Originally presented at the Idea Village 2013 New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. Megan Hargroder is a social media strategist living in New Orleans and is passionate about helping businesses create online strategies and channels to improve customer service and enhance conversations with their target market.

1. Social Media for Startups
how to get started and do
things right from the
beginning.
(and also what NOT to do. that s important too.)

2. conversations.be
conversation based social media: that s what s up
TWEET ME: @heyitsmegan

3. rules of engagement...
Image Borrowed From Blog.deskwanted.com

4. build it and they will come
engage them and they will stay

5. Social Media is...
• Community
• Conversation
• A new form of marketing
• A way to crowdsource
• A way to connect and build

6. Social Media is NOT...
• A one-way broadcast system
• An instant fundraiser or
money maker
• A space for advertisements
• The twitter

7. getting started: SETUP

8. why is this first?

9. twitter
twitter.com

10. is your name taken ? :(
there are options but you ll need to be patient

11. Twitter Cheat Sheet
• # = hashtag; generally used to tag keywords you
want to be searched by but anything can be #’d
• @ = combined w/ username to reference someone
or comment TO them - this is how conversations
happen
• RT = ReTweet (reposting of a tweet or part of a
tweet; usually set off by RT @username)
• #FF = Follow Friday - suggestions of who to follow
• DM = Direct Message

12. facebook
facebook.com/pages/create/php

13. Create custom URL
(Must have 25 fans first)

14. DON T link FB and Twitter
it s tacky, lazy, and you re better than that

16. location based sites

17. set up your profile:
• Google Places
• YELP
• Foursquare

18. other tools...

19. strategy, y all

20. set goals
define audience
assign roles
get started
track, measure, revise

21. set goals
• what do you want to do?
• how can you use online tools to accomplish?
• who are you competing against and what are
they doing online?
• put some realistic stats and numerical goals
to your social influence based on this

22. define audience
• who is using your service/buying your
product?
• where do these people play online?
• what else are they into?
• talk to those people and see what kind of
message they want from you

23. assign roles
• designate a primary manager
• internal mgmt v. outsourced
• interns are not social media managers
• accountability and consistency

24. things your intern could
do to really ruin your day
• post something to FB or Twitter that has spelling errors
• accidentally post to your brand account instead of their own
while out drunk
• delete your page completely (either accidentally or on
purpose)

25. create a policy....
• Consistency
• Liability
• Ground Rules
• Respect to the org s mission

26. get started
• choose a management system
• create a content calendar
• BE YOU
• have fun and be SOCIAL

27. ex. content calendar

28. management tools
tie everything together and streamline your workflow
with a social media management hub

29. management tools

30. sprout social

31. track, measure, revise

33. google analytics is badass
OTHER STUFF
• google alerts
• sprout social or hootsuite analytics
• bit.ly //owl.ly click through analytics
• crowdbooster social analytics

34. think qualitative
• which posts performed the best?
• what days/times do you get the most
engagement?
• what are people really interacting with and
reacting to?
• creatively duplicate effective campaigns and
content

35. facebook ads
• super targeted, demographic-specific
• the cheapest and most direct advertising, like,
period, the end.
• you choose your budget and what actions you
want people to take
• JUST TRY IT

36. btw - do you know what
platform your site is on?
if you re using a plug and play site like wix, virb, flavors
etc. you might want to consider upgrading to wordpress

37. more on wordpress...

38. SEO, y all
(search engine optimization)
a.k.a.
how much google loves you
- @ErnieAttorney

40. more time saving tools
because your job is to run a company,
not a social media campaign

41. ifttt.com
automate your entire life

42. sanebox.com
spend less time in your inbox by auto-filtering unimportant stuff

43. boomerang
no one needs to know you sent that email at 3a.m.

44. @heyitsmegan
megan@conversations.be
helping people be more
badass online since 2010