This document provides strategies for using Facebook and Twitter effectively for businesses. It discusses the importance of social media, how to build social profiles and attract followers, strategies for engaging with current and potential customers, and how to measure the success of posts. Key recommendations include posting daily, responding to followers, using hashtags and photos, and tracking engagement with tools like bitly and Crowdbooster.

1. Facebook & Twitter for Businesses
What you are going to learn:
• Why you need to bother with social media
• How to build your social profile on Twitter & Facebook
• How to attract new followers that are more likely to convert to customers
• How to find and engage your current and future followers
• Proven strategies and suggestions for posting
• How to see if your posts are successful

2. Why Social Media?
1. It’s where the people are
2. 85% of people trust online recommendations posted by friends & even strangers
3. It allows you to connect with your current & potential followers in a new,
meaningful way
4. It’s free!

3. Who here uses
?

4. Who’s Jesse?
Where’s the bio?
You could at least have put
a link in there
The egg avatar tells
others you don’t care
1 tweet, and it was from over a year ago.
I don’t think I’ll be following.
Does your Twitter look like this?

5. Retweet posts
by followers
Everyone loves photos
Daily engagement
with followers

6. Write a descriptive bio
with keywords & link
Smart logo which is still
recognisable when shrunk
Respond to
followers with
useful info
Daily activity

7. Does anyone here use
?

8. This is my favourite coffee shop in
Australia, but their Facebook page
stinks
Very little info provided, the
profile isn’t even filled out
Nothing posted so far in 2012
Their fans have even stopped interacting because it’s
obvious no one is listening

9. I love this place, but this is totally unacceptable.
There’s not even a phone # or address. The
hours aren’t even correct.
Notice that 16 people have recommended this
business and 339 have “Liked” it. That’s a good
number of people that want to engage so bad that
they are willing to Like a silent page

10. Striking cover photo, recognisable
profile pic, and the “About”
section is properly filled out
Custom tabs with recipes & tips. I’ve
always wanted to know how to properly
cut a pineapple.

11. Great cover photo and
profile picture
Properly filled out “About” section Lots of engagement. How did they
do it?

12. Engagement
It’s a good idea to “Like” posts from your followers, just
don’t go crazy or else it won’t mean anything
Always respond to every post from your followers, even if
it’s just to say “thanks”

13. Engagement
This is what you want. Your followers asking you to send
them to a page on your website so they can give you
their money

14. Reputation Management
Optus has done a good job of responding
despite the user not taking advantage of initial
response

15. Reputation Management
Always address the issue and provide a course of
action even if the solution is out of your reach

16. Reputation Management
I found a bean floating in my long
black yesterday. I decided to use
this opportunity to see if Merlo
was listening.
They responded an hour later
and took the conversation
offline, thus preventing any
more posts occurring about
this embarrassing situation.
Merlo obviously places high
value on social engagement and
they have a reputation
management strategy in place

17. Who likes beer?

18. Engagement
While I’ve been in Australia I started
a blog. I needed more content so I
decided to start writing silly reviews
of Aussie beer.
After posting this particular review I
started to tweet @ every brewery in
an effort to see if anyone would
engage.
So far Carlton is the only brewery to
engage with me. Here’s what
happened…

19. Engagement
90 days later and I’m still waiting for a response. I would have tried any
other Carlton beer if they had just responded.

20. A tale of how Twitter helped get my raw denim selvedge jeans fixed
FANCY PANTS & TWITTER

21. Problem: I only own 1 pair of jeans. A hole
developed from riding a pushbike too much
The jeans are fancy raw denim selvedge and I didn’t want to trust
them with just anyone. The company that made the jeans for me
will fix them for free, but they’re in Nashville : (

22. Surely someone in Australia knows about working with raw denim. I
couldn’t find any in the Gold Coast or Brisbane that seemed legit, I
felt that Melbourne was probably my best chance
It turns out one of the guys there is getting into tailoring
and offered to fix them for free!
Because they were so helpful I will sing their praises and
become an advocate for their brand, even though I’ve
never set foot in the store or bought anything online…yet
Check out their site: http://www.uptherestore.com/
They do Facebook well too!

23. Dealing with the Facebook Edgerank
Algorithm
• Not everything you post will be seen by your followers or friends of your
followers
• Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm only allows your posts to appear:
1. To users that have interacted with your page recently
2. When your post beats out other posts going through the algorithm
fighting for placement in your follower’s news feed
• Higher engagement = higher visibility

24. Dealing with the Facebook Edgerank
Algorithm
• Post at least once a day
• Don’t link up your Twitter or use 3rd party apps as those posts get less weight
in the Edgerank algorithm
• Respond to everyone that mentions you
• Write posts which encourage a Like or comment such as “Click like if…”, “What
do you think about…?”, Surveys, etc.
• Upload photos, don’t forget to tag your followers
• Ask users to tag & upload photos of themselves using your product, visiting
your business, etc.
• Encourage people to “check-in” to your business
• Share posts by your followers
• Be slightly controversial

25. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours

26. Peak Times for Social Network Usage
• Weekdays
• 9:30am
• 12:00pm
• 3:00pm
• 6:00pm
• Weekends
• Don’t bother,
• unless your business lives for
the weekend, e.g. Restaurant,
Club, etc.
Photo by Flickr user Mark Seton

27. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule

28. Strategies for posting
The 80/20 Rule
20%
Posts that sell yourself
Posts that engage others
For each tweet or Facebook post, you
should have 4 other posts which don’t
80%
obviously try to make a sale
Don’t make it all about yourself. Give people a reason to listen.

29. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site

30. Strategies for posting
5 year old
blog post
New blog post
Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s no longer useful to people

31. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine

32. Notice the genuine engagement
in all of the posts from Brisbane
School of Hairdressing

33. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites

34. Tropical Pineapples is doing a good
job of providing a wide range of
great content by linking back to their
own site only once out of 4 posts

35. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites
• Use established & trending hashtags or keywords when
possible

36. Strategies for posting
These are the trending hashtags
and keywords in Australia for
Twitter on 16/04/2012
If appropriate, try to integrate
the day’s trends to gain more
exposure
Obvious spam.
Don’t do this

37. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites
• Use established & trending hashtags or keywords when
possible
• Prewrite posts for when you have writers block

38. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites
• Use established & trending hashtags or keywords when
possible
• Prewrite posts for when you have writers block
• Write for your audience, use words they’d use
• Proofread yourself 3 times before posting

39. Strategies for posting
Don’t be a “Perf3Ct lil Ang3l”
She makes little to no sense and she’s an English major!

40. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites
• Use established & trending hashtags or keywords when
possible
• Prewrite posts for when you have writers block
• Write for your audience, use words they’d use
• Proofread yourself 3 times before posting
• Retweet, Like, and share other people’s posts if they’re
appropriate

41. Strategies for posting
• Start by posting at least once a day during peak hours
• Follow the 80/20 rule
• Post links to new & old content on your site
• Be genuine
• Post helpful links to other sites
• Use established & trending hashtags or keywords when
possible
• Prewrite posts for when you have writers block
• Write for your audience, use words they’d use
• Proofread yourself 3 times before posting
• Retweet, Like, and share other people’s posts if they’re
appropriate
• Use social search engines to find engagement opportunities

42. Using social search engines to find
people to engage with
Use social search engines besides Twitter’s search function to find more opportunities
for engagement
recommend brisbane removalist

43. Topsy
Topsy will send you email alerts too so
you don’t have to do this search
everyday
This is basically a free lead. You can jump in on the
conversation and send them a personalised message
and link to a page with your recommendations from
previous customers

44. Gaining Followers on Facebook
• To engage with followers on Facebook you must first get people to “Like” your page
• Display your Facebook link everywhere you can and encourage people to Like your
page
• Once you have followers give them a reason to stick around and engage
• When your followers engage with you, (depending on the Edgerank algorithm)
those conversations may show up on their friends walls
• Use your personal account to solicit your friends to Like your page
• Use the “Invite Email Contacts…” feature in the Admin section to solicit your friends
and past customers

45. How to track your links and posts

46. How many people used this shortened URL
When people used this particular URL to get to my site

47. Where people are coming from
Who’s mentioning this link. Thanks Luke!

48. Crowdbooster is a simple Twitter
analytics web app which lets you
visualise how effective your tweets
are
Crowdbooster also tells you the best times
each day to tweet and allows you to
schedule tweets. It also integrates nicely
with your bit.ly account!

49. Facebook Analytics
Don’t get too obsessed over this
data. Pay more attention to what’s
actually happening on your page
1,000,000 Likes means
nothing if you don’t engage

50. How to optimise your tweets in 2 steps
1. Decide what you want people to do with it
• Do you just want them to Like or share it?
• Do you want them to perform an action? e.g. buy something, engage with
you, etc.
2. Write the perfect tweet and watch the money roll in

51. Anatomy of a perfect tweet
Tweeting at a user somewhat
involved with the event in the
Using well known industry hashtags hopes that I get a retweet
Listing benefits
Listing benefits Bit.ly link for
more info &
registration
Call to action

52. 5 Suggested posts to get you started
If you’re a retailer:
• Post photos of new product, preferably in use
• Recommend other local businesses people should visit
• Talk about upcoming and past events
• Ask people for photos of them using your product
• Talk about local current events, leave it open so people feel free to give their
opinion

53. 5 Suggested posts to get you started
If you’re a tradie:
• Take before & after photos showing off your work. If possible, edit both photos in
to one and put “before” & “after” watermarks on them so people can’t mistake
the “before” photo for the “after” photo
• Recommend other tradies. If you’re a plumber, recommend an electrician
• After a week, follow up with people on Facebook or Twitter. Ask them how they
like the job
• Post simple DIY tips. E.g. “Most people don’t know WD-40 isn’t a lubricant. Follow
up with *Product X+ to fix that squeaky door for good”
• Post solicited recommendations from your customers

54. 5 Suggested posts to get you started
If you’re in a boring business like insurance or B2B:
• Good luck
• Talk about real life benefits of your product, keep the industry jargon to a minimum
• Post recommendations from clients
• Talk about changes in the law that affect your followers
• Do a top 10 reasons to use your product. Post one a day (you can recycle this into
new content for your site as well, but that’s another talk)
• Solicit users to submit their burning questions and answer one a day. e.g. “Ever
wanted to know which car is the most expensive to insure? How to get the cheapest
rates? Ask your questions here”

55. Social Media Cheat Sheet
How to build and develop a loyal following
1. Be genuine
2. Fill out your profile completely and upload a great looking profile picture
3. Respond to everyone that engages you
4. Engage others that are already talking about your business niche
5. Post as much as is appropriate for your industry and followers
6. Post during peak times (9am – 6pm)
7. Post pictures that your followers would find interesting
8. Use relevant trending #hashtags
9. Link to your social media accounts where appropriate
10. Follow @ecbd on Twitter (see what I did there?)

56. Social Media Cheat Sheet
How to make yourself odious in the eyes of the people
1. Ignore everyone
2. Take every criticism personally and respond in kind
3. WRITE IN ALL CAPS + UZ TXT SPK
4. Post only links to your own site
5. Don’t proofread your posts for confusing grammar errors
6. Post like you’re “Former chief evangelist of Apple” Guy Kawasaki (who tweets 100 times a day)
7. Constantly ask people for a “Like” or “RT”
8. Post unrelated personal petty junk
9. When you’re not spamming everyone, complain about something
10. Play all the Facebook games, post your accomplishments and send invites to everyone

57. Summary
• Social Media is where the people are and it only costs you your time
• Fill out every bit of info you can in your social profiles
• Be engaging and you’ll attract followers
• Seek out people that might like you and start a conversation
• Have a posting strategy for engagement
• Track your progress to see how effective your posts are
• Feel free to continue the conversation with me on Twitter @TheRealMrJesse