getsocialmedia.net
grow your business
using social media
– a step by step guide –
JuLY 2009
BY PhiLiP van ZYL
Copyright 2009, Philip van Zyl, GetSocialMedia.net

getsocialmedia.net
letter from the author……
Welcome.
If you are a business owner, this guide is written for you. It is also for those who work in new
media teams or marketing departments, and for individuals who are their own brand. The
principles and step by step process in this guide will help you to use the power of social media to
grow your business.
It does not matter if you live in Barcelona, Tokyo, Boston, Rio, Brisbane, Moscow, London,
Canterbury, Dublin, Singapore or Cape Town. Or anywhere else for that matter. This step-by-step
guide will shepherd you along the quick and proven path to successful social media engagement,
customised for you and your business needs.
I have cut straight to the good stuff. You’ll find links to the software I use, as well as to a bunch
of excellent alternative sites, platforms and software. Almost all of these are free. There are tips
in here that you won’t find anywhere else in one place.
If you received this guide from a friend or colleague and you would like to pass it on, please pass
on this link to the original guide and an area where you can sign up for further information &
resources. http://www.getsocialmedia.net/guide
The ten steps in this guide will give you the solid foundation you need. From there you can
weave your unique magic and express your creativity as the individual you are. After all, it’s your
business.
I suggest you don’t skip any parts of the guide. Every part links to the others and forms one road
map.
Here’s to your social media success!
Philip van Zyl
Social Media explorer and navigator
Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/philipvanzyl
retweet this
Click here to post this on twitter
Copyright Statement: All content © 2009 by Philip van Zyl - Copyright holder is licensing this under the Creative
Commons License, Attribution – Noncommercial - No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported, http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ (This means you can share it freely with your friends, but not resell it). Please refer colleagues
and friends to this link to download the report for themselves: http://getsocialmedia.net/guide.
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table of contents
executive summary........................................................................................................4
about this guide............................................................................................................5
mindset........................................................................................................................6
part 1 - understanding social media.......................................................................7
what is social media really?
are all social media the same?
part 2 – social media and my business..................................................................9
how can my business benefit from social media?
how do I align my social media goals with my business goals?
why is my website optimisation so important for social media?
the ten steps to social media success............................................................................12
step 1 – define your company goal.
step 2 – define your website goal and specific call to action.
step 3 – listen to what individuals are saying and where they are saying it.
step 4 – map and list how it is being said and who the influencers are .
step 5 – decide on your social media presence and register accounts online.
step 6 – select your posting and tracking platforms.
step 7 – define all metrics – clearly, and measurably.
step 8 – listen, engage and grow your network.
step 9 - use diverse social marketing strategies.
step 10 – measure, adjust, listen, engage.
part 3 – your social future.....................................................................................28
outsourcing.
advertising on social media.
think laterally.
my social media roadmap.............................................................................................30
resources....................................................................................................................40
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executive summary
This free guide contains the principles and processes for business owners, marketing departments
and media teams to build their brand and to grow their businesses, using the power of social media.
The focus of the guide is on understanding social media and getting started efficiently and
effectively, and then streamlining your online activity into those areas where you are most effective.
More than just a theoretical look at the social media landscape, it offers the practical step by
step process to get a social media strategy in place right away, and monitor its ongoing success.
Most people are aware of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, but aren’t sure how to use
them in a business environment. This guide explores the relative merits of many different social
media sites – and explains how to use them for business benefit.
It defines social media for non-experts and includes a step-by-step guide to successful social
media engagement, including a list of helpful resources, software and sites.
Engaging with social media successfully requires a shift in some key principles of selling
and marketing online. It requires businesses to embrace the concept of entering a two-way
conversation with customers through multiple channels, rather than one-way communication
through traditional marketing tools such as advertising.
Social media doesn’t need to be hard work. This is a guide to engaging customers and
stakeholders online in a rewarding, productive and enjoyable way.
It explains how businesses can benefit from a carefully considered social media strategy –
beginning with the recognition that companies and their products are already being discussed
online. The guide shows how you can start to listen to and participate in these discussions, and
build trust with your existing and prospective customers.
The ten practical steps in the second half of this guide are a step by step roadmap to social
media success for businesses and brands. They include tips on defining a company’s social
media goals and linking them to other business goals.
These ten steps are used in conjunction with the “social media roadmap” document at the end
of the guide, where the guide user’s actual strategy is mapped, recorded and designed by them.
The majority of social media strategies are built around a “main” website or blog. The importance
of optimising this “main” site is emphasised and the process explained. This optimisation is
done for both social media links as well as Google and other search engine ranking success. The
report also explains what you want your prospective customers to do once they get to your site.
It includes tips for the most effective way to post new content online, and to monitor content
posted online by others – including a guide to selecting the most relevant material from the huge
volume added to the internet every day.
Should you or your company be a blogger? This guide will help you decide. And if you do decide
to enter the blogosphere, it gives you some excellent tips on how to be successful.
The whole social media environment is changing fast. The biggest and the most successful businesses
in the world are getting involved. Isn’t it time you found out what it could do for you and your business?
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about this report
Engaging social media successfully requires a few basic and yet fundamental shifts in the
practice of selling and marketing online. Start by reading the next section called “Mindset”.
The sustainability of your social media engagement depends upon it.
If you read this report and complete each of the ten steps as they are detailed here, you will
lay a solid foundation for success in using social media to grow your business. You will also be
engaging meaningfully in the community that keeps you in business, and your business will grow.
If you skip any of the steps or don’t complete them your chances of success are slim. Very slim.
(But at least you’ll have found your twice removed cousins who live in Spain, and have seen all of
their christening photos on Facebook).
One of the greatest enablers of success in social media for your business is ACTION. Start small
and think big. Do that today and you’ll see the benefits stack up before your eyes, day by day.
Everything you need to get started is contained in this report or linked to in the References
section. You ready to get going?
Everything in this report is informed by three assumptions. They are the big picture “keys” to
unlock the doors to your success.
the three keys to social media success
1. If you do not have clear goals for your business, nothing you do offline, online or any-other-
line is going to help you realise them. It is essential to have clear and measurable business
goals.
2. If you do not have clear goals and a clear call to action on your “main” website, you will be
diluting your social media efforts before you start. Your “main” site could be your blog or an
HTML-type site. The “main” site action may be to take a free 30-day trial, sign up for a
newsletter, or actually buy a product online right there.
3. Your social media sites will act largely as “feeder” sites and – collectively – as a feeder
network for your main site. Remember this and engage in social media with this in mind.
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mindset
Your mindset about Social media will inform your attitude towards social media even before you
begin.
the old way
Let’s think of the old way of getting your message about your company products
and services out there. Newspaper advertising, for example. A few thousand
bucks for a big newspaper advert. Pay a few thousand bucks. Hmm, fun.
Next hire a research company to find out whether those few thousand bucks
were well spent and what your customers and prospective customers thought of
it. Pay a few more thousand bucks. Now we’re having fun.
Rinse, repeat, and try to run your business at the same time.
the new way
Listen to your customers from the comfort of your desk, through multiple channels, mostly at
no cost. You are part of a big focus group of people that actually use your products or products
in your market. They are speaking about their wants, frustrations, loves, pains, desires (as we
speak)…all of which you can engage in and influence. Did I mention that the focus group is free?
By engaging with some of the influencers in your community you’ll have access to top
information on your marketplace, trends and insights.
How about social bookmarking? By having one (start with delicious.com) you are not just trying
to get more links to your website to schmooze Google (not exclusively anyway), you are easily
finding top-notch information on your competitors, articles about your market and posts about
your products. It’s like an online library put together specifically for you to use. And it is a free
way for you to bookmark all the articles, posts, reports, videos, interviews etc. that you find
online, using tags rather than the confusing “Bookmark” facility in your browser.
I could go on, but my point is that social media does not have to be a slog. And the more you
find ways to benefit as an individual and as a business owner or worker, the more you will enjoy
yourself. Could that be the reason we’re all here in the first place?
And when it comes to sustaining your social media strategy to grow your business, which of these
two options do you think will last?
1. Social media is a painful mission and I am going to drag myself through it each day because
there may be a benefit to the company somewhere.
2. Social media is an exciting opportunity for me to engage people online and spread messages
virally, to learn from my peers and my customers, and to stay on top of my game in my field.
Moving right along…
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part 1 - understanding social media
“ The secret of social media is that it is not about you, your product or your story. It’s
about creating value for the communities that happen to include you. If you want to
make a positive impact, forget about what you can get from social media, and start
thinking about what you can contribute. Funnily enough, the more value you create for
”
the community, the more value they will create for you. Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media.
what is social media?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock in the park for the last few years - without anyone to talk
to and without an internet connection - you’ve probably heard of Facebook. It’s a key example of
social media.
A quick definition. Social media is a phrase that describes the platforms and other tools that
connect people into social networks (of their choosing) online. Some of the household social
media names worldwide (other than Facebook) are MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. There are
many, many more, and we’ll look at some of them in detail in this report.
The individuals that make up these online networks, use social media to organise themselves
according to (1) their interests and (2) their preference for the way they choose to share, store
and deliver information within their community (or “network”).
Individuals have made it clear they wish to connect with other individuals that they choose to, in
the way that they choose to, and around topics and for reasons that they choose to.
The individual is at the centre of the social media revolution. And this is changing the
way business is done. Hint: kiss goodbye the idea of solely hiding behind the company PR
department door and sending out anonymous press releases “in the name of the company”.
Delete delete.
are all social media the same?
No they aren’t. Most sites are a combination of four elements - text, images, video, and audio.
Many sites focus on just one of these elements. Youtube, Viddler and UStream.tv are examples
of video sites. They also allow text descriptions, images (e.g. a photo of contributor) and audio.
Despite these peripheral elements, they are still known as “Video sites” and video is their core
offering.
There are also photo sites, such as Flickr, SmugMug and many others. See the diagram that
follows here for a comprehensive view of the key categories with examples.
Brian Solis is one of the “godfathers” of social media and was jointly responsible for constructing
the following diagram that details the main social media categories and some of the main players
in each category. Look for the link to Brian Solis’s blog in the resources section.
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http://www.briansolis.com/
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part 2 – social media and my business
Here’s a quick revision of the three keys to social media success described in the “About this
Report” section earlier.
key 1 – If you are not clear on your core business goal(s), nothing you do will help you realise
them (including social media). Get clear on your business goal(s) right now. Set goals that are
measurable.
key 2 – If your “main” website is not optimised to get every visitor to your site to take the
action that you want them to, you simply have to sort that out. Optimise your main site, and keep
it optimised in a way that directly supports your company goals.
key 3 – Your engagement in social media will open new paths to your main website door.
Social media sites will act as “feeder” sites to your “main” site. Bear this in mind as you engage.
Before we begin the ten step plan to get those three keys into action, here are some final
thoughts and details to smooth our way.
How can your business benefit from social media? How do you align your social media goals with
your business goals? Why is your website optimisation so important?
how can my business benefit from social media?
The individuals that buy and use your products and services are having conversations within their
social networks right now. Some of them are discussing your products and their experiences of
using these products and services, returning them, breaking them, loving them…
Some of them are discussing your competitor’s products and services and what they love and
loathe about them. Others are discussing your market place, what they really want, what they will
pay good money for.
By engaging and participating in conversations in your business’ social network you are going to
add value, show that you care, handle specific issues that come up, and in that way build your
credibility and reputation as a caring and in-touch company/brand.
People will begin to like and trust you. When you then share details of a special offer some
people will click through to look and some will buy. When someone tweets about the shocking
service they experienced trying to return your product, someone will reply with their positive
experience.
By listening, you will find out how you can best package your product, deliver it, support it,
charge for it etc. Your network will tell you and you will be able to listen in while two or more
members in the community discuss it publicly.
Once you have become an engaging and contributing member of this particular network, you can
then introduce new topics, and begin to co-create information that the community engages with.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet…
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how do I align my social media goals with my business goals?
In a nutshell, you are going do this by knowing what your company goals are right now. You’ll be
driving increasing numbers of people to your “main” website so it will need to have a clear call to
action and be optimised for your chosen keywords.
If you want to raise brand awareness, then have useful information and cool things about your
offering at your website. If you want to increase sales of a product then feature that product on
your website prominently and have a clear call to action (in this case – click here to buy).
Because much of the social media you will be engaging in will serve as “feeder” sites to your
“main” site, you may only have one shot at converting a visitor into a prospect, or a customer
into a repeat customer. Social media will get visitors there, so pre-sell them as much as possible.
Social media will help you here in two ways. It will spread links and good vibes about your main
site and people will click directly from articles and tweets and posts to your website.
The second way it will help you is that all of the incoming links to your site - that have spread
around the internet - will increase your ranking on Google and the other search engines.
To locate your social media strategy properly within the context of your business, try sketching it
out freehand if you don’t want to use software to do this.
Here is a diagram I recently sketched for a client to map the flow of people to their main site -
and through their sales and retention process as well. The more integrated the diagram is into
your complete business flow, the better. It includes social media as well as all other avenues for
this specific business.
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why is my website optimisation so important for social media?
Part of the optimisation of your main site (website or blog) is to have a set of keywords and
phrases that you have identified, and that your prospective buyers use to search for you on
Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. If you have not optimized your website for specific
keywords, look under Resources at the end of this report for links to sites designed for this
purpose. It is essential.
You will be engaging in conversations around your keywords and keyword phrases, and the more
they beat a path to your website door the better.
Let’s say for example that you are an online tax consultant. When anyone types in the word “tax
return” you want the search result linking to your website to be displayed as near as possible to
the top of page one on Google results.
Social media plays a decisive part in Google’s decision as to how relevant your website is to the
term being searched for – and as a result, whether to put you on page one or page 101 of the
results for that word/phrase.
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the ten steps to get you there.
Ok, let’s get cracking with your social media path (roadmap) to success. We are shifting now from
theory into the nitty gritty detail of how to craft and implement your roadmap.
The ten steps you will take to succeed in growing your business with social media start here. An
explanation of what you will need to do in each step is detailed below. The working document
(roadmap) that you must fill in is at the end of this report. These are intended to be used
together – i.e. read the steps below and write the details for your business on the attached
roadmap document in the spaces provided.
step 1 – define your company goal
1
There are two kinds of goals that fall into this category. Let’s call them the big picture goals, and
the second let’s call the immediate, operational goals.
Let’s take an example. Your big picture goal may be to be the market leader (by sales volume) of
all new solar panels for households in your city – be that Rome, Vancouver, Melbourne, Maine
or Cape Town. Or you may aim to be the market leader in your province or state, or even for your
whole country. Be specific and be realistic. You intend for this to happen within the next 18
months.
As part of your big-picture goal you also aim to stock the widest range of quality solar panels for
households of any supplier online, or in your city (if you have a store) or in your country? You get
the idea. The same applies whether you offer your product and service online, offline or both.
What we are interested in for this stage of planning our social media strategy are the immediate
or “operational” goals you have in order to realise the “big picture” goal(s). Make these as
specific as possible. The more concrete they are, the easier it will be to measure your success.
For example, in order to maintain the status of market leader by sales volume of solar panels, we
could focus on providing excellent service, including after sales service. The rationale for this is
that the happier our existing customers are, the more they will buy future panels from us and the
more they will spread the good word about us to their networks.
Still using our example, we will minimise the number of product returns by offering active
support in troubleshooting and problem identification as soon as an issue is raised by a customer.
This will help reduce the number of returns due to incorrect installation or other factors.
Fill in your main goal(s) as well as the secondary goals that support them under step 1 of your
attached roadmap document. If the goal is not measurable in some way, you will want to refine it
until it is. How will you know when you achieve it/them?
step 2 – define your website goal and specific call to action 2
If you do not have a website that is the online “home” of your company it is going to be a lot
more difficult to leverage your social media engagement. You may still benefit from a social
media campaign without a website or blog, but we’ll focus here on having one.
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Some people prefer to have a blog as their main “home” site. This works well for individuals who
essentially are their brand and they are seen as “being” the company.
If you do have a website it should be optimised in two main ways. The first relates to getting
people to your website and the second is what action that person takes when he or she gets
there.
goal 1: getting people to your website
Your site (blog or typically html-type site) should be optimised for search through search engines
(SEO). What this means is that when someone types in the search term “solar panels for homes”
your main website should appear on the first page displayed by Google or any of the other search
engines that people in your target area use.
You begin accomplishing this by selecting the keywords and keyword phrases most suited to
your business or specific products. These are also the keywords that have the greatest chance of
resulting in a visitor following your desired call to action. You then optimise your website copy
and the information on your site for those keywords and phrases.
This is not a complicated process but it does require specific attention to detail that I cannot do
justice to in this report. Look for links in the resources section to information on how to do this or
where to outsource this to.
Each website and each web page on the internet has a “ranking” given to it by Google and other
search engines. Google calls this “Page Rank”. One of your goals is to raise the Page Rank of
your website and blog as high as possible.
The higher your page rank the better your chances of making the first page of Google search for
any of your desired keywords. If your own site has a low page rank, the next best thing is to be
linked to and linked from other websites that have a high Page Rank. The easiest way to do this
and the way that is most in the spirit of social media, is to freely provide superb content in ways
that other blogs and users of information will lap up and use - and in the process link to your
page.
Hint: Most social media platforms have a high page rank.
goal 2: getting people to take action when they get to your website
Once an individual arrives at your site, you want him or her to execute your call to action. If you
want that person to sign up for a free trial of your product or service, tell them so and give them
an easy way to do that. The same goes for getting them to buy a product immediately, or to sign
up for your newsletter by entering her name and email address. Be clear and explicit. Make it
possible for the person to do what you ask them to do with the least amount of fuss, with as few
clicks as possible.
It won’t hurt to have a free scan of your website to see how well the basic design and SEO factors
are handled. Go to http://www.websitegrader.com, enter your url and see the detailed results. No
Charge.
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step 3 – listen to what individuals are
saying and where they are saying it. 3
One question before we get online and start listening is this: “what are you listening out
for?” Ask yourself that regularly throughout this listening stage and for all your social media
engagement.
Here are four things that will guide what you will listen out for. Fill them in on the social media
roadmap document.
They are (1) your company name, (2) a description (maximum of three) of your marketplace, (3)
the “types” of products or services you are promoting
(e.g. solar panels, photovoltaic solar panels) and (4)
the brand names of your products or services (e.g.
Rainbow, Green Queen and Top panels). idea:
Armed with this, begin listening to what is being said If you find that the conversations
online right now. Do this first – sign up for Google alerts. around your keyword or key
phrase are not related to buying,
Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and log in. then try adding an “action” word
to the phrase.
You will need to sign up for a Google account, which is
free. Do it. There are many useful tools offered by Google For example, if you are not
for free, you can use your single account with them to having luck with the term “solar
log in to any of the services they provide. panels”, try “buy solar panels”
or “buying solar panels” and see
Once you are signed in, enter your company name as a the difference.
search term. If your name is two or more words, be sure
to click on “Advanced search” and then type the phrase If you are not having much
luck with your company name,
into the “With the exact phrase” field. If you are doing
try “Dragon Mist products” or
a search for a specific area, then enter the city, state, or
“Dragon Mist service”.
country in the field further down: “Return only articles
about a local area”.
Select email every day. If that becomes too much in the future, just log in and change it to once
a week.
A second Google search you should do right away makes use of Google’s (surpisingly little known)
feature called “Show Options”. To get to this feature first type in your search term at Google.com
and hit Search.
The first results will appear and so too will the “Show Options” link at top left.
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Click on the “Show Options” link and the options will appear down the left of the screen.
Start your listening by clicking on the videos, forums and reviews links and see
what the first page results are. Do this for each of your keyword phrases as well
as for your company name and product brands.
Google has been focusing on real-time search recently as this was never
previously their strong point. The “Any Time” options now allow you to search
for results that were posted in the last 24 hours and often more recently than that.
Twitter (advanced) search is our next stop. It is one of the busiest and buzziest
connectors of people to information out there at the moment. The results will
also give you an idea of what kinds of other social media sites are being pointed
to and are central to the conversation on your topic.
Go here http://search.twitter.com/advanced
If you have phrases, then enter the phrase into
the field that reads “Exact term”.
idea:
Be discerning about which RSS
I am currently using a tool called Tweetizen which has a great feeds you subscribe to, which
interface and allows you to set up groups around the keywords newsletters you sign up for etc.
you are interested in. You will need to have registered your twitter
account to join. Once you have logged in through Tweetizen you Source quality information that
set up a group and easily click between your keyword or key phrase is highly relevant to you and
groups and see (in realtime) what the world is twittering about in what you are in the process of
your realm. achieving with your business.
http://Tweetizen.com It is very easy to become
overwhelmed with information.
Set up RSS feeds. If you already have a Google account simply If the post, article or idea does
sign up for Google Reader. Many people swear by http://www. not have a “wow” impact on you
then why subscribe to it?
feedburner.com which is also good (and now also owned by
Google). Google Reader has two functions that are useful for you
Some people try desperately
right now.
to get the maximum number
of followers and huge email
Once your account is set up at Google Reader, simply click on
lists regardless of their
the RSS feed you see at any blog online that you would like to
quality. Remember – it’s about
receive feeds from. Google Reader is your RSS aggregator for the
conversions at the end of the
information coming from the sites you choose to follow.
day, not follower or list size.
The second good use of Google reader is to find blogs. Once you
have signed up for an account, click the “Add a subscription” button and enter a search term.
Multiple pages of links will be displayed which you can then browse and click through to in
deciding whether you want to follow them via RSS or not.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed of any of them (or just scan them).
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http://www.google.com/reader
It’s worth seeing your keywords and keyword phrases from a few different angles to add some
depth. There are new tools coming to market literally every day, each with a slightly different
search angle.
The key categories of social media search are available as search options in many of the social
media search platforms. Let’s look at one now:
http://www.socialmention.com
Above the search field at SocialMention there are tabs for you to select any one or all of the
following: Blogs, Microblogs, Bookmarks, Comments, Events, Images, News, Video, Audio and
Q&A.
Also, have a go at
http://whostalkin.com
http://www.samepoint.com
http://spy.appspot.com
For now this is a very adequate place to listen in.
At this stage do not get bogged down in months of research. Spend time every day listening to
the conversations, and recording them on the Roadmap document. Do this for an hour or two a
day for a week. Patterns will emerge that will guide you to the social media locations where you
will find your people. Depending on the progress you make, you may want to continue for a few
weeks. I suggest maximum of one month for this stage.
step 4 – map and list how it is being said
and who the influencers are 4
The kinds of things you are going to be listening out for in your tweets, blog post etc.
conversations in your market are:
• What are the emotional triggers?
• What lingo is being used (e.g. LOL (“Lots of Love” or “Laugh out Loud”), WTF (work this
one out for yourself ;-) A tip. If you ever see an acronym that you don’t know simply Google
“what does WTF mean?” and you’ll get an answer. (It sometimes means “What’s This
For?”).
• What is the tone of the conversations? Friendly, formal, use of “in-group” slang?
• Are people sharing ideas and activities?
• Are people sharing lots of links?
• Who are the influencers in the community?
• Who are the outside influencers in the community? (E.g. Regulating bodies and activist
groups that get discussed).
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step 5 – decide on your social media
presence and register the accounts online. 5
Stake your social media real estate claim now. Make sure you understand the difference between
your company name and your username, as detailed below.
register effectively
If your company name consists of many words – such as
tips for posting
“Dragon Mist Solar Panel Company” - you will need to decide
Posting is a big subject and
on a shorter name. DragonMist will be a good company username.
worth staying on top of by
You will enter your company name as Dragon Mist (two words) on
reading good posts on the topic,
any sign up information asking for your company name. You will experimenting, watching what the
use DragonMist (one word) as your username for that social media. leaders in your community are
Use the same spelling and the same use of caps for ALL your doing and by being authentic.
social media you intend to use your username for.
One mistake that many people
You will be asked to fill in a description of your business and what make is to write one post and
you offer. This could be a short description (e.g. the bio space in submit it as is to all of their
Twitter) or a long description. If you sign up for LinkedIn you will social media sites. You may have
start with your own personal details (mini CV) and then fill in your a facebook update that is 300
company description as the place that you work or the business characters long, describing your
you own. new blog post. That is perfect for
facebook.
When you fill out the business description, include some of your
top keywords you’ve identified for your business, and make it However, when it appears on
interesting. Add some spring to your business description step. If Twitter it is cut off after 140
you are struggling with this, take note of the descriptions you see characters and the link may not
while you are listening online and which ones you think are great. appear. Anyone seeing your post
What are they doing? See if you can replicate that energy in yours. and is intrigued cannot get to the
post and is frustrated.
Search here to see if the name you have chosen is taken. One easy
step here. http://namechk.com Make your post relevant to your
social media site it is going to
If your name is taken, don’t panic. There are lots of creative ways appear on. They can still all be
to set up social media names. sent from the same platform (in
my case ping.fm)
Register your name on these accounts because sooner or later you
are likely to use them. It works the same way that registering your
company domain name protects you from someone registering it and using it for their website.
By registering your company name you are not committing to using these accounts immediately.
Importantly, do not link to your registered but unutilized pages in any of your articles, messages,
bios etc. until you are actively using them. You do not want to provide a link for someone to click
through to an empty page.
When you register for the sites that you are not ready to use actively right away (e.g. Squidoo), fill
in all your details and include a link back to your main site. It will not do any harm to link from
these sites to your main site.
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Set the intention of using them all and do so when the time is right.
register at:
LinkedIn
On linkedIn you are going to set up your own personal profile that includes information you would
typically have on your CV. LinkedIn is really an online CV profile of individuals.
There will be a space for you to fill in the name of the company you work for or own.
https://www.linkedin.com/secure/register?trk=hb join
Facebook
If you don’t already have a personal facebook account then
you’ll need to set one up in order to get a business page or good to know
start a group. Start by setting up a Facebook Business Page.
You may set up multiple pages, covering different topics or QQ, leader in China, is the largest
relating to your various keywords. Great for SEO. social network in the world (300
million active accounts)
Visit this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php Facebook has almost colonised
Europe and it’s extending its
Take a few minutes to decide on the best category for your global reach with more than 200
business as this isn’t easy to change later. Enter your business millions users
or product name and click “Create Page”. Maktoob is the most important
Arab community/portal
Add your bio and main website address and your company logo Myspace lost its leadership
at the link “Add Information To This Page”. everywhere (except in Guam), but
is still prominent.
Now click on your business name that has appeared in the top V Kontakte is the most popular
left corner of your screen (a hyperlink) and click “Publish this in Russian territories (looks a lot
Page”. Only now will people be able to see your new page. like Facebook)
Orkut is strong in India and
To finish off, you must click “Add to my products”, and you Brazil
become your first “fan” of your business. Don’t skip this last Hi5 is still leading in Peru,
step or your site won’t go live. Colombia, Ecuador and other
scattered countries such as
Next, register a Facebook group. You set up a group at the link Portugal, Mongolia, Romania
below. Choose an “Open” group to allow anyone to join. (Hi5 is a San Francisco based
Company)
http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php Odnoklassniki is strong in some
former territories of the Soviet
You will be able to invite friends and colleagues from your Union
personal Facebook account and elsewhere to join the group. Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/
archives/post_2.php
MySpace
MySpace does not currently approve of accounts being set up
with a purely business focus. To use MySpace effectively you
need to include details about yourself, what your interests are
and make your business a part of this (not the other way round.)
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http://signups.myspace.com
Lots more detail to help you along your way here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Promote-Your-Business-On-MySpace-In-7-Easy-Steps
Twitter
Having a separate personal and company twitter account is sometimes advisable. Fill in as much
information as possible on the bio page, including your keywords and market description. People
will find you by searching for keywords and phrases and it helps to have them in your bio. Make
it conversational and don’t stuff it with keywords.
Use a picture of yourself, or your company logo. It makes your tweets much more personal.
Remember – as always – to link to your “main” website.
Signup here: http://twitter.com/signup
Delicious
Your bookmarks will be made public and when someone finds your posts and your contribution to
a community useful, they may view your delicious links to see what you read.
Start using it as your bookmarking tool in place of your browser as a good way to start seeing the
value in this service. Select tags for each link you choose to bookmark, that you can then sort
your favourites by.
http://secure.delicious.com/register
YouTube
Signing up for YouTube is pretty straight forward. Remember to use your business name as your
username and fill in all details including your website link.
Sign up here: http://www.youtube.com/create_account
When you have your account up and running and you are comfortable posting videos and
optimising them for search as part of your social media engagement, you may be ready for your
own YouTube channel.
Everything you need to set up your own channel is here:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_claim_create_youtube_channel.html
Digg
Press the Change Icon link in the right top corner and now you can upload your pic, bio (“About
me” box) and website link. As with all of your bios, make it memorable, something that will make
others want to click on it.
Digg also does not permit accounts with the sole purpose of promoting company products and
services. You are going to promote yourself as an expert and share information on the benefits of
your products and services.
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In the words of Digg themselves:
Digg is not for commercial use. Please don’t use Digg for selling or promoting products and
services. If we discover that you’re involved in Digging for profit we reserve the right to terminate
your account permanently.
At Digg you will discover, select, share & discuss.
http://digg.com/register/
Squidoo
Squidoo is the brainchild of internet marketer extraordinaire Seth Godin. Each account is a
“lens” on a particular subject. It is popular and has a high page rank and features prominently in
Google search.
Go to the registration page and fill in all of your personal information. Once you’ve confirmed
your e-mail address, go ahead and create a lens. It will ask what your lens is about and here
enter your main keyword phrase that you’ve used to optimise your main site (e.g. “Solar Panels
for Households”).
Next, select “I want to do my own thing.” Now you are able to name your lens. Enter your
company name, using dashes between each word.
Also pick the category that is most relevant to your business and main keywords. On the next
page you’ll enter the next three main keywords or keyword phrases you have identified for your
website.
Now it’s time to create and edit your lens. For the “Lens Intro Title,” just use the primary
keyword phrase again.
For the description, write up a quick three sentence blurb explaining what your company provides
and use your main keyword phrase at least once. For example, “Welcome to this lens! I am the
owner at Dragon Mist and I’m passionate about green energy and specifically solar panels for
households. If there is anything you’d like to know about solar panels for home use, read on or
contact me…”
There is a lot of information at the Squidoo site to help you get your lens set up, looking good
and with good basic information.
http://www.squidoo.com/member/registration idea
Register at other social media sites that your market is using. When posting to your blog
In the Arab community that may be Maktoob, in China QQ etc. consider adding an image or two
to your post to add depth and
do I need a blog? colour.
Can you commit to updating your blog at least once a week? A quick scan at a site like
Can you commit to making time to read and address the istockphoto.com should get you a
comments you will receive in response to your posts? This powerful pic you can use. They’re
commitment is essential for your blog to be an asset. inexpensive.
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You have two options when it comes to hosting your blog. The first is you can use a free blogging
platform such as blogger.com or wordpress.com. You simply go to the site, sign up, choose the
name for your blog and you are set. There are even default designs you can use. There are some
limitations, though.
The second option – which I recommend - is to register a domain or use your existing company
domain name, with an extension. For example www.DragonMist.com/blog.
There are some technical details to consider here. If your site is hosted on a Microsoft Windows
server, it is difficult to install WordPress or the other industry standard open-source platforms.
If you are committed to a Windows server, one of the easiest workarounds is to register a new
domain (e.g. DragonMistBlog.com) and host that on a Linux server somewhere else.
Of the many hosting companies I have used for WordPress, the
company I recommend most is listed in the Resources section.
Just make sure that the company you choose to host with has idea
C-Panel. Ask them.
Write occasional posts in
I use WordPress and always have. There are lots of themes response to a popular and
available, both paid and free. Search for them. There are also lots stimulating post you read in your
of useful plugins written for WordPress. If there is one plugin I community.
recommend it is SEO plugin.
Reference the article in yours,
Setting up your blog theme and plugins is something you can and freely reference other great
confidently outsource. See outsourcing details towards the end of articles and provide links to them
the report. in your post.
Read this good article on choosing a blog platform here
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/choosing-a-blog-platform/
ideas for your blog.
As an industry insider you should have some idea of what the pains of your customers are. What
do they want? What are they searching for? How can you provide this for them through your blog?
If you run customer surveys you could use the most commonly raised issues and questions as a
blog topic.
Ideas for posts can be triggered by posts and information you read online. When that happens,
bookmark the page with your Delicious button on your browser and create a tag for this purpose,
something like “blogideas”. You can then find them all easily when you need them.
Keep a small notebook on you to jot down ideas when they come to you in the shower (waterproof
notebook) or out walking the dog.
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step 6 – select your posting and tracking platforms (software).
Thankfully, there are many applications available (mostly free of charge), that help with
6
management of your social media presence. Expect many more to emerge over the next months
and years.
The first benefit is that of having a single, central place from which to post messages and
updates to multiple social media sites at once. These usually also have some level of built in
tracking tools. An obvious benefit is that it saves you having to log into each account separately
each time you want to post something or to read other people’s posts.
Tracking is valuable in that it gives you an idea of what is working and what is
not working in your social media activities. I am going to detail the applications
that I use and have found most beneficial. There are many others and some of
the other ones you may want to look at are http://tweetdeck.com and
http://desktop.seesmic.com
To fully describe the process of posting and tracking, let’s look at the combinations I use
successfully. They are free to use and excellent tools.
First sign up at http://ping.fm and add your Twitter account.
Now sign up at http://hootsuite.com. In Hootsuite, as an admin, click on
“Settings.” At the bottom of the “Account” tab, you’ll see a Ping.fm section.
Here you just paste in your application key.
You can drag and drop the HootSuite “owlet” into your browser and then click on it each time
you want to Tweet about a blog or site you are visiting.
I keep HootSuite and ping open in two tabs on my browser and switch between them. Hootsuite
allows you to shorten links (URLs), schedule posts for later and track how many times your links
have been clicked.
Play around with the two applications and you will discover the many features and the way to
synchronise the two that works best for you.
step 7 – define all metrics – clearly, and measurably
(is that a word?) 7
The first metric relates to your business goals/objectives. In our example company, Dragon Mist,
the goal is to be the best selling home solar panel supplier by volume. How will you know if you
have succeeded?
One source may be a green household survey done every six months and available for your area.
Other data? If you cannot measure your business goals and objectives, rework them until you
have clear means of measuring them.
Let’s look at the goal “Reduce the number of monthly returns by 15% within six months”. This is
measured in our example by recording the number of returns monthly. Stock take is done on the
21st of each month and results available by the 25th, from stock control department.
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Let’s look at your website. Your goal could be to increase conversions of people providing their
details for a free “Green power household assessment” with one of your consultants. A follow-
on goal could be to convert 35% of those prospects into paying clients within 3 months of their
contact.
When it comes to website visitor tracking, many people use Google analytics. I prefer
Statcounter. Sign up for free at either one, insert some code they provide you onto each page
of your website and you are tracking. They cover all the metrics you will need. Unique visitors,
repeat visitors, entry and exit pages, conversions and a few other things.
http://www.statcounter.com
With regard to each of your social media accounts, the manner in which you track your progress
depends on your goals.
If you have chosen something with less concrete measures, such as “raising brand awareness”,
you will not be focusing on tracking the number of links opened in your posts, or clicks through
to your blog. You will search for your brand name in twitter search and other media search
tools (such as social mention). You will be seeing how often it is being mentioned, whether the
mentions are positive or negative, and what the context of the mention is.
If you are aiming to drive people to your blog to pre-sell them before sending them on to your
website, you will track visitor metrics. You will also track the number of click throughs that come
from your various social media, each of your posts, and what the click ratio is.
For example, you may have links to a key blog post of yours in six different social media. You can
track whether the bulk of the links came from Twitter, Facebook, Delicious etc. You can also see
which of those visitors went on to click through to your website. This will tell you which of your
social media is providing you with the most clicks to your blog, and which is providing the best
rate of click throughs to your website.
The point is that the clearer you are about what action you want every follower or reader or friend
to take in every one of your posts, the easier it will be to track them.
It is often useful to map your social media out on a piece of paper and draw the flow of
information and visitor interest with directional lines.
Other metrics you can look at are subscribers, fans, page views, links and bookmarks.
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step 8 – listen, engage and grow your network 8
This is where you jump in and start listening through your own social media accounts, and begin
growing your network. Now you begin to actively listen to what is going on in your community,
and start engaging.
LinkedIn
Once you have all your information entered, you can import idea
your contact list from your email programme and see which
of your contacts are on LinkedIn. Invite them to connect with To get the maximum number of
you. people to click through to your
desired destination…
Join a few groups linked closely to your product or service. Click
on Groups and enter your keyword/s. For “solar” there are well 1. Offer something of value
over a hundred groups. Each has a short description so you can (always). That could be a
join the groups with the best fit to your interest and goals. Here genuinely valuable offer,
are some of the first groups I found on a search for “Solar” that well written, clear and
are relevant to our business example. relevant article etc.
2. Be authentic.
• Solar Energy Network (3300 members) 3. Engage and show your
• Global Renewable Energy Network (GReEN) personality.
(2200 members) 4. Don’t hard-sell.
• Solar Energy Consultants (2200 members)
Asking relevant questions within each group and answering other people’s questions can raise
your profile as an expert and give you the chance to mention what you sell. This is not for
hard selling, but you could answer a question, saying ”As someone who sells solar panels to
households in the Christchurch area...” Anyone wanting to find out more about you can click on
your name and see your full profile, including a link to your main site.
Be creative. Grow your network. Think laterally. See what the group leaders are doing and work
out what their strategy is. Experiment.
Twitter
Post a dozen or so posts before you start following significant people you have found. People you
follow are notified by email that you have followed them and they will frequently click through to
your profile to see who you are.
Follow me at http://twitter.com/philipvanzyl
Things that they will look at are your bio (are your interests compatible) & your follower number
rations (are your follower numbers the same as or greater than your following numbers). They
will also have a look at your last dozen or so tweets and see if they are interesting and they may
check one or two links to see the quality of the information you are peddling.
There is software that automatically finds people for you to follow, and then follows them on your
behalf. It will then check to see if that person has followed you back, and if not will “un-follow”
that person for you. This is mostly to keep your number of followers and number of followings
similar. I don’t use software like this.
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The downside of having thousands of followers is that it becomes noise and you lose the ability to
see the tweets of the key people you want to hear from.
Read around on blogs about setting up Twitter and make an informed decision about how you are
going to approach each aspect of tweeting. My suggestions is start slowly and build more quickly
as you naturally gather momentum.
My suggestion is that you experiment, track the results of each experiment, and then continue
with the aspects that best translate into results you want.
Facebook
By participating in the top three groups you have joined on facebook in a similar way to LinkedIn
you will find members that you will want to invite into your network. Once you find someone
you want to invite you can start a private conversation with them and then make friends when
appropriate.
step 9 - use diverse social marketing strategies to
get your engagement buzzing & track results. 9
Ok, you are up and running and have more than enough to get started and succeeding. As you
explore social media you will discover new social media that you may want to register at. You’ll
find new blogs and new ways of posting and leveraging these for incremental improvements.
Here are a few marketing strategies that you can use to seriously ramp up your social media
profile, get new targeted followers and increase your search engine ranking all at the same time.
Don’t underestimate the power of these four marketing channels and leverage their simplicity.
article marketing
This usually has a gradual filtering through the various social media and then linking into your
social media cloud or directly to your website. It, however, lasts for a long time and is worth
doing.
Will the person reading this learn something new? Will they trust you more from reading your
article? Make sure the answer to both is yes.
See if you can use a current news event or trend to weave your story around. With solar panels for
households and green energy, the trends to piggy back on will include global warming, electricity
blackouts and eco-living.
Select one keyword to focus the article on and use it a few times (2-3% of article word count)
throughout the article. Select a different keyword or phrase to focus on for each article.
First prize is to slightly rewrite three versions of the article, using different phrases, and submit
each to a different directory. If you don’t have the time to do this then submit the same article to
the different directories.
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Post your article on your own blog first (if you have one). Google will see this as the articles
“home”, because it appeared there first.
Submit to at least one of the following three directories:
http://ezinearticles.com
http://submityourarticle.com
http://articlesbase.com
press releases.
Although there are some exciting new ideas in releasing social media press releases, a basic
newsworthy release to some of the key online PR sites will get you some good coverage. Make it
newsworthy. Don’t make it all about your product or service. Link to your main site.
Press releases must have:
• A headline and sub headline.
• The origin or source of the news (example the location).
• The body of the press release (with key news in the first paragraph).
• Additional and contact information at the end (including a link to your main site).
Submit your press release to at least the following three press release sites.
http://i-newswire.com
http://prnewswire.com
http://prlog.org
Search for country-specific and industry-specific press release sites for your business and use
them.
commenting on blogs, forums and social media groups.
Adding a comment at blog posts, forums and social media groups can add to your social media
success in two main ways. The first is that it helps to establish you as an authority in your field
and readers may be tempted to click through to your main website to find out more about you
and what you offer.
The second way it supports you is that Google currently counts links from comments as a valid
incoming link, and thus helps your search ranking efforts. Make sure your comments are relevant
to the page you are commenting on.
Remember to use your main website link in the field where it is requested. Also add a photograph
if it is offered as an option by the comment software, it adds character.
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video
Get started with Video marketing by registering an account on YouTube. Make a screen capture
video using Jing (free), publish it to Screencast.com (free) and put the link up on your blog. Load
it up onto YouTube too. You load it onto YouTube by saving a copy from Jing onto your harddrive
and loading it from there to YouTube.
http://www.jingproject.com/
Step 10 – Measure, Adjust, Listen, Engage.
10
Follow your roadmap, make adjustments and keep measuring.
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part 3 – your social future
Ok, this is the final part of this report so let’s wind things up. If you have read this report
carefully and implemented all ten steps you are on track to growing your business in measurable
ways using the power of social media.
I just read this great quote:
“ It is a bit odd to go to a bar, stay silent and almost invisible for the whole evening,
”
and then complain that you had no interesting conversation. Yet this is exactly what
happens a lot on online networks. (Roland Legrand).
Don’t waste the good work you have done in setting up your social media presence by sitting
back and not participating. Engage and magic will happen.
Here are two final things to consider; outsourcing and advertising on social media.
outsourcing.
The skill and practice of outsourcing can leverage your efforts massively, and save you time.
Don’t be afraid to outsource. In fact be proactive and
choose a few small aspects of your social media campaign
to outsource to teach yourself the ropes. I’ll show you how tip
right now. Remember, it is where your people are hanging out
that you want to be, not just on the sites that you like. Just Creative outsourcing.
because you like recording audio for podcasts does not mean Remember that you don’t have
that it should be the focus of your social media campaign. to pay for outsourced content.
However, if your people are hanging out at video sites like Ask your happiest customers if
Yahoo video, YouTube and Viddler, get a presence there even if they would record a two minute
you don’t like making videos yourself. Prepare a clear brief on webcam commentary on why
exactly what you want and outsource it. they use our product.
And if you want to outsource a snappy product video to post What do they love about the
online, start by asking for tips [guess where…] through your product the most?
social media channels. Post a question to a group you belong
to on LinkedIn. Post what you intend to outsource, what Run a competition for them.
your budget is and if anyone has had any good outsourcing Post them all up onto the social
experiences with this kind of video. Any tips? media video properties and watch
them go viral. No cost.
If you are going to outsource your article and press releases for
marketing, ask for samples first and generally go for providers
who speak your desired language as their first language.
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Try www.elance.com ; www.craigslist.com & www.rentacoder.com to find a massive pool of people
who can make that video, write that article etc.
If you run an event, give a talk, or do a product demonstration. Catch some of the people
afterwards, hit “roll” on your pocket flip cam and ask them where they are, what they have just
been listening to, and how they found it. You may get just one or two great ones from many, but
they are powerful and free. Post them up. I could go on, but over to you now...
One of the best ways to stay motivated and informed is to take a course in social media
that walks you step by step through each process. If you would like to stay informed about
programmes I run online worldwide, enter your details here and I’ll keep you in the loop.
(www.getsocialmedia.net/program).
advertising on social media
Once you’ve settled into your basic social media presence and you are comfortable engaging your
networks effectively, you may consider the many paid advertising options on social media.
It is not essential to pay for advertising as part of your social media strategy, but it is an option
worth considering. As you look out for them you will see them everywhere, and expect many more
paid advertising options to emerge rapidly.
You Tube has redesigned their site to make premium content more visible, facebook has
advertising options, as does MySpace, LinkedIn and most others. Read up about the advertising
options, make sure they align with your social media goals, and start small.
think laterally.
Social media is not a paint by numbers game. Once you have established a social media
presence, think laterally. The more you can put yourself into the shoes of your customers,
prospects or evangelists, the more chance you have of reaching them in a meaningful way
(meaningful to them, remember).
Please do post a comment on the GetSocialMedia blog about this guide here
http://www.getsocialmedia.net/guide
If you would like additional tips, links to case studies and other information you can use to power
up your social media campaign, sign up at http://www.getsocialmedia.net/tips
If you’ve found this guide useful please share it with others in your network, your friends and
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my social media roadmap
company/brand name ______________________________________________
This document is to be used in conjunction with the ten step strategy in part 2 of the guide.
Step 1 – company goal
1
________________________________________________
Clear big picture goals:
______________________________________ Clear & measurable company goals:
______________________________________
______________________________________ YES NO
______________________________________ Big picture
______________________________________
______________________________________ Operational
______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
________________________
In order to realise the above goals, my operational goals are:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
I am going to measure each of these as follows:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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Which of the above goals can you currently measure?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Actions to be taken to clarify any of the above that need measurement clarification.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Step 2 – website goal and clear call to action 2
My website goals (maximum of three) are (in order of preference)…
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
(There should be one main website goal above)
The clear call to action on my website is…
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
The incentive for anyone to follow my call to action is (what’s in it for them?)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Things I need to do to realise ALL of the above (in step 2 ) - including “by when” and who will
do it?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
My top 5 – 10 keywords / keyword phrases are…
(Don’t just guess these, use the tools, linked to in the resources section).
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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Step 3 – what are people saying and where are they saying it? 3
This is what is being said about my company, product, service or brand.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
This is where it is being said.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________
These are the key themes.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________
These are the top 5 blogs relating to my business and offering.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
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These are the other social network sites that are popular with my target community.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________
Step 4 – map and list what is being said
4
(Include the social media site next to each sentence)
Some lingo being used:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________
The general tone is (friendly, formal etc.)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________
People are generally sharing… (ideas, reviews, articles…)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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If people are sharing links, what are they linking to?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Some of the key community influencers appear to be
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Some of the key outside influencers appear to be
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________
step 5 – register all accounts listed in the guide’s step 5.
Here are any additional sites where my conversations are happening:
5
(Register for these)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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step 6 – select posting and tracking software
6
I signed up for ____________________________________
I signed up for ____________________________________
They are linked and working (if you signed up for more than one).
I have successfully posted to each of my social media sites using the above
posting platforms.
I know how the basic tracking works (e.g. how to see how many times a link I
have posted was clicked on.
____________________________________________________________
Other
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
____________________
Step 7 – define all metrics
7
N.B. For big picture goals and operational goals, include:
1. what the measure is.
2. how it is being measured.
3. how often it will be measured.
This is exactly how I measure the success of my big picture company goal(s)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
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This is exactly how I measure the success of each of my operational goals (listed in step 1)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_____________
Website: Visitor conversions
This is how I am going to measure visitor conversion (i.e. how many people completed the
intended call to action, what percentage of visitors that represents. Other visitor metrics…
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_____________________________
My measurements for success on other sites are as follows (e.g. Twitter):
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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step 8 – listen, engage, grow 8
Follow step 8 in the guide
Step 9 – use diverse strategies
9
Article ideas (be guided by your keywords and keyword phrases)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
I will write these myself/outsource these. How? Who? When?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Press Releases
I will write these myself/outsource these. How? Who? When?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
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step 10 – measure, adjust, listen, engage
10
Does my roadmap need adjusting? If yes, here are the details of what I am going to do to adjust
it:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________
PTO for Resources...
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resources
For Full Updated List Of All Links In This Report Go Here Now:
www.getsocialmedia.net/resources
Updates on social media at my blog (www.getsocialmedia.net/blog)
Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/philipvanzyl
Spread the word about this report here (fun – try this out & get an immediate free gift)
www.getsocialmedia.net/friends
SEO Resources - Great overview of SEO basics by Google themselves. Download pdf here
www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Tools to help establish your best keywords and keyword phrases:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Hosting company most recommended for blog hosting www.gethostgatorspecial.com
For good free and premium Word Press themes: www.woothemes.com
The SEO Plugin for Word Press: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/download/
Recommended blogs:
Brian Solis’ blog on social media www.briansolis.com
Seth Godin’s blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com
Mashable blog on social media http://mashable.com
If you received this report from a friend or colleague and did not enter your email address, you
can do that now to receive useful updates, bonuses and other resources.
www.getsocialmedia.net/guide
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