Best Practices in Social Media for the Communications Professional

Instructor: Erik Deutsch (@erikdeutsch)#SocMedUCLA

Meeting 2 (April 15): Traditional vs. Social Media Paid, Earned, Shared & Owned Can/Should Social Media Supplant Traditional Websites ROI, KPIs and Measuring Success Developing a Social Media “Playbook” Final Project Template – The Social Media Plan Outline Guest speaker: Clint Schaff (@ClintSchaff) Senior Marketing Exec., Educator and Entrepreneur

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Heads Up -- Twitter Chat Tomorrow (4/13) with PRSA New Professionals re. PR/Social Media Toolbox

“Traditional” Media

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New Media

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TRADITIONAL

Traditional vs. Social MediaSOCIAL

Broadcast

Expensive Infrastructure

One-Way (Publisher to Consumer)Letter to the Editor/Public Access TV - C’mon!

Next-day water cooler discussion

No barriers - Free tools online

Narrowcast (Niche) / Targeted

Two-Way/Multidirectional (interactive dialogue)

Immediate opportunity to share/go viral

Professional journalists (gatekeepers) User Generated Content (UGC)

Editorial process/oversight

Editorial is distinct from advertising

Anything goes

Anything goes

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Traditional display/banner advertising Native advertising (promoted Tweets, sponsored FB and blog posts, etc.) SEM (e.g., AdWords) Promotions

MediaBloggersInfluencers

Social Networking Sites, Apps, Forums, etc.WOM (word-of-mouth)

Website/Blog and syndicated branded content

PAID

EARNED

SHARED

OWNED

The New Landscape – “PESO”

Know and understand the vocabulary – Paid, Earned, Shared & Owned

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Advantages of Using FB as Your

Primary Online Hub• Easy set up and maintenance• Quickly upload all types of information• Inherently viral platform• People login EVERY DAY!• 1 BILLION strong (“fish where the fish are”)

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Disadvantages of Using FB as Your

Primary Online Hub• Facebook is always changing

• Ownership -- they control access and can change the rules

• Provides limited SEO benefit

• Doesn’t provide fan contact information

• Not everyone is on Facebook (though fan pages are public)

• Facebook is now a paid platform – Reach<2.5%, click through rate = 0.14% for “big” pages

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But How Can You Measure this Stuff???

• Awareness - Website visitors, page views, fans/followers (tangible metrics)

• Engagement - Comments (blog, Facebook), retweets, time spent on site

• Influence - Third-party mentions, inbound links• Action - Conversions, sign-ups, downloads,

purchases

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Even More Important than “Followers” -

KPIs for Content Marketing• Reach/Impressions – # of individuals who saw your content

• Clickthrus – # of times someone used a link you posted

• Unique Visitors –# of distinct individuals visiting your website

• Page Views – # of times a user visited a particular page on your website

• Time on Page/Site – length of time spent on your page or website

• Bounce Rate – % of visitors who leave your site after viewing just one page

• Comments – # of responses submitted regarding your content

• Downloads – # of times your content was downloaded

• Conversions – # of times a user responded to your call to action.

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Social Media Plan Outline: The Template

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

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• Ask yourself “why?” – then ask it again• Tied to core (bottom line) objectives• Be specific

Vague Goals: Increase awareness, enhance image, promote products/services

Specific Goals: Drive website traffic and attract new customers, engage with current/prospective customers and generate sales, expand company’s leads database

Goals

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• Tied directly to your Goals.

• Don’t be vague: • Think beyond “customers/donors” and “the public at large”• B2B and/or B2C markets• Demographic, deographic,

psychographic, behavioristic, etc.• Basic demographics include age, gender,

income, profession, education, family size, homeowner, marital status, etc.

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Target Audiences

Strategy:

Plan of action designed to achieve a goal or solve a problem (derived from the Greek word for leading an army).

Tactic:

Means by which a strategy is carried out – the specific action item (derived from the Greek word for arranging or ordering)

Strategies & Tactics

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Strategies vs. TacticsStrategy = General Plan of Action

e.g., Divide & Conquer

Tactics = Specific Actions to Carry Out Strategy

e.g., Gather intelligence, destroy enemy communications,

ground invasion, etc.

Or put another way...

A strategy is an idea or conceptualization of how a goal will be achieved.

A tactic is an action to execute the strategy.

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Goal: Turn the tide and increase sales of baking soda

Strategy: Introduce new uses for baking soda

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)

Strategies vs. Tactics

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Instructor: Erik Deutsch (@ErikDeutsch)

#SocMedUCLA

Best Practices in Social Media for the Communications Professional

Meeting 2 (April 12):Guest speaker:

Clint Schaff (@ClintSchaff)Sr. Marketing Exec., Educator & Entrepreneur

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