This document provides an overview of social media and digital marketing strategies. It discusses popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. It also discusses best practices for social media engagement, including focusing on 2-3 platforms, sharing 70% of the time and creating original content 30% of the time. The document recommends having a strategic social media plan and using tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and IFTTT to automate tasks. The most important thing is to engage where your target audience is already active on social media.

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL MARKETING

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© 2013 Firepole Marketing. All Rights Reserved.
This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from Firepole Marketing.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SOME OF THE DIFFERENT, MOST POPULAR OPTIONS 3
WHEN GOOD TOOLS GO BAD 6
THE BEST OVERALL STRATEGY 8
SOME TOOLS TO MAKE IT EASIER 10
THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING 12
FURTHER READING 13

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The Internet is a Wonderland of social media and – like Alice – you can find things pretty confusing when you first arrive. There are a lot of networks to explore, new ones constantly popping up and you might feel like you’re constantly chasing the next big thing.
Calm down. It’s all going to be fine.
Social media is an extension of your business personality, but unlike most traditional marketing it’s a dialogue, not a lecture. That means that not only are you putting information out there, but you are constantly taking it in to learn about customer base. The back-and-forth of social media is the mother lode of information on who your customer is and what they are looking for, as well as a direct line of conversation through which to build a relationship.
For businesses based on audience engagement, it’s a natural fit. Your business’s social media usage should be an extension of your existing business personality – only friendlier! Make some guidelines, find the networks that work for you and start interacting with your customer base!
All of this is well and good – but getting started in social media can be… awkward… at best. It’s weird to just open an account and starting shouting into the universe – is anyone listening? Are you being annoying? Are you making a good impression? Is this going anywhere?
Don’t worry – we all feel that way when we get started. For some people it’s easier than others, but as a 1

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rule, it’s a skill and set of actions to learn like anything else, and it takes time and practice to really get the hang of it and start seeing returns.
So let’s put aside our fears for the moment, and start looking at some of the options you have at your disposal for getting all of the benefits from a strong social media campaign, and then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of using them. 2

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Some of the Different, Most Popular Options
There are a lot of social media networks, so it can be easy to be overwhelmed. The most popular networks exist because they, and their audiences, are distinct enough to provide a unique and valuable experience. It’s important to find which environment works for you, and for your customers. You want to pick 2 or 3 platforms and focus your efforts on active engagement there. Always start with one, and get it rolling before adding another, it’s important not to spread yourself too thin, because cultivating each platform is a major investment of your time and energy.
Facebook
Facebook is the catch-all of social media. Everyone is on Facebook, from your 13-year-old niece to your grandmother. It’s for family and friends to share status updates, photos and videos. Users can “like” or share these posts, which can spread one post to a lot of people incredibly quickly – like most social media. Facebook is focused on existing connections, people that you’ve met offline. These are your Facebook friends - you can see each other’s updates and send each other messages. It’s rare for strangers to become Facebook friends, but it is possible to follow updates of someone that you are not friends with.
Businesses use Facebook a little differently. A Facebook Business Page is a place to build a community of fans who are interested in what you do. Unlike personal profiles, a Facebook page can have an unlimited number of fans, can be advertised to gain likes and, importantly, allows you to use Facebook Insights to learn more about who is following you. That doesn’t mean that a Facebook page is what you need, but a little digging and a little planning can help you find out how to best use Facebook for your business.
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Twitter
It could be said that Facebook is for people that you know and Twitter is for people that you don’t know. While it might be strange to contact a complete stranger on Facebook, it’s the norm on Twitter, which makes it a great place to make connections.
Twitter is based around the concept of status posts of less than 140 characters. Its users work within this limited structure to post succinct status updates, links to articles and headlines. If a feed is interesting, a user can follow it. If a tweet is interesting a user can favorite it or retweet it to their own followers. Favorites and retweets tell the original poster that you like what they posted, and it also adds that great content to your own feed.
A retweet can spread your message quickly to a whole new audience, increasing the spread of your network, so keep your messages under 120 characters. This allows for the additional characters added by a retweet. It’s also a good idea to keep your twitter handle short for the same reason. Retweets are what will introduce you to new people, by people who are ready to tell everyone that they like your stuff. It’s a personal recommendation. If it’s a retweet from an industry expert, even better – it builds your credibility and your buzz.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is, in many ways, Facebook for business, a way to connect people that you already know professionally. As more people use its people search to find qualified service providers, however, it is becoming a way to make new connections. It can simply be a giant Rolodex, updating contact information and resumes for you, or it can be optimized to deliver your information directly to people who are looking for your services.
LinkedIn limits its search results to users that you either share an interest with through a LinkedIn group or to users that are only 2 degrees removed from you. That is, you have a connection that knows them or one of their connections. Any more distant connection and you simply won’t appear, so it pays to
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make connections and join groups, getting your name out there.
LinkedIn is becoming more and more popular as a content provider, allowing users to blog, share information and stories, and form mutual interest groups. If your audience is professionally leaning, LinkedIn is a great place to be.
Pinterest
Pinterest is based on the concept of “boards” upon which you “pin” things that interest you. It depends, then, on visual marketing, but it’s not just for selling a physical product. Nor is it only successful, as many assume, at marketing to women. Pinterest users drive more traffic to websites than any other social media site, except Facebook. 20% of pinners have purchased something they saw on a Pinboard. It’s a force that is hard to ignore, and with those sort of numbers why would you?
Instagram
Following the trend of an increase in visual marketing, Instagram has become a force in social networking for businesses. Popular with 15-30 year olds, the photo taking/photo sharing network has a 20% click through rate. That is the highest click rate of any social network right now, so if you are considering visual marketing, or are in a business that works with physical goods and services, then Instagram should definitely be on your radar. And don’t stop at pictures of your product. Instagram your office, your events, your team – if it’s appropriate invite your audience into your world a little bit more and watch the engagement grow.
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When Good Tools Go Bad
Trying to Be Everywhere
It’s easy to get caught up in the shiny new thing syndrome. There’s always buzz about a new social network and you want to be on top of it. The Internet is just too big to be everywhere at once, though. Just because Facebook might be great for some businesses doesn’t mean it’s great for YOUR business. And if it is, perhaps it’s not a Facebook page that suits your needs best. Maybe you need a Facebook group. Maybe you need to give up on Facebook and focus on Pinterest. Find what works for your business and your audience.
There’s no point in being everywhere if your audience isn’t. Why Tweet all day when your ideal customer is spending hours Pinning? Find out where they congregate. Where are they talking? How are they sharing? If you tap into the right network you’ll find that not only will you be able to talk to your customer base, but you’ll be able to find out a lot more about what they like and what they are looking for.
Being Too Personal
Even though you’re online, you’re still representing your business. You still need to be honest, accountable and polite. Never post anything that you wouldn’t say to a customer in person, and
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remember that everything online is permanent – it will never go away. The anonymity of the internet has led many people down the wrong and incredibly stupid path. Imagine you are at a networking event and conduct yourself accordingly. This isn’t the place to post about your love life, your political views or gossip – unless that’s your brand!
Not Being Personal Enough
On the other hand, if you were at a networking event, would you be talking strictly business? Wouldn’t that seem a bit rude, a bit cold? Maybe you would mention the new office, a new hire, maybe an exciting event that’s coming up? It could even be appropriate to share a little bit about your life and your interests. Social media isn’t strictly advertising – it’s a chance to show a little bit of life behind the scenes. Everyone knows that there are people behind the business curtain, so decide what you want to share with the world and let them get to know you a bit.
The key here is that social media is used by people – real people with a variety of interests, passions and prejudices that you need to be aware of as you engage with them.
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The Best Overall Strategy
Be yourself.
But slightly better.
Let people get to know you. Whether this is you as a person or the larger you of your company, it’s good to show a little personality. Social media provides a unique opportunity to grow your relationship with your audience and one of the best ways to do that is to let them get to know you a little better. Keep things clean, keep them on topic, and always be asking yourself how you can provide value – whether it’s sharing beautiful images, directing people to important and useful resources, or just finding out how someone’s day was.
70/30
On social media a good rule of thumb is to share 70% of the time and to create new content 30% of the time. That 70% is currency. Social media is dependent on sharing value. Strictly focusing on self- promotion rings hollow. By promoting other people and their work you are warming up new connections, increasing the value of your feed by showcasing awesome content and gathering social media karma. Including other people’s content in your feed also shows that you follow your industry and are in the know about major players and trends.
It’s not enough to just share, though. Contribute. Add your insight, your response, or just a brief comment saying why you think this piece of content fits your brand and your audience. Add your voice to
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the conversation.
This sort of engagement will help you be noticed by the influencers that you are talking about, warming them up as new connections. Maybe they’ll connect you to their network, maybe they’ll just notice your name and remember you when you next put out content, or maybe they’ll start following you!
Really, just have a plan
Whatever social media platforms you decide to, it’s important to stay active, to stay current and to stay on brand. Focus on what you want to get out of social media, even if that might shift over time. It’s not enough to do it because you think you have to.
What is your WHY? Are you trying to woo influencers? Find new customers? Build authority? You can do all of that, but make sure that you have a plan of action. Create a strategy for posting on each network 1-3 times a day, filling your feed with useful, engaging content that speaks to your audience and strengthens your brand objectives. You need a strategy to align your social media business persona and activities with your real life business goals.
As Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) the social media darling says : Don’t Tweet Drunk!
No good can come of this. Take away your social networking keys. Enough said.
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Some Tools to Make It Easier You’ve picked your 2-3 social media networks. You have an on-brand strategy for being friendly, but not too friendly. You’re ready to post your 30% of original content 1-3 times per day, and are excited to share on-message content from other people 70% of the time... Does it sound like it’s getting complicated?
Calm down. You’re not the first person to do this. There’s a wealth of social media management tools to help you keep everything under control.
Hootsuite
One of the most popular social media dashboards, Hootsuite makes it possible to manage a number of accounts using a single tool. Connect Hootsuite to your account on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or one of the many other popular social networks. You can choose what feeds you want to be able to view, including messages or lists, and can see at a glance what is happening online. When you want to update, it’s as simple as selecting which of your networks see your newest post. You can even post the same update on more than one network, simultaneously, or schedule your posts for a later time or date.
Hootsuite and social media managers like it can be used for social listening as well. Set a search for your business name and reach out to users who are talking about you. Track industry terms and find the influencers about that topic. There are lots of ways to glean information and even more ways to put that information to work.
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BufferApp
Another social media manager, BufferApp’s focus is less on managing multiple accounts, although it can. Instead, Buffer’s sharing scheduling allows you to create a queue of posts to be shared at prescheduled times throughout the day. Each social media network has a different rhythm, but prescheduled posts allow you to be current and active on each at their peak usage hours. This could mean that the post that hits Facebook mid-afternoon is posted to LinkedIn a 5pm.
Like Hootsuite, Buffer offers analytics and insights for your social media networks. Both tools have mobile apps so that you can track and update your networks while on the go.
IFTTT
“If This Then That” helps you automatize social media tasks, taking them off your to-do list. IFTTT allows you to create “recipes” where a specific trigger, the THIS, is followed by an automated specific action. For example, you can ask IFTTT to send an automated message to any new follower on one of your social media accounts, thanking them for their interest and inviting them to visit your website.
IFTTT can be used to manage actions on your email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ever note and many other channels. If you find yourself constantly repeating the same action, ask yourself if there is a trigger that you can set up so that IFTTT takes over for you, freeing up your time for more important things!
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The Single Most Important Thing
As with all marketing, the important thing to think of who you’re marketing to. What you like or want doesn’t matter as much as what your audience actually uses. Is your audience crazy for Twitter? Then be on Twitter. Are they already talking about you on Pinterest? Get pinning. Be social where your customers are social, because that’s where it’s important to be.
Go back to your ideal customer. What do they use? How do they use it? How can you use what they use in order to engage in a new way? Now that you know what tools are out there, find out what people are saying and see how you can join the conversation.
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Further Reading
Ready to forge ahead? We have tons of great content on the blog all about social media and digital marketing – so pick and article and dive right in! Five Social Media Marketing Strategies That Stick How to Get Noticed by Online Influencers (and Boost Your Credibility!) Warming Up Your Network So No One Can Turn You Down 13 Awesome and Free Resources to Rock Your Digital Marketing How to Ask Your Readers to Pay with a Tweet (Without Pissing Them Off!) Is Your Small Business Branding Derailed? How to Advertise On Facebook: 900 Million People Can’t Be Wrong How Tiny Business Owners Can Leverage LinkedIn to Market Like Massive Businesses Facebook Marketing: Achieving Success by Becoming a Welcomed Guest
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