Getting Started with Social Media

Copyright © 2011 Crow Communications, LLC. SocialMediaDIYWorkshop.com
Getting Started
Tools & Program Building
Social Media Concepts,
An Introduction to
A Newsletter Subscriber Bonus
Social MediaWith

Getting Started With Social Media | SocialMediaDIYWorkshop.com Page 2 of 30
About This Ebook
Social media is everywhere. You can’t read anything about
business these days without hearing about social media
issues and tools.
It’s like the whole world is social media crazy.
Who Should I Read This?
Social media is a great set of tools that you can use to
grow your business, whether you run a small business, a
non‐profit, or a government agency.
You should read this if you are:
Ready to jump into social media.
Already using social media but are not getting the
results you want.
Your Business Social Media Journey
This ebook is a great first step or early step in your
business social media journey. It provides an overview of
social media and focuses exclusively on business use and
benefits. It explains the basic concepts and answers the
most common questions.
Armed with this information, you can begin to create a
customized program that meets your unique business
challenges. When you are ready for more practical, hands‐
on information, visit the Social Media DIY Workshop.
How To Read
You can read this ebook from your computer screen. Any
text in orange is a link to an article or website. Just click on
orange text and you’ll be taken to the destination without
any web address typing. You can also print this ebook.

Charlene Kingston
Social Media DIY Workshop

This ebook is for Social Media DIY Toolbox
newsletter subscribers only.
Copyright © 2011 Crow Communications, LLC. All rights
reserved.
Version 1: May 2011
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Why You Need This
Perhaps you are considering using social media for your
business. Or perhaps you are already using social media
and are not sure if you understand the big fuss.
Social media provides a new set of tools that businesses
can use to connect
with their
customers and the
general public.
Social media tools
can be used to get
new customers,
increase sales, and
turn existing
customers into your
most powerful
sales team.
But social media is about more than just using these new
tools. Social media requires a new way of thinking about
your business and your customers.
Questions Every Business Should Ask
To be successful with social media, you have to invest
some time thinking about your business. Here are the
important questions your business should ask about social
media:
Why should my business use social media?
How is social media different from other ways that I
talk with my customers?
Is my business ready for social media?
Is social media just a big hype, or can it really help my
business?
How can I make sure that my time on social media
really benefits my business?
Should I learn social media myself, or should I hire
someone to do it for my business?
What social media tools should I use?
What do I talk about on social media?
What is the secret to social media success?
Why are my current social media activities so
disappointing?
How can I build a successful social media program
customized for my business challenges?
Where can I go to learn more about social media?
This ebook answers those questions.
Let’s get started!

Social Media
Launch Pad
With Social Media
Getting Started
Part 1:
Your

Let’s talk about your business.
First, a question: What is the greatest business asset that
you don’t own and can’t control?
The answer: Your customers.
A business without customers
is just an idea, a business plan
with overhead and expenses.
It’s the customers that
convert your brilliant skills,
products, and services into
your business.
It’s About Customer
Relationships
Social media gives you an entirely new way to understand
and know your customers. It allows you to see them
outside of a business exchange. It puts them into a
broader context, a more social context.
Social media lets you see your customers as whole people.
And social media lets your customers interact with your
business as a person. Your business exchanges are
transformed into human interactions.
With social media, you think of your customers as business
friends. Or customers with benefits.
Customers With Benefits
Social Media Benefits
So why would a business want to invest time, effort, and
often money, to build these strong customer
relationships?
Your customers are already buying your products and
services. What more could you want?
Here’s what social media can give your business:
Word of mouth advertising. How about creating
an army of evangelists who brag to their friends
about how smart they are because they are your
customer?
Repeat sales. What about getting more repeat
business from your existing customers because they
feel like you really listen to them and understand
what they need?
New business ideas. What about getting some great
new business ideas from people who already love
your business and can see business opportunities in
your blind spot?
Shorter product development cycles. How much
faster could you get new products and services to
market if you have input from customers starting
from the moment you have the first idea?
More...

Increased visibility. What about having your
loyal customers introduce you to new people who
can change the course of your business growth?
People like suppliers, vendors, future employees, and
maybe even business partners or investors.
Wouldn’t that change your
business for the better? Isn’t that
worth a little time and effort in
your already busy schedule?
Relationships &
Conversation
Your business builds relationships
with your customers through
conversation. And social media
tools enable you to have
conversations with your
customers.
The idea of talking with your
customer isn’t new.  What’s new is:
Where you talk. You are going to have your customer
conversations online using social media tools.
The amount of conversation. You are going to have
more conversation with your customers, engaging
them more often through social media.
Customers With Benefits
Technology & Conversations
Companies have always used technology to talk to their
customers. In the last 100 years, companies have adjusted
from newspapers and radio to television, billboards, direct
mail, and the internet with websites and email.
Throughout all of these technology changes, the basic
conversation strategy remained the same.
It’s been a one‐way conversation.  Businesses talk but
don’t do any listening.
Two‐Way Conversations
With social media, companies can now have tw0‐way
conversations with their customers. The technology tools
today let you talk and listen to your customers.
Your customers have a lot to say. Your business needs to
listen to them if you want to build relationships that turn
them into customers with benefits.
You don’t have to wait for them to talk to you. With social
media, you can start the conversation. You can ask them
questions and hear about their experience directly from
them.
[CONTINUED]

There is no guarantee that simply using Facebook or
Twitter will bring social media success.
Every business has a unique experience with social media.
Some businesses spark a fire on social media, while others
slosh around without really gaining much traction. Some
social media efforts go viral, while others go unnoticed.
What makes the difference?
Many factors work together to
influence how your business does on
social media. There is no universal
recipe for social media success.
However, as the owner or manager of
a business, there are some things you
can control that influence your
experience on social media.
Your Business Culture
Each business has a personality, a business culture. Your
business culture starts with the personality of the
business owner and expands to include how business
management interact with each other, with the
employees, and with the customers.
Take a few minutes to honestly evaluate where you and
your business stand on these important issues for social
media success.
Social Media Readiness
Customer Experience Focus. Is your business focused
on providing an outstanding customer experience?
Do you  invest time in walking through your business
from a customer’s point of view so you can anticipate
their questions or needs? Do you work to design the
optimum customer experience? Or you do expect
your customers to appreciate your efforts and adjust
to your business and your vision for the business?
Community Focus. Are you  excited about the
benefits of being surrounded by an online
community? Is your brain busting with ideas for
questions you want to ask your customers and with
ways you can make your customers feel like family?
Or do you see community interaction as just one
more task you must take on with your already busy
business operations?
Open To Suggestions. Is your business set up to
encourage your customers to provide input about
your products, services, and operations? Do you
encourage your employees to provide suggestions so
your business can constantly improve? Or do you feel
that you know best? Is it your way or the highway?

More...

[CONTINUED]
Willing To Experiment. Are you willing to try new
things, to experiment with your business operations,
and to keep aiming at a moving target? Can you adjust
to something that is always changing? Or are you
more likely to set up a process
and keep doing it the same
way on autopilot forever?
Customer Readiness
There are social media success
factors for your business that are
out of your control. These factors
involve the personality and
activities of your customers.
Do you have these customer
factors working in your favor?
Customer Passion. Some
customers are more
passionate than others. Does
your business have customers
who care deeply about your
products and services, and who love to talk about
your business with their friends? You can build on the
passion of these customers to fire up your social
media efforts.
Social Media Readiness
Technical Customers. Some customers are more
interested in technology than others. Your business
may have loyal, passionate customers who are not
inclined to use social media. But if you have
customers who use smart phones and who use social
media, you can find and engage your customers
through social media.
You can be successful on social media without these two
customer readiness factors, but it will take a bit more
effort.
Success Checklist
To summarize, businesses that perform well on social
media have these characteristics:
Focus on providing an excellent customer experience.
Enjoy engaging in conversation with a growing
community of business friends.
Always look for a business growth opportunity in
conversations and feedback.
Willing to rethink what they do and try new things.
Have customers who are loyal and passionate fans of
the business.
Have customers who use technology and social
media.

Right now, everyone is talking about social media and
everyone is working to get on social media. It’s changing
the way we do business and the way we market our
products and services.
But does every business have to do social media?
Is Social Media Right For Every Business?
The short answer is: no.  However, if you are reluctant to
dive into social media, here are a few things you need to
understand.
Social media is not a fad. This is not a blip in the
universe. Things are not going back to the way they
were. The business world has changed. What
customers expect has changed. Social media is your
introduction to the future of your business.
Social media is going to become completely
mainstream. It’s going to become the normal way of
doing business. When that happens, social media
tools won’t make the cover of magazines and won’t
be the focus of news stories. Instead, social media
tools will be part of the way we communicate every
day. Just like the telephone.
Social media centers your business around your
customers. Until now, most businesses have created
their products and services with very little customer
Do I Have To Do Social Media?
interaction. Perhaps you have a customer service
department or a team of people in customer‐facing
positions. Going forward, customers are going to
demand that you engage them more, and almost
every department and staff member will be involved
with your customers.
Brave New World
You might get away with avoiding social media for a while.
But soon, your business will be at a disadvantage if you
are not using social media.
Based on this, here are my recommendations:
Don’t just tolerate the new level of customer
interaction and importance, embrace it!
Start getting used to the idea that your customers
have an opinion about how your business should run.
If you don’t listen, some will walk away.
Look for creative and practical ways that you can
start to pull customers deeper into your business
operations and planning.
Start getting to know your customers as people.
Think of them as business friends if you want them to
become customers with benefits.
The journey of running a business just got a lot more
interactive!

The way most people talk about social media, it’s the cure‐
all for every business ailment. They make it sound like just
creating a Facebook business page or Twitter account
brings throngs of potential customers ready to throw
money at you.
If only social media were really
like this.
Myth Busting
Let’s cut through the mythology
of social media and deal with
some real world facts. Here are
some basic principles you must
understand about social media.
“If you build it, they will
come” happens only in a
movie. Many businesses
today use social media and
compete for the attention of your customers. You
have to do more than just show up.
People want to learn things that make their lives
better. Take an inventory of the things you know
because you run your business. How can you turn
your knowledge into valuable information to help
others? How can you add value to their lives? These
are the topics your business should talk about in your
social media conversations. It’s about how you can
help them.
People want to connect with other people, not
companies. Do your posts sound like a press release?
Or a marketing brochure? Let your personality shine
through. Talk to people, let them see that you are a
real person, and that your business is made up of real
people.
Your social media success isn’t based on the size of
your online community. Many people think that
having a large following means success. While it
might be flattering to have a large following, what’s
more important is having a community who wants to
buy your products and services. Bigger isn’t
necessarily better. Don’t be tempted to measure
unimportant things.
You can’t measure your success if you don’t have a
goal. If you are wandering aimlessly in social media,
there is no way to know which tactics are most
effective. Or to know when you are wasting your
time. Social media goals and objectives provide the
skeleton for your online activities.
Now that you understand the truths about social media,
you are ready to start creating social media goals
customized for your business needs.
Social Media Principles

Before you invest any time with social media, take a few
minutes to define your social media goals. Your goals are
the reasons why you use social media. Every activity
should support your goals. They should be specific,
measurable, and relevant to your business performance.
Social Media Business Goals
Your social media goals should support
your business goals.  For example:
Engage my existing customers
online to get their feedback and
experiences with my business.
Share timely information about my
products/services with my online
community to encourage them to
continue using my products/
services.
Find potential customers for my
business and begin building
relationships with them.
These are good goals because they are
relevant to your business performance.
And yet, these goals are not specific
and measurable. There’s no real way to measure how
successfully you have met these goals.
Define Business Objectives
When you have a solid business goal, you need to break it
out into specific and measurable objectives. Many
businesses may have similar goals, but the way you break
down goals into objectives reflects your unique business
challenges and situation.
To define an objective that is specific and measurable, you
add:
Strategy. What action will you take to meet these
objectives?
Relevant numbers. Any numbers that let you measure
quantity and quality.
Dates. When do you expect to perform your
activities?
When you are starting out in social media, it’s best to
focus your objectives on things you control: your behavior.
Create objectives that guide your online behavior and
watch how your community responds. Over time, you can
fine tune your actions so you can get the best responses
from your community.

Social Media Goals
More...

Social Media Objectives
For example, you might create the
following objectives to meet your
social media goals:
Use Twitter to reach out to
potential customers who live or
work within 3 miles of your
location.
Use Facebook to share a
photograph of your dinner special
at 4 pm every Tuesday in June.
Use Twitter and YouTube to share
a video of how to use one
product each Friday in the third
quarter.
Use Twitter to talk with neighbors
(existing and potential
customers) about an upcoming
community event for 3 weeks
before and 1 week after the event.
Your objectives are important because they drive your
actions on social media. They also give you a way to
measure your success with social media.

Multiple Objectives
Often, you will have a different set of objectives for each
slice of your online community. For example:
You may have different objectives for existing
customers and potential customers.
You may have different objectives for each social
media tool. Or, you may use the same objectives for
several tools.
Benefits of Goals & Objectives
Your social media goals and objectives come from your
business goals. They help you to:
Define and measure your social media success.
Customize your social media activities to meet your
specific business challenges.
Make sure that your business gets the full benefit
from your social media activities.
Take the time necessary to define your social media goals
and objectives.  If you’ve been using social media without
any goals, it’s not to late to start!
Social Media Goals [CONTINUED]

What Should I Talk About?
staff, your sales staff, and even your receptionist to
find out the most common questions people have
about your business or industry.
Money Saving Tips. Everyone loves to save money, so
tell your online community how they can save money
with your products and services. Don't forget to
mention your sales, promotions, and discounts!
Promote Other Businesses. Here is your chance to
promote businesses that you feel provide great
products and services. They might be located in your
neighborhood, in a related industry, or even supply
your business with essential products and services.
Promote Your Customers. This is about sharing the
accomplishments of your customers with your online
community, not about name dropping. Always get
permission from any customer before you talk about
them online.
Share Your Backstory. Most of your efforts go into
providing products and services for your customers.
But what would a customer learn as a fly on the wall
in your business? Did you celebrate an employee
anniversary? Get new office equipment? Bring in lunch
to celebrate a business goal you reached?
Look into what you already know to find topics that add
value to the lives of people in your online community.
Social media is all about building relationships through
conversation. So what is your business going to talk about
on social media? It's worth investing a little time to create
a list of conversation topics. Here are some ideas.
Customer Education. Every
business spends time
educating new customers. Why
not include this information in
your social media conversation
and start educating potential
customers, too?
Practical Advice. You know
things about your business and
industry that other people
don't know. Many of these
things can help people make
better choices, be prepared for
potential problems, and
resolve problems when they happen.
Industry Trends and News. What can you tell your
online community about changes coming in your
industry? Give them information they can share with
their friends before it becomes public knowledge.
Answer Questions. What common questions do your
customers ask? Check with your customer service

With Social Media
Getting Started
Social Media
Tool Box
Part 2:
Your

There are no rules about which social media tools you
should use, or how many tools you should use. In fact, you
can start out using just one tool and build out slowly over
time.
Here are some questions to help
you select the most effective
social media tools for your
business.
Where do your customers
hang out online? This might
take a bit of detective work.
You can survey your
customers or routinely ask
them where they are online.
Go where your customers
are!
Where are others in your industry? For example, if
you run a local pizza place, you’d look to see where
Pizza Hut or Domino’s are in social media. Are your
customers already trained to look for similar products
and services on specific tools? Take advantage of that!
Do you have a lot of information to share? A blog is
the best way to communicate long messages and
many short messages. Blogs also help your website
turn up higher in search engine results.
What Tools Should I Use?
Does your business routinely make videos of your
products and services? If you already have video, you
can use YouTube to share your videos with a larger
audience. You can also share videos on Facebook and
your blog.
Are you primarily B2B? Are your customer’s
employees on LinkedIn? If so, you might benefit from
creating a company profile on LinkedIn to make it
easier for people to refer you to their friends and the
people they know who can purchase your products
and services.
Do you already have an active blog? Twitter is a great
tool for driving traffic to blog posts. Adding a Twitter
share widget to your blog makes it easy for your blog
visitors to share your posts with the people they
know online.
Do you need local customers? Twitter allows you to
add people from your neighborhood to your online
community, and allows you to reach out to strangers.
It’s a powerful tool for local businesses (storefont
and service area businesses).
Next, we’ll look at each of the major social media tools
and how they can help your business.

A blog is a place where you post articles about topics
related to your business. Many businesses include a blog
area on their website.
Your business uses a blog to share information with your
customers and other blog visitors.
How Blogging Works
1. You write a an article (blog post) and publish it on your
blog.
2. People stop by your blog to read the article. Some
people may subscribe to your blog and receive new
articles by email, RSS feed, or on their Kindle.
3. People comment on your blog posts.
Blog Benefits
A blog lets your business share information with your
customers.
Blog posts appear in search engine results to help
potential customers find your business.
Blog post comments give your online community a
way to share feedback and make comments on your
business.
A Company Blog
Lifting The Hood
A blog runs on special blogging software. The most
common blogging programs are WordPress, Blogger, and
Tumblr.
Blogging software is free. However, your business may
have expenses for hosting (getting your blog online), a
domain name (web address), and customizing your blog’s
look with your logo and brand identity.
Blogging software lets you write and publish articles on
your website without any technical knowledge. Writing a
blog post is almost as easy as writing an email.
While writing blog posts is relatively easy, the process of
setting up and maintaining your blog does require some
technical skills. You may need to hire help for this.
Blogging Resources
To learn more about blogging:
Social Media DIY Workshop: blogging articles
Read blogs in your industry to see the variety of blog
styles and information.
To find blogs on any subject: AllTop and Technorati.
ProBlogger’s Guide To Your First Week of Blogging
Books: Blogging For Dummies, WordPress All‐In‐One
For Dummies
Social Media Tools:

Facebook is a social networking
site originally designed to help
college kids connect. Today,
Facebook has over 500 million
users and an important tool for businesses to keep in
touch with customers.
How Facebook Works
1. You create a business page.
2. People (and other businesses) like your Facebook page
by clicking the Like button.
3. You post information on your page wall, and Facebook
publishes your post in the news feed of people (and
businesses) who like your page.
4. People comment on your post or like your post.
Facebook Benefits
Facebook allows you to post information, a link to
your blog (or any other online information),
photographs, videos, and ask survey questions.
Facebook events allow you to invite people to events
at your business and manage the guest list.
Your Facebook page is public and appears in Google
search results.
Facebook
Lifting The Hood
Facebook is a free service that lets your business build an
online community of Facebook users.  However, Facebook
protects the privacy of its users, so it never shares the
contact information for the people who like your business.
You can customize your Facebook page with a landing
page that promotes your specials, lets people sign up for
your newsletter, and other activities.
You must obey the Facebook terms of service or Facebook
may suspend your account.
Facebook pages do not work exactly like Facebook
(personal) profiles and have fewer features.
Facebook Resources
To learn more about Facebook pages:
Social Media DIY Workshop: Facebook articles
Create a personal Facebook profile and interact with
other businesses.
Facebook’s blog and help center
Facebook blogs:  All Facebook, Inside Facebook, and
Mari Smith
Social Media Tools:

Twitter is a short message
communication service. Many
businesses use Twitter to share
information and links with their
online community. Twitter is available from computers,
smart phones through Twitter applications, and cell
phones through text messages.
How Twitter Works
1. You send out a tweet, a message up to 140 characters
long.
2. Twitter publishes your tweet to everyone who follows
you (subscribes to your tweets).
3. People may reply to your tweet or retweet it to their
followers (republish your tweet).
Twitter Benefits
Your community immediately receives your
messages.
You can drive traffic to any web location (blog,
website page, video, photograph, etc.)
Twitter is an easy way to collect input and feedback.
People share messages they like with their online
community, giving your messages greater visibility.
Twitter
Lifting The Hood
Twitter is unlike any other communication tool. Because
of this, it can take a little time to understand.
You follow Twitter users when you want to see their
messages. Other people follow you when they want to
see your messages.
People include links in their tweets using web address
(URL) shortening services to save space.
You can reach out to strangers on Twitter, and you can
locate Twitter users based on their location (geography).
There are many companies that create tools you can use
with Twitter to provide specialized features.
Twitter Resources
To learn more about Twitter:
Social Media DIY Workshop: Twitter articles
Twitter for Beginners (free ebook)
Twitter blog and help center
Twitter tools directory: OneForty
Social Media Tools:

LinkedIn is a resume sharing site
that allows people to collect
recommendations and connect
with former colleagues and
classmates. Many people use LinkedIn to find a new job or
to get recommendations for qualified candidates for job
openings.
How LinkedIn Works
1. Your business creates a business profile.
2. Individual people create a LinkedIn profile based on
their resumes.
3. Each time someone adds your business to their
LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn connects the person’s profile
with your business profile.
4. People can follow news about your business on
LinkedIn, generally about new people you hire.
LinkedIn Benefits
Your business profile can help you attract well‐
qualified candidates for jobs.
The groups feature allows professionals to discusses
issues and news in your industry. Your participation
gives visibility to your business.
LinkedIn
You can share blog posts, Twitter messages,
presentation slide decks and other materials within
your community.
Lifting The Hood
Your company can create a business profile that
automatically creates a list of every LinkedIn user who
ever worked at your company.
LinkedIn provides a wide range of services that allow you
to promote events, share blog posts, share slide
presentations, and post questions for people in your
industry. You can answer questions to raise the visibility of
your company.
LinkedIn offers free and paid membership levels.
LinkedIn Resources
To learn more about LinkedIn:
Social Media DIY Workshop: LinkedIn articles
Post your resume, create your business profile, and
begin using the LinkedIn features.
LinkedIn blog and learning center
LinkedIn blog: Linked Into Business
Social Media Tools:

YouTube is a video sharing service.  It
contains videos created by individual,
businesses, and from television.
Your business can use YouTube to
store and distribute videos about your company,
products, and services.
How YouTube Works
1. Your business creates videos.
2. You upload a video to your YouTube channel.
3. People subscribe to your channel. Or they do searches
and find your videos through search results.
4. People view your videos, comment on them, and share
them with their friends.
YouTube Benefits
YouTube is the largest video sharing service online.
Posting a video on YouTube makes it readily available
for a much larger audience than any other video
hosting location.
Video lets your business how how easy it is to use
your products and services.
Video lets your business show its personality more
than any other type of information.
YouTube
Lifting The Hood
YouTube provides video hosting services for free. There
are some restrictions on video length and commercial use
of the site. However, your business can create a YouTube
channel for your business videos within these restrictions.
People do more searches on YouTube (for videos) than
they do on Bing or Yahoo (for all types of information). If
YouTube was a search engine, it would be the second
largest one behind Google.
YouTube translates your video to a nearly universal format
that allows for the widest possible viewing including
Apple mobile devices (iPhone and iPad). YouTube has
smart phone applications that allow anyone to play your
videos on nearly any smart phone.
YouTube Resources
To learn more about YouTube:
Create a personal YouTube account and use the
service as a video consumer.
YouTube blog and help center

Social Media Tools:

With Social Media
Getting Started
Social Media
Program
Part 3:
Your

Here are some things to get you started on social media,
whether you are just jumping in or you want to reboot
your current social media efforts.
Get The Big Picture of Social Media
Social media is not a place
where you simply rebroadcast
your existing marketing
messages. Social media is where
you go to have conversations
with your customers.
One way to learn social media is
to use it personally. This lets you
experience social media the way
your customers experience it.
For example:
Thinking about starting a
blog? Start reading blogs.
Thinking about Facebook?
Get a personal profile and
start interacting with
businesses.
Observe Social Media Success
As you explore the social media world, you find businesses
who are doing a great job. Take a few minutes to look at
what they are doing.
Which social media sites do they use?
How many times per day (or week) do they post?
Create a list of posting categories (product news,
community update, customer news, etc.)
Which items get the most response? Count the
number of responses for each post, and see if you can
find a pattern.
Every business has a different experience on social media.
But having an idea of how other people are finding
success can help you set realistic expectations for your
own social media use.
Set Social Media Goals & Objectives
After spending a little time getting your feet wet in social
media, it’s time to start creating goals.  In the beginning,
the smartest social media goals should focus on your
behavior, not the behavior of others.
For example, instead of setting a goal for a number of
people you want to like your Facebook Page (out of your
control), set a goal to post two items to your Facebook
Page every business day for three weeks (in your control).
Where Do I Start?

It’s easy to put together a social media program for your
business. Your program needs these five components:
Social Media Goals & Objectives. Start your social
media activities with goals and objectives. These
provide direction and give you a way to measure your
results.
Social Media Tools.
Select one or more social
media tools that best fit
your business and your
customers. Build out
your business profile on
each tool, and learn how
to use the tool features.
Online Community. Find
your existing customers
on the social media tools
you use. Reach out to
potential customers,
vendors, contractors,
peers, and neighboring businesses. Keep building
your community every week.
Conversation. Talk with and listen to your community
every business day. Create a plan so your employees
are empowered to speak for your business. Get
prepared for any negative comments or reviews so
you can turn these situations around. It’s important
that you spend time both talking and listening online.
Results. Periodically, stop and see how your social
media efforts are paying off. Use your goals and
objectives to measure progress. But remember that
many of the social media benefits are not measurable,
but they do influence your top and bottom line.
Each time you measure your results, it’s time to refine
your goals and objectives. Then, jump back in with new
projects and new tactics for building your business with
the support of your customers. That’s why we call them
customers with benefits.

Your Social Media Program

One important question small businesses ask is: Should I
hire someone to do my social media?
Like everything else about social media, this is an
important and extremely personal decision for each
business. There is no such thing as a one‐size‐fits‐all social
media solution.
There are two main reasons why I
believe that a small business should do
its own social media.
No one understands or cares about
your business as much as you do.
Social media is about people and
conversation. How can you hire
someone else to be the authentic
voice of your business on social
media?
At the same time, many business people
feel unqualified to start their own social
media program. Doing your own social
media doesn’t have to mean that you are
flying solo. You can blend the expertise
of others into your own efforts.
Blended Path Options
Here are a few practical ways your business can blend in
expert assistance while still maintaining control over your
own social media program.
External education. Invest a little time and money to
learn strategy and tools from people who offer these
services so you can do it yourself.
Coaching. Find a social media consultant willing to
support you as you launch your efforts. You get the
benefit of their experience applied to your unique
situation.
Monitoring. Hire a social media consultant to provide
an ongoing review of your social media efforts over
time and schedule check‐up sessions. They help you
fine‐tune your efforts for maximum results.
Hire talent. Find a social media savvy person to add to
your team. With this person as an anchor, your
business can grow its social media program and team
internally.
Outsource your strategy. Find a social media
consultant to help you develop your social media
strategy while you develop your staff to take on the
daily social media customer interaction.
For most small businesses, a blended solution provides
the support you need while empowering you to tackle
social media on your own.

Social Media DIY Option

Many businesses jump into social media filled with
optimism, only to walk away disappointed a few days or
weeks later.
How Does This Happen?
Here are some common reasons why businesses get
disappointed with social media.
Incorrect expectations. There’s a lot of myths about
social media that are not true. Social media is a
marathon and not a sprint. Results don’t happen
quickly.
Lack of vision. Some businesses think that social
media can make things better, but don’t really know
what better means. It’s important to have a vision for
what’s possible so you know what good things to
look for.
Missing fundamentals. Remember, if your business
doesn’t have social media goals, you don’t have any
way to measure your success. You might have fun.
You might waste time. You might get some benefits.
Who knows?!
Focus on distractions.  It’s so easy to measure your
social media success using the obvious numbers:
followers and likes. While these things are important,
they are not what you should measure.
Disappointed With Social Media?
The good news is that all of these can be easily fixed!
Turn It Around
Wherever you are today on social media is just your
starting point. It’s the launching pad for your future
success.
I suggest that you read this ebook at least twice before
you start making a plan for your social media program.
Then, use the action plan to kick‐start your new efforts.
Your goals are the skeleton of your social media program.
Without goals, everything is just jelly.  You must measure
your progress toward your goals using your objectives.
If your goal is sales, you measure new customer sales.
If your goal is loyalty, you measure customer
retention.
If your goal is enthusiasm, you measure repeat
business from existing customers.
Before you can measure your progress, you have to know
what you currently have. This means doing some research
and coming up with baseline numbers. Without a starting
point, a baseline, there is no way to measure your results.
So take a deep breath. Make a smart plan. And start all
over again from where you are today.

Every few months, there is a news item about someone
getting fired because of what they said on social media.
The truth is that many of your employees are using social
media, and some of them are venting about work. You
may believe that your employees have freedom of
expression to talk about
anything with their friends. But
what if they are using the same
tools to vent that you use to
build your community?
In a related topic, do you allow
your employees to use social
media sites from work?
Some people feel that it is
contradictory to have the
company use social media but
prevent employees from
accessing the same tools during
the work day. Other people
worry about employees wasting
time on social media. Still others
argue that social media actually improves productivity by
allowing employees to ask questions related to their job
tasks.
These are complicated questions.
Social Media Policy
A social media policy defines what you expect from your
employees on social media both during and outside of
work hours. This way, everyone understands the rules up
front, and the consequences for breaking the rules.
Your company should work with human resources and
employment law professionals to define your social media
policy. It’s important that your policy is both fair and
within legal guidelines. Your employees have rights that
must be included in your policy.
Communications Plan
Does your business have employees responsible for using
social media to represent the company online? For those
employees, you need to define a social media
communications plan that defines how your social media
program works on all social media tools.
Make sure that you empower your employees to talk on
your behalf in routine conversations. Provide guidelines so
they know when to escalate a conversation to senior
management.
One critical component of your communication plan
covers reputation management, how you respond to
negative comments about your business online. It’s
important to decide your response before you need it.
Social Media & Your Employees

What’s Next?
With Social Media
Getting Started
Part 4:

Here are some practical things you can do to put your
learning into action.
Your Social Media Launch Pad
Make a list of your existing customers that you would
consider customers with benefits.
Review your existing company
communications and count
how many places where you
allow two‐way conversations.
Where does your company
rate (from 1 to 10) on each of
the social media readiness
factors? What can you do to
improve your rating?
Review your current business
goals and create at least 3
social media goals to support
them.
Define at least 5 social media objectives from your
social media goals.
Make a list of at least 20 conversation topics for your
social media conversations.

Your Action Plan
Your Social Media Tools
If you are currently not using any social media sites,
select your first tool, set up your account, and start
learning how to use it.
Figure out 3 ways you can ask your customers where
they are on social media.
Research how 5 companies in your industry use social
media. Look for smart ideas that you can borrow and
adapt for your own business.
Use the resources list in this ebook to learn more
about a new social media tool.
Find at least 5 blogs in your industry and start reading
them.
Your Social Media Program
Evaluate the social media skills in your company and
decide where you might want to blend in the
expertise of a social media consultant.
Start researching the social media policies in place at
other companies. Many businesses share their social
media policy documents online.
Start the outline for your social media
communications plan.

Congratulations! You’ve learned how to start (or restart)
your social media program. Here are a few tips to help you
stay focused on the big picture.
Social media is a journey, not a destination. You can’t
accomplish everything at once. Small, steady steps—
doing one thing every week—will bring you success.
Customers with benefits are created through
conversation. The time you spend talking with your
online
community
contributes to
your business
strength and
growth, even
though you can’t
directly measure
a return on investment (ROI) for your time.
Think about what you can do for your customers, not
what they can do for you. Stay focused on providing
value to your customers in your conversations. They
will love you for it, and that will motivate them to buy
more, refer their friends, and help you do better
because you helped them first.
People want to connect with people, not businesses.
Make sure that your social media voice is real, has
personality, and is friendly.
You Can Do This!
Just when you think you’ve got it covered, the game
changes. Social media is a moving target. New tools
appear, new features are added to existing tools, and
companies break through with new strategies that
change everything.
Stay curious. Keep an eye on what other businesses
are doing, always looking for ideas you can borrow
and adapt for your situation. Big brands pay big bucks
for consultants and you can follow their example for
free.
Stay open to new ideas. Be willing to mix it up, make
small adjustments, and try radically new things. You
never know what will click with your customers. Just
because you’ve never done it before is no reason not
to try it!
Get help on the hard parts. You are running a
business, not competing in a triathlon. You don’t have
to do it all. Find people with expertise that
compliments your business and bring them in. This
lets you stay focused on the important stuff, where
your business really needs you.
Everything takes time. It will probably take longer to
build a vibrant online community than you imagine.
So focus on your progress each week, and celebrate
each accomplishment as it happens.

Learn More
Social Media DIY Workshop
The Social Media DIY Workshop™ is for small business
people who want to learn more about social media. Here
you can learn about a wide range of social media topics
that can help you grow your business.
Learn at your own pace.
Explore topics that interest you.
Build on what you already know.
You've come to the right place. You can do it yourself!
From the site you can:
Read nearly 150 free articles about social media topics,
updated so the information stays accurate
Download my free Twitter for Beginners ebook
Sign up for our newsletter so you stay connected to
the latest social media information and materials
Purchase our How To Use Social Media To Grow Your
Business webinar that explains the 5 Easy Steps to
Build and Maintain Your Social Media Program
Purchase services that help you answer your burning
social media questions
Hire Charlene Kingston for 1 hour or more to help you
create customized solutions
Charlene Kingston
Charlene Kingston is a small
business owner, writer,
educator, and business
strategist with more than 25
years experience. When she
is not advising people about
social media or writing about social media, Charlene
spends a lot of time using social media.
Find Charlene online:
Follow Charlene on Twitter: SocialMediaDIY
(business) and Kinchie (personal).
Visit her website: Social Media DIY Workshop
Like the Social Media DIY Workshop on Facebook
Message From Charlene
I’ve been a small business owner since 1995. I love helping
small business people harness the power of social media.
How can I help you build an army of customers with
benefits around your business?

Getting Started with Social Media

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