SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

ATTENDEE WORKBOOK Digital Marketing Course Series

NYC Department of Small Business Services

Social Media Marketing Attendee Workbook

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SBS Business Course Pathway

SBS Services

Social Media Marketing Attendee Workbook

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Course Objectives

By the end of this course you will have:

• Determined the social media platforms that your target customers use • Operated these platforms as an entrepreneur according to best practices • Created “repurposed content” that attracts social media users and links them to your website • Evaluated and chosen a social media management tool for your business

Course Summary

Topic Time

Welcome & Introductions 15

What Is Social Media Good For? 10

Know Your Customers 15

Social Media Best Practices 15

Sharing Other People’s Content 20

Sharing Your Own Content 10

Demo: Exploring the Platforms 30

Social Media Analysis 15

Tools & KPIs 10

Closing 10

TOTAL TIME 2.5 hours

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What is the Purpose of Social Media?

For consumers, social media can be for entertainment and information. But for businesses, social media

is for engagement. It influences potential and existing customers to do something – whether to watch a

video, like a page, or ultimately buy a product.

Throughout our Marketing courses, we introduce the Loyalty Loop, which is illustrated below.

Which customers stages in the Loyalty Loop does social media apply to? In other words, what does

social media influence your potential or existing customers to do?

Social media influences consumers in the four stages below:

Awareness – ______________________________________________________________

Advocate – ______________________________________________________________

Bond – ______________________________________________________________

Engagement – ______________________________________________________________

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Value-Driven Content

In our Marketing Content course, we discuss the Amex Rule. This refers to Amex’s marketing strategy –

• 80% of the time, it produces non-promotional content; and

• 20% of the time, it produces promotional content.

Only some of your potential customers are actively looking to buy a product or service. But all of your

potential customers are seeking value on social media. Content that is value-driven should:

• Solve a problem;

• Answer a question;

• Address concerns;

• Relieve a fear; and/or

• Make life less challenging.

Example of value-driven Facebook post. Notice how they tease only part of the content and remind the

follower that they can click the link to view the entire content on their blog:

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Applying Customer Personas to Social Media

In our Marketing Strategy course, we developed customer personas.

A customer persona is a description of your ideal customer based on characteristics. Characteristics can

include demographics, such as age, income, and education, and psychographics, such as needs, fears,

and goals.

Each social media platform attracts a unique demographic audience. You can identify the best platforms

to market your business on based on your customer personas.

Facebook Instagram Twitter Snapchat LinkedIn

Content Long form

content including

videos and copy

Images and short

videos

Short text,

images, and short

videos

Short uncurated

videos

Long-form content

for business

audiences

specifically

Age

88% of 18–29

84% of 30–49

72% of 50–64

62% of 65+

59% of 18–29

33% of 30–49

18% of 50–64

8% of 65+

36% of 18–29

23% of 30–49

21% of 50–64

10% of 65+

56% of 18–29

13% of 30–49

9% of 50+

34% of 18–29

33% of 30–49

24% of 50–64

20% of 65+

Gender 75% men

83% women

38% men

28% women

24% men

24% women

24% men

23% women

31% men

27% women

Education

79% college

82% some college

77% high school

33% college

37% some college

27% high school

29% college

25% some college

20% high school

33% college

25% some college

28% high school

50% college

27% some college

12% high school

Rank the platforms according to the target customers you are trying to reach:

1. _____________________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________________

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Social Media Best Practices

• 20% of the time, share promotional content (sales, exclusive access, product feature)

• 80% of the time share helpful, relevant, engaging content (not promotional in nature)

– 20% of the time, post snippets of your content driving traffic back to your site if possible

– 80% of the time, you should share other people’s content even if it links to their site

1. Organic Posts (not paid)

• Aim to use 3-5 hashtags per post

• Consider the time and day that you post

2. Connect with others in your field

• Find people who share your company’s values or interests.

• Comment, like, and share their posts.

• Follow them or add them as friends once you connect.

3. Respond to comments and direct messages.

• When people contact you, reply the same day – even if it is only to say, “Hello, thank you for

reaching out. We will follow up with a response soon.”

• You can be brief but be polite.

• Only ignore comments that are clearly irrelevant or illegitimate.

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Content Sharing

Social Media Platform: __________________________________________________________________

Relevant Hashtags:

1. ___________________________________

2. ___________________________________

3. ___________________________________

4. ___________________________________

Valuable brand/ organization/ publisher: ___________________________________________________

Description of the post:

Why is the post relevant to your followers? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

What value does the post provide to your followers?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Write a short sentence to use when sharing the post

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Which hashtags would you use when sharing the post? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

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Repurposing Content

In our Marketing Content course, we introduced repurposing content.

This refers to placing the same marketing content on different platforms, according to the format on

each. The goal is to drive customers to the content on your website – where they can make purchases.

Social media is an essential avenue for repurposing content. The reason is that social media uses short

clips of content, which is exactly what repurposed content is.

Here are some best practices:

• Aim to drive traffic to your website about 20% of the time using your content. • Tease content using a short snippet or intriguing headline—don’t give it all away. • For platforms that don’t allow you to link out (e.g. Instagram), say “link in bio.”

Review the three examples in class. Why is their repurposed content Helpful, Relevant, and Engaging?

River Pools & Spas

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Archestratus

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Buzzfeed

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Website

Owned

Blog post on

Website

Email

Twitter Facebook

YouTube Instagram

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Social Media Platforms

Facebook Page

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Create a Business Page on Facebook:

1. Your business name and description

a. Name your Page after your business, or another name that people search for to find

your business. Use the About section to tell people what your business does.

2. A profile photo and cover photo

a. Choose photos that best represent your business. Many businesses choose to use

their logo as a profile photo. For the cover photo, choose an image of your store,

products, or one from a current marketing campaign.

3. The action you want people to take

a. At the top of your Page you can add a call-to-action that directs your Page visitors to

do something, like visit your website or call your store. It just takes a few clicks.

Visit Facebook.com/Business and follow the instructions presented by Facebook.

To Create an Ad on Facebook:

1. Choose an objective

a. To choose the right ad objective, answer the question “what’s the most important

outcome I want from this ad?” It could be sales on your website, downloads of your

app or increased brand awareness.

2. Select your audience

a. Using what you know about the people you want to reach—like age, location and

other details—choose the demographics, interests and behaviors that best

represent your audience.

3. Decide where to run your ad

a. Next, choose where you want to run your ad—whether that’s on Facebook,

Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network, or across them all. In this step, you can

also choose to run ads on specific mobile devices.

4. Set your budget

a. Enter your daily or lifetime budget and the time period during which you want your

ads to run.

5. Pick a format

a. Choose from six versatile ad formats—they’re designed to work on every device and

connection speed. You can choose to show a single image or video in your ad, or use

a roomier, multi-image format.

6. Place your order

a. Once you submit your ad, it goes to Facebook’s ad auction which helps get it to the

right audience.

7. Measure and manage your ad

a. Once your ad is running, you can track performance and edit your campaign in Ads

Manager. See if one version of your ad is working better than another, or if your ad

is being delivered efficiently, and make tweaks and adjustments as needed.

Visit Facebook.com/Advertising and follow the instructions presented by Facebook to learn more about

each step.

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Instagram

• Handle

• Profile picture

• Description

• Link to more content

Twitter

• Profile picture

• Handle

• Description

• Timeline

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Social Media Analysis

Social Media Platform: __________________________________________________________________

Brand: _______________________________________________________________________________

Description of Content:

Is the content “helpful, friendly, and engaging” based on your target customer? Describe why it is, or is

not, effective.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The page or website that the link/URL leads to:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

What is the Call to Action (CTA) on the landing page? Is it effective?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

How well do the content and design of the CTA and the landing page align?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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Social Media Management Tools

Social media is a constant task. Social media management tools can help. You can schedule a series of

posts in advance, so you do not have to remember. And you can use the user data from the tools to

assess and improve your social media strategies.

Social Media Management tool might be helpful if:

• You are on three or more social media platforms

• Post one or more times per day

Here are three popular social media management tools:

Buffer HootSuite Sprout Social

Cost Free up to 3 social accounts

with 10 posts per month

Free up to 3 social

accounts with 30 posts per

month

$99/month

Unique

Features

• Schedule posts

• Analytics

• Image creator

• Schedule posts

• Analytics

• Monitor competitor

profiles

• Schedule posts

• Analytics

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Key Performance Indicators

Every action in digital marketing is measurable and called metrics. The most important metrics are called

Key Performance Indications (KPI).

There are three things you should measure every month, or three KPIs to think about:

• Likes: How many people are actively engaging with your posts

• Comments: What types of comments are people making

• Shares/retweets: How many people are engaging with your business through shares/ retweets

By monitoring your business’s KPIs for social media, you can determine:

• The content that your recipients want and will engage with

• When, and how often, to send your post

• Whether customers are clicking your post’s CTA and going through to your website

Social Media Metrics

Followers Direct Messages Views

Social Media KPIs

Likes Comments Shares/Retweets

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Next Steps

1. Learn more about how to create value-driven content on social media by reading “Jib Jab Right

Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuk: tinylink.org/jab

2. Learn how to create effective Facebook ads, “Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising” by Perry

Marshall: tinylink.org/facebook

3. Follow at least 5 people on social media that would be helpful to repost their content

4. Conduct a social media audit for your brand: tinylink.org/socialaudit

Post Course Survey

Please fill out our survey at bit.ly/sbssoc. You can complete the survey on your phone or using one of

the tablets provided.

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