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SOCIAL
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MEDIA & TACTICS
prnewsonline.com Vol. 1
Social
Media
Strategies & Tactics
Vol. 1
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Foreword
bgreene@accessintel.com
Graphic Designer, Yelena Shamis
yshamis@accessintel.com
Group Editor, Matthew Schwartz
mschwartz@accessintel.com
Editorial Director/Events, Steve Goldstein
Dear reader:
sgoldstein@accessintel.com
Group Content Manager, Richard Brownell To call social media revolutionary would be a drastic understatement. Only
Rbrownell@accessintel.com
Director of Market Development, Laurie M. a little more than a decade since the first Facebook account, social networks
Hofmann, lhofmann@accessintel.com have become so ingrained in daily life that imagining a world without
VP of Marketing, Amy Jefferies
ajefferies@accessintel.com them is about as dicult as imagining a world before the light bulb or
Senior Marketing Manager, Laura Snitkovskiy
lsnitkovskiy@accessintel.com
automobile.
Marketing Coordinator, Rachel Scharmann
rscharmann@accessintel.com Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and others have
SVP/Group Publisher, Diane Schwartz
dschwartz@accessintel.com transformed the way we communicate, both in our personal lives and at
President & CEO, Don Pazour work. In the field of public relations, widespread adoption of social media
Chief Operating Officer, Heather Farley
kicked off a renaissance of sorts, providing new ways for brands and
PR News Advisory Board
Paul A. Argenti Tuck School of Business
organizations to engage directly with their audiences.
Ned Barnett Barnett Marketing Communications
Mary Buhay Gibbs & Soell As these tools have rapidly evolved, they have created both new
Steve Cody Peppercomm
Neal Cohen APCO
opportunities and new headaches for professional communicators.
Carol Cone Edelman Reaching an interested audience with a tailored message in real-time has
Peter Debreceny Gagen MacDonald
Christopher L. Hammond Wells Fargo never been easier, and brands and organizations that have found their sweet
Mike Herman Communication Sciences spot are reaping tremendous benefits from their social media presence. But,
Laura Kane Marsh
Ken Makovsky Makovsky with all of this connectivity have come some serious issues, especially in
Michael McDougall McDougall Communications
Larry Parnell George Washington University
crisis and reputation management. Crises that once moved at the speed of
Mike Paul Reputation Doctor LLC newsprint now move at the speed of fiber-optic cables. An ill-advised tweet
Deborah Radman - Senior PR Consultant
Brenda C. Siler Communications Director AARP D.C.
can bring down a once-sterling reputation in a matter of hours or minutes.
Stephanie Smirnov - Edelman
Helene Solomon Solomon McCown & Co. PR professionals are reminded every day how much the digital space
Doug Spong SPONG
Cheryl Walsh FIRST is changing the industry, and many questions remain. How can social
Mark Weiner PRIME Research networks best be put to use? Whats the best way to engage with audiences
PR News Board of Contributors
Dave Armon 3BL Media
that have just recently been given a voice? Is this specific network a good
Andy Gilman CommCore Consulting fit for my organization? Are social strategies really working, or are they just
Bruce Jeffries-Fox Jeffries-Fox Associates
Angela Jeffrey Salience Insight
adding to the din and distraction?
Richard Laermer RLM Public Relations
Richard Levick Levick Strategic Comms In this 1st edition of PR News Book of Social Media Strategies & Tactics, the
Ian Lipner Lewis PR/YoungPRpros
Maureen OConnell Cone Communications challenges of planning, executing and measuring successful social media
Katie Paine Paine Publishing LLC campaigns are met with nearly 70 articles covering all the major networks.
John Roderick J. Roderick Inc.
Rodger Roeser The Eisen Agency From agency practitioners and brand managers to academics and tech
Lou Thompson Kalorama Partners
Reid Walker Dir. of Communications, United States Senate
leaders, our contributors bring insights from a variety of sectors to tackle
Tom Martin College of Charleston the problems facing professional communicators in the age of social.
Group Subscriptions - Laurie M. Hofmann,
lhofmann@accessintel.com I want to thank these contributors who so eloquently shared their ideas, tips
Additional Copies & Article Reprints -
Contact Wrights Media, 877-652-5295;
and best practices.
info@wrightsmedia.com
I also want to thank you, our readers, for letting us help you as you learn
new skills, hone existing ones and grow your businesses.
Published weekly by Access Intelligence, LLC
4 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20850
Client Services:
Phone: 888.707.5814 Fax: 301.309.3847
e-mail: clientservices@accessintel.com Brian Greene
New York Editorial Office:
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Phone: 212.621.4890 Fax: 212.621.4879
Chapter 2Facebook.................................................................................................. 45
What Is Facebook All About? A Guide to Effectively Managing Your Page.....................................46
By Gareth Davies
Managing Facebook Criticism: When Should Organizations Engage and How?............................49
By Jim Coll
Reach New Shores of Talent by Showcasing Your Culture and Personality on Facebook...............52
By Amy Rosendahl, Bethany Bell and Chelsea Bennett
5 Steps for Running a Successful Facebook Contest for Your Brand or Business.............................56
By Carly Webber
Optimizing Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Through Facebook Ads....................................60
By Rachel David
Why Paying to Boost All of Your Facebook Posts Is a Fools Errand.................................................64
By Jim Tobin
How to Build Your Brand and Learn About Your Audience Through a Facebook Contest............67
By Lizzie Leasure
Your Channel GPS: Mapping a Channel Plan and Editorial Calendar for Facebook......................69
By Kaley Daniel
Chapter 3Twitter....................................................................................................... 81
Twitter Toolbox: Advice from the City of Austin to Help Your Tweets Take Flight.........................82
By Mariah Ahmed and Madeline Krebs
How Twitter Helped Batkid Save Gotham: 6 Secrets of an Effective Campaign...............................87
By Stefania Pomponi
4 Avoidable Twitter Mistakes that Can Lead to Losing Twitter Followers........................................90
By Marnie Juster
Managing Twitter in Real-Time With Agile Social Marketing Management...................................93
By John Andrews
For Socially Hesitant B2B Companies, Twitter Is the Platform to Start On......................................98
By Julia Bonner
How to Pitch, Be a Source and Build Goodwill with Media in 140 Characters..............................102
By Nancy Marshall
4 Ways to Prepare for the Introduction of the Buy Button on Twitter...........................................106
By Cassandra Bailey
When Patients Talk: The Importance of Twitter in Health Communication..................................108
By Pauline A. Howes
How to Use Hashtags Effectively on Social Media Without Overdoing It.......................................112
By Zach Burrus
1
Measuring and Communicating
Social Media Success
T
racking social media metrics Delivering the brand promise,
is nice. Tying metrics to out- providing a worthwhile
comes is essential. How do you customer experience and
use social media data to pres- increasing engagement are
ent insights that matter to your objectives for which social
organization? This article will show one way media are built and should be
to do that by using a conversion funnel that measured.
maps social media metrics to a customer
experience journey.
To reach a point where we could gain
Why Measuring Social social media insights on a regular basis, we
Media Metrics Is Hard needed to identify and leverage the com-
monalities found among various platforms.
Social media is wildly measurable. You
We needed to create structure. Developing
could easily drown in a sea of metrics, unsure
and applying a structured framework to en-
of what is and isnt important to track over
able the proper tracking of links and con-
time. Its impractical to measure every single
tent types, therefore, became one of our top
thing on your social media accounts, but how
priorities.
do you sort through the data to find metrics
that provide the insights that matter to your
organization? Using a Social Media Conversion
Our team wrestled with this question Funnel to Provide Focus
several times, and we faced challenges an- The need for a structured approach to col-
swering it. Each social media platform has lecting, analyzing and leveraging social media
its own goals, measurement schemes and data led to the creation of a standard, yet agile
intended uses. Each platform reports met- framework of five high-level engagement out-
rics in a slightly different manner due to its comes. Each outcome within the framework
unique data structure and analytics approach. is aligned to goals and strategies that support
Each platform can have distinct intended organizational objectives, adapted for social
outcomes, target audiences and outreach media outreach. The framework is presented
approaches. Finally, often multiple tools are as a five-stage conversion funnel, reflecting
used to capture and report social media data, users deepening level of commitment to your
so numbers may not always line up across social media accounts as they move from be-
programs. It can get messy in a hurry. ing aware of an account to regularly visiting
and engaging with the account. In short, the and increasing engagement are objectives for
funnel aligns to the optimal user journey by which social media are built and should be
following your customers use of your social measured. However, if an organization strives
media assets. to go beyond conversion, the decision to re-
During development, we actually con- order the funnel should not be taken lightly.
sidered using a journey map rather than
a funnel, but we settled on the funnel as a Aligning the Social Media Funnel to
A Smokers Quit Journey
way to couch journey maps in a measurable
framework. By tying key performance indica- The following section briefly describes
tors (KPIs) to these outcomes, youll be able each stage, from awareness through reliance,
to measure and track the effectiveness of your of the conversion funnel through the lens of
accounts over time. the Smokefree Initiative. It provides a model
The five-stage conversion funnel was de- for how the funnel should be conceptualized
veloped by ICF International for the Nation- prior to implementation. When youre using
al Cancer Institutes Smokefree Initiative, a the funnel, we recommend that each stage be
W eb-based intervention to help people quit measured by more than one KPI. The deci-
smoking. Smokefree has an incredibly robust sion to include specific KPIs should be predi-
social media presence, with 14 social media cated on your organization and its goals.
accounts aimed at various populations that 1. Awareness: The awareness stage aims to
reach users who are smokers and are look-
smoke.
ing for more information about quitting.
Since this type of funnel was arranged
We believe that these users exist primarily
specifically for this health behavior change
in two environments: social communities
intervention, the conversion model might be and search engines. Awareness metrics
appropriate as a final step for organizations measure how many people are finding
that aim to have followers purchase items or Smokefree resources. An example KPI for
register for a particular service. A purchase this stage would be organic reach.
or signup does not have to be the end point 2. Consideration: The second stage, con-
for your users. Delivering the brand promise, sideration, is meant to identify users who
providing a worthwhile customer experience have found a Smokefree social media ac-
count and are beginning to interact with
that account, though with little depth. An
example KPI for this stage would be web-
site referrals from social media.
3. Conversion: In most analytics frame-
works, conversion, the third stage of the
funnel, is considered the last step. How-
ever, quitting smoking is an ongoing
process even after the person has smoked
his/her last cigarette. Therefore, KPIs were
chosen that indicate a concrete action to
quit smoking. These actions could also
be categorized as self-help actions. A KPI
Y
ouve successfully pitched your municates your social media marketing suc-
client on integrating social cesses. Answering three questions, however,
media into its big Q1 campaign. will provide the framework you need to give
You know this is where the cli- clients a one-of-a-kind, in-depth integrated
ents target audience lives and communications report that communicates
that integrating your messaging will likely your wins.
lead to an increase in sales, lead generation
and direct impact on overall ROI. This all What Can Social Media Do
sounds amazing to you and your client until For the Bottom Line?
the campaign ends and you find yourself In the simplest terms, social media market-
scrambling to prove this social media thing ing can increase ROI on a campaign, event,
actually worked. etc. This can be achieved by driving traffic to
Believe it or not (if you are in the industry, a website, lead generation through optimized
you probably do believe it), even the most social content or even a dream headline in
successful CMOs still havent completely The New York Times scored through simple
bought into the power and direct impact of Twitter pitching. As the age-old saying goes,
social media marketing. Media Bistro reports the sky is the limit. Its up to you to define and
that about half of the average consumers understand what the business bottom line
media time is spent on digital, while only is to determine how social media will help
30.5 percent of ad dollars are spent there. A achieve that end-goal. In personal experience
Fast Company poll reports that 88 percent of utilizing this tool, our agency, AR|PR, has
750 surveyed marketing professionals didnt been able to increase lead generation for B2B
feel they could accurately measure the ef- clients and score coverage in top-tier publica-
fectiveness of their social media campaigns; tions for B2C clients.
52 percent felt dealing with social media ROI To quote Marshall McLuhan, The me-
was their biggest frustration. dium is the message. This certainly holds
true for social media marketing. Its impor-
tant, though, to know where the target audi-
Traditional public relations is
ence lives in the social media world. Before
not dead. It has just evolved.
you begin, do your research. Understand the
demographics of each platform and how it
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all aligns with your goals. Here are helpful hints
formula that showcases and effectively com- about the most popular networks:
Facebook: Basically everyone (or at least help your brand be perceived as on-trend, but
more than 1 billion) in the world has a will it also lend itself to the traditional pieces
profile. Your brand or organization should of your campaign? Traditional public rela-
probably be there, too. tions is not dead. It has just evolved. Forget-
Twitter: The micro-blog often is used as a ting old school strategies and tactics could be
news-sharing network. the downfall of your social media campaign.
Instagram: The photo-sharing network is Molding your campaign to reflect the overall
growing rapidly and has been adopted by strategy and goals of the business is key.
many B2C companies. Once you fit your social media campaign
Pinterest: While the majority of users are into the bigger picture, you will need to define
women, the male demographic is increas- its scope, objectives and goals. Just as you
ing slowly. This is a visual network would set clear budgets, goals, objectives and
people engage with photos and product expectations for, say, a television commercial,
images. you should set quantifiable metrics for social
Google +: Not a very active social network media marketing. Knowing the measurable
in terms of engagement, but Google is king objectives or analytics of your social media
and this channel can boost SEO. network(s) and how they align with your
LinkedIn: Great B2B marketing tool, sales overarching business goals is a must. These
tool, recruitment and lead generation tool. are the pillars of being able to report success.
If you are a professional and lack a Linke- Understand your competitors social strat-
dIn profile, you should get one. egy. What are they saying and how are they
You need to make certain that the proper saying it on each network? This will help you
tools are in place to properly gather the define a benchmark and also help you under-
clicks, engagements, referrers, etc. once your stand what your consumer likes (or doesnt
campaign is complete. Simply put, have your like) when it comes to social media content.
Google Analytics and a third-party social Moreover, it will become part of the success
platform (e.g. Hootsuite or Sprout Social story once you exceed your competitors vis-
to name a couple) set up correctly to track ible success. That part of the reporting is sure
desired activity to and from the website. Have to impress (a little ego boosting has never
a clear understanding before you launch the hurt anyone).
campaign about how your social media effort
will help achieve these actions. How Do I Define Social Jargon as
It Relates to a Business Goals
How Does Social Media Fit and Objectives?
Within Your Overall Strategy? Customer service on social media in lieu of
Its important to educate and set expecta- call centers can save companies hundreds of
tions during the campaigns planning process. thousands of dollars annually in call-service
Understanding the overall business strategy is salaries. If maintaining the quality of a cus-
key to your social media campaigns success. tomer service program is one of the main
Sure, there are many incredibly fun, cutting- goals of your business, then you cant over-
edge and creative concepts and ideas that may look social media. It should be measured in a
way thats similar to how you would measure Facebook success. There could be other
customer phone calls and email success. points that the user visits before purchas-
Another example is increasing sales. Find ing, and he/she could first become aware
the metrics that enable you to track sales from of your brand or organization via social
social media. Information from an Adobe media.
white paper suggests looking at the first click
attribution and thinking about a customers Twitter
progress in the purchasing cycle as a way to Engagement: Retweets, replies, mentions
assign a value to your social media channels. and favorites of your brands content
While its important to integrate your Steady fan growth: While an increasing
social media goals and objectives into the fan base is a good indicator of success, its
business over-arching plan, its also impor- important not to place too much emphasis
tant to measure the health of each individual on this metric since you also want to make
social network as a standalone medium to sure that users following your page are in
ensure the messages you are pumping out your target audience and will be receptive
are being received by the targeted audiences. to the messaging and marketing initiatives.
Below are a few of the most common metrics Traffic source to website: Due to the fleet-
used to measure success in each social media ing nature of content on Twitter and the
platform. type of content that often is distributed
there, Twitters rank in your traffic can vary
Facebook depending on your industry and goals and
Engagement: Likes, comments, shares and objectives of your Twitter account.
impressions received by each post Direct ROI: If you have an ecommerce
Steady fan growth: While an increasing platform, tracking direct sales from Twit-
fan base is a good indicator of success, its ter is another way to measure success and
important not to place too much emphasis direct ROI. However, remember that direct
on this metric since you also want to make purchase is not the only measure of Twitter
sure that users following your page are in success. There could be other points that
your target audience and will be receptive the user travels to before purchase.
to the messaging and marketing initiatives.
Traffic source to website: This is a great LinkedIn
measurement to understand brand aware- Engagement: Likes, comments and post
book, your traffic should remain high from new recruits from the network? Make sure
Facebook to your site. to always ask where a potential employee,
Direct ROI: If you have an ecommerce customer or client first heard of you. The
platform, tracking direct sales from Face- answer may surprise you.
book is another way to measure success Traffic source to website: While this net-
and direct ROI. However, remember that work does not focus on driving traffic to
direct purchase is just one measure of your site, it could drive to the employment
or product section of your site (if appli- $180 per average checkout, compared to
cable). the average $40-$80 on other social sites.
Pinterest Google+
Engagement: Repins, Likes and comments Since Google created the social media net-
on your original pins work, the way in which its set up allows for
Pins from your website: Pinterests ana-
better communication between the net
lytics dashboard focuses on traffic to and
work and search engine, collecting more
from your website. One feature, pins from
optimized and richer data than other social
your website, reports the number of Pin-
media sites.
terest users who use the pin it tool to pin
nn Posts are crawled and indexed by
images from your website onto Pinterest.
This is a great form of advertising for you Google search immediately.
that is completely out of your hands. To nn Unlike Facebook or Twitter, each post
ensure success with this metric, be certain you make in Google+ has most of the
images on your website actually are pin- characteristics of a full-blown blog
nable and contain the traits of pinnable posting.
images, listed above. nn The social media network enriches
Traffic to your website: A good measure the Google data from users, allowing
of the pins on your board is the amount search engines to be more accurate. In
of traffic from your Pinterest account to other words, Google+ captures data
your website. This can help you tweak your for Google and determines what will
Pinterest strategy as you continue to build
be prominent in searches. prn
a follower base.
Direct ROI: Pinterest is a huge ecommerce
sales tool, with reported spending of $140- Blair Broussard is vice president of AR|PR.