This document provides guidance on creating an effective social media marketing strategy. It discusses key social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube and how businesses can utilize them. It emphasizes the importance of creating social media pages/profiles to engage with customers, sharing valuable content regularly, listening to customers, and promoting your brand across different channels. It also provides tips on developing goals and metrics, researching your audience and competitors, establishing social media policies and guidelines for employees, and creating a detailed action plan. Regularly posting engaging content, rewarding followers, and analyzing results are some keys to success outlined in the document.

1. Create Your Social
Media Marketing
Strategy
Presented by: Rabiya Jilani

2. Agenda
• Social Media Tools for Business:
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Google +
• Youtube
• Creating a Social Media Strategy
• Tools to help manage your social media
• Things to remember
• Questions

4. Facebook
• Created in 2004 to allow individuals, specifically college
students, to connect with each other.
• Facebook allows you to create a personal profile which you
can then use to communicate with individuals you know
personally.
• For businesses you can do the following

5. Facebook Pages
• You go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
• You choose a category for the page
• Choose a name for the page and fill out the mini form to
create
• Note: You will need to create a personal profile to build and
manage the page as an administrator
• Anything you do on the personal side will not show up on the
business page unless you physically add it to the business
page.
• Once you create a page, click on Edit Page to add additional
information about the business, applications etc

6. Understanding the Page
• The Like button is how users connect to your page
• The Profile picture can be your logo, your image, product
image or anything relevant to your business
• On the right side of the page, you will see navigation links and
applications . The pre-populated links may vary depending on
your page category. You can always add your delete these
links in the edit mode
• The top of the page has a photostrip which shows the most
recent photos that you tag your page in or post to your page
wall
• The Wall allows you to publish a post, add a poll, photo, link or
video. The content you add here will appear in the newsfeeds
of the people who like your page
• Likes shows pages that the business page likes

7. Additional Features
Applications:
Allow you to improve the user experience/information provided.
Examples: Photoalbums, Youtube, Blog RSS, Newsletter sign up,
reviews, customized applications.
Insights:
Tells you who your audience is
How the audience is interacting
Demographic and Geographic Information
Learn about the different ways people are interacting and how
often

8. Facebook for business
Facebook Places
Places allow your customers to check in to your physical store
location and share it with their friends. With Places, you can also
create Check in Deals to increase foot traffic into your store by
offering special deals and discounts to people who check in.

9. Some Great Resources
More information about Facebook for Business
http://www.facebook.com/busines
Facebook for small and medium sized business
http://www.facebook.com/smbmarketing
Advertising guidelines & policies:
www.facebook.com/ads_guidelines.php
Guide to Facebook Ads:
www.facebook.com/adsmarketing
Receive ongoing tips:
www.facebook.com/facebookads
Create a Facebook Page:
www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Use social plug-ins:
www.developers.facebook.com/plugins
Facebook Page Promotion Guidelines:
www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

10. Twitter
• Microblogging website
• Allows you to create an account/username
• Allows you to share text/images and location
• Text limited to 140 characters
• You can follow others,
• communicate with others public tweet
• Send a direct message
• you can promote others tweets via ReTweet option
• you can add tweeps in Lists
• use hashtags to label tweets

11. Twitter – Gloassary
Mention
Once you've signed up and chosen a Twitter username, you and others can
mention an account in your Tweets by preceding it with the @ symbol, eg:
"Glad your shipment arrived @janesmith!"
Retweet
When you see a Tweet by another user that you want to share, click
Retweet below it to forward it to your followers instantly.
Message
If you want to privately Tweet to a particular user who's already following
you, start your Tweet with DM or D to direct-message them, eg: "DM
@joesmith234 what is your order number?"
Hashtag
Users often prepend # to words in their Tweets to categorize them for
others eg: "Check out our new products for the Fall: http://t.co/link2
#fallsale" Think of hashtags as the theme of your Tweet. Users can then
click on a hashtag to see other similarly-themed tweets and find yours in
search.
SOURCE: http://business.twitter.com/basics/glossary

12. Additional things you can do
on Twitter
• Add location per tweet
• Add profile picture
• Add customized background
• Advertise
• Promoted Tweets
• Promoted Accounts
• Great tool to gain insight, make connections worldwide,
Resource:
http://business.twitter.com/
https://support.twitter.com/

13. Linkedin
• Create an individual profile
• List all experiences
• Add summary
• Picture
• Education
• Qualifications , skills, awards, affiliations
• List your websites
• Make Public Profile – Search Engine Friendly
• Great for establishing connections
• Create custom URL for personal profile
• Connect – connect – connect
• Ask for recommendations

14. Linkedin
• Other great tools:
• Linkedin Advertising
• Linkedin Answers
• Linkedin Company Profiles FREE
• Linkedin Groups
• Linkedin Applications like blog, twitter, events, polls
• Powerful for showing knowledge/skills/qualifications
Additional Info: http://learn.linkedin.com

15. Google +
• Very new
• You create a profile, add photographs, links, interests
• Create Circles of friends/connections
• You can interact with circles
• Best feature: You can choose what information you want to
share with which circle
• You can also create hangouts – group video chats for FREE
• You can create sparks - A feed of just the stuff you're really
into
More info:
http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/+/demo/

16. YouTube
• Depending on your business,
youtube can be a valuable
tool
• Create a customized free
channel
• Upload videos of
• you presenting • Run a contest
• your presentation • Add a call to action
• interviews with experts in • Create how to videos
your industry
• Post solutions to common
• Create a video explaining problems
your products and services
• Answer customer specific
• Introduce your staff/team questions using video
• Ask for video testimonials

17. Youtube
• Once you’ve made a video, use the youtube video editing tool
to make it even better –
• Add audio/music
• Add close captioning
• Add transitions
• More info: http://www.youtube.com/editor
• Share the video on:
• Social media sites
• Website
• Blog
• Add keywords/tags to video and a description to make it search
engine friendly

18. Remember: ALWAYS CROSS
PROMOTE

19. Some Tools
• Tweet Deck • Compete
• Hootsuite • Technorati
• Co-Tweet • Twittermeter
• Seesmic • Facebook Insights
• Friendfeed • Twitter Counter
• Twitter Feed • Tweet Grader
• Ping.fm • Klout
• Monittor
• TweetGrid
• ReFollow
• Twellow
• WeFollow

20. Things to Remember
• Sound like a person, sound genuine
• Listen to conversations and participate; don’t just broadcast
• Ask questions, opinions
• Respond
• Develop a social media calendar – every day schedule time for
social media
• Learn about your audience
• Post relevant and valuable content and resources
• Don’t spam
• Analyze and Optimize – your strategy needs to keep adapting
to changing technologies and audience

21. Action Plan
Name of Business:
Names of people managing social media:
Will you be managing this internally? Will you be hiring someone to
manage social media? Will you have employees, business partners,
volunteers, interns manage social media?
How often will you be updating social media?
This will be a learning process, but have some realistic goals and make
it part of your daily routine.
Get acquainted with the different social media outlets. Which tools
will you be using ?
Pick and choose the social media platform(s)/site(s) that best fit your
marketing needs, reaches your target market and that you’re
comfortable with. You DO NOT need to be on all social media
platforms.

22. What tools are your strategic partners, clients and competitors using?
Do your research, educate yourself.
What is your business marketing goal?
Your social media strategy is a part of your overall marketing strategy
and not a way to replace traditional marketing.
What is your social media marketing goal? How does it align with the
overall business marketing goal?
What are you trying to achieve via social media?
What is your business’ unique voice?
What is your competitive advantage?
Establish social media guidelines, policies and procedures.
This can be a list of things you want to achieve, assign tasks, objectives,
roles etc. Make sure everyone involved with the business is involved
and informed.

23. How can you bring your business story to life?
Will you tell a story, use videos, testimonials, something else?
Who is your customer/audience?
Demographic, geographic, personalities, likes, dislikes etc.
Who else will you be engaging with?
Business partners/local businesses? Complimentary businesses?
What content/information will be important to them?
Remember, the goal is to give relevant and useful information
What exclusive news/content are you going to share?
Offer value don’t spam

24. How will you be promoting your social media presence?
Website? Email signature? Business cards? Cross Promotion?
Brochures? Newsletter?
How will you encourage fan participation? Polls, questions,
feedback etc
Will you be playing giveaways, offering discounts, looking for
feedback?
How will you reward your followers?
Special offers, news, resources, discounts etc
Which monitoring tools are you going to use?
Listen to what is being said about you and your business. Use services
like google alerts.
How will you handle negative feedback?
Create an action plan to handle negative feedback. gy.

25. What are your benchmarks for evaluation?
Number of people following you/fans? Number of engagements?
Number of website visits?
How often will you revise your strategy?
Remember to always evaluate and adapt your strate

26. Questions?

27. Contact
Loudoun Small Business Development Center
Rabiya Jilani
rjilani@loudounsbdc.org
703 430 7222
Facebook: facebook.com/loudounsbdc.org
Linkedin: bit.ly/lsbdc_linkedin
Twitter: twitter.com/loudounsbdc
YouTube: youtube.com/loudounsbdc
Blog: loudounsbdc.blogspot.com/