Social  media  -­‐  rationale,  strategy,  governance  and  ROI  

SOCIAL  MEDIA  HANDBOOK    

Educators  Financial  Group  

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CONTENTS:  

1) EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………….Pg.  2    

2) SOCIAL  MEDIA  AND  EDUCATORS  FINANCIAL  GROUP…………………………Pg.  3   Purpose     Goals    

3) ‘SMART’  Objectives  and  (KPI)  measurement………………………………………Pg.  4    

4) SOCIAL  MEDIA  STRATEGY  A. Why  social  media……………………………………………………………………………….Pg.  5  

Benefits  of  social  media   Role  in  communications  mix  

B. SWOT  Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………Pg.  6  C. Platforms  Strategy  

i. Facebook  ii. Twitter  iii. LinkedIn  iv. Blog  

 5) SOCIAL  GOVERNANCE………………………………………………………………………..Pg.  9    A. Overview  B. What  does  it  involve  C. Social  listening  

 6) COMMUNITY  MANAGEMENT    A. Community  management………………………………………………………………….Pg.  10  

Community  growth   Engagement   Listening   Improvement  

B. Responding……………………………………………………………………………………….Pg.  13  C. Lead  generation………………………………………………………………………………..Pg.  13  

 7) CONTENT  DEVELOPMENT  A. Overview  of  Buckets………………………………………………………………………….Pg.  15  B. Bucket  definition……………………………………………………………………………….Pg.  15  C. Content  sources………………………………………………………………………………..Pg.  16  

i. Curated  content  ii. Owned  content  

D. Steps  for  developing  owned  content………………………………………………….Pg.  18  E. Brand  unique  guidelines…………………………………………………………………….Pg.  18  F. Lexicons……………………………………………………………………………………………..Pg.  18  G. Interesting  trivia…………………………………………………………………………………Pg.  19  

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1) EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY    

• Social  Media  has  created  an  unprecedented  level  of  transparency  between  businesses  and  consumers.  Businesses   are   constantly   seeking  ways   to   communicate   their   brand,   improve   their   product   offerings  and   identify   key   incentive   points   for   their   customers.   Consumers   are   constantly   providing   valuable  opinions  and  seeking  the  best  deals   for  products  and  services.  As  a  result,   it  has  become  common  for  businesses  to  consider  social  media  a  critical  method  of  reaching  their  target  demographics.  

 • A  survey  conducted  by  the  Radicati  Group  in  mid-­‐2012  asked  respondents  about  their  social  media  use  

both  as  consumers  and  for  business  purposes.  According  to  the  survey  business  users  are  spending  an  average  of  35  minutes/day  on  business-­‐related  social  networking  sites,  while  consumers  are   spending  an  average  of  40  minutes/day  on  social  media  sites.    

 This  report  has  two  purposes:         a)  to  outline  Educators  Financial  Group’s  social  media  strategy  and  tactics    

b)   to  be  a  playbook  or   ‘living  document’   that   guides  how  Educators   Financial  Group  marketing,   sales,  customer   services   and   operations   can   use   the   individual   social  media   platforms   to   further   Educators  objectives    

 

  Figure  1,  shows  the  daily  usage  rates  forecast  of  social  media  use  from  2012  to  2016.    

 

 

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2) SOCIAL  MEDIA  AND  EDUCATORS  FINANCIAL  GROUP    

Purpose:  a. Raise  awareness  of  Educators  Financial  Group    b. Ensure  social  media  is  a    consistent  part  of  Educators  media  plan    c. Improve  relevancy  of  content  and  make  tone  more  conversational  d. Supplement  or  introduce  new  content  and  support  campaigns  

          Goals:  

                   

Social  media  goals:  

 

a. Lead  generation        

b. Community  growth  

c. Product  sales        

d. Raise  awareness  

Achieved  through:  

1.  Creating  a  reliable  and  repeatable  process  to  manage  ongoing  social  presence  

2.  Increasing  and  sustaining  content  generation  and  distribution  

3.  Becoming  contextual,  relevant  and  meaningful  in  specific  platforms  

   

 

 

 

 

 

Social Mission Statement: To  support  the  Education  community  &  provide  financial  knowledge  that  is  

dedicated  to  them  

Strategic  Objectives:    Continue  to  leverage  reach  of  the  digital  

ecosystem  to  drive  awareness  &  engagement  from  prospective  clients,  

community,  and  partners  

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3) ‘SMART’  OBJECTIVES  AND  (KPI)  MEASUREMENT  

‘SMART’  Objectives      

 

 

 

(KPI)  Measurement  dashboard  

 

 

Generate  12  leads  every  year    (in  support  of  the  key  strategy  objective  for  2015  of  lead  generation)  

Increase  traffic  driven  to  www.educatorsfinancialgroup.ca  by  30%  every  month  with  a  consistent  growth  in  the  number  of  new  users  

Acquire  at  least  500  new  followers  every  year.  With  2,  00,000  educator  members  in  Ontario,  Educators  could  increase  its  awareness  to  beyond  its  13,000  clients    

Improve  its  engagement  rate  to  12%  -­‐15%  every  month  to  ensure  community  engagement  and  growth.  Prioritize  opportunities  to  engage  influencers  to  further  augment  the  community  growth  process.  

Generate  and  share  at  least  2  new  content  pieces  a  month  to  strengthen  client  experience  -­‐  another  Educators  2015  strategic  objective    

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4) SOCIAL  MEDIA  STRATEGY    A. Why  social  media?  

Benefits  of  social  media1:    

a) Better  customer  service  and  relationships:  52%  of  enterprise  brands  say  social  media  is  the  top  driver  for  relationship  building  and  brand  engagement.  

b) Good  way  to  showcase  brand:  71%  of  business  owners  are  using  social  media  for  brand  awareness.  c) Lead  generation:  77%  of  B2C  companies  are  generating  leads  through  social  media.  d) Social  attracts  more  customers:  52%  of  all  businesses  have  found  customers  on  Facebook  alone  in  2013.  e) Web  traffic  and  impact  on  search  engine  optimization:  According  to  iMedia,  “71%  of  businesses  say  content  

marketing  helped  them  improve  their  site’s  rankings.”    

Role  in  communications  mix:      

       Social  media  is  an  addition  to  already  existing  communications  platforms.  Integrating  the  platforms  best  generates  optimal  results.  A  social  media  platform  can  be  a  hub  to  publish  Press  Releases,  company  ads,  C-­‐suite  interviews  or  any  brand  building  or  promotional  material  at  the  same  time  thereby  making  sure  that  any  communication  reaches  all  our  existing  followers  as  well  as  potential  customers.          

                                                                                                                         1  http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-­‐media-­‐good-­‐business/501266  

Communica^ons  

Public  rela^ons  

Adver^sing  

Direct  marke^ng  

Sales  support  

Social  media  

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B. SWOT  Analysis:  

Since  Educators  ventured  into  social  media  for  the  first  time  in  October  2014,  it  is  in  a  nascent  stage  and  it  would  be  wise  to  gauge  the  strengths,  weaknesses,  opportunities  and  threats  before  starting  to  measure  ROIs  or  expecting  certain  returns.  

 

 

 

 

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C. Platforms:    

The  platforms  that  fall  in  the  purview  of  Educators’  social  strategy  are  as  follows:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The  kind  of  content  that  these  platforms  can  be  populated  with  is  as  follows:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5)    SOCIAL  GOVERNANCE  

A.  What  is  social  governance?  

It  is  the  framework  through  which  social  media  efforts  are  managed  and  utilized  responsibly  to  exercise  opportunities  while  mitigating  risk.    

B.  What  does  it  involve?  

• Understanding  of  the  ecosystem  and  connectedness:    To  understand  the  role  of  social  in  the  communication  mix  and  how  they  work  in  alignment  to  achieve  company  objectives.  Using  different  platforms  to  convey  different  communications  requires  understanding  the  essence  of  the  platforms  and  the  kind  of  audience  available  on  these  different  platforms.  

• Policies  for  usage  (Playbook,  Rules  of  engagement  –  internal  &  external):    Social  media  is  always  through  public  platforms  and  therefore  the  importance  of  policies  when  it  comes  to  disclosures  and  engagements.  The  National  Labor  Relations  Board  has  rendered  over  a  hundred  decisions  touching  on  the  topic  of  employee  use  of  social  media,  with  many  of  the  Board's  actions  prompted  by  overly  broad  social  media  policies.  

• Community  Management  parameters:    Community  management  is  a  huge  part  of  how  a  company  social  media  is  administered.  The  need  for  this  aspect  again  generates  from  the  fact  that  social  media  is  so  public.  Therefore,  any  engagement,  positive  or  negative,  and  how  they  are  dealt  with  will  show  on  the  account.  Therefore,  policies  and  parameters  are  to  be  put  to  place  to  monitor  and  respond  to  the  engagement.  

• Role  of  employees,  stakeholders  and  board:    Social  media  is  not  just  a  platform  for  external  stakeholders  like  clients  and  target  audience  to  interact  on.  It  is  also  a  place  for  internal  stakeholders,  especially  employees  and  the  Board.  Having  said  that,  the  employees’  social  profiles  surely  resonate  a  lot  about  what  the  company  is  made  of.  Therefore,  it  should  be  general  practice  to  screen  employee  profiles  before  adding  them  or  letting  employees  comment  and  post  on  Educators  social  media.      

C. Social  listening  Social  media  listening,  also  known  as  social  media  monitoring,  is  the  process  of  identifying  and  assessing  what  is  being  said  about  a  company,  individual,  product  or  brand  on  the  web  and  on  social  media  platforms.    

                           What  to  listen  for:    i) What  are  followers  saying  about  us?  ii) Are  there  negative  comments  on  the  web  about  Educators?  iii) What  are  people  saying  about  products  like  GICs,  LOCs,  etc.,  that  Educators  may  or  may  not  offer?    iv) What  is  the  education  community  talking  about?      What  tools  are  used  in  social  listening?  Currently,  Educators’  social  listening  is  restricted  to  use  of  Hootsuite  and  specifically  key  words  like  Educators  Financial  Group,  financial  services,  educators,  RRSP  and  investing.    However,  with  the  growing  engagement,  comments,  shares  and  followers,  we  might  want  to  consider  utilizing  a  sophisticated  listening  tool.  But  then  again  it  is  important  to  remember  that  such  a  tool  would  only  be  required  once  the  KPIs  are  reached.  

 

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6)  COMMUNITY  MANAGEMENT      

A. Community  management:    Community  management  is  the  art  of  building,  growing,  managing  online  communities  often  around  a  brand  or  a  cause.  Community  management  consists  of  4  very  important  aspects:  community  growth,  engagement,  listening  and  improvement.  

  Community  growth:  Growing  relevant  fans  and  followers  through  participation  in  discussions  and  identifying  brand  evangelists  who  can  take  the  brand  forward.  Some  of  the  ways  in  which  Educators  has  been  doing  this  so  far  are:  

ü ‘Like’  our  page  and  for  every  like  we  get  we  give  $4  to  Free  The  Children  ü An  occasional  page  boost  to  help  our  page  reach  more  people  from  our  target  audience  and  also  

a  post  boost  for  all  the  authored  articles  in  order  to  drive  more  traffic  to  the  website  ü Comment  on  posts  of  influencers  like  Rob  Carrick  so  as  to  be  in  the  radar  of  his  followers  ü Follow  2-­‐3  influencers  every  week  in  order  to  get  a  follow  back  

  Engagement:  Humanizing  our  brand  and  triggering  how  clients/followers  communicate  with  us  through  post  likes,  comments  and  shares.  Some  of  the  engagement-­‐driving  tactics  which  have  worked  for  Educators  are:  

 ü Free  pizza  lunches  

                   

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ü Polls/  Q&  A  

       

ü Sharing  content  that  drives  traffic  to  the  website  through  content  residing  on  the  site  and  possibly  boosting  the  post  by  about  $50  -­‐  $75  so  that  it  reaches  more  people.  

 

 

   

Listening:  Also  sometimes  referred  to  as  ‘measuring’,  social  listening  is  done  by  interacting  with  clients,  understanding  what  they  want  through  polls/questions,  doing  some  social  media  analytics  and  monitoring  the  presence  of  the  brand  online  (through  SEO)  

  Improvement:  There  are  a  lot  of  things  which  Educators  may  or  may  not  practice  currently,  like  blog  discussions.  There  are  also  many  platforms  which  are  yet  to  be  explored.  Expanding  Educators’  social  media  

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presence  through  optimal  utilization  and  integrating  additional  platforms  will  improve  community  involvement.    

   

 Figure  2  illustrates  the  industry  best  practice  for  improved  community  management.  

   

 

 Figure  2  

 

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B. Responding  to  activity:    Every  organization  has  its  own  protocols  and  rules  when  it  comes  to  responding  to  comments.  It  is  a  culmination  of  good  judgment  and  a  well  thought  through  decision  process.      Below  (figure  3)  is  a  decision  tree  specific  to  Educators  and  its  responding  practices.    

 Figure  3  

 C. Lead  generation:    By  industry  standards,  any  follower  on  social  media  is  a  potential  lead.  But  as  per  Educators,  a  lead  is  legit  only  when  someone  on  social  media  explicitly  shares  details  in  order  to  be  contacted  by  the  frontline  teams.  Lead  generation  and  generation  of  awareness  are  some  of  the  strategic  objectives  of  Educators  for  the  year  2015.  As  per  figure  4,  social  media  scores  high  in  terms  of  engaging  existing  customers  and  attracting  new  customers  but  when  it  comes  to  lead  generation,  as  per  figure  5,  while  social  media  is  a  potential  tool  it  does  not  rank  in  the  top  order.  

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 Figure  4  

 

 Figure  5  

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7)  CONTENT  DEVELOPMENT  

A.  Overview:  

 

B. Bucket  definition:  

 

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C. Content  Sources:    i. Curated  content:  for  use  if  your  objective  is  to  increase  social  media  engagement,  increase  brand  

trust,  and  increase  followers  from  bloggers  or  other  companies.  

 

 

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ii. Owned  content:  Content,  which  is  authored  by  the  company  and  is  unique  to  the  company’s  brand  identity.  While  residing  on  the  website,  this  content  can  be  shared  on  social  and  blogs  to  increase  engagement  and  eventually  drive  traffic  back  to  the  site.  Educators  identifies  its  topics  for  owned  content  in  the  following  4  steps:  

 Step  1:  Identify  content  buckets  Step  2:  Brainstorm  topics  that  fall  under  the  purview  of  those  buckets  and  choose  the  top  3  or  4  on  the  basis  of  relevancy  Step  3:  Identify  one  of  the  Top  3-­‐  4  topics  that  is  relevant  for  the  quarter  and  generate  possible  article  ideas  Step  4:  Prepare  a  calendar  for  Educators  product  promotion  

 

Step  1    (buckets) Step  2  (topics/themes)10  most  inexpensive  places  to  buy  homes  in  Ontario

Lifestyle Home  ownership  -­‐  Reno Top  5  renos  that  give  you  an  ROIFreelancing Can  you  be  your  own  contractor?Teaching  abroad Helping  your  kids  buy  the  first  house? Working  while  travelling,  how  to  pull  it  off?Work-­‐life  balance Planning  for  a  vacation?Budget  for  travel

Educational Four  over  five Ways  to  afford  your  dream  vacation  (save  on  staycations)Pensions 10  really  cheap  and  great  summer  adventuresGratuitiesBudgeting Top  5  mistakes  of  budgetingRetirement  Planning Budgeting  for  Educators

Occasional Back  to  school Dealing  with  Life's  'what  ifs'March  break Budget  quiz  -­‐  how  do  you  compareRSP  deadlineSummer  financesRESP,  RSP  deadline RSP  FAQ  -­‐  Things  you  need  to  knowLOCs  &  GICs RSP  -­‐  Mutual  fund,  GICs,etc..what  to  expectValue  of  a  financial  plan RSP  investing  -­‐  Master  class

RSP  vs  TFSA  -­‐  what  you  nedd  to  know

Financial  literacy  

Step  3  (article  ideas)

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Step  4:    

 

 

D.  Brand  guidelines:  

1) Provide  Educators’  clients  with  a  customized  experience  (ie.,  content  and  tips  tailored  for  educator  members’  needs)  

2) Reinforce  the  OSSTF  link  to  the  Education  community  where  possible  3) Increase  amount  of    “did-­‐you-­‐know”  education  community  tips  4) Ask  for  referrals  as  educator  members  have  a  strong  sense  of  community  5) Understand  how  seasons  impact  the  needs  of  education  members,  and  how  they  are  different  from  the  general  

population  (i.e.,  renovating  existing  home  and  buying  new  homes  over  the  summer,    their  work  year  starts  in  October,  etc.)  

6) Profit  from  advice  from  the  Educators’  team  or  subject  matter  expert  on  technical  issues  (i.e.,  seek  advice  from  Federica  when  it  comes  to  posting  implications  of  the  BoC  interest  rate  cut)  

7) Post  more  educational  articles  as  education  members  are  as  committed  to  learning  as  they  are  to  teaching  

E.  Lexicons:    

1) Refrain  from  use  of  internet  slangs  like  ‘ur’,  ‘&’  or  technical  terms  like  Q1,  FY15  etc.  2) Post  on  Facebook  &  Twitter  on  a  regular  basis  including  once  over  the  weekend  3) Not  more  than  two  hashtags  a  post  4) Share  content  in  the  ratio  of  :  30%  owned,  60%  curated,  10%  promotional  

     

Theme/Topic Product  tie-­‐in Title Platforms Author/ownerQ1

Jan   Primary:  LOC Product  related  on  LinkedIn TanayaFeb VACATION Planning  for  a  vacation?Budget  for  travel Twitter/FB:  All  posts  (5  a  week) Tanaya

Ways  to  afford  your  dream  vacation  (save  on  staycations) Blog:  3-­‐4  a  month Anne/RSPs  potentially  linking  to  GICs

March RENOVATION Top  5  renos  that  give  you  an  ROICan  you  be  your  own  contractor?Helping  your  kids  buy  the  first  house?

Q2 Product  related  on  LinkedInApril   Primary:  Mortgage YTD Twitter/FB:  All  posts  (5  a  week)May   Blog:  3-­‐4  a  monthJune

Q3 Product  related  on  LinkedInJuly   Primary:  Planning Twitter/FB:  All  posts  (5  a  week)

August YTD Blog:  3-­‐4  a  monthSeptemberQ4 Product  related  on  LinkedInSeptember Primary:  Planning Twitter/FB:  All  posts  (5  a  week)

Oct YTD Blog:  3-­‐4  a  monthNovDec

Secondary:  GIC  and  RSP

Secondary:  SLOC,  Gratuity

Secondary:  Referral,  Investments

Secondary:  Investments

19    

F.  Interesting  trivia: