The document discusses the importance of integrating social media into a broader business strategy, emphasizing that businesses should focus on their overall goals rather than just social media metrics. It highlights the need for a consistent brand experience across platforms and prioritizes relationship-building over direct sales in social media interactions. The author advocates for meaningful engagement with customers instead of automated or one-way communications to foster loyalty and advocacy.

1. B2C Social Media Isn’t Rocket Science
@BossyWeb #SocialB2C
Michelle Magoffin
Founder, Bossy Interactive
michelle@bossyinteractive.com
Facebook.com/BossyInteractive
LinkedIn.com/in/magoffin

3. Raise your hand if I interrupted you in the
middle of posting to a social network.
Raise your hand if you’ve already posted to
a social network since you sat down.
Raise your hand if you will post to a social
network as soon as I stop asking you to
raise your hand.

5. If this room was your pool of potential
customers, we’d have 100% social media
saturation, which is completely unrealistic.
We’re hardly representative of the average
consumer but, they’re catching up.

7. With the ubiquity of social, you can no
longer control how and where customers
come into contact with your brand.

9. It’s this knowledge that inspires the frenzy
and fear around social.
Fear of the loss of potential clients, and
the loss of market share, to competitors
who you think are doing more or better in
social.
This fear drives businesses to jump into
social media, and to act without a plan.

11. Take a deep breath and step back from the
ledge.
Let’s look at social media as part of a
bigger picture.

13. When I‘m working with a new client, I
don’t ask what their social media goals
are, I ask what their business goals are.
Social media is just one part of your
complete digital strategy
You digital strategy is just one tool you use
to help you meet your overall business
goals.

15. Because you can’t control how and where
your customers first come into contact
with you, you have to control what they
see when they do.
No matter how your customers find you,
they need to be presented with:
• a consistent look
• a consistent message
• and a consistent level of service
It is your top priority to deliver a consistent
brand experience.

17. Don’t expect your customers to come to
your web site or even to your front door.
Your customers are out there, online.
GO WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE.

19. You’ve done your homework. You know
that your social customers are a subset of
your total customer base.
Now, you need to figure out who they are
and which social networks they’re using.

21. On Facebook, the demographics skew
younger than the other networks, with
nearly half of users under the age of 25,
but it has a broader reach.

23. My 82-year-old father-in-law is on
Facebook…

25. …so is my 14-year-old cousin.

27. Twitter skews a little older, a little more
educated, and with a little more cash in
the bank.

29. Pinterest is changing rapidly. It’s not all
women anymore. 30% of users are men.
Half are parents. The age breakdown is
very similar to Twitter.

31. Every B2C company needs to be on these
three platforms. I can’t imagine a single
company that doesn’t have a portion of
their customer base represented on each
of these networks.

33. Raise your hand if you’re wondering about
Google+.
You absolutely need to be on Google+, but
not because your customers are.

35. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t.
You need to be on Google+ for the search
benefit.
Create a page, link it to your URL, fill out
your profile, pop in once or twice a week
to post and engage, then forget about it.
Maybe my advice will change in the future
but, for now, your time is better spent
elsewhere.

37. Social media isn’t rocket science.
Your goal, as a B2C company is to sell your
products or services to consumers.
Social media serves those goals, indirectly.

39. Social media is a long game. It’s about
establishing connections and building
relationships.
By deepening your relationships with your
current customers, you can turn them into
advocates for your company or your
product.

41. Your customers will spread your message
to their networks, adding a level of trust
and authority to it.

43. That is the pot of gold in social media.
The word of mouth.
The reach.
The friends of friends.
THAT is what’s going to help you reach
new customers and sell more products.

45. Social media is about ROR, not ROI.
Ted Rubin, a thought-leader in social
marketing, coined the phrase, “Return on
Relationship,” which he defines as “the
value that is accrued by a brand due to
nurturing a relationship. ROI is simple
dollars and cents. ROR is the value that will
accrue over time through connection,
loyalty, recommendations, and sharing.”

47. What Ted Rubin said is quotable and
meaningful, but how do you make it
actionable?

49. First, I want you to think about something.
What is the one big thing your company is
about?
It’s bigger than your product
It’s bigger even your business goals.
This is your brand ideal.

51. When I was running social media in-house
at Edmunds.com, company activities were
starting to form around the new brand
ideal.
Edmunds provides automotive research to
consumers, but the brand ideal isn’t even
about cars.

53. Edmunds’ brand ideal is, “Simplifying life’s
big decisions.”
When they thought about WHY people are
in the market for a new car, they realized
that it usually coincided with a big decision
or change in their lives: a new baby, a new
job, moving across the country.
Edmunds is there not just to help you buy
a new car, but to help you through a big
change in your life.

55. With the social media strategy that I laid
out for Edmunds, I kept that brand ideal in
mind.
What were we doing on each platform,
with each post, to serve that ideal?
It’s easy to deliver a consistent brand
message when you have that one big idea
in mind.

57. This carries over from offline activities as
well.
For example, if you’re running a television
ad campaign, I should see that copy and
that message wherever I find you online.
I should be able to get that exact offer.
I should be able to find an easily shareable
digital version of the commercial.

59. The brand ideal serves as the foundation
for the actions you to take in social media.
Those actions fall into three categories:
-Engagement
-Conversation
-and Reciprocity

61. Conversations go two ways. You listen,
then you respond. And you don’t respond
with, “Here’s my product. Have you seen
my product. Buy my product.”

63. If your customers are saying they love your
product, you are thanking them for using
it.
You are telling them how to get more value
out of it, better ways to use it, how to
maintain it.
You are returning the favor by publicly
thanking people and partners.
You are helping others to spread their
messages, when it is relevant to your own
and useful to your followers.

65. If your customers are saying they hate
your product, you are reaching out to
them to ask them why they hate it, and
how you can improve it, and if there is
anything you can do for them RIGHT AT
THIS MOMENT to fix the situation.
Then you do it.

67. If your customers aren’t really talking
about your product at all, then you are
paying attention to what they ARE talking
about, and finding a way to continue to
add value to their lives.
You’re sharing relevant content from other
sources, not just your own.

69. You don’t have to remind your followers
that your product exists by continually
trying to sell to them.
By keeping your content interesting and
relevant to what is going on in their lives,
you’re continually reminding them that
YOU exist and that YOU are valuable to
them.
THEN, when it’s time to make a purchase
or a referral, your brand is there, top of
mind.

70. And

71. And
Here is such a simple example of this. Wine
Library posted a question asking what people
would be drinking that weekend. I answered hard
cider – not wine – but they quickly responded
with information they knew would be valuable to
me but which, in no way, helped them to sell me
some wine, or to drive me to their web site.
But, look what they got out of it as a result. I
publicly thanked them, which had the potential
to be seen by my 2000 followers. I’m talking
about it to you. You might repeat this example to
others. I’m also going to put this presentation on
Slideshare. It cost Wine Library nothing to send
me that tweet. They’re doing it right.

72. And

73. And
Some brands are doing it wrong.
This is where I present YOU with a
consistent brand experience for Bossy
Interactive by bossing you around and
telling you what not to do.

74. And

75. And
Do not use RSS feeds!
Every tweet and Facebook post must be
written individually by a person.
Schedule some (but not all) of them in
advance if you like, but no automated
feeds!
The LA Times Twitter feed is nothing but a
sea of links as far as the eye can see. Later,
check out CNN for an example of how to
do the same thing better.

76. And

77. No broadcasting! And
If you’re broadcasting, your feed is all you, you,
you, with no conversation and no engagement.
Dropbox has over a million Twitter followers,
partly because they incentivize customers to
follow them by offering additional free storage
space if they do, but also because they have a
popular product, but their social media strategy
stinks.
They do write the tweets individually, but this is
one-way communication. There is no customer
interaction at all.

79. No cross-posting!
Don’t post the exact same thing on Facebook that
you post on Twitter, and vice versa.
This is an example of how ugly it can get. A friend
of mine accidentally posted a tweet to Facebook
through a third-party tool. The post @ replies to
eight people, contains two hashtags, and a link,
and it looks like crap.
In case you can’t read the comment at the
bottom, I told him that this is the worst Facebook
post ever. It really is.

80. And

81. No blitzes!
And
Spread out your posts over time so that you reach
more of you audience and you don’t overwhelm
and annoy them.
This is a screenshot of a Pinterest board for
Coach. By itself, it’s not bad.
However, the day Coach created this board, and
five others based on color swatches, my entire
Pinterest feed was filled with these swatches.
I unfollowed every single color swatch board just
so I could see the rest of the pins in my feed.

82. And

83. And
No selling!
I really can’t stress that enough.
The only time I want to hear about your products
is when you have something new, you’re giving
me a great discount, you’re giving me an offer
exclusive to that social network, or…

84. And

85. And
…you are telling me something useful or
entertaining about your product.
This is a Facebook post by a company called Knock
Knock, they talk about their products all the time,
but in such a fun and relevant way, that I never
seem to mind.

86. And

87. And
One last reminder…
Social media is about deepening relationships
with your customers.
Start from that place and build upon it with every
action.

88. And