Post on 12-Sep-2020
Social Media Planning – Pt1ROSS HEWITTSECRET PIE
Obligatory Background Slide
• In my 19th year of internet marketing
• A career that veers wildly from financial services to ad agency to nursery industry
• Set up Secret Pie on March 1st 2010
• Over 7 years of digital marketing consultancy for big brands & SMEs alike
• Author of Savvy Social Media business book
Some of my clients (Past & Present)
Key Steps to Social Media Success
o Be Honest & Realistic
o Choose Your Platforms Accordingly
o Assign Responsibilities Carefully
o Get Your House In Order
o Create A Content Plan
“Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”
Abraham Lincoln(I think he tweeted it?)
Be Honest & Realistic
o How much time can you and your business spend on social media activity?
o Take some time to look back at all of your accounts over the last 6 months
o Is it a journey of consistency & quality right the way through?
o A badly maintained social media account is ‘anti-marketing’!
o I estimate you need around 3 hours minimum, per platform, per week
o So, can you carry on as you are…or does it need stripping back a bit?
o Do you need to delegate or pay for external help?
Choose Your Platforms Accordingly
Let’s look at the ‘Big Three’ services:
o Facebook
o Instagram
o Twitter
Facebooko Facebook now has over 2 billion users worldwide…
o …Zzzzzz…so what?
o Shrink the world to your doorstep & then apply the audience maths:
- Around 40% of the UK logs into facebook each day- There are 275,000 people in your city/area of operation- 40% x 275,000 = 110,000- 110,000 people on your doorstep use Facebook every day!
o Facebook is hard to ignore as a business
o Setting up a page and posting content to it is still free
o Videos, photo galleries, long posts, short posts, adverts, weblinks, sharing, tagging…oh my!
o Supported by very good mobile apps – 1 for consumers and 1 for business page owners
Instagramo The rising star…gone from 100m users to 700m in the last 4 years
o 90% of users are under 35 years of age & 80% of users are OUTSIDE of the USA
o Over 60% of users login daily – 2nd only to Facebook
o 50% of all users follow brands – this is the highest % of any social network
o Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than on Facebook…
o Over 30% of internet users are on Instagram
o Mainly driven by images, square images preferably
o Can upload video, maximum of 1 minute in length
o Hashtags are crucial for getting found – maximum of 30 per post
Twittero Twitter is tailing off…only added just over 100m users in last 4 years – now at 328m active users
o Fairly agnostic service in that pretty much any type of business could use it
o A limited service due to 140 characters, but can do quite a bit with that
o Links to webpages or blog posts, can upload 140 seconds of video and images
o Twitter integrates very well with websites, especially Wordpress – easy to build a newsfeed!
o Use hashtags sparingly…don’t get hung up on Trends!
o Easy to manage on the go as the Twitter app is actually very excellent
o Twitter is the little speedboat of social media…
The Social Media TriangleConsider where & how your business needs to create content to get the best attention from your intended audience
Also consider and identify WHO your target audience or customer is…then you can try to work out how they behave online
Don’t waste time doing things just because you ‘like’ doing them…do things because it promotes your business to the right people!
Assign Responsibilities Carefullyo Think about who is controlling your social media at the moment…
o If it is an employee then can they quit and lock you out?
o How secure are you & they keeping your accounts?
o Is someone looking after Facebook just because they are younger than you???
o Are there any rules of engagement? Is there a ‘tone of voice’?
o Are they properly trained in all aspects of the platform(s) they are using?
o Do you have any idea what they will be posting for you tomorrow, or the next day?
o Social Media is not a toy…it’s a serious business channel (that you can have fun with)
Get Your House In Ordero Housekeeping comes before endeavour!
o Tidy everything up before you reach out to new audiences and start new activity
o Think outside of social media with your housekeeping…
o How is the website looking?
o If you have a blog when was the last post?
o Are you promoting social media accounts wherever possible or relevant?
o Email signatures, vehicles, print adverts, store windows, flyers, business cards, uniforms etc
o Social Media helps most things but replaces nothing…marketing is an online & offline system
Mind The Gapo Evaluate the skills you have in-house…is everything you need in place?
o A basic example – can you crop or resize an image and add text to it?
o Can you create ‘on-brand’ & captivating images to decorate your accounts?
o Can you take great photos…might be useful for Instagram or Pinterest (!)
o Can you create and edit videos in-house?
o Do you have someone who can write articles or copy, well & quickly?
o If you are doing all of this yourself then I stress again…Be honest & realistic!
Some Online Helpers!
o I recommend Buffer for scheduling your posts…it’s either FREE or very low cost
Some Online Helpers!
Biteable.com - $99 for 12 months; easy to make videos with
Some Online Helpers!
You can schedule posts on Facebook…either through desktop or on the app
Some Online Helpers!
WordSwag is a great mobile app to play with…create images & text, only £3.99!!
Create A Content Plan
o This is the focus of tomorrow’s workshop…
o But if you can’t make it to that…see me at the end of this!
o A balance between frequency and quality must always be maintained
o IT IS OK TO NOT POST SOMETHING FOR A DAY OR TWO!!
o Find a natural rhythm for your business
o Create a weekly holy ‘Social Media’ time that you can stick to…Sunday night maybe?
o Block out a half day every month to review and discuss your forthcoming social media plan
A Couple of Quick Points
The Times They Are a Changin’…2005 2013
Keep An Eye On The Future…If you’re in it for the long haul then you need to consider how information will be consumed in the next 3, 5, 7, 10 years.
For example, Instagram is the fastest growing social network among teens in the US through recent years
Twitter & Facebook are dwindling among this generation.
In Summaryo Social Media is not a comparison cauldron
o Do not feel pressured into doing too much…the quality will suffer
o Evaluate what you are capable of and start with that…
o …step towards where you want to be
o Make sure your accounts are secure & owned by the business
o Tidy up your online presence…look at it through a new customer’s eyes (not yours!)
The Most Important Point…
BE HONEST & REALISTIC ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF
If You Do Nothing Else…
CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA
CONTENT PLAN
Thank you for listening…
Any questions?
www.secretpie.co.uk
BONUS SLIDE…How to make the internet a better place!