, of course neither does the same "Regulated brands will likely have to take more conversations offline content across all social networks. There are specific content than a retailer or restaurant, but that doesn't mean they still can't be considerations for the campaign, the brand's audience, and the personable, empathetic, and helpful in public via social media." distinct organic networks built up on each channel." -Dan Gingiss, Co-Host, Focus on Customer Service -Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing

22 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media Define your content mix

Understanding what you’re going to This mix allows you to offer value that publish on social media starts with a far outweighs the sales of content strategy because content is your mid- and late-stage promotions the fuel you will use to engage with and educates and entertains your your audience. audience so that they are more As you assess and develop content welcoming to the later-stage messages for social media, think about how when you share them. It lets you you will distribute it. One example of engage in conversations with your a common social media distribution audience, build awareness, credibility, framework is the 4-1-1 rule. This rule and trust, and keep in touch with states that for every four educational followers—without coming across or entertaining posts (infographic, blog, as pushy or "salesy." Your audience’s awareness-level ), you can share trust—ultimately your most powerful one soft/mid-level promotion (a more selling tool—hangs in the balance. solution-focused asset) and one hard/ late-stage promotion (a demo, for example).

"The 4-1-1 rule applies to brands on social media, in part because it fundamentally reminds us that being a resource to others is the best way to market. (It’s a good rule for life, too, isn’t it?)" -Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

23 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media The power of visuals Photos Sharing photos and images can be a 1. Images appeal to emotions 3. Images engage People following directions with boon for companies. It lets you record text and illustrations do 323% Visual content strikes an emotional Photo and applications better than people following and increase the visibility of company chord with customers that text is provide the perfect opportunity for directions without illustrations.⁷ events, industry conferences, user unable to. The simplicity of photo and your business to engage your audience — NeoMam groups, and more. On social media, image sharing applications makes this in a fun way through contests and Visual content is more than you can build a visual vocabulary that appeal even greater. other image-centric campaigns. 40X more likely to get shared defines your brand in the same way on social media than other types 2. Images creates intimacy of content.⁸ — Buffer a traditional written-word style guide Photos help humanize your company. typically does. Social audiences— Now, customers and prospects can Content with relevant images gets prospects and customers—love relate to your brand message via photos 94% more views than content visual content, so make sure you are without relevant images.⁹ without needing to read a plethora of — KISSMetrics consistently using images in your . marketing mix. Here are the top three The average video reasons why you should use photos post generates 135% greater and images in your social media organic reach, when compared to photo posts. 10 — Social Bakers marketing campaigns:

"Every post, other than a response or comment, should have a picture ⁷ Thirteen Reasons Why your Brain Craves Infographics, NeoMam Studios. https://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/ or video. That's one of the most important things to remember." -Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, Canva ⁸ Why Visual Content Is the Key to Conversion, Social Media Today, 2015. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/why-visual-content-key-conversion-infographic

⁹ C ontent With Relevant Images Get 94 Percent More Views, Social Media Today, 2015. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-04-06/content-relevant-images-gets-94- more-views-infographic

10 Native Facebook Videos Get More Reach Than Any Other Type of Post, Socialbakers, 2015. https://www.socialbakers.com/blog/2367-native-facebook-videos-get-more-reach-than-any- other-type-of-post

24 Create a winning social media strategy: Creating content for social media

Videos customers toward another purchase or Encouraging comments is a great asset to promote social Video is now an essential part of any retaining those that you already have. Your goal should be to generate sharing. Integrate videos in your successful social media marketing To get more visibility, make sure you as many “thumbs-up” ratings and social campaigns to further increase strategy. Not convinced? According to optimize your videos by: comments as you can for brand engagement, as videos often have high Wyzowl, 77% of consumers say they’ve awareness and SEO purposes. share rates compared to other types of been convinced to buy a product or Using customer-centric titles Commenting on other popular assets. Promotional and sales-focused service by watching a video.11 Online Put careful thought into the keywords videos in your niche is another way to videos are acceptable and can be videos can help you achieve a range your customers might search for when generate more comments and ratings. useful. Unlike whitepapers, videos can of outcomes, from awareness and looking for a video like yours and what It’s also a great opportunity to present be product-oriented and promotional, engagement to conversion and will catch their attention as they’re yourself as an expert by making a and can include: retention. scrolling their feeds. comment that spurs other viewers • Product demos Videos are most valuable when they to engage. • Webinars Including video descriptions with offer a real-time look into your brand targeted keywords • Whiteboard sessions activities; it’s not enough to just pull Increasing social shares Use the description field to add • Customer copy from your other channels. Use links or embed codes to share relevant keywords for your buyer Therefore, video can sometimes be your videos on other channels and • Speaking engagements and your brand. If your video aims to include them on your website. hard for brands to develop because • Holiday video cards drive conversions, such as a purchase it requires resources to create and Determine which videos would be or download, it’s a best practice to • Vlog entries curate content. When optimizing video useful to prospects and customers include a shortened link with a CTA for your social media marketing, the and include the links in your emails, • User-generated content driving traffic to your website or a blog posts, and other outbound first step is to understand the goals • Company culture videos with a specific offer. you’re aiming to achieve. Some videos communications. will simply entertain—building brand You should always be thinking affinity, awareness, and engagement— about how to make your content while others will educate, helping drive more shareable, and video content

11  Increasing Product Understanding with Video, Wyzowl, 2016. https://www.wyzowl.com/increasing-product-understanding-with-video

25 Choosing the right social media platforms Choosing the right social media platforms SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS There are many different social media platforms you can use to reach and engage with your audience. In this section, we will cover some of the core platforms your business can leverage.

Many social platforms have As you navigate the social media capabilities that overlap, and they landscape, it’s important to have a Reminder

will likely continue to develop as solid understanding of each channel’s The content you share on each of these social media platforms will vary each platform evolves to improve features and capabilities to help depending on the target personas you are trying to reach and your objectives the user experience. As with any of map a strategy for which platforms for each stage of the customer lifecycle. your marketing campaigns, the best to participate on. But the key is to platforms to use are the ones where remember that it’s not enough to your buyers are. Keep your audience merely post on any of these sites; you and objectives in mind as you choose must engage and build relationships which platforms to focus on—some with your audience continuously. are better suited for meeting your early customer lifecycle stage objectives, while others have more advanced targeting options that allow you to reach buyers at every stage.

"It all comes back to asking yourself how you can make your story relevant to that "I believe too many marketers are creating strategies focused on where their audience space. Learning to adapt to evolving will change the way that we is today. Not only does that not embrace change, but it forgets to factor in where your connect with people and tell our stories." audience will be tomorrow." -Bryan Kramer, Best Selling Author, CEO, PureMatter, TED Talk & Keynote Speaker -Brian Fanzo

27 Choosing the right social media platforms

Facebook Facebook is one of the most widely Facebook offers more than just a way used social media platforms, with to stay in touch with friends, family, more than 2.27 billion monthly active and colleagues—it’s also an essential users.12 Its continued success can tool to connect with your buyers. largely be attributed to its focus on Since it officially created a space for user experience and its ability to brands in 2007, it has continued to navigate the shift to a mobile-first evolve the ways marketers engage world. with their audience. Facebook allows your business to be accessible to people on a trusted, popular platform, where potential customers can not only engage with your brand but also see real people (their network) interacting with you. This sets the stage for you to build stronger, more authentic relationships with them.

12  Facebook hits 2.27 billion monthly active users as earnings stabilize, NBC News, October 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-hits-2-27-billion-monthly-active-users-earnings-stabilize-n926391

28 Choosing the right social media platforms Facebook (cont.)

Will my post be seen? What you need to know about Facebook’s :

Changes to Facebook’s algorithm Marten L. Shelly D David N

over time have had an impact on 2hr• 1hr• 4hr• organic impressions—now, posting Actions on videos: Behavior differs a Reduction of clickbait headlines: for the sake of posting can actually bit for video, and people don’t necessarily like, hurt your chances of being seen. comment, or share videos they enjoy. Facebook You won't Facebook is very user-centric and counts other actions as metrics of success, believe what continually optimizes its platform such as how long someone watches a video, happened next... whether someone turns on the sound, makes the to ensure that the News Feed video full screen, and enables high-definition. helps users connect to stories that Time spent reading a post: In the Relevance is key—think about sharing fun, matter most to them. Posting overly past, brands could manipulate their engagement educational, or humorous video content that is Clickbaiting is when a publisher posts a link promotional content will cause rates by running a contest in which users were immediately engaging. with a headline that’s misleading or leaves out required to like, share, or comment on a post, important information to get users to click on it. your page’s organic distribution to but this no longer works. Facebook measures the While these posts get a lot of clicks, Facebook fall over time. So how do you make number of seconds a user spends on each post research shows that 80% of the time, people sure customers see your post? to understand whether the content resonated prefer headlines that are more informative. So Understand how the following with them. If individuals spend more time on a instead, Facebook looks at how long people particular post compared to others, it’s a good spend reading the article and the ratio of people issues impact it and how to indicator that it was important to them. clicking on the content compared to people overcome them: discussing and sharing it. Facebook has also Time spent with content: Facebook identified phrases that are commonly used in starts measuring this after your content has fully clickbait headlines to determine which posts are loaded and only measures to a certain threshold Facebook discovered Diversity of posts: clickbait and which web domains they’re coming so longer articles don’t get ranked higher. Ensure that people enjoy reading articles from a wide from. Links shared from those pages or domains that you provide users with timely, relevant, and range of publishers, so they’re reducing how will appear lower in the News Feed until they valuable content they will actually read. often people see several posts in a row from the stop posting clickbait headlines. same source. This means it benefits you to spread your posts throughout the day to increase the chances of them getting seen by your audience. Choosing the right social media platforms Facebook (cont.) Important features Live video Tips and tricks Tabs and apps Facebook Live videos are video posts • Create engaging cover photos • Incorporate live video into your Tabs and apps appear in two places on that you can share on your timeline to promote large assets, posts to engage your audience your Facebook page: in the navigation and in your followers’ News Feeds in announcements, or events. The in the moment. Research from bar under your page’s cover photo real time. They can also be watched cover photo is typically the first Facebook reveals that people and on the left side of your timeline. after the fact, and brands have the thing a user sees when they visit spend 300% more time watching Tabs come with your page and help ability to offer a subscribe function your Facebook page, so upload an a Facebook Live video when it’s users navigate through content such to notify subscribers whenever they image that is on brand and makes broadcasted live compared to as photos, videos, and events. Tabs start a live broadcast. You can share good use of that white space. To afterward.13 can also be used to host a variety of announcements, do interviews, make your cover image especially • Add links to some of your posts apps, which help a business extend cover events, and share educational eye-catching, you also have the its capabilities directly on its Facebook to point to a landing page on your broadcasts. Live video offers brands option to upload a video. page, including running contests, website. the opportunity to share what they are promoting offers, connecting to your • Use tabs to promote assets, a • Take advantage of Facebook’s thinking and doing right now with their other social accounts, and more. landing page, or other important carousel, slideshow, and canvas fans and audience. items. Facebook groups features to turn photos or Facebook Stories includes photos The group feature is useful for videos of your new product or or videos that followers can see in demonstrating someone’s passion or latest event into an interactive a dedicated “stories” section for 24 expertise in a topic while connecting experience. hours. Brands can post content with them to like-minded people. Company employees can join groups dedicated filters and emojis to increase visibility. to the industry to share ideas and It’s especially useful during an event insights with their peers. where you’d like to post a lot of timely content in a short amount of time. Bonus!

The best marketing automation solutions allow you to publish multiple landing pages directly to Facebook. Rather than redirecting Facebook visitors to your website, these pages allow you to gather data from customer behavior on Facebook in the same way that you can gather data from a page built on your marketing automation platform. 13  Facebook Gives Live Videos News Feed Boost, Social Media Today, 2016. Automation users can also use Facebook Lead Ads to promote specific offers and https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/facebook-gives-live-videos-news-feed-boost capture lead data that syncs seamlessly with their marketing automation platform.

30 Choosing the right social media platforms Facebook (cont.) Facebook paid advertising Having a complete Facebook Additionally, Facebook offers business profile and posting regular advertising, which operates off a updates is an important step to traditional pay-per-click (PPC) model. building your audience. But to Facebook limits the distribution take full advantage of Facebook’s of organic, unpaid posts, so paid large user base and people-based advertising is the best way to reach a targeting options, many businesses large audience. For more information are turning to paid promotions. on digital ads, check out our Facebook’s paid promotions include Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising. boosted/promoted posts, which allow you to put paid advertising and targeting behind a post on your Facebook page.

Fitbit uses tabs to promote job openings

31 Choosing the right social media platforms Twitter

In 2007, Twitter began and was and has become a space where both your business, and these self-selected considered by many to be a flash-in- corporate and personal brands can audience members are indicating an the-pan social media outlet. But now develop ongoing relationships with active interest in your brand. the platform is a virtual watercooler followers. Twitter also serves as a where the world’s news breaks and popular platform for customers to air people gather to discuss industry their customer service complaints. news, politics, pop culture, and their Companies that lack a strategic, daily musings. As of March 2019, conversion-based plan of attack for there are 330 million monthly active their Twitter accounts are losing out on 14 users. Additionally, this social giant access to a huge potential customer has proven it’s a critical part of any base and an opportunity to showcase marketing mix. Twitter has become themselves in a socially savvy, relevant an optimal network for thought way. Being followed by users on leadership growth and development Twitter is a signal of their affinity for

14  Number of monthly active Twitter users in the from 1st quarter 2010 to 1st quarter 2019 (in millions), Statista, 2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274564/monthly-active-twitter-users-in-the-united-states

60% of Twitter users purchased from a business because of something they saw on Twitter

32 Choosing the right social media platforms Twitter (cont.)

Grow your following Building your following on Twitter 2. Use Twitter lists: Twitter lists are is key to driving awareness and a simple way to accomplish two engagement success on the network. important things: strategically There are a variety of techniques listening and curating content for The 4-1-1 rule marketers can use to build their your users. Curated content often following—let’s explore four key comes in the form of a retweet Originally introduced by Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute, the 4-1-1 rule states that for every four early-stage, light, and informative pieces of content you share, you can ways: and is a good way to ensure that have one soft-sell offer and one hard-sell offer, like a demo. The 4-1-1 rule can guide your 1. C reate engaging tweets: your content mix is not purely sharing strategy for many social platforms, not just Twitter. Because Twitter is so fast- self-promotional. To make curating paced, it’s important that content easier, develop a Twitter list. you post regularly. Without Lists are a way to segment a group regular posts, your tweets will of accounts that regularly feature quickly get pushed down your interesting content. Segmenting followers’ streams. Think about these accounts into a list makes creating a mix of content that finding content to retweet quicker ranges from entertaining to and easier. It’s important to note educational to promotional. that some lists are private and some A good rule of thumb to use are public. You might want to make when creating your content mix a private list of influencers for your is the 4-1-1 rule. brand to follow and retweet and a public list of brand partners or thought leaders within your industry.

A Marketo Twitter List: Top 20 Women

33 Choosing the right social media platforms Twitter (cont.)

3. Craft your tweets: There are a • Use @mentions: few important tips for making Mentions are a way for you your tweets more searchable, to engage with other Twitter Twitter paid advertising shareable, and readable. users. Mentioning people will call their attention to • Keep your tweets concise: Because of its large global user base, Twitter can offer marketers advertising options your tweet, but avoid using that are highly customizable and targeted. Users can interact with promoted content, Hitting the maximum character mentions excessively because such as tweets, accounts, and trends, the same way they can with organic content. count of 280 happens, but try Additionally, Twitter offers website cards that promote a call-to-action and aim to it can feel spammy. to keep your tweet to around drive more website visits. For more information on digital ads, check out our 100 characters.15 You can use Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising. 4. H ost Twitter chats: a URL shortener like Bitly and A Twitter chat is a public built-in tools on social media conversation based around a management platforms. unique . The hashtag • Use #: allows you to follow the These symbols have become discussion and easily participate. synonymous with Twitter and Most Twitter chats are usually are used to tag tweets by topic, recurring and focus on specific making it easier for users to topics, but some are centered find your tweet. Marketers on special events. Hosting a can develop hashtags and use Twitter chat is a way to engage them to help promote and with your audience and track social campaigns. followers in real time.

15 Know Your Limit: The Ideal Length of Every Social Media Post, Sprout Social, 2019. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-character-counter/#twitter

34 Choosing the right social media platforms Twitter (cont.)

Tips and tricks • Create a Twitter list for your • Engage regularly with industry employees, competitors, leaders by interacting with their influencers, and top followers. posts and sharing them with your • Keep your tweets short and sweet. network. Research from Buddy Media shows • Include relevant links. Tweets with that tweets containing less than links are 86% more likely to be 100 characters receive 17% higher retweeted, according to research.18 16 engagement than longer ones. • Twitter handles and media • Generate hashtags for events, attachments don’t count toward product announcements, and the word count anymore but use other campaigns that need a big this extra space cautiously. You promotional push, and understand don’t want to overwhelm users the popular hashtags that apply to with too much text. your business, product, or service. • Add stickers to your tweets to According to research from Buddy make them more fun and engaging. Media, tweets with hashtags Stickers are searchable and receive twice as much engagement function as a visual hashtag. than those without. But use them sparingly, since tweets with more GE creates Twitter Lists for different interests than two hashtags showed a 17% drop in engagement.17

16 The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research, Buffer, 2018. https://buffer.com/library/the-ideal-length-of-everything-online-according-to-science

17 How to Hashtag, We Are Everyone, 2016. https://www.weareeveryone.com/blog-article/how-to-hashtag

18  10 Twitter Tactics to Increase Your Engagement, Social Media Examiner, 2014. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-tactics-to-increase-engagement 35 Choosing the right social media platforms LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest talent. Encourage your employees professional network, with more to participate on LinkedIn—it’s a than 460 million members.19 It has great professional location for your expanded its solution beyond a hiring employees to promote both your LinkedIn paid advertising and networking platform to include brand and their personal brands. robust company pages, a highly Leverage your employees’ business LinkedIn’s paid promotions include sponsored updates and LinkedIn ads, which solution, and networks by asking them to share amplify your status updates and advertisements to your target audience. And with sponsored InMail, you can send messages directly to a user’s LinkedIn inbox. For more publishing functionality. With these your company posts and join and information on digital ads, check out our Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising. additions, LinkedIn is now the way to participate in relevant groups. The reach an audience with a business more evangelists you have on LinkedIn, mindset. the more opportunity you have to Build your brand presence become a thought leader. Companies can build a profile on LinkedIn to showcase products, employee networks, blog posts, upcoming events, and status updates. Much like Twitter or Facebook, users on LinkedIn can follow your profile to learn more about your company. You can also post job openings on LinkedIn and search candidates, making it a great venue for recruiting

19 Numbers of LinkedIn members from 1st quarter 2009 to 3rd quarter 2016 (in millions), Statista, 2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/274050/quarterly-numbers-of--members/

36 Choosing the right social media platforms LinkedIn (cont.) A strong LinkedIn presence comes 3. Showcase page: A company from leveraging different aspects of showcase page is an extension the , which include: of your company page that is 1. P rofile page: Company profile designed to specific pages are a free LinkedIn service products or services. Showcase for any user. Because this is your pages are especially helpful when primary branded landing page your business has multiple solutions on LinkedIn, it’s very important with their own different fans and to make sure you have carefully followers. thought about the images and messages you choose to represent your brand. 2. Content sharing: Posting on your company page is a key way to build followers and fuel your paid advertising efforts. These posts can be text, images, links, video, or slide decks. It’s important to note that because LinkedIn is perceived as a professional PayPal's Showcase Page highlights their merchant solution, PayPal for Business network, your content mix and tone should aim to be fairly professional and engaging. We’ve found that because users are on LinkedIn mostly for professional purposes, educational posts perform very well.

37 Choosing the right social media platforms LinkedIn (cont.) 4. Groups: LinkedIn groups are Tips and tricks communities formed around • Encourage employees to topics of interest, industry, title, participate on LinkedIn Pulse and LinkedIn for talent, recruiting, and careers professional organization, brand, LinkedIn groups to build their and so on. In these , LinkedIn Talent Solutions is a product that serves recruiters and HR. The focal point of this network and generate awareness offering is the company career page—a paid page that is tabbed behind your company users can share articles, post around your brand. profile page. jobs, exchange advice, and • Create a group for your gather digitally. Groups can be a This space augments your company page branding efforts by sharing the personality and customers and brand advocates strategic and important way for an brand of your corporate culture. Your marketing and messages on your career page are or an industry group for targeted specifically at prospective employees or followers who are looking at all aspects of organization to create a community professionals in the same space. your company. of users, demonstrate thought leadership around a specific area, • Optimize your LinkedIn page for and gain insight into the pain SEO—include your top keywords points of potential customers. in your company description and Before starting a group, identify specialties to see a real impact in your objectives and decide which search results. group structure will best facilitate • Keep track of industry news and those goals. engage with key influencers on LinkedIn groups make it easy for LinkedIn Pulse. companies to locate potential customers. Simply make a list of keywords that relate to your prospects or the industries you target, and run a search for any LinkedIn groups related to these keywords. Once you find the right groups, participate in discussions, ask questions, and make connections.

38 Choosing the right social media platforms

Pinterest is a virtual scrapbook or include a good content mix on your conversions and sales. From retail pinboard that allows users to share Pinterest boards. to fitness to vacation packages and and organize visual imagery and link to For consumer organizations, Pinterest beyond, Pinterest has become a external sites. The platform functions is a valuable tool that allows brands valuable conversion generator for like a visual search engine. A user can to curate content that builds and many marketers. pin anything from around the web, reinforces their look and feel. other users can re-pin their images, Additionally, depending on the and they can organize their Pinterest product, Pinterest can help drive pages by categorizing content on boards. Pinterest can serve different purposes depending on the type of business you’re promoting. For B2B organizations, it’s a great way to curate visual content like infographics, videos, company culture, and even blog posts. The boards provide a unique, visually appealing way of organizing content. But always make sure your content is relevant to your audience and that you

Intel creates Pinterest boards that highlight everything from products to design to culture Choosing the right social media platforms Pinterest (cont.)

Retailers can easily socially market their goods on Pinterest, but companies that sell consulting Pinterest paid advertising packages or aircraft engines typically Using promoted pins, you can reach don’t have Pinterest in their marketing more people and ultimately drive more plans. Should they? If a brand cares traffic not only to your boards, but about or spends money on any of the also to your website. You can target buyers based on keywords they search following, then the answer is yes: and their interests, location, language, • Awareness: Pinterest’s platform is device, and gender. And with buyable pins, consumers can purchase products a search engine in itself, allowing directly from the Pinterest iOS or buyers to search for content Android app through a “Buy-It” button. they’re interested in—which could very well be your brand’s. • Engagement: If you have interesting content that has done well on other social channels, you can also pin it. Pinterest allows you to appeal to a more visually focused segment that may not be spending their time on Facebook or Twitter. Content pins can be a great way for your audience to collect a library of useful assets.

Lowe's uses Pinterest boards to showcase their products and provide helpful tips and tricks for home improvement

40 Choosing the right social media platforms Pinterest (cont.)

• Branding: Are you a design- find you and your pins, and it • Organize your boards around forward company? Pinterest is is all about keywords. Include different themes: different all about the visuals, so leverage relevant, popular keywords in product collections, company the fact that graphic designers the description of your pins and culture, inspiration, how-to, and are one of the most prolific boards to get more views, likes, so on. To get started, document all groups of pinners by getting and follows. The fastest way to the different types of assets you your creative team to pin their increase your following is by can share on Pinterest, then group work to both inspire and be pinning new and interesting items. them into common categories. inspired. Start a company board Some of your categories may be to show your peers the beauty of broad (office fun), while others will Tips and tricks your marketing, and then start a be specific (infographics). • Use relevant keywords to describe board with pins of other brands’ • Get verified as an official business, your pins, so users can easily find marketing campaigns that inspire so users view you as a trustworthy them. Over 80% of pins are re- you. source of information. This will pins, according to RJMetrics.20 So, • Conversions: Pins can link to make your pins stand out as users engage to increase your visibility. pages on other , which scan through, which is especially If you’re a consumer marketer, gives brands the opportunity to important if you're directing them consider adding prices to your drive buyers to a landing page for to another website. pins. Pins with prices get 36% more a gated asset, a registration page, likes than those without, according or a product page. Pinterest’s to a study by Shopify.21 search is primarily how people

20 Pinterest : An Inside Look, RJ Metrics, 2012. https://blog.rjmetrics.com/2012/02/15/pinterest-data-analysis-an-inside-look

21 Top 5 Social Media Platforms for Ecommerce, ShipStation, 2015. https://www.shipstation.com/blog/top-5-social-media-platforms-ecommerce

41 Choosing the right social media platforms Instagram

Instagram is a photo and video Plan: Before you begin sharing photos • Make  it exclusive—Post images • For Instagram stories, you have the sharing app that is becoming more and engaging users, it’s up to you to and videos that can only be seen ability to add polls, ask questions, valuable to marketers, especially create a plan for how you will reach on Instagram. run “ask me anythings” (AMAs), with Facebook’s acquisition of the your audience. Ask questions like: • Make  it visually engaging— and more to test less-permanent platform. It has a very active user • What does my target audience Instagram users are savvy and versions of content. base with more than 1 billion active want to see? creative and know lackluster monthly users.22 Many consumer • How can I get them to engage with content when they see it. Don’t brands are already realizing my photos and videos? post a photo or video unless it has tremendous success with Instagram, aesthetic appeal. using it to showcase their products • What will get them talking about • Make it personal—Post photos and engage their audience through my company? and videos that give your audience posts, contests, and giveaways. At its core, the planning stage is about insight into the inner workings of determining what will make buyers B2B organizations can use Instagram your product or company. to share interesting quotes and fun engage positively with your brand and • Include your audience— visuals, capture event and office creating a plan of execution. Find ways to feature your followers culture photos, and run contests and Capture: Create and share your and promote them (with their scavenger hunts. Whether you are content. Consider the following permission). Including and a B2B organization or a consumer objectives as you do: acknowledging your audience will brand, here are a few tips to help you encourage them to continue to find success on Instagram: engage and share.

22 Instagram hits 1 billion users, up from 800M in September, TechCrunch, 2018. https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/instagram-1-billion-users

42 Choosing the right social media platforms Instagram (cont.)

Hashtag: The Instagram hashtag is to your brand and industry, as well as a powerful feature to engage your ones that are popular keywords. And viewers. Hashtags act as keywords, remember to use hashtags (more than providing a way for people to find one!) on all of your posts. photos through a simple search. They are especially useful as you seek to establish your brand as an industry leader and get more followers. Implement hashtags that are unique

HASHTAGS AND AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT PER POST

50,000

45,000

40,000 Average of all posts: 31,827

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Posts with hashtags Posts with Posts with Posts with Posts with five Posts with Posts with and location tags two hashtags three hashtags no hashtags or more hashtags four hashtags one hashtag

Posts that include both a hashtag and a location tag over-index engagement, averaging 43,061 Likes and Comments each. Posts with multiple hashtags also perform better than average. 43 Choosing the right social media platforms Instagram (cont.)

Engage: Engaging and sharing with Tips and tricks • Create an image with text on it, potential customers is the primary • Make sure your Instagram account such as a quote or important Instagram paid advertising reason to use Instagram. There are a name is very similar to your takeaway, if you want to share text. number of ways for brands to do this: On Instagram, brands can advertise company’s name and that it’s set • Use Instagram stories to post more through a variety of imagery. With single • Events—  Post photos and videos to public so users can easily find frequently without overwhelming photo ads and multiple photo carousel of events you host for your current you through search, hashtags, and your audience. This feature makes ads, you can advertise using content that and potential customers. their networks’ activity. your content available for 24 appears seamlessly in the user’s feed. For more information on digital ads, hours, and you can choose which • Geolocation—  Use the geolocation • Post at peak times. Between 7:00 check out our Definitive Guide to Digital feature so users can easily discover and 9:00 p.m. are typically the ones you want to save to your Advertising. your account and your photos. busiest hours for Instagram. regular feed for a longer shelf life. This can be especially useful when • Identify hashtags that fit for your you are hosting a conference business and product, trending or event or promoting in-store hashtags you want to participate events. in (like #MondayMotivation or • Gamification—  Hold a contest #WednesdayWisdom), and for your audience. Have viewers hashtags unique to your brand, submit photos, provide captions, and incorporate them in every or solve a puzzle. single post. Consider using a • Convert—Instagram offers branded hashtag as well. Simply advertising that can drive direct Measured reports that 70% of the 23 sales, form fill-outs, subscriptions, most used hashtags are branded. and other conversion activities. While these are not organic posts, they are important to consider as you create your Instagram content mix.

Cisco posts statistics on Instagram, visualizing them with photos and text 23 5 Ways to Rock a Branded Instagram Hashtag, Later, 2016. https://later.com/blog/branded-instagram-hashtag-guide 44 Choosing the right social media platforms YouTube

YouTube has more than 1.9 billion Tips and tricks 24 users. Your video titles should be • Use a keyword-rich description YouTube paid advertising customer-centric and descriptive so because this section represents users can easily find your content, the that Google Whether your buyers are looking at funny cat videos or watching educational marketing and your video descriptions should searches. videos, there are various types of ads you can show to targeted audiences based on content: be two or three sentences that in-stream, in-search, in-display, or in-video overlay ads. For more information on digital ads, • Post new videos consistently, so include targeted keywords. check out our Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising. users feel that it’s worthwhile to Be sure to take advantage of the subscribe to your channel. Set tagging feature, which is how a cadence for how often you YouTube determines the relevance will publish videos and stick to of your asset and groups similar it. Once you’ve set expectations videos together. Five to seven tags are with your audience, it can hurt optimal and will ensure your video your brand to not meet them. is associated with other videos and • Include CTAs in your videos, appears as a “related video.” asking viewers to subscribe or visit a link. You can direct them to your website to learn more or to a landing page to download a coupon or register for an event. • Broadcast live videos on your YouTube channel (and then host the recording).

24 Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2019, ranked by number of active users (in millions), National Geographic uses keyword-packed descriptions that help boost Statista, 2019. their search rankings https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users 45 Choosing the right social media platforms Snapchat

While Snapchat is more of a messaging • Understand how your tone, voice, app, brands can use the platform and branding will be represented. to tell interactive stories. Its content Consider starting an employee Snapchat paid advertising disappears after 24 hours, but it can be ambassador program to share Snapchat’s 3V (vertical video views) ads, which appear in both premium and downloaded and saved elsewhere. unique views of different teams curated content, allow brands to promote their stores in a portrait mode that within your company. takes up the full-screen space. And with the geofilter feature, businesses can create unique filters for their audiences to use to promote a campaign or event. Tips and tricks • Think in terms of a story. The • Create a custom QR code for your “My Story” part of Snapchat brand’s profile and get creative accumulates your snaps over a with where you place it. 24-hour period. What do you want your audience to know about you • Create branded geofilters for in that time period? events and launches for your audience to use and share with friends. At Marketo’s Marketing Nation® Summit, we used a geofilter within the conference center vicinity so users could interact with and share with their network.

Marketo's Snapchat filter at Marketing Nation Summit 46 Choosing the right social media platforms PRESENTATION SHARING Presentation-sharing platforms play a • Base  your presentation on a critical role in the research your buyers topic in which you are an expert. do long before they get in touch with Leverage subject matter experts you. Platforms such as SlideShare and within your company for topics Scribd offer you a great way to display they know well. This will help you your content, educate your audience, offer your audience a unique, and support your SEO strategy. expert point of view on a topic Upload and share content that and provide value. addresses your buyer personas and • Take it on the road. Use your track which sites are most popular presentation outside of simply with each persona. Then, refine posting it to the presentation- which topics and content work best sharing platform. Share it at on different sites. Types of content company meetings, user groups, you may want to share include , and conferences. infographics, slide decks, and webinar • Get SEO value. Make sure all slides. your presentations are optimized for SEO so you can reap the Tips and tricks search engine rewards. This will • Make  it a part of something help drive traffic not only to your bigger. Your presentation is presentation and channel, but also more powerful if it’s part of a back to your website. CMI publishes SlideShares on a variety of different topics to educate marketers larger content initiative. If your presentation is part of a bigger campaign, you can engage your audience further with content you know will interest them.

47 Choosing the right social media platforms Q&A Q&A sites give users a platform to Tips and tricks ask questions, provide answers, and • Listen for conversations that are discuss topics of interest. The best going on about your company or Link building sites provide easily searchable answers product and ask employees to join and can be good for SEO. Popular Many Q&A sites have high rankings and a continuous amount of traffic. Adding links to in when appropriate. For example, your responses on Q&A sites is a great way to drive traffic to your website and will have a Q&A sites include , , if customers are experiencing positive impact on your SEO. However, make sure that you aren’t just placing links without and Answers.com, although topics a technical issue or looking a quality response—links should be relevant to the question and your answer. on these sites can vary significantly. for advice about your product They can help you drive traffic to your or service, you can alert your website and can also help you build colleagues and ask them to answer relationships with key influencers. Set the questions. up Google Alerts for your company, • Host an AMA with subject matter competitors, and top keywords and experts and thought leaders keep an eye out for questions you within your company. AMAs give can answer. Remember to provide your brand direct access to your thought leadership and insight in your buyer’s needs and interests and comments and only include link-backs allow them to connect with you when relevant. And, of course, always on a more personal level. focus on building relationships.

Elon Musk hosted an AMA to engage with his audience Social media advertising Social media advertising SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING Social media advertising, like organic social media marketing, has become ubiquitous for marketers because of the size and quality of audiences on leading social networks. This section will examine how to think about your paid advertising campaigns across social media platforms.

Social advertising allows you can target in place, track all your paid social specific audiences and deliver your campaigns, and gain insights into message on the platforms that your what’s working and what’s not. Only ✍️ buyers spend time on. But advertising then can you understand the return Social advertising tips: on social media platforms has changed on ad spend (ROAS) from your tremendously. Recent updates to campaigns. 1. Don’t take yourself too seriously 2. Focus on valuable content and solid offers many social networks’ algorithms So, where are marketers spending the 3. Use platform targeting for the biggest impact give users a better experience—one majority of their advertising dollars? 4. Always add value 5. Test your ads and content on each platform with less promotional content and According to the 2018 Sprout Social more relevant content they want to Index, Facebook remains the most see. So, as a marketer, you need to favored social media platform among supplement your organic posts with social marketers.25 paid promotion to get your content seen by your audience. This has led to an explosion in digital advertising on social media platforms. And as marketers increasingly spend more on social, it’s more important than ever to have the right strategy

25 65 Social Media Statistics to Bookmark in 2019, Sprout Social, 2019. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics

50 Social media advertising Defining your social media advertising

You need to determine which Identify your audience Pick the right social media platform " Social media is speeding toward and content platforms are best for your brand to Just as you would with any marketing a 'pay if you want to play' advertise on. Here’s how to structure campaign, you need to know who Audiences on each platform are model. With the introduction your paid social campaigns from start you are trying to reach with each of different, and while some overlap of algorithms across most major to finish. across channels, their expectations social networks, it's very hard for your paid social ads. Use the personas Define your goals you developed to identify whom you of content for each channel differ. businesses to stand out without You not only need to understand the bringing money to the table." It’s important to understand your should be targeting, then pinpoint networks your audiences are on and -Michael Stelzner, Founder and CEO, goals for each paid social campaign your exact audience for your social how to reach them, you also need to Social Media Examiner. up front because your strategy and campaigns. There are many ways to know which content will engage them key performance metrics will vary target specific audiences across social where. Try testing different types of depending on your goals. Your platforms, but if you don’t know whom content on your social media platforms objectives—whether brand awareness, you’re targeting, you won’t be able to to see what resonates on each. engagement, , take advantage of them. customer acquisition, retention,  advocacy, or a combination—will help you map out the most relevant offers and content.

51 Social media advertising

Select targeting options Once you have determined which platforms you will advertise on, it’s time to get familiar with the targeting Consider dark posts options on each channel. Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer dark posts. Facebook calls them dark posts and LinkedIn Social networks are getting more refers to them as direct sponsored content. These are ads you can create and promote sophisticated with their targeting without publishing directly to your news feed. Using dark posts can help you: options, and you can now target based on different attributes: interests, skills, • Promote a product or service to a specific audience • Adjust your ad messaging based on the segment you’re targeting titles, company names, and even • Promote local events that will only apply to a regional audience lists from your marketing automation • Avoid alienating followers by sharing too many broad messages on your timeline platform. LinkedIn lets you target • A/B test different ads without having to post them multiple times people based on their titles, skill sets, company, and degree, while Facebook allows you to target people based on their demographics, behaviors, and interest levels in certain topics or products. You can also exclude certain audiences that you don’t want to serve specific content or ads.

LinkedIn’s ad targeting options Facebook's ad targeting options

52 Social media advertising

Full lifecycle advertising with Ad Targeting Using Ad Targeting, you can associate Marketo Ad lets you send lists offline conversions with the paid of your best prospects or customers search ads that initiated them. So, to social media platforms, which can rather than optimizing ads based on identify similar people. And once landing page conversions, marketers you drive targeted prospects to your can focus their bids on keywords website and landing pages, you can that generate the most qualified retarget these anonymous visitors with leads, sales opportunities, pipeline, personalized ads after they leave. You’ll or revenue. Optimizing your PPC be able to identify details like industry, campaigns with this data boosts ROI, company size, revenue, company particularly for companies where name, location, and other attributes, part of the sales process takes place and connect them with the social outside the website. media platform. Marketo has unique audience data on After a prospect provides their contact high-value prospects and customers, details and becomes known, you can such as an engagement or lead continue to target them with ads on score, buyer journey stage, product social media to accelerate the nurture or topic interests, products owned, process. For example, you could target cross-channel activity, and more. By qualified leads with a live demo offer connecting this data in Marketo with to bring them into the sales process. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other ad You can even support the bottom of platforms, you can target the right the funnel by targeting contacts at potential customers with meaningful, early-stage sales opportunities with relevant ads at each stage of the buyer messages that help position your journey. organization and offerings.

53 Social media advertising

Create and measure your campaigns A good campaign structure will help qualified leads, sales opportunities, you measure and report. You can and pipeline and revenue generated build separate campaigns around per channel or campaign. This gives Tip: each product and service you want to you a better opportunity to optimize As you create and measure your paid ad campaigns, A/B test different versions using dark market, which will help you identify your campaigns and budgets to posts to select audiences. Analyze your results to understand which version drove the the audience most likely to respond ultimately drive more ROI. most conversions, such as clicks or form fills. Then track which posts drove conversions that ultimately matured into opportunities and eventually customers—all without to a product and serve them the most To do this, tag your URLs with unique disrupting your hard-won followers. relevant content or ads. This is much query string parameters for each harder to accomplish if you have campaign. Depending on how granular everyone grouped together in the you want to get, you can track your same campaign. However, in some activity at a channel level, a campaign cases, it might be wise to start with a level, or across campaigns at a product broader audience, like when you’re or asset level. By creating unique query launching a new product. You can strings for your registration URLs, you track the campaign data to identify can track which campaigns drove the which personas responded the most. most registrations and attendance There are a few ways to track the for the event. And afterward, you can performance of your social campaigns. measure how much each campaign Clicks and form fills are standard contributed to pipeline. This will help metrics, but if you are using a you understand what’s really working marketing automation platform, you to drive your business. can go beyond those and also track

54 Social media advertising Defining your social media advertising

AD NETWORK SPECIFICATIONS FOR DESIGN Whether you want to place your ad on social media or another ad network, you need to be familiar with the specs.

Common sizes for PPC ads mandated Facebook: Instagram: LinkedIn by Google: • Carousel cards: 1080 x 1080 • Landscape image ad • LinkedIn carousel specs • Medium rectangle • Single-image ads: 1200 x 628 pixels • L andscape image ad size — • 1080 x 1080 pixels with a • Half page • 2 0% text rule: no more than 1200 x 628 pixels 1:1 aspect ratio • Large mobile banner 20% of the image can be text • M inimum resolution — • Large rectangle • Slideshow ads: 1280 x 720 pixels 600 x 315 pixels • Leaderboard • Canvas ads: (mobile only) 1200 x • Proper aspect ratio — 1.9:1 • 160 x 600 pixels 628 pixels • Square image ad • 320 x 50 pixels • Facebook video • R ecommended square image ad size — 1080 x 1080 pixels • 250 x 250 pixels • Format — .MOV or .MP4 •  M inimum square image ad • 468 x 60 pixels • Aspect ratio — 16:9 resolution — 600 x 600 pixels • 970 x 90 pixels • Resolution — 720p at minimum • Proper aspect ratio — 1:1 • T humbnail image — Twitter: 1200 x 675 pixels, 16.9 ratio • Vertical image ad • Website card: 800 x 418 • R ecommended square image (1.91:1 aspect ratio) or 800 x 800 ad size — 1080 x 1350 pixels (1:1 aspect ratio) • M inimum vertical image ad size • Single image tweet: 600 x 335 — 600 x 750 pixels • Proper aspect ratio — 4:5

55 Developing a social media calendar Developing a social media calendar Setting your cadence

Companies tend to have one of two • Staying on top of industry trends problems with social: either they can’t • Announcing new products think of anything to post, or they’ve got • Gathering new names for your so much material that they overwhelm marketing database their audience. Regardless of your situation, the question of what (and • Acquiring new customers how often) to post on social is a very • Building/nurturing relationships important one. with your buyers To figure out the right mix for your • Increasing traffic to your blog/ business, you should start by looking website/landing pages at your priorities and answering this question: What do you hope to accomplish with your social presence? "The process of editorial strategy You probably have several objectives, starts with identifying the right which might include: cadence of publishing. The goal • Sharing relevant content should always be to maximize engagement with quality • Showing off your brand’s updates without overwhelming personality and culture the stream of each channel." • Promoting events -Michael Brenner • Establishing thought leadership Developing a social media calendar

Create an editorial calendar based on your priorities. Use this to inform the topics and stage that you target on each social media platform.

USE THIS WORKSHEET FOR EACH PLATFORM TO CREATE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR. FILL IN YOUR PRIORITIES BELOW.

Priority 1:

Priority 2:

Priority 3:

Priority 4:

Priority 5:

58 Developing a social media calendar Social request form

A social promotion request form gives the social team a big-picture view Social Promotion Request Form of upcoming posts and ensures that Here’s what our form looks like; feel free to tweak for your own company’s needs: important promotions are properly scheduled. 1. What would you like us to promote? (Please include any applicable links)

2. When do you want this promoted? (Ex. “3 times in March,” “1 week before the event,” “1 day before the webinar”)

3. If you’d like your post to go on Twitter, please write the exact message below: (Make sure that the messaging is under 140 characters, link included. Don’t forget to include Twitter handles or hashtags if applicable.)

4. If you’d like your post to go on LinkedIn, please write the exact message below:

5. If you’d like your post to go on Facebook, please write the exact message below: (Don’t forget to include hashtags if applicable.)

6. Anything else we need to know about? (Please write any comments, details, or notes that we should be aware of.)

59 Developing a social media calendar Posting frequency on social networks

Each social network requires a Twitter LinkedIn Instagram/SnapChat/Pinterest content mix and posting frequency Unlike Facebook, you can post to Because LinkedIn is a professional For the social media platforms that rely that matches the expectations of its Twitter many times a day without networking site, it’s typically used to heavily on images, it’s OK to post more audience. overwhelming your audience. In fact, share articles and blog posts, new often. Test what cadence works best we recommend posting roughly once educational content, and upcoming for your audience and your brand. You Facebook per hour. You can start at once per events. Unlike Twitter, which is highly can experiment with between three It’s practically guaranteed that your day and build from there. Posting interactive (and therefore time and seven posts per day for Instagram audience (or a segment of it) is on frequently is the only way you can consuming to maintain), or Facebook, and Snapchat stories, and once per Facebook, as the platform has over stay top of mind since your tweets which is best for fun/entertaining day for regular Instagram posts. 2.27 billion monthly active users.26 We get pushed down users’ feeds quickly content, LinkedIn is the most serious, recommend posting to your Facebook by other activity from their networks. straight-to-the-point social network. " Spend 90% of your time and page no more than twice per day. That’s why we highly suggest using a It’s also a powerful recruiting tool—you effort helping your audience. social media management platform can post job openings on LinkedIn, When you share other people's We also recommend keeping your that allows you to schedule tweets. and it’s probably one of the first things great content most of the business Facebook page open all But just because you should tweet potential employees check out. A good time, your own great content day. If your audience is engaging with frequently, that doesn’t mean you rule of thumb is to post to your LinkedIn some of the time, and sprinkle you via comments, likes, shares, and should always be self-promotional. page one or two times per day. in some 'helpful' promotions, messages, it’s important that you join Keep the 4-1-1 rule firmly in mind. your audience will reward the the conversations. And if someone has " Learn the language, guidelines, kindness." a question or complaint, you want to Also, take advantage of the variety of and etiquette for all the social be available to address it immediately. ways you can engage your audience -Michael Brenner platforms that you want to be (Also, if someone posts inappropriate on Twitter. You’ll want to be continually a part of. Being nice is always in or offensive content to your page, you favoriting, retweeting, and responding style." should delete it quickly.) to tweets from your audience -Peg Fitzpatrick

26 Facebook hits 2.27 billion monthly active users as earnings stabilize, NBC News, October 2018. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-hits-2-27-billion-monthly-active-users-earnings-stabilize-n926391

60 Developing a social media calendar

SOCIAL NETWORK POSTING FREQUENCY WORKSHEET Fill in the following information to build your own calendar for each social network (you can print or use this page multiple times for different networks).

Who is responsible for posting and monitoring the brand page?

How many times per day will you post for each social media platform?

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM: x times per day x times per day x times per day Monday through Friday Monday through Friday Monday through Friday 7 days a week 7 days a week 7 days a week Other Other Other

What upcoming releases, company/industry events, announcements, and content do you want to share? (You may have to check with other teams—PR, content, product.)

List any holidays, national/international events, and trends that you want to post about:

61 Developing a social media calendar

At Marketo, we look at each day’s and Depending on your answers to the week’s posts as a whole. Using our previous questionnaires for your social editorial calendar, we can clearly different platforms, your content Paid Promotion see if we’re over-posting about a calendar can look very full. For certain topic or failing to support one example, here is a week’s worth of Depending on the size of your team, the person managing your social media marketing of our core competencies. posts from Marketo across four of our may not be the same person running your social paid advertising. It’s important to develop and define a process between these people and teams to ensure there is a social media platforms (Facebook, consistent flow of both organic posts and social paid advertising. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram).

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

LINKEDIN

62 Developing a social media calendar SOCIAL MEDIA DAILY CHECKLIST A helpful item to consider when you’re trying to make sure you dot all your i’s and cross your t’s is a checklist. Use this to help ensure you’re on track to meet your goals and set your cadence correctly.

Social marketing has a lot of moving parts. Print out or copy this checklist to make sure you’re completing the necessary daily tasks:

Check any incoming tweets/FB comments/LinkedIn mentions Check for new social promotion requests from your team, from yesterday. whether this is done via a dynamic form or an alias. Refer any support questions to the appropriate team Check your paid promotions. Reply to any comments Are you still within your budget? "Like," "favorite," or "retweet" where appropriate Is your audience engaging?

Check for friend requests and new followers; accept and follow Check your editorial calendar and colleagues to confirm any back where appropriate. events, industry news, or announcements you'll need to monitor.

Double check the tweets/posts you scheduled last night. Send tomorrow's tweets, Facebook posts/LinkedIn posts around Check for relevance (situations can change overnight!) for review. Check all links Check all links Check for typos Check for typos Check your tracking parameters (if using marketing automation or tracking platform to collect data)

63 How to structure your social media team How to structure your social media team TEAM STRUCTURE How you structure your social media team and communicate its role and responsibilities to the rest of the organization has a direct impact on its ongoing success. Let’s take a look at a few things to consider as you get started.

Creating a social media governance board

In addition to your focused social and internal training initiatives, makes When social media goes bad

media staff, you will want to create a key decisions around your social media Social media offers marketers a very immediate and personal connection with social media governance board made interactions, and serves as a chain of their audience, but it’s important to remember that it’s all public. While you can up of executives, stakeholders, subject command for emergency situations. do everything in your power to make sure your audience and customers are happy on social media, inevitably you will run into a situation that needs a more matter experts, and key employee Your governance board should meet immediate response—like an unhappy customer. For those cases, it’s vital that you advocates. This is the team that occasionally to reassess and innovate have a social media escalation policy that indicates who should respond and how. determines your ongoing strategy goals on processes and strategies.

"I encourage all brands to respond to all brand mentions in social media. If someone is taking time out of their day to your brand—either positively or negatively—it means that to some extent, they care. And therein an opportunity." -Dan Gingiss

65 How to structure your social media team Staffing considerations

Social media marketing takes effort, business as well. With that in mind, • Plan social campaigns "Marketing today is getting especially if you want to create an here are some considerations for your • Segment your social customer more and more specialized. integrated cross-channel campaign business: relationship management (CRM) I outsource paid media to a strategy. So, you will want to carefully • Start by dedicating one full-time • Score/nurture on social specialist agency who stays on consider resource allocation. How many head count for top of trends and techniques. • Run social analytics resources you will need to dedicate to management. This person will But for organic, where the real social media marketing will depend on spend their time mostly on According to a Marketo online , relationships form, I think it is the following: community management, social 50% of respondents named content unwise to send to an agency. • Budget for new head count messaging, , best marketing as a top skill critical to their We hold tightly and keep it in- success. • Strategic goals practices, and planning. house." - Mark W. Shaefer, Executive Director, • Number of platforms utilized • Hire a full-time employee "If you're looking for talent to Schaefer Marketing Solutions, Speaker, dedicated to creating and • Weekly social time commitments run your social media marketing, Educator, and Author managing all content. • Content strategy look for people who are natural • Add a member to your digital communicators and can carry on • Current and future community size advertising team who is dedicated a conversation." to driving effectiveness and The size of your team and the scope of -Matt Heinz responsibilities will vary considerably hitting your goals with paid social based on your organization’s size and advertising. structure. In a large, global organization, However you choose to structure your social media responsibilities may sit team, it’s important that you cover the across many teams and paid social following responsibilities: advertising may be a separate team. Social media is a company-wide effort • Map to higher-level company goals Consumer organizations may have While your social media team will do the heavy lifting, strong employee • Define social media marketing a lean team and outsource the paid advocates on each channel will help strengthen your brand presence. You objectives may encounter comments or questions that can best be addressed by your social advertising. Start-up social own employees, so it’s a good idea to have a social representative from each • Optimize social channels teams, on the other hand, could be team—sales, , support, customer success, and so on—who responsible for other areas of the • Create a content strategy can engage in these conversations. These individuals will represent your company and bring their unique expertise and experiences to the table.

66 Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA The best brands weave themselves into their customers’ lives—becoming part of their identity and listening and responding to each customer’s needs and wants. They effectively practice omnichannel marketing: marketing that provide a seamless customer experience, regardless of channel or device.

To be successful today, brands need following you on multiple social media " Social media programs cannot exist in a vacuum—you need social, to look beyond disconnected vendors, platforms and also subscribed to sales, content, SEO, and even advertising working hand-in-hand—so departments, and strategies to make your emails, so they don’t want to mostly you need a solid marketing strategy." an impact and give customers a be bombarded with the exact same -John Jantsch continuous experience. This means message on every channel. you should use diverse channels and messages that reinforce and support each other. Your audience may be Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy CROSS-CHANNEL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING WITH MARKETING AUTOMATION

Your communications with buyers on each channel—your website, your Facebook page, emails—should not repeat each other. Rather, they should inform each other and enable you to listen and respond appropriately. The Marketo marketing automation platform gives you access to an Audience Hub with customer profiles based on demographic and behavioral data gathered across many channels. Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy Nurture

Today’s buyers move seamlessly—and marketing assets—emails, landing quickly—across channels. A typical pages, forms, segmentations, and customer moves from email to social workflows—easy to replicate and What is nurturing? media to your website and back to implement. This fusion of planning Nurturing is the process of building effective relationships with potential customers social media in the blink of an eye, and execution gives marketers more throughout the buying journey and beyond, maximizing results and revenue for your so they need to see an integrated flexibility than ever, which helps them organization. It requires listening and responding to buyers on multiple channels. Marketers experience across every channel. Your engage buyers quickly and personally can now nurture anonymous visitors much earlier on in their buyers’ journey, creating a marketing automation platform and to move them to the next stage in the more personalized, engaging, and guided experience. nurturing campaigns must account for customer lifecycle. all the ways a buyer will interact and engage with your brand. Drive social on other channels Make sure your social media platforms To build your social presence, it’s are key elements in your customer critical to make your profiles visible on or lead nurturing strategy. When a your other channels—website, email, potential customer mentions your and beyond. company on social media or interacts in a different way, you can use your Most of your audience has a Facebook engagement marketing platform’s or Twitter account. Make it easy for automation software to listen and your buyers to download an asset respond with triggered emails and or register for an event by using their communication. You can also use existing accounts to autofill forms. This sophisticated targeting with paid social will not only help ensure that you have media ads. an easy-to-use solution, but it will also capture rich data that can inform your An engagement marketing solution future campaigns. enables marketers to target their audience efficiently by making

70 Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy Web

As a buyer browses your website retargeting ads on social channels. For referral campaign to combine the and interacts with your content, the example, a potential customer may power of compelling offers for data you collect on their behavior come to your website to sign up for referrers with a reach that extends feeds into a master view that fuels a free trial. Later, after leaving your across major social media platforms— your communication with them website, you can use that information allowing you to grow your customer across all channels. If your marketing to retarget them on social media with base fast. These referrals can be automation solution has a web an offer. tracked by your marketing automation app, you can leverage You can also leverage your landing system, since each shared message a website visitor’s lead or engagement pages to promote your social media includes a unique link that tracks the score or stage in the buyer journey presence. With Marketo’s social responses at every stage. to personalize your site and your application, you can set up a social

Marketo’s Social Dashboard tracks a social campaign’s progression and effectiveness and reveals how prospects are helping to get the word out

71 Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy Mobile Email Offline Incorporate You can easily integrate your email Traditional channels often take a by tracking mobile website visits, campaigns and social media platforms mass marketing approach and can emails opened on mobile devices, using: sometimes be hard to measure. But app installs, in-app activities, and • Social connecting: Grow your it’s important that they are in with responses to push notifications and social followers with email. your campaign goals. They can be a in-app messaging to inform your powerful way to augment your social • Social sharing: Extend the reach other marketing campaigns. And it’s media marketing campaigns and of your message through social very important to be able to respond are still a worthwhile piece of your channels with email. on mobile. Say a customer opens marketing toolbox. • Social promotion: Grow your your email and clicks on a form, but Event marketing can be a powerful email list and promote your email then exits the landing page without way to stand out and bring your brand marketing efforts with social. submitting it. If they have your app to life. Gauge whether your campaign installed, you can send them a push You can supplement each email resonates with the targeted audience notification informing them that their address in your database with the and their interests, and determine how form was not processed. contact’s social media data. Feature a you can engage them on social media Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn connect before, during, or after the event. With button in email opt-in confirmation a physical presence, like a brick-and- messages. Add a Facebook, Twitter, mortar store, evaluate how to bring or LinkedIn connect button to your your campaign to customers who visit. preference center for recipients who’d rather stay in touch over social networks. Listen for keywords that are used by your audience in social media, and then send segmented emails using those keywords.

72 Your social media technology stack Your social media technology stack SOCIAL MEDIA AND MARKETING AUTOMATION Social media marketing processes and measurement can be improved by using technology.

Simply knowing how many shares By analyzing your social sharing "Technology can help social you received on Twitter, LinkedIn, metrics, you can test different media marketers figure out what Facebook, and Instagram isn’t enough. campaigns, content, and social media works and what does not." You need to know who shared your platforms against each other so -Michael Stelzner content, whom they shared your you can determine what is working content with, and exactly what they and what isn’t. Additionally, with a shared. Social applications offer more marketing automation platform, you insight into all your social activities, so gain a single source of truth for cross- you know who your top followers are, channel activities. You can provide what content they share, and what your prospects or customers with the their networks look like. right message at the right time and in the right place.

74 Your social media technology stack Choosing a smart tech stack

As you look to streamline your editorial Understand where you are and automation platform, you can gain calendar, more effectively listen on where you’re going context into your buyers’ real-time social networks, and track your key You need to know what the current interactions with your brand across all metrics, you will discover a multitude state of your business is and where channels. of options. you plan to go. Most businesses are trying to grow—so make sure you "I've tested and optimized just about every Build a Solid Foundation consider this as you evaluate new solutions. It’s critical to think about that's been given to me because Many of these solutions are great, but tools that will grow with you. You without the science side, you the key to choosing one (or more) is should also understand your business really don't know what's going understanding what you are trying needs versus wants. on around you and where you to accomplish—not just in a specific should be concentrating." channel, but as a marketing team, -Bryan Kramer department, and organization as a Identify solutions to integrate into your tech stack whole. Building your tech stack is an important decision, so carefully After you identify your core evaluate how each new tool and its components and define your road capabilities will sync with your current map, evaluate new solutions that align systems—especially your foundational with your strategy. You’ll want to make systems of record, like your CRM. sure these solutions can integrate with Avoid a "Frankenstack" Document your data flow, rules, and your core platforms. Social media A “Frankenstack” is a set of siloed tools that an organization tries to force into working data hygiene processes. Understand management platforms, like , together and ultimately results in a mess. It is often time consuming and expensive APIs (application programming allow you to schedule and publish to fix. The key to avoiding it is to have a plan, involve IT, and be honest about the posts across different social media resources you need to maintain and manage the solutions. This thoughtfulness will interfaces) and what solutions are truly save you a lot of time and money in the future. out-of-the box. platforms and profiles and analyze your social campaigns. And through an integration with your marketing Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns MEASURE THE ROI OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

To demonstrate how social media Without the right metrics, it’s nearly As you plan your social media "Content creation is obviously a marketing contributes to business impossible to know what to optimize campaigns, it’s important to determine big deal but perhaps even more growth, you need to understand how in future campaigns to drive the how you will evaluate success. Just important is analytics. We need to connect the right data points. But best ROI for your business. More as you would with other marketing to be able to dig into data and that is not always straightforward. importantly, without the right metrics, campaigns, you need to take emerge with insights and truth." You need the right set of tools you can’t even determine the ROI of specific steps to make your social -Mark W. Shaefer to accomplish this across all your your social channels in the first place, media efforts measurable. The best channels. which makes it hard to make the case marketing campaigns have deliberate for more budget or head count. measurement strategies planned in advance.

"So much of social media used to be simply about monitoring brands and basic KPIs like network size, reach, and engagement. The role social media plays horizontally across the customer lifecycle requires far more comprehensive analytics. There are now far more opportunities for connecting the dots between social awareness, engagement, and conversion." -Lee Odden

77 Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns EARLY-STAGE METRICS

Early-stage content is typically fun, Followers: Tracks the size of your To demonstrate your total impact on For your paid social media campaigns, entertaining, or educational and works audience on each channel over time the business, you need to measure you’ll want to track: to build brand awareness and affinity, to understand how many people are hard metrics, like conversions, revenue, /acquisition: so you should be measuring data interested in your brand and what you and ROI. There are two types of B2B marketers typically track the cost that indicates how successful your have to say. conversions you should track: per lead through their paid social campaigns are at doing this. Engagement: Notes the interactions New names: This is the number campaigns, while consumer marketers Your social media platforms may have social media users have with your of people your campaign brought may track the cost per acquisition. To native analytics dashboards with soft social media accounts, such as clicks, into your database. It can help you calculate cost per lead/acquisition, metrics that help you evaluate and likes, shares, and comments on your measure how successful your social divide the cost of your paid social understand early indicators that are posts and time spent watching your media campaigns are at acquiring new campaign by the number of leads or precursors to conversions, like brand videos. leads or how many purchases your acquisitions it brought in. awareness and recognition, influence, Reach/Impressions: Measures the campaigns generate. and mindshare. These metrics— number of people who have seen your Existing: When your campaigns followers, engagement, and reach/ posts and is an important indicator of convert known names, your marketing impressions—are especially important brand awareness. automation platform measures how for your organic posts, since your they converted (e.g., downloaded a objectives there are to build brand whitepaper), which adds to their lead awareness and amplify your voice. score.

78 Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns

As you can see, conversions are critical For deeper insight, set up campaigns the conversion came from, the type of for tracking how successful your inside your marketing automation content used, the specific campaign social media campaigns are. For B2B platform with a smart list or smart that brought it in, and much more. marketers, they reveal how effective campaign that tracks specific your social campaigns are at bringing parameters and reveals how many in leads. For consumer marketers, conversions each of your campaigns they indicate how good your social brought in. Once a social media user campaigns are at driving purchases. clicks on a unique URL and takes an Retention, upsell, and cross-sell action on that page (for example, Your social media platforms’ native If you’re a consumer marketer conducting transactions on your website, the next set downloading an infographic), it counts analytics alongside website analytics of metrics may not apply to you, since a conversion usually indicates a sale. However, platforms, like Google Analytics, can as a conversion, and this information remember that the customer journey doesn’t end post-sale. According to eMarketer, reveal how many conversions each is captured on the back end. You can it costs 10 times more to acquire new customers than to sell to the ones you already track who converted, which channel have.27 And based on data from Bain & Company, a 5% increase in retention yields a campaign generated. 25% to 95% increase in profits.28 Plan a strategy around customer marketing—retention, cross-sell, and upsell—to maximize the lifetime value of your hard-won customers.

27 How to Unlock the Full Potential of Your Customer Base, Marketo. https://blog.marketo.com/2016/07/how-to-unlock-the-full-potential-of-your-customer-base.html

28 Customer Retention Should Outweigh Customer Acquisition, Retention Science. https://www.retentionscience.com/blog/customer-retention-should-outweigh-customer-acquisition

79 Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns MID-STAGE METRICS

Your mid-stage content should be Sales qualified leads (SQLs): Pipeline: This indicates how many educational and engaging to drive your Prospects who have been qualified by leads your social campaign brought audience toward interacting further sales as good leads. in. At Marketo, our golden metric for a with your company. The data you Opportunity: Once a potential good campaign is one that generates previously collected on your social customer becomes an SQL, they get pipeline at least five times the amount media campaign conversions will be further qualified by sales. If they deem of cost. critical to measuring your mid- and that there is a sales opportunity, they’ll late-stage metrics. become an official opportunity in At this stage, you’ll need a marketing your system. Although opportunities automation platform to help power can take a while to develop since they your prospects through their journey factor in a buyer’s interactions with and your pipeline with ad targeting. your brand, it’s important to fill your You’ll need to track the following pipeline with as many good leads as metrics: possible to generate more customer Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): opportunities. Prospects who have reached an agreed-upon threshold based on your lead scoring, which takes into account their overall fit, behaviors, and interests.

80 Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns LATE-STAGE METRICS At this point, you will begin to see As buyers engage with your brand how your social media campaigns more and more, make the most of contribute directly to revenue. Track the information you’ve collected by the following late-stage metrics to tie targeting them with a narrower focus. your social campaigns to ROI: In the early stages, you’ll want to focus Opportunities won: Indicates the on a broad approach that can reach number of closed-won deals that your many buyers. But once you have their campaign achieved. attention, you can hit on their unique interests and needs with powerful Revenue won: Refers to the dollar marketing technology solutions. amount of the deal size that your campaigns brought in. Customer lifetime value (CLV): Represents the total value that your relationship with a customer brings your company, across the entire customer lifecycle. ROI

81 CONCLUSION Today, it’s not enough just to be on A solid strategy doesn’t shy away from With the right strategy—one that social media. You need to be actively experimentation to achieve your goals. guides buyers further along the engaging with your audience—building Technology will help your team adapt customer lifecycle and identifies social your network, sharing content, asking and iterate quickly, and it will enable marketing tactics and platforms that your audience to share, participating you to understand how your cross- are right for your organization—you’ll in conversations, and responding to channel, continuous conversations ultimately bring more revenue to the comments. with your audience on social media table. As social media adoption continues platforms ultimately contribute to to rise, an omnichannel social media reaching your objectives. marketing strategy is essential to your Change is constant in social media. brand’s success. You can’t afford to Ensure your strategy can stand the be absent from conversations about test of time by defining your goals, your brand, especially when your testing, and adapting the activities competitors are part of them. Now you do to support them over time. that you understand how to develop a The right strategy for one brand may social media marketing strategy, you’ll be different than another, so craft a be able to engage your customers at strategy that aligns with your goals and each stage of the journey and create make sure it’s attainable based on your content that’s relevant and drives your resources. objectives forward.

82 Marketo, an Adobe company, offers the solution of choice for lead management and B2B marketing professionals seeking to transform customer experiences by engaging across every stage of complex buying journeys. Natively supporting both lead and account-based marketing strategies, Marketo Engage, as part of Adobe Experience Cloud, brings together marketing and sales in a comprehensive solution designed to orchestrate personalized experiences, optimize content, and measure business impact across every channel, from consideration to conversion and beyond. To learn more about Marketo Engage, the vast community of passionate marketers in the Marketing Nation, and Marketo’s robust partner ecosystem, visit www.marketo.com.

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