The document outlines the agenda for Meeting 3 of the UCLA course "Best Practices in Social Media for the Communications Professional". The meeting will include a final project overview, a discussion of reputation management online, and a guest speaker, Duane Forrester, VP of Industry Insights at Yext. It will cover topics such as the importance of goals, target audiences, and measurement in social media planning, as well as search engine optimization strategies for public relations professionals.

1. Instructor:
Erik Deutsch (@erikdeutsch)
#SocMedUCLA
Best Practices in Social Media
for the Communications
Professional
Meeting 3 (May 8):
• Final Project Overview – Social
Media Plan Outline
• Nothing is “Off-the-Record”
• SEO for the PR pro
• Online reputation management
• Guest speaker:
Duane Forrester (@DuaneForrester)
VP of Industry Insights, Yext.com
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

2. 1. Situation Analysis (a few paragraphs – no boilerplate)
2. Goals (bullet points – well defined)
3. Target Audiences (bullet points – demo/psycho)
4. Competitive Analysis (a few paragraphs)
5. Strategies (bullets)
6. Tactics (bullets)
7. Measurement (starting point + benchmarks)
The Final Project
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2016

3. • Ask yourself “why?” – then ask again
• Tied to core (bottom line) objectives
(expanding social media presence is not an underlying goal)
• Be specific
Vague Goals: Increase awareness, enhance image,
promote products/services
Specific Goals: Drive website traffic, engage with
existing/new customers and generate sales,
expand company’s leads database, position
company leaders as experts in their field
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2016

4. • Be specific:
• Think beyond “customers/donors”
and “the public at large”
• B2B and/or B2C
• Demographic, geographic,
psychographic, behavioristic, etc.
• Basic demographics include age,
gender, income, profession,
education, family size, homeowner,
marital status, etc.
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2015

5. Strategy:
Plan of action for achieving a goal or solving a problem
(derived from the Greek word for leading an army).
Tactic:
Means by which a strategy is carried out – specific action
items (derived from the Greek word for arranging or ordering)
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2016

6. Strategy = General Plan of Action (what you’re going to do)
e.g., Divide & Conquer
Tactics = Specific Actions to Carry Out Strategy (how you’re
going to do it)
e.g., Gather intelligence, destroy enemy communications,
ground invasion, etc.
Put another way…
Strategy – the high-altitude view
Tactic – on-the-ground view
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2016

7. Goal: Turn the tide and increase sales of baking soda
Strategy: Introduce new uses for baking soda
Marketing Tactics: Advertising, retail promotions, new
product launch PR, publicity stunts, contests, etc.
Quiz... Is "build a Facebook page" a strategy or a tactic?
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (circa 1970s)
UCLA X469.21 Fall 2016

8. Social Media is:
• Easy to post
• Easy to share
• Easy to find
• Hard (if not impossible) to delete
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

9. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of
improving the visibility of a web site or a web
page in search engines via the "natural" or un-
paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM)
target paid listings.
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

10. 1) Relevance: How relevant is the content on your
page to the search term(s)?
2) Authority: Based on the company you keep -- which
sites link to your site, and who shares your links on
social media.
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

11. • Visible (on-page) and non-visible (source code) content
• Meta Tags - Optimize Title and Description tags
• Alt Tags - Alternative text attached to images (to provide
crawlable text in the source code)
• Headings - Titles and subtitles (e.g. H1 and H2 tags) help
break blocks of content into smaller, clearly labeled sections.
• Body Text - Focus on 2 or 3 keywords per page and write for
users, not search engines (avoid “keyword stuffing”)
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

12. • External Inbound Links: Value depends on credibility and
popularity of sites that link to your site. Note .edu and .gov are
best, and the NY Times beats a small-time blogger (links from
spammy sites can actually reduce authority).
• “Anchor” Text: The visible, clickable text in a hyperlink should
be keyword-focused.
• Link Relevancy: How relevant is the content on the linking
page and the target page?
• Popularity & Trustworthiness: What’s the “Page Rank” of the
linking page?
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

13. SEM - Search Engine Marketing
• Purchasing links
• Akin (in PR speak) to "Earned" vs. "Paid" media
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

14. The results that come up when you
perform a Google search
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

15. And remember...
all content and links are not created equal.
"The solution to pollution is dilution."
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

16. Develop multiple content assets to help push down negative links (as well as
negative, autosuggested searches).
Tactics: YouTube videos, topic-specific landing pages (with embedded YouTube
videos), press releases via online newswire services, blog entries and
social media profiles.
"The solution to pollution is dilution."
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017

17. Instructor:
Erik Deutsch
(@ErikDeutsch)
#SocMedUCLA
Best Practices in Social Media
for the Communications
Professional
Meeting 3 (May 8):
Guest speaker:
Duane Forrester (@DuaneForrester)
VP of Industry Insights, Yext
UCLA X469.21 Spring 2017