0 Copyright © 2012 by Jordan Kasteler All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts of preparing this book, they make no representations of warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss or profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. 1 Author: Jordan Kasteler Jordan Kasteler is an Online Marketing Strategist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a non-profit organization. He has a history of entrepreneurship co-founding and serving positions in such companies as BlueGlass Interactive, an Internet marketing agency and SteelCast, a tech incubator housing several other self-started companies. His work experience ranges from in-house SEO at Overstock.com to agency-level SEO. In addition to consulting, he’s experienced hosting BlueGlass Internet marketing events and co-owning one of the search engine industry’s leading publishing sites, Search Engine Journal. His education includes a Bachelor’s in Multimedia Communication Technology (graduating Magna Cum Laude) and a Master’s in Professional Communications (graduating Cum Laude). Other Accolades include: • Frequent speaker at: Search Marketing Expo • Frequent speaker at: Pubcon • Frequent speaker at: Search Engine Strategies • Spoken at: IMC, BlueGlass Conferences, Scary SEO, Affiliate Convention, Searchfest, Podcamp, Social Commerce Exchange, Infopress, and various others. • Frequent Columnist for: Search Engine Land • Written for various other publications like: Search Engine Journal, Search Engine People, Website Magazine, JordanKasteler.com, etc • Board member for Social Commerce Exchange • SEMMY board member and nominee • Mentioned in various books such as: o Accelerate! by Arnie Kuenn o Mobile Marketing by Cindy Krumm o Killer Facebook Ads by Marty Weintraub o Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day by David Szetela • Contributor to Local Search Ranking Factors • Contributed to Mobile Presence on WebmasterRadio.FM • Social Media Club: Utah Social Media Awards – Best Social Content Guru • Interviewed by: Jounce, AimClear, WebmasterRadio, SEO.com, WebProNews, and various others. 2 Chapter One: Introduction: Facets of Social Media…...……….…..……….. 5 Social Networking Social Bookmarking Geo-Location Apps Media Sharing Social Question and Answers Chapter Two: Setting Realistic Goals and Expectations …………..…….. 14 Marketing From a Social Connection Perspective Setting up Policies Chapter Three: Setting up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)......…..….. 18 ROI: Return on Investment Traffic and Detailed Analytics Metrics Chapter Four: Content Types & Development ……………………..…….. 24 Content Development Scheduling Chapter Five: Getting the Team Involved ………………………….…….. 28 Delegation & Team Structuring Assigning Responsibilities Publishing Calendars Chapter Six: Account Management ………………………….……….….. 32 Account Organization Syncing Across Platforms Posting and Scheduling Tools Chapter Seven: Community Engagement …………………..…….…….. 38 Engagement Tactics Posting Strategy Drive Community Engagement with Linkbait 3 Chapter Eight: Getting Started With Analytics & SEO …………………….. 45 SEO for Social Media Social Media Analytics Chapter Nine: Content Review ………………………………..…………… 51 Content Approval: What to Post, What to Avoid Deadlines and Check Off Lists Editing Before Posting Link Validity Chapter Ten: Submission Execution …………………….………………… 57 Website Structure Blog Guest Posting Social Media Submission Social Media Publishing Chapter Eleven: Social Voting & Crowd-Sourcing ………….…………….. 64 Voting on New Products and Content Freelancers and Bloggers Chapter Twelve: Social Tools ………………………………….………….. 70 Auto-Publishing & Scheduling Auto-Reply & Auto-Follow Reputation Monitoring Chapter Thirteen: Measuring Your Success ……………..……………….. 73 Google Analytics Reporting Link Shortener Analytics Conclusion ………………………………………………..……………….. 79 Bibliography ……………………………………………...……………….. 80 Resource List ………………….……..………………..………………….. 86 4 Five years ago, social media was a new and emerging technology, one of which few people had extensive knowledge. Now there are over 500 million active Facebook accounts1 and over 110 million tweets are sent every day2. Social media has become a part of life for the majority of the United States and other countries around the world. It is not just a passing fad, but a vital communication medium that is updated instantly with news, opinions, photos, videos, and other content. It makes almost any information available at any moment. How did social media rise so fast and how can businesses rise to use it as a communication and marketing medium? To answer this question, one must first understand what each type of social media is and how their respective features can be utilized effectively. While a wealth of blog posts, e-books, and websites have devoted time and attention to showing both small and big businesses how to use social media, the following pages strive to provide a comprehensive guide that social media beginners and experts can both use to make sure their social media strategy is on target and able to achieve the results and goals for which it was intended. Social Networking Mashable3 and Freebase have defined Social Networking as the following: A social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Although online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service. In a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group- centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.4 Facebook and Twitter are considered the bigwigs in social networking, but the two networks are used in vastly different ways. Facebook allows users to have a profile where they can add applications, connect with friends, and create status updates. 5 Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows users to post messages, called “Tweets,” to their profile in 140 characters or less. Here are the main differences and features of the two sites: Feature Facebook Twitter Different Presence for Yes. Individuals have No; but some business Individuals and profiles; businesses, and celebrity accounts Businesses celebrities and can be verified by Twitter organizations have pages. so users know they are Can also create groups genuine. and events that profiles can join or RSVP to, respectively. Businesses who have a profile violate Facebook’s TOS. Types of Advertising Pay-per-click campaigns Trending topics can be Available that appear according to sponsored and therefore target demographics, promoted to the top of the including age, education, Trending list; companies location, and interests. can pay some celebrity or popular Tweeters to tweet about their products. Ways to Communicate Users who have “liked” a Users can “@” mention with Users Page can see Page another user in a tweet, updates on their which hyperlinks that newsfeed (on the user’s name and lists the Facebook.com tweet in their Mentions homepage), Pages can view. Tweeters also also send “likers” event frequently “RT” or Re- invitations and updates. Tweet another person’s tweet. If a person follows you, you can also send them a Direct (Private) Message. Promoting and Pages can showcase their Tweeters can create lists Categorizing Other Users “Favorite Pages” in the of Twitter profiles and left-hand side of the page. name them. The list view will show recent tweets from added users. Recommended Update Every other day for Several times a day, 6 Rate Pages.5 average is 3-4 for most accounts.6 Management Availability One Facebook profile can Must log in to each manage multiple pages; individual Twitter account pages can have multiple using the username or administrators. All email address and administrators have the password. same access. Analytics Pages have insights, No public analytics from which measures daily Twitter yet; announced traffic, likes, impressions that it will be coming in of updates on newsfeeds, 20107, but was not fully and feedback percentage released as of March (how many users 2011. Will measure comment or ‘like’ a status replies, re-tweets and update). Insights can be faves (which saves a exported to Excel. tweet for a user’s