Social Media Marketing For Dummies

Shiv Singh is the Chief Marketing Officer at Eargo Inc. He was formerly an SVP of Marketing at Visa Inc. and prior to that was the Global Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages. He is a leading voice in social media marketing. Stephanie Diamond is president of Digital Media Works, a firm offering e-commerce and branding assistance to businesses. She is also the author of Content Marketing Strategies For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Social Media Marketing 5

Chapter 1: Understanding Social Media Marketing 7

Defining Social Media Marketing 8

Learning about the Roles People Play 9

Changing roles of the social media marketer 10

Understanding the role of the influencer 12

Considering the types of influencers 14

Influencing on digital platforms 16

Comparing Social Media Marketing with Other Marketing Efforts 18

Direct mail 18

Public relations 19

Online advertising 20

Promotions 22

Taking Social Influence Beyond Marketing 23

Using social influencers to mobilize 24

Marketers as better corporate citizens 25

Social graphs for social change 27

Chapter 2: Discovering Your SMM Competitors 29

Classifying Consumer Activities 30

Researching Your Customers’ Online Activities 34

Identifying Personas 38

Analyzing Competitor Efforts 40

Setting up Google Alerts 41

Setting up Twitter alerts 43

Monitoring social networks 44

Tracking competitor websites 44

Researching Your Competitors’ Campaign Support 44

Conducting qualitative research 44

Running surveys and quantitative research 45

Seeing why all consumers are not created equal 46

Dipping into Hot SMM Concepts 48

Discovering gamification 48

Choosing localized marketing 49

Creating an app for that 49

Chapter 3: Getting in the Social Media Marketing Frame of Mind 51

Putting SMM in the Context of the Marketing Funnel 52

SMM at the awareness stage 53

SMM at the consideration stage 56

SMM at the preference stage 59

SMM at the action stage 60

SMM at the loyalty stage 61

Deepening Your SMM Relationship 63

SMM for customer service 63

SMM with offline marketing 65

SMM in the world of real-time marketing 66

Treating SMM Differently from Brand Marketing 68

SMM in the context of brand marketing 68

SMM in the context of direct-response marketing 69

Tying SMM with brand marketing and direct response 70

Part 2: Practicing SMM on the Social Web 71

Chapter 4: Launching SMM Campaigns 73

Discovering the Types of SMM Campaigns 73

Influencer outreach 74

UGC contests 75

Brand utilities 76

Podcasting 77

Sponsored conversations 77

Recognizing What Makes a Good SMM Campaign 78

Creating Your SMM Roadmap 79

Define your objectives 80

Develop a powerful story/experience 80

Create an action plan 81

Craft the content path 82

Execute for influence 83

Create partnerships 83

Track the results 84

Participating — Four Rules of the Game 85

Be authentic 85

Give participants equal status 88

Let go of the campaign 88

Killing the Campaign Expiry Date 88

Monitoring Brands and Conversations 91

Responding to Criticism 92

Chapter 5: Developing Your SMM Voice 95

Figuring Out Why You Need an SMM Voice 96

Defining SMM Voice Characteristics 97

Multiple and authentic 97

Transparent and easy to find 97

Engaging and conversational 98

Social web savvy 98

Unique to the person 98

Distinguishing Between SMM Voices and Brand Voices 99

Outlining SMM Voice Objectives 100

Choosing the Owner of Your Organization’s SMM Voice 102

CEO 103

CMO 104

Social media lead 105

PR manager 105

Agency 106

Other external voices 107

Crowdsourcing SMM Voices with Guidelines 107

Chapter 6: Understanding a Marketer’s Responsibilities 111

Recognizing Who You Serve 112

Employees 112

Suppliers 113

Communities 113

Shareholders 113

Practicing Socially Responsible Marketing 114

A commitment to the truth 114

Five ways to encourage truthfulness 115

Accountability to Your Own Company 116

Part 3: Reaching Your Audience Via Mainstream Social Platforms 119

Chapter 7: Finding the Right Platforms 121

Choosing Social Media Platforms 122

Learning about your customers 123

Addressing your industry influence 125

Preparing Your Employees for Social Media Networking 126

Evaluating Your Resources 127

Assessing What Each Social Network Offers You 129

Using platforms as audience research tools 130

Getting niche-savvy 132

Chapter 8: Exploring SMM Strategies for Facebook 135

Looking at Facebook Basics 136

Starting with Search 138

Facebook pages 139

Facebook groups 140

Facebook events 141

Facebook applications 142

Login with Facebook 143

Using Ads on Facebook 144

Sponsored stories 145

Other advertising formats 145

Chapter 9: Marketing on Twitter 147

Figuring Out the Basics of Twitter 148

A Twitter handle 149

Searches 150

Responses 151

Following and followers 151

Marketing via Twitter 152

Using Promoted Accounts 153

Making Use of Promoted Tweets 154

Using Promoted Trends 157

Working with Sponsored Tweets 158

Tips and Tricks 159

Chapter 10: Creating a YouTube Strategy 161

Looking at YouTube Basics 162

Benefitting from SMM marketing on YouTube 162

Attracting subscribers 163

Promoting on YouTube 164

Always create a customized channel 164

Creating custom content for YouTube 165

Tagging and categorizing all your clips 166

Leaving video responses 166

Including a call to action 167

Have some fun, too 168

Seeding a Viral Campaign 168

Advertising on YouTube 171

Chapter 11: Considering LinkedIn 173

Getting Started 174

Creating a New Profile 176

Preparing a content strategy 177

Covering what matters first 178

Accessing LinkedIn from your mobile devices 180

Finding connections 180

Choosing to advertise 180

Participating in Groups 183

Benefitting from joining groups 183

Starting your own group 184

Leading a successful group 185

Using LinkedIn to Answer Questions 186

Finding a Job 187

Chapter 12: Delving into Instagram 191

Recognizing the Basics 192

Signing up 192

Sharing photos or videos for the first time 193

Using filters 195

Getting Found on Instagram 196

Structuring Instagram for Business Goals 197

Creating content for your business 197

Curating and sharing 199

Using tools to manage your account from your computer 201

Chapter 13: Discovering Snapchat 203

Exploring Snapchat 204

Looking at Snapchat’s unique features 204

Getting to know the Snapchat user 205

Advertising on Snapchat 206

Choosing an objective and format 206

Reaching your customers on Snapchat 208

Measuring Results on Snapchat 208

Chapter 14: Marketing with Pinterest 211

Recognizing Pinterest Users 212

Exploring the interests of users 213

Pinning as a social activity 214

Focusing on Strategy 214

Becoming a Business Pinner 215

Setting up your profile 216

Starting a group board 218

Creating secret boards 220

Developing Credibility with Your Boards and Images 220

Drilling down with Guided Search 223

Experimenting with promoted pins 224

Tracking your results 224

Chapter 15: Interacting with Tumblr 227

Setting Up Shop on Tumblr 227

Finding and Sharing the Good Stuff 230

Using your dashboard 232

Observing other blog successes 238

Looking at Paid Media 239

Tracking Your Users 240

Chapter 16: Engaging Customers Using Other Platforms 241

Blogging on Medium for Your Business 241

Looking at the pros and cons 243

Making a choice 244

Utilizing analytics 245

Delving into Medium content 245

Discussing Ideas On Redditcom 248

Marketing on Reddit 248

Setting up 249

Knowing the lingo 249

Analyzing content 250

Sharing Video on TikTok 252

Getting in on the action 252

Experimenting with TikTok 252

Part 4: Getting Your Message to Connectors 255

Chapter 17: Marketing to Millennials 257

Learning About Millennials 257

Technically savvy 258

Seek a balanced life 258

Follow influencers 258

Look for recognition and feedback 259

Prefer to share or barter 259

Understanding What Millennials Want from Brands 260

Trustworthiness and authenticity 260

Cause-minded attitude 261

Respectful of privacy concerns 261

Open to collaboration with customers 262

Recognizing Millennials Shopping Habits 262

Succeeding with Millennials 264

Hitting the target 264

Appreciating the convenience of subscription services 265

Chapter 18: Accounting for the Influencers 267

Knowing the Expert Influencers 268

Reaching the Expert Influencers 270

Tapping into the Referent Influencers 272

Anonymous referent influencers 273

Known referent influencers 273

Reaching the Referent Influencers 273

Cookie data 274

Website behavior 274

Tapping into the Positional Influencers 275

Understanding the circles of influence around your customers 276

Letting consumers shape and share the experience 276

Articulating your product benefits for multiple audiences 276

Fishing where the fish are 276

Offering friends and family incentives 277

Translating Influence to the Offline World 278

Putting your customer reviews in your stores 278

Marrying social media marketing with events and PR 278

Measuring online buzz and offline influence 279

Connecting influencers at meet-ups 279

Treating your stores as cafés 280

Putting Twitter on the big screen 280

Chapter 19: Disrupting with Voice Search 281

Understanding Voice Search 281

Benefitting from voice searches 282

Reviewing smart speakers 282

Interacting with Voice Assistants 283

Discovering What Customers Want 284

Providing Answers 284

Creating flash briefings and Actions 285

Looking at brand examples 285

Developing your apps 286

Getting Your Content Ready 288

Chapter 20: Utilizing Messaging Apps 291

Looking at Messenger 291

Reviewing benefits for brands 292

Learning what users want when messaging brands 292

Setting Up Messenger 294

Understanding Chatbots 295

Classifying chatbots 295

Dipping into chatbots 296

Deploying WhatsApp from Facebook 298

Communicating with users 299

Creating mobile messages with WhatsApp 299

Using the WhatsApp Business App 300

Part 5: Old Marketing Is New Again with SMM 301

Chapter 21: Practicing SMM on Your Website 303

Focusing on the SMM-Integrated Website 304

Making the Campaign and the Website Work Together 305

Treating your website as a hub, not a destination 305

Linking prominently to your presence on social platforms 306

Promoting campaigns on your website home page 307

Encouraging deeper interaction through your website 308

Asking customers to give you feedback on your content 309

Rethinking Your Website 309

User experience 309

Simple design 309

Conversational user interface (CUI) 310

Content marketing 310

Customer reviews 311

About Us and Contact Us pages 313

Tips and Tricks for Website SMM 315

Aggregate information for your customer’s journey 315

Amplify business stories 315

Align your organization into multiple, authentic voices 316

Apply share buttons 316

Chapter 22: Becoming an Authentic and Engaged Advertiser 317

Social Advertising: An Online Advertising Game Changer 317

Native Advertising and How It Can Work for You 319

Emotional 320

Engaging 321

Simple 321

Making Paid and Earned Media Work Together 322

Working harder to gain attention 322

Making paid media jump-start earned media initiatives 323

Tips and tricks for campaigns 325

Making SMM Work with TV 327

Awareness through TV; engagement via the Internet 327

Awareness, engagement, and conversion with television 328

Measuring the effectiveness of TV and the second screen 329

Chapter 23: Building an SMM Mobile Campaign 331

Looking at Consumer Trends in Mobile 332

A telephone and much more 332

The release and adoption of smarter phones 333

Understanding the Many Paths within the Mobile Channel 335

Keeping in Mind Mobile Phone Capabilities 337

It’s a snap: Using the camera 338

Location, location, location 338

Near-field communications and RFID 339

Phone interaction 339

Fitting Mobile into Your Social Media Practices 340

Defining mobile marketing and its place within the social media context 341

Uniting mobile marketing with social media 342

Supporting a cause 343

Building Your Own Mobile-Enabled Communities 345

Leveraging existing online communities 345

Creating your own social offerings: applications and widgets galore 346

Adding Social Media Elements to Mobile 347

Portable social graphs 347

Searching with mobile 347

Harnessing Mobile to Support Social Media 349

Deciding When to Build a Mobile App 350

Chapter 24: Encouraging Employees to Advocate for Your Brand on Social Media 353

Embracing the Idea of Employee Collaboration 354

Rewarding teams 355

Treating everyone equally 355

Trusting your employees 355

Creating the right culture 356

Placing a premium on groups with a purpose 356

Avoiding excessive snooping 356

Picking Social Software for Social Influence 357

Rethinking the Intranet 359

Getting rid of the buzzwords 359

Don’t try to control too much 360

Surfacing the connections 360

Taking search social 360

Allowing alternative access 361

Promoting the value of historical record 361

Giving your intranet a pulse 361

Aiming to destructure 362

Giving employees other choices 363

Chapter 25: Changing Tactics and Metrics 365

Correlating Data with Business Objectives 366

Focusing on the Tactics That Count 367

Rethinking the Customer Experience 368

Personalizing the CX 368

Measuring your customer experience 370

Analyzing the customer journey 371

Integrating Marketing Technology with Analytics Systems 372

Facing data problems 372

Preparing your data 373

Deploying AI Tools 374

Chapter 26: Understanding Social Media Governance 375

Recognizing How SMM Impacts Other Company Functions 375

Public relations 376

Customer support 377

Sales 377

Legal 378

Introducing Social Media Governance Models 378

Social media policies and guidelines 380

Tips and tricks for social media governance 381

Dealing with a Social Media Crisis 382

Chapter 27: Using Real-Time Marketing 385

Introducing Real-Time Marketing 385

Real-time insights 386

Real-time response 387

Real-time “on the fly” 388

Real-time co-creation 388

Real-time distribution 389

Real-time engagement 390

Organizing for Real-Time Marketing 391

Taking TV into Real-Time Marketing 393

Chapter 28: Data and Privacy 395

Knowing What Data You Have to Play With 395

Harnessing Data & Privacy Best Practices 397

Understanding New Data and Privacy Laws 398

General Data Protection Regulation 398

California Consumer Privacy Act 399

So What Does This All Mean for Your Marketing Effort? 400

Part 6: The Part of Tens 401

Chapter 29: Ten SMM-Related Must-Read Blogs 403

Brian Solis 403

Content Marketing Institute 404

Convince and Convert 404

Copyblogger 404

Marketing Profs 404

Neil Patel’s Blog 405

Razor Social 405

Seth Godin 405

Shiv Singh 405

Social Media Examiner 406

Chapter 30: Ten Top SMM Tools 407

Buffer 407

BuzzSumo 408

Facebook Insights 408

Followerwonk 408

Hootsuite 408

Later 409

Mention 409

SproutSocial 409

Tailwind 410

Tweepi 410

Chapter 31: Ten Tips to Navigate Fakeness 411

Create Shared, Mutual Goals 412

Use Reflection to Override Bias 412

Engage Openly with Dissent 412

Challenge Opinion and Ask for Facts 412

Encourage Those Who Don’t Conform 413

Ask Yourself “What if the Opposite Was True” 413

Engage in Active, Critical Analysis 413

Question Morally Dubious Directives 414

Seek Out Allies 414

Focus on Building Trust First 414

Index 415