So, You Want a Social Media Strategy?

How to Use Social Media to:• Talk to the right people• Build brand awareness• Promote your business

Michelle Shildkretmichelles@cakegroup.com

@miishi

Why Social Media?

There are over 200,000,000 blogs, with 54% of bloggers posting and tweeting daily

1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year met via social media

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest.

Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the web

By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers, and 96% of them have joined a social network More than 1.5 million pieces

of content are shared on Facebook daily

To reach 50 million people, it took…Radio 38 years.TV 13 years.The Internet 4 years.The iPod 3 years.

Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months.

YouTube has over 100,000,000 videosAshton Kutcher and Ellen

DeGeneres have more followers than the entire populations of Ireland Norway and Panama

iPod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months

34% of bloggers post opinions about brands/products, and 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

OK! I GET it! Everyone is hanging out in

“social media”.What do I do to reach them?

Lets make a Facebook page RIGHT NOW!

Awesome! I’ll sign us up on

Twitter!

Social Media is more than just Facebook and Twitter

Slow down

You need to answer a few questions first:

1. Who do I want to reach/talk to?

2. What are they interested in?

3. Where do they hang out online?

4. How do I take the cool stuff I have to share and use it to get involved in their conversations?

5. How do I do it without looking like a marketing twat?

5 Basic Steps

Step 1: Listen and Learn

• Social media = tools that facilitate conversations

• Understand what people are already talking about so you can figure out how to best get involved

• Choose the right keywords

• Some tools to get you started:– Google Blogger Alerts– Alltop– Twitter Search

• Be specific and optimize

Step 2: Get Ready• Now it’s time to figure out the

communications plan

• Set guidelines

• Define your target

• Define your strategy

• Don’t go overboard

• Figure out how you’ll measure success

Step 3: Say Hi

• This is the fun part!

• Start reaching out to bloggers, leaving comments, growing presence on Twitter, uploading shareable content

• Make sure all activity furthers dialogue and builds relationships

• Stick your strategy

• Plan ahead

Step 4: Get Offline

• Social media is no replacement for face-to-face interaction

• Use events, screenings, gallery openings, and meet-ups as opportunities to build even stronger relationships with the members of your online community

• This can be one-on-one or en masse, formal or totally casual

Step 5: Measure How You’re Doing

• Measuring social media success begins by asking more questions:

– Did we learn something about our target that we didn’t know before?

– Did they learn something about us?– Were we able to engage in new

dialogue?– What am I doing with the information

I’m learning?

• Some free tools you can use:– Trendpedia (blogs)– Facebook analytics– Twitter Grader / Twitalyzer

Types of impact you can measure:– Visitors– Impressions– Positive word of Mouth/Complaints– Interactions– Click-throughs– Positive press– ReTweets & @mentions– Media views (YouTube views, etc)– Facebook fans– Twitter followers– Blog Buzz– Comments– Embeds, Downloads & Installs– Ratings

– Social Bookmarks– Percentage of buzz containing links– Influence of consumers reached– Demographics of audience reached– Social Media habits/interests of

target audience– Geography of participating

consumers– Polls taken / votes received– Number of user generated

submissions / Amount of user generated content

– Contest entries– Attendance generated at in-person

events– Redemption rates from coupons

Measuring Return of Influence

Being Human Online

The Basics

• Be transparent and authentic

• Be human

• Listen to your audience and talk with them not at them

• Establish an ongoing dialogue

• Respect the knowledge and opinion of your followers / fans

• Create content which can be shared and adds value for the user

• Engagement comes in many forms - mix it up

• Don’t mislead

• Don’t spam

• Don’t just show up

• Bring gifts

• It’s a party – talk to everyone

• Make friends

• Make plans

Social Media Party Guidelines

Communications

Blogger outreach & digital word of mouth, viral

seeding, social networking strategy, active listening,

CRM and community management

Content

Live events, experiential activity, digital content, TV shows, webisodes / viral video, contests, apps and

widgets, stories, stunts and visual identities

Online Word of Mouth

Offer Value

Good Content Builds Buzz

Let’s Summarize• Social media is a powerful tool- its not just Facebook

• You can use social media to understand what your audience thinks about you and how you can make yourself stronger

• You can use these channels to talk to influencers who might ignore you otherwise

• But you have to talk WITH them, not at them

• And make a plan so you know how to go

How do you make that plan?

•Who are you and what do you do, in less than 140 characters?

• Why are you in social media?

• What is your current relationship with your audience?

• Nothing, they don’t even know me!

• They’re aware of me, but there’s no give and take

• They love me! They’re doing things to promote me, yes!

Answer these questions, and you’ll be on your way

•How does your audience use social media?

• Creators / Critics / Collectors / Joiners / Spectators

• What’s your thing? What makes you different?

•How will you make sure to be a human, not a marketing machine?

•What 3 metrics are you going to use to measure success/ROI?

I’m Michelle Shildkret

• I used to be an Industrial Designer• Now I am the Head of Social Media and Digital Comms for Cake Group• I love good food, my dog Waffle, running, travel and discovering new things• You can find me online here:

– For conversational tidbits- Twitter: @miishi– For things that make me laugh- Tumblr blog: http://miishi.tumblr.com– For my credentials- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/miishi