Social Media Basics: Tips, tools & more!

Abbi SilerTraining Specialist & Business Consultantlsiler@astate.edu or @abbisiler

Understanding how it all fits together!

Think About Your Online Strategy

• What are your goals?– Education? Brick & Mortar Sales? Phone Call? Online Sale?– Lead Generation?– Communicating an idea, thought or brand?

• Where are your customers?– Do they interact and research on Facebook? Google? LinkedIn? Twitter?– How are you currently trying to reach them?– Where are your competitors?

• Do you have a website?– Is it updated? Do you have control? Is it flexible?– Are your questions finding and using your website?– What’s the main call to action on the site?

Let’s Talk About Your Website

• Should be user friendly, easy to access and interactive.• Should have a goal & traffic should be monitored.• Should have an easy to navigate and edit content

management system (CMS).• Your web developer or agency should have the ability to

integrate social plugins with your website. Icons, like buttons, etc.– Understand these changes may take time and development, so request

information about pricing to make these additions.

Facebook

• A simple Facebook Icon alerts visitors to your website and can help increase your likes.

• Facebook is going to give you mass distribution.• Use pictures and balance your posts between links to your site and

information that is relevant to your audience.– Example: You are working with folks on taxes – share articles on new

tax laws or data that may impact or inform your customers. • Facebook is a great social network to build credibility and trust with

customers. To get started post once or twice a day or at minimum 3 times a week. The more you share, the more likely you are to show up in the newsfeed.

174,000,000+ people in United States1,540,000+ people in Arkansas300,000+ people in Little Rock58,000+ people in Hot Springs

*Data collected March 2014 via Facebook Ad Engine.

Twitter

• A simple Twitter Icon alerts visitors to your website and can help increase your followers.

• Twitter is a little smaller than Facebook and more easily targeted toward specific audiences.

• The goal on Twitter is a conversation and information sharing. Only 140 characters, so keep it short and sweet.

• A bit more of a time commitment – you want to tweet at least 3-5 times a day to get started and to grow.

• Hashtags are your best friend on Twitter when used effectively.– Example: https://twitter.com/IRSnews/status/438762953782099969– https://twitter.com/FreedMaxickCPAs

645,750,000+ total Twitter Users58 million tweets sent per day2.1 billion search queries per day40% of users who watch Twitter but do not tweet

*Data collected March 2014 via Statisticbrain.com

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is the professional network – what you share here will be building your personal brand or your company’s brand.

• Share articles, tips and join groups that are pertinent to your industry.• This network works great for legal offices, CPAs, Real Estate and other

businesses that really depend on the personal brand of their employees and owners.

• Learn more about creating a Company Page – this is a great tool for recruitment and product/services marketing.

270,000,000+ total Twitter Users84 million LinkedIn users in the United States187 million unique users per month38% of users visit the site on a mobile device.

*Data collected March 2014 via Mediabistro.com

Helpful Tools for Managing Social Media

• Hootsuite:– Time management tool – schedule tweets, cross promote from one

platform, short links, and more!– https://hootsuite.com/features/social-networks

• Facebook Insights:– This comes with any Facebook Page.– Offers demographic information, likes, reports and growth

opportunities.– Shows you interactions and statistics for your Facebook Page.

• Help Sections on all Social Networks:– Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and many other social networks provide

white papers in their Help areas to get you started – these can be downloaded and read or shared with other staff members.

Building Credibility & Presence

Be available – don’t start and never finish.

Be responsive – don’t let a comment go unnoticed, positive or negative.

Stand Out – provide information and tips no one else is providing or present old information in new and fresh ways.

Content, Content, Content.– Use already existing information – what common questions do your customers ask? Share

short versions of those answers online or provide them with a way to ask you those questions directly.

Let’s take a break!

Abbi SilerTraining Specialist & Business Consultantlsiler@astate.edu or @abbisiler

Next: Social Media Etiquette

Part II: Social Media Etiquette

Abbi SilerTraining Specialist & Business Consultantlsiler@astate.edu or @abbisiler

Some Do’s and some Don’ts

Do use proper grammar.

• Think about what you are writing and proof read yourself before you post.• Use the “Edit my post” tool when you do make a error.• Make sure your staff who is maintaining your social networks understands

the importance of grammar and the impression your words give online.• Avoid slang terms and shortened phrases. Examples: “Go get ‘em” “totes

cray cray!” “TTYL, LOL, GTG, BRB, etc”• Keep your status updates short and sweet. If you can’t say it in two

sentences or less, simplify.

Pro Tip: Proof read, proof read, proof read. I often proof read before I post and then read it again after I press the post button.

Don’t click on weird links…• There are all kinds of weird links out there – Twitter and Facebook is where

you have to watch it.

– Don’t click the link if the tweet or message says anything like “OMG, I saw you in this photo you look terrible…” or “Have you heard what they are saying about you…”

– Be wary of “spam” accounts – you might get some followers automatically on Twitter that have no profile pictures or descriptions – typically these accounts have zero or less than five tweets. You can report the spam account or you can just ignore it. Just don’t click anything that it sends you. My rule of thumb: block and report.

– Don’t re-share Facebook messages or status updates that seem ludicrous… like “Re-share this or your account will be deleted…” “Facebook is closing down…do this and you will be safe…” or anything that seems super dramatic. Half the time these are just internet hoaxes. They won’t do you any harm, but they might make you look like a looney tune.

Pro Tip: Listening first is always a great way to approach social media, especially when you first get started – learn from other businesses mistakes and glean ideas on what’s working and what’s just not worth your time.

Do some research…

• Don’t just use these social networks for sharing – check things out.

– Facebook Ads: you can do all kinds of research with this tool without even spending any money. You can pull demographic information – see if Facebook is a place where your customers are – search by age, proximity, and keywords!

– search.twitter.com: search keywords and potential hashtags before you create an account. Check out what other competitors are sharing and how they are using the social network to find out how to learn from them and also get creative ways to share your information and services.

– LinkedIn Groups: Find some groups on LinkedIn that are related to your industry or your specialty. These can often turn into great referral networks and can also lead to professional training/education.

Pro Tip: Listening first is always a great way to approach social media, especially when you first get started – learn from other businesses mistakes and glean ideas on what’s working and what’s just not worth your time.

Don’t be THAT person.• Your efforts on social media should be about building relationships that lead

to sales not just pitching products and services. • Don’t just post things that you find interesting as the expert. Post things that

your customers need and are looking for.• Use the tools properly. For example, don’t got #hashtag crazy on Facebook.

Don’t post about your lunch box on LinkedIn. Don’t write paragraphs in status updates. etc.

• After you get out there and have shared lots of content- look at your insights, look at the traffic to your website. Are you seeing results? Are people engaging with you? If not, make sure the posts you are doing are providing value and not just a bunch of noise that’s getting looked over.

• Don’t spam your competitors or your customers pages and profiles with links.

Pro Tip: If you would not do or say this to a person at a networking event then don’t do or say it online. Remember, it’s about social etiquette. The basics.

Do have fun & don’t get discouraged!

Questions?