Thinking Social Media Strategy

Why you need a SM Strategy

The Plan for tonight...

•Why you can’t afford not to have a Social Media Strategy;

• Talk about opportunities via experimentation;

•Give you a few ideas to get you moving forward

Make the most of it by...

• Actively participating during the Webinar;

• Making NOTES;

• Saving those NOTES for later discussions;

• Getting ACTIVE on LinkedIN Group created for this series;

• Chatting with me about your plans and how using Social Media can HELP YOU FAST TRACK their implementation.

• It’s NOT tricking people to do stuff they do not want;

• It’s NOT a dirty word own by unscrupulous marketers;

• It’s NOT about becoming obsessed in achieving a particular outcome;

• It’s definitely NOT about living in the future by loosing touch with THE PRESENT MOMENT

Just clarifying, Strategy:

• It’s AIMING at something, having adesired END goal in mind;

• Creatively finding ways to reach itor get to your destination;

• Organizing yourself, your resources and understanding constraints;

• Taking ACTIONS today, NOT tomorrow;

• Measuring your progress (learning from your mistakes);

• Starting all over again, only Fitter and Smarter!

So, what do I mean then?

Not a lonely road...

“... if you don’t know where you

are going, any road will take you

there”.~Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland, Lewis Caroll

Remember...

Check Point #1

• Do you know where you are heading?

• Do you have Goals? Do you write them down?

• What is available to you now?

• What is your TOP priority now?

• Do you make plans? Is planning necessary?

• Do you try finding ways to get pass “RoadBlocks” and reach your destination?

• Do you sometimes feel frustrated and overwhelmed?

• How do you deal with adversity?

Where are you going?

• How could Social Media help you in reaching your Goals?

• Are you currently using Social Media in your projects, or to help you move forward in your career and/or build up your Business?

• Could a Social Media Strategy or Plan help you get passed “RoadBlocks”?

• Could a Social Media Strategy or Plan make your LIFE easier and better in any way?

Goals and Social Media

• If NOT, Why NOT?

• too much time and effort?

• you think Social Media is for people who have nothing else to do?

• You don’t understand the Value of it?

• You’ve tried once or twice, but got really frustrated and gave up?

• You don’t know how?

• You can’t stand the annoying S**T people post on Facebook?

Ever approached Social Media strategically?

• If YES,

• How efficient was / is your Strategy?

• How did / do you measure its efficiency?

• Have you Learned from it and got better each time?

• Is your Business Evolving as a result of it? Did you get new clients?

• Did you improve your Brand awareness? What did you do with it?

Ever approached Social Media strategically?

Is Social Media worth the Investment of Time

and Money?

How do you know?

In the month of October 2011, Social Networking ranked as the most

popular content category in worldwide engagement, 6.7 Billion Hours

spent on Social Networks.

It’s true that Social Media can be

overwhelming, but you CAN’T ignore it.

FACT...There is no Magic Button

FACT... Social Media is complex

There is no Magic Thumb!

FACT...

Watch OUT!

Social Media = Attention to yourself

We are now, Publishers!

• You are what you PUBLISH;

• The CONTENT you put out DEFINES YOU and it helps people find YOU;

• We all have a Big enough AUDIENCE;

• You CAN’T FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT in SOCIAL MEDIA;

• Marketing channels and tools have change, but STORIES still prevail - TELL YOUR STORY.

Social Media = Word of mouth on Steroids.

But, you’ve got no CONTROL

Traditional Marketing Rules can not be applied

to Social Media because Social Media it’s not a

Marketer’s platform, it belongs to consumers.

Shama Hyder Kabani (author of the “Zen of Social Media Marketing”)

Who are the INFLUENCERS?

Finding Opportunities via Experimentation

The Rescue Dog’s Photographer

Wordboner

Benefits of Social Media for Experimentation

•Cost-effective

• Saves time (in contrary to what most people think)

•Quick results and Instant Engagement

• Personal Branding and Website Traffic

• Villages and Tribes

• Finding people who are crazy just like YOU

My Experiments

To Launch a “remarkable” experiment

Promoted on FB

And on twitter at the same time

With a call to ACTION, but without “hardcore selling”

Collected feedback

And another “remarkable” experiment

Always with a call to ACTION, never with “hardcore selling”

And the final “remarkable” experimentAlways with a call to ACTION, never with

“hardcore selling”

Consistent Social Media Identity

Twitter

Blogging

Facebook

Master Strategy

Success?? Failure??

Before After

You don’t have to know it all to get started.

Almost ready => AIM => FIRE => AIM => FIRE

Things I have learned because I was not quite so “Ready”...

Mistakes...

• Fail to “secure parking” my name on FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube;

• Mixed messages in different Networks;

• Cluttered BLOG with language people did not understand;

• Lack of Follow Up after experiments;

• Losing sight of my Vision;

• Wasting time and energy trying to “please” and connect with the wrong people;

• Talking about ME;

Never ending mistakes...• Taking to long to launch experiments

because I did not feel “ready”;

• Failing to keep a communication flow with subscribers;

• Outsourcing twitter and facebook to dodgy service providers;

•Writing with no objective;

• Taking to long to launch “sequel” experiments;

• Trying to do too much at the same time;

• Confusing everyone... etc, etc, etc....

Fail quickly, Fail often, LEARN and Get

Better each time!

Measure, Measure, Measure...

The meaning of communication is the

response you get.

Social Media is Communication

Measure = Feedback = Learn = Change...

Ideas to get you started

Press the SM button, just let it Flow...

Pick one to harvest...

Which one?

Start with one of the BIG 6

IMPORTANT!!! Integration amongst the platforms;

Congruency; Consistency;

and Creativity

The most valuable rule =

Be yourself!

Know your Values

Carefully observe what way your heart

draws you and then choose that way

with all your strength - Hasidic saying

Know your Passions

EXERCISE:

Take a blank piece of paper and fill in the blanks to this:

Who You Are – This can be bullet points of all the things you believe you are as a person.

What You Believe – Again more bullets with what you believe in in life, business, relationships, etc.

What You Value- List more of the things you value.

Define your USP!(unique selling proposition)

Know your Strengths

Make it a MANTRA!(because mission statements are boring and hard to

remember)

My Mantra

“Helping People SHIPPING IDEAS and Changing the

World!”

VALUES + PASSION + USP + MANTRA = :)-

Know YOUR GOALS

Know your Constraints!

(Little money, little time, lack of skills, etc)

Know the INFLUENCERS

Know what comes FIRST

• ARC: Attraction, Retention and Conversion (from Chris Garret - world renowned Blogger and author);

• ACT: Attract, Convert and Transform (from Shama Hyder Kabani- SM expert and author)

Models and System help

OR

Measure, Learn, Do it Again...

ENCODE Creativity and

Intuition in your SOCIAL DNA!

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the

rational mind is a faithful servant. We have

created a society that honors the servant

and has forgotten the gift. Albert Einstein

Stop COPYing and PASTING

someone’s messages, REMIX or

CREATE your own instead.

More than ever, people want original

content.

Exercise your creative capacity, get

used to producing your own stuff!

The Ultimate GOAL should be to build your own Tribe!

TRY something different - HAVE A

GO!

Q & A ?

Facebook, the social networking phenomenon with somewhere over 850 million users, can’t be ignored by anyone in business – or should I say simply “by anyone”. Just how effective it will be for specific businesses is a subject that needs attention when developing a company-specific social strategy.

Twitter, the instant messaging and social networking site where your message can’t be more than 140 characters in length, is seriously underestimated by many, maybe most of the professionals I meet. Others make very effective use of it, as part of their social media strategy.

Souce: http://deswalsh.com/

LinkedIn is indisputably the first platform of choice for professionals, whatever the industry. It’s more fundamentally a professional networking site than a “social” networking one, has over 150 million users and is still growing.

A Blog is often the missing element in a business’s social media setup, which in my view is a big mistake, especially for a solo professional wanting to be noticed above th din and wanting to do that economically in dollar terms.

Souce: http://deswalsh.com/

Google+ (or Google Plus) is a newer social networking platform but growing: launched in June 2011, by the end of the year it had 90 million users.  There has been vigorous debate, via blogs and various online forums, about whether Google+ will be a success. Most TOP Social Media influencers, including Chris Bogan, Mari Smith, Guy Kawasaki are all very active in Google Plus. Something to keep in mind, Google CONTROLS search and it’s integrating search with G+.

YouTube, the video sharing site with some 60 hours of video being uploaded every minute, provides a very accessible way for any of us to get our message out and is a seriously underutilized resource for many businesses.

Souce: http://deswalsh.com/