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The Small Business Social Marketing Workbook
Figuring Out Your Goals p3
Surveying the Social Landscape p9
Building Your Social Presence p16
Engaging your Fans with Great Content p22
But many resource-strapped businesses struggle with
social marketing. They’re unfamiliar with the different social
networks, don’t feel they have the time to keep up, or
simply don’t “get” the value of social.
This guide tackles all of these issues. We explore
how to build a social marketing strategy from scratch, the
cost-effective tools available for growing your business,
and how to build lasting, personal relationships with
customers. Let’s get started.
W E L C O M E
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Social media is a big opportunity for small business. More than 1 billion people are sharing, liking, commenting,
and checking in on social networks.
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F I G U R I N G O U T Y O U R G O A L S
“More money!” most
businesses would reply.
Growing your revenue is a solid
goal, but don’t put the cart
before the horse. Reaping the
benefits of social takes smart,
strategic planning.
Start with a simple question: “What do you want to
get out of social marketing?”
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F I G U R I N G O U T Y O U R G O A L S
Success means I’ll:Drive awareness
Make more people aware of my business
Build a big fan base
Foster engagement
Get people to like and share my content
and offers
Get more feedback on my products
and services
Draw more people to my brick-and-
mortar locations
Convert fans
Collect info for my email newsletter
Get more traffic to my site and blog
Give out more coupons and offers
Get business for partners or clients
Drive more purchases online and/or in store
Other:
The goals you have checked
— and there are probably a
few of them — should inform
every step of your strategy.
Get specific. It’s not enough to say you
want to “build a big fan base” or “get more site traffic.”
Numerical goals keep you driven and focused.
Set tangible goals for the next three months. Give
yourself time to play around with different tactics and
explore various social networks. Update your strategy
based on results.
If you need help coming up with figures, look to a
competitor or similar business that’s demonstrated social
savvy. Examine how long it took them to build an audience.
Or set goals based on your performance with other
marketing efforts like print ads, email, or coupons. Adjust
goals based on the budget, resources, and longevity of
the programs.
S E T T I N G Y O U R B E N C H M A R K S
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S E T T I N G Y O U R B E N C H M A R K S
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Use this worksheet to define your metrics for success.
My social marketing budget for the next 3 months is:
$
I will spend number of hours a week on social marketing this quarter.
This quarter, I’ll be successful if I get:
fans and followers
engagement (i.e. likes/shares/retweets/comments on my content)
number of emails/addresses/website visits
(Choose one)
S E T T I N G Y O U R B E N C H M A R K S
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Checklist
Determine overall goals for social media (e.g. driving
awareness of your business, increasing engagement,
converting fans on coupons, deals, sign ups for your
newsletter)
Set numerical targets for your social marketing efforts
Schedule an appropriate amount of time to spend on
social networks
Look at similar businesses’ social presence for
inspiration
Notice we left off new customers and revenue. This
quarter is all about building a base. Hit these targets
and you can start working on conversion.
More on that soon!
S E T T I N G Y O U R B E N C H M A R K S
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Close your eyes and picture your best
customer.
Is it a young mom or a retired veteran?
A crafty millennial or a little league
coach? Does she live just down the
street or halfway across the globe? Is it
a hobby or a lifestyle that draws him in?
Now, what’s your best customer’s
favorite social network?
Your social marketing is built around
your customers’ preferences. Finding
your next “best customer” means
knowing where they hang out.
Jot down a brief description of your
ideal customer, then check out the
next section.
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S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
No two social networks are exactly alike. Don’t get
bogged down by being everywhere all at once.
Start by reviewing the features and audiences of each
channel. We pulled together details on the biggest players.
S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
Popular among:
Adults between years old.
Offerings for business:
Brand pages for businesses, celebrities and other
organizations.
Advertising in the form of sponsored posts, which are
featureed in users’ News Feeds.
Analytics and Insights to measure page, content and
ad performance.
Works best for:
Everyone.
Facebook has the largest audience of consumers out
there, and the most sophisticated offerings for brands.
It’s perfect for building word-of-mouth.
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/business
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1.1 billion Monthly active users
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Popular among:
Adults between year old, urban residents.
Offerings for business:
Brand pages.
Advertising in the form of Promoted Accounts and Promoted
Tweets, which display your tweet above users’ feeds and can
be targeted by location or keyword.
Basic analytics for tracking ad performance and follower count.
Works best for:
Most businesses.
Twitter is extremely active forum with more 500 million tweets
sent per day and is particularly useful for communities focused
on specific interests – like a musical genre, political movement,
or technology.
Learn more: http://businesses.twitter.com
S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
200 million Active users
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S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
Popular among:
Affluent professionals, years old.
Business offerings:
Highly used professional networking and recruiting tools.
Company pages for businesses on LinkedIn.
Ability to join or create groups organized around
professional topics.
Display and video in-network advertising.
Works best for:
Businesses providing products or services to other
businesses.
Businesses trying to reach affluent consumers concerned
with business topics.
Learn more: http://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin/
linkedin-company-pages-1349/product
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218 million Users
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Popular among:
Adult women between years old.
Business offerings:
Pages for businesses on Pinterest.
Analytics tracking behaviors – “pinning” – native to the
social network.
Ads coming soon.
Works best for:
Retailers especially love Pinterest since it provides a
highly visual representation of products.
Lifestyle, fashion, food brands and publications are
particularly active on the platform.
Learn more: http://business.pinterest.com/
S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
48 million Users
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S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
Instagram 100 million users
Popular among:
Adults, urban residents, years old.
Business offerings:
Businesses can create accounts, but not specific pages.
Photos can be tagged with brand’s account.
Works best for:
Visual brands like fashion retailers, sports, and food and
beverage brands.
Businesses attempting to attract a young audience.
Learn more: http://help.instagram.
com/454502981253053/
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100 million Users
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Google+ Google’s social network
gained tens of millions of
users in short order and
quickly added business page
offerings. But engagement is
still relatively light. It’s an
added feature of AdWords
and can be tracked through
Google Analytics.
Tumblr A social blogging platform
with more than 100 million
blogs and 170 million
monthly visitors. Tumblr is
particularly popular among
fashion, food and lifestyle
brands. You can promote
blog posts within the social
network, but advertising is
still being explored.
Foursquare Put the concept of
“checking in” on the map.
Foursquare allows users to
check into different
locations, including
businesses, to earn status.
Businesses can offer
freebies and discounts to
loyal customers.
Yelp
The best friend or bane of
any small business. Users
of the service – “Yelpers” –
offer reviews and ratings of
services of every kind. To
date, there are more than
39 million reviews and
these often show up first in
search results.
S U R V E Y I N G T H E S O C I A L L A N D S C A P E
“With Facebook, you can spend $50 per week and reach thousands of people who fit your targeted demographic.” – Matt Toomey, CEO of LocalGruv
You know your target customers. You identified the social networks where they congregate. Now, it’s
time to start building a social presence.
Start off with a single network. Devote time to learning
some of its ins and outs before taking on too many sites.
Set up a personal account first, not a business page. This
will give you opportunities to see how users and brands
interact, how to contribute, and what kind of content
grabs attention.
Got the hang of it? Great. Then it’s time to create an
account for your business. Specific resources needed will
vary by network. Facebook pages, for instance, are full of
open real estate for branded creative including a cover
photo, as well as tabs for resources and apps.
But there are common pieces for every branded
social account you’ll need to gather.
B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
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On the top of the list:
Your company name and logo.
A brief, clear description of what your business does.
A link to your website and/or your mailing address.
Visuals depicting yourself, your brand, your products and
your people.
Eyeing that low fan or follower count, you’ll be tempted to
immediately share your account. Hold on. First, share
some content. This gives visitors something to look at,
and in the meantime you’ll get the hang of creating posts.
Think small steps. Share photos of yourself, employees or
products, or link to your latest blog post. Focus on content
that’s fun or interesting.
Make sure your content is always relevant to your
business. Kitten pics will attract many likes, shares and
comments. But if you don’t sell pet products, you’re
probably not getting the right kind of attention.
Once you’ve built out your page, feed or board, you
can start sharing it around. We recommend embedding
Like and Follow buttons on your website, posting links
in-store or on print promotions, and using your existing
email list to inform customers. Make following you enticing
with the promise of free giveaways or helpful tips.
B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
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Kick off social campaigns to jumpstart the growth
of your social presence. Promotions and contests are
cost-effective and fun. These can be sweepstakes or
exclusive benefits that encourage people to flock to
your account. Refer-a-friend campaigns, where you
reward current fans for directing friends to your page,
often work best early on.
Just like content, your social promotion should
be “brand relevant.” Giving away an iPad will draw
tons of new “likes”, but if your business doesn’t sell or
service iPads, you’ll see limited value from this
newfound audience. Consider prizes that would cause
your ideal customer to drool, even if it draws a small
crowd.
You may choose to buy advertising, targeting to
a particular niche audience based on interests,
location, demographic data or even profession. Better
to have your ads supporting a high-value post or
running campaign than just a static ad pointing to your
page.
Bottom line: Your social marketing should be
consistent, fun and rewarding.
B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
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B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
Taking your social strategy to the next level requires more
than posts and ads. Businesses that want to gain new
fans, keep them engaged, and turn them into actual
customers use social campaigns as their primary method.
Here are five of the most popular campaign types.
Popular Social Campaigns
ReferralSimple and smart, a Referral campaign takes classic word-of-mouth marketing and adds the viral power of social. Offer fans an entry for a sweet prize – maybe your product or access to a special event – for every friend they successfully refer to your brand page.
Photo ContestStriking visuals drive these campaigns. Fans submit and vote for their favorite photos in user-generated contests across the major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Turn on Facebook Open Graph actions, and every time someone votes or submits a photo it shows up in their friends’ feeds, dramatically boosting virality.
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B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
Look BookThese campaigns send direct traffic to your products. Showcase a collection of your products with a Facebook slideshow, including direct links back to the product page. Tracking automatically keeps tabs on when fans click through to purchase.
Sign UpHere’s a low-barrier way to collect customer data. Provide fans a special offer or a sweepstakes entry in exchange for filling out a custom form. Ask for any data you’d like, including an email address.
OfferUse a giveaway, discount or an offer in exchange for following you on Twitter and tweeting a hashtag of your choice. It leads customers back to your business while spreading the word among their social network.
Checklist Choose one social network
to start building a presence on. Create a personal account (if you haven’t already) before launching a business account
Gather all the materials you’ll need to launch a business account (logo, description, website link, product visuals, etc.), then create it
Post brand-relevant content to your social account
B U I L D I N G Y O U R S O C I A L P R E S E N C E
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Share your business account through email, in-store signage, on your website, etc
Explore social promotions for your account such as a giveaway, coupon or product-driven slide show
Purchase a social ad that drives to really relevant post or promotion. Keep track of the results
Content is the backbone of social. It keeps fans
coming back and brings new fans into the fold.
Relax. You don’t need to be a professional scribe.
Use these easy tips to create intriguing, shareable posts
and campaigns.
Educate your Audience
Share your expert tips on
relevant subject matters
— diets, cars, etc.
Repost articles from third-
party resources — just be
sure to
credit them!
Post your fast takes on
breaking industry news.
E N G A G I N G Y O U R F A N S W I T H G R E A T
C O N T E N T
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BareMinerals shares beauty tips to keep fans engaged on Facebook.
Make it Personal
Keep your tone friendly!
There’s no need to be
formal on social.
Post fun photos and
videos of employees and
customers.
Share interesting content
about your space, not just
your brand.
Spark a Dialogue
Ask your fans to answer
industry trivia or share
their favorite tips.
Prompt fan sharing by
running photo contests
for relevant prizes.
Ask fans to take
lightweight actions like
commenting or sharing
posts.
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C O N T E N T
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Mabel’s Labels knows parents are their primary audience. They ask fun, relevant questions to start conversations.
Jawbreaker, a fashion brand, is direct with followers asking them to tweet, follow, and buy!
So you built a fan base that loves your content. Time to
start working towards those revenue goals.
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This requires getting fans to take that next step — visiting
your website, signing up for your email list, or coming into
your store.
There are many tactics that can help, but here’s a sampling
to inspire you.
Buy social ads about your latest deals and target your
fans and their friends.
Include newsletter opt-ins on your sweepstakes entry forms.
Share coupons or vouchers to be redeemed in-store
or online.
T U R N I N G F A N S I N T O C U S T O M E R S
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We started on Facebook with a giveaway for a wedding at our hotel, and it was a big success. After that, we kept up momentum with frequent campaigns and interesting, visual posts. We’re now at 44,000 fans. We usually spend about $20k in advertising around Christmas, but we decided to devote all our resources to social marketing campaigns instead. At 20% of the cost, we got a nearly 20% increase in sales. – Ronan McAuley, Owner, Glenside Hotel, Dublin Ireland
It’s ok to sell now and then. Promote your seasonal deals
and campaigns.
Offer discounts to customers who are also fans.
Give away product samples to fans that give you their
mailing address.
Whatever you do, measure it. You won’t know what
works unless you track its progress.
TUETHU
Schedule Posts & Write Down Content Ideas 30 Minutes
The beginning of the week is a great time to jot down
some ideas for a blog post or email newsletter, which feeds
your presence on social channels. You’ll also want to
schedule some posts for your social network of choice.
(I prefer Facebook.) That way, you’re not bogged down
later in the week.
S C H E D U L I N G Y O U R W E E K I N S O C I A L
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MON
WED
Start small by making social part of your weekly routine.
Scheduling tasks will put you in a social marketing
mindset, and keep you from feeling inundated.
We turned to Matt Toomey, the owner of the California-
based local deals site, LocalGruv, to break down a sample
week in social marketing for the small business.
MON
TUE
S C H E D U L I N G Y O U R W E E K I N S O C I A L
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Buy Social Ads 30 Minutes
Learning the ins and outs of advertising on social
networks like Facebook and Twitter takes time. But it’s
worth the effort. Small businesses like mine want to reach
customers with relevant content that’s local. That typically
means within 25 miles of our front door. You can do this by
putting a small amount of ad money against your most
compelling posts – usually these will be contests or
promotions you’re running – and then targeting them to
local consumers in your town or region.
WED
Launch a Social Promotion or Contest 40 Minutes
One of great promises of social is the ability to put
really relevant offers directly in front of customers. Maybe
it’s a contest where fans submit photos or video in order to
win a prize. Or it could be a coupon or sample customers
can redeem. I run about one to two promotions per month
– just enough to keep engagement flowing without
overwhelming your audience. I recommend using a
professional social campaign platform so you stay on the
right side of Facebook and Twitter’s guidelines.
TUE
S C H E D U L I N G Y O U R W E E K I N S O C I A L
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Capture Visuals for Your Business 20 Minutes
Photos, videos, Vines…these are the new currency of
social networking. Make time to capture highly visuals you
can share on the channels you frequent: Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Snap a clean pic of your latest
display or upload a video featuring one of your favorite
customers. The point is to block time off to get this
content, rather than waiting for inspiration to strike.
THU
FRI Post Local Content from Other
Sources 25 Minutes What’s happening in your neighborhood? Or even your
industry? You don’t want every post on Facebook or
Twitter to be about just you. Suggest some intriguing
articles about what’s going on in your business, or post an
article about local news. I once posted about a local
Chipotle opening in town and it garnered 150 comments in
a few hours.
FRI
SUN
S C H E D U L I N G Y O U R W E E K I N S O C I A L
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Gather Results 30 Minutes
Learn from your work. The best way to do this is to
look over results on a weekly basis. Chart your fan growth
and engagement. Track the results – coupon redemptions,
new “likes” or shares, discounts claimed, emails collected,
etc. – from any social campaigns you run. Catalog your ads
and posts, and see which drive the most action. A small
amount of time to examine what’s working and what’s not
will help improve your social marketing over time.
SUN
Write that Content! 35 Minutes
Remember those notes you jotted down? Now is the
time to put them into action. Take a little time to write a
blog post or to draft an email for your distribution list. Let
customers know about new products, campaigns you’re
running on social, and update them on any important
news. Remember, it’s not just about promotion. Inject your
personality. Save your draft and publish the next week.
Then add bite-size versions to your social feeds.
SAT
SUN
S C H E D U L I N G Y O U R W E E K I N S O C I A L
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Don’t get overwhelmed. Successful social marketing strategies aren’t built over night. It takes time.But if you keep at it – providing content, promotions and
ads that are relevant and consistent – you’ll grow an
audience of avid fans. With a smart process in place, and a
small amount of time and dollars, social media can be a
reliable source of new and continued revenue for your
small business.
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R E S O U R C E S
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