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Octave Digital Social Media Strategy Guide Workbook
Octave Digital Social Media Strategy Guide Workbook
Workbook
contents
Audiences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 - 15
Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 - 34
summary
The following guide will help you to understand how you can use
social media successfully as part of your communications and
marketing. It has been produced for marketing, PR and commu-
nications managers in public sector and government organisa-
tions, charities and businesses.
Good luck preparing your social media strategy and feel free to
get in touch if have any additional questions on social media.
contents
Paul McGarrity
Director, Octave Digital
What is social media?
But perhaps the most important way people use social media is to
post comments and content. People use sites such as Facebook
and Twitter to tell their friends and peers about what’s happening
in their lives. Their ‘status updates’ can range from the funny, the
life changing to the ridiculous. Sites such as Facebook and Twit-
1.
ter are social sites – so people frequently respond to other status
updates - by commenting, retweeting or liking the post.
Social Media overview Posts, depending on their popularity, can reach a wider audience
if they are liked, commented on or retweeted, sometimes giving
them a viral effect.
2
why use social media?
Improve reputation
3
why use social media?
Consider the business and marketing objectives above.
Map out your main objectives for using social media. Are they
SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely?
E x e rc i s e
4
Organisational Use of Social
5
Review the chart below and identify the areas where you could
improve your business functions?
Reaching defined
demographics (using
Facebook to adver-
tise to young people)
Improving promo-
tion of event and live
engagement.
6
Internal Engage with staff
Commu- / improve internal
comms. Replace staff
nications
intranet
Broadcasting
announcements
HR Advertise recruitment
drive (e.g graduate
placements )
E x e rc i s e
Improve recruitment
for niche positions
(e.g use Linkedin to
identify and contact)
7
Measuring Goals
Note:
8
Map out your social
media goals
For each of your goals, map out the following:
• What is the goal?
• What is the benefit to your business / marketing activity?
• How will this activity be measured
9
Resourcing
Looking at the list above you may feel you don’t quite have the
resources to do social media effectively. So the next step in your
social media strategy will be to:
10
Securing resources
Staffing
You will also have to decide which staff within your organisation
will be operating the social media channels on a regular basis.
11
training
Social Media Oppor- Senior Staff / Educate senior staff on the ben-
tunities Managers efits of social media
12
question
How would you assess your available resources for using social
media effectively?
question
Who will manage your social media on a regular basis? If social
media is being used across a variety of units (e.g customer serv-
ice, marketing) then who will be responsible for managing social
media and how will they work together?
E x e rc i s e
question
Identify your staff training needs.
• Who will need trained in social media?
• Have you secured a budget for staff training?
13
audiences
The next stage in your social media plan is to map out the target
audiences you want to reach. However before you do this, you
need to consider some important points about reaching and in-
fluencing people in the digital age.
14
Defining Your Target
Audience
question
Who are your target audience on social media, who do you need
to reach?
question
What kinds of content will resonate with them?
question
E x e rc i s e
question
What do you want to motivate your audience to do?
15
Social media channels and
S o c i a l M e d i a Ch a n n e l s a n d Ta c t i c s
your audiences
The social media landscape is made up of hundreds of different
social media sites – however there are a handful of very domi-
nant sites:
• You Tube
• Google+
• Pinterest
16
Your
S o c i a l M e d i a Ch a n n e l s a n d Ta c t i c s
Opportunities
Brand ✔✔✔ ✔✔ ✔ ✔
Promotion
Customer ✔ ✔✔
Service
Advertising ✔✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Event ✔ ✔✔ ✔✔ ✔
Networking
B2B ✔ ✔✔ ✔✔✔ ✔ ✔
Image ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔✔
promotion
17
Social Media Channels
facebook
S o c i a l M e d i a Ch a n n e l s
18
twitter
Twitter is a real-time social networking platform which is witness-
ing major growth. In fact, the UK has around 15 million active
users.
linked in
LinkedIn is a networking tool for professionals. Used by millions
of business people across the globe, the platform allows you to:
19
tactics
Your tactics are the most important factor in making social me-
Ta c t i c s : C o n t e n t a n d E n g a g e m e n t dia work for your business. In this section you will review the two
broad types of tactics that will be used to fuel growth and interac-
tion on social media:
• Content: The types of posts and visual content that you de-
velop and publish on a regular basis
20
The 80:20 Rule
Example:
21
Valentines day, or they might just
Example:
Pop Culture /
Product
Promotion >
Product
Promotion
<
22
Think about
(a) some of the events, news, new products etc that you
would like to promote in the next few months.
23
Social Media Engagement
One of the areas that organisations really fall down on when us-
ing social media is failing to engage with people. To use a net-
working example – they’re a bit like:
(a) The really shy person at their first networking event who
doesn’t say anything
(b) Someone at a business lunch who only talks about them
selves and ignores what other people are saying?
Social Media Engagement
24
Example: Asking a question
25
In order to develop your social media content, you need to think
about and answer the following questions:
facebook content
Q. What types of issues, events, news etc might form the basis for
your social media stories on Facebook?
Think about the types of seasonal and cultural events that might
be happening in the next few months and might be relevant to
your organisation. Use them to generate a list of 5 social media
posts on Facebook.
twitter content
What types of Tweets might you develop to:
linked in content
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can raise your visibility in
Linkedin via the status updates section. Some of the areas you
might like to include in your LinkedIn content are:
26
Engagement Exercise
You are organising an event on behalf of your organisation - what
types of content can you develop to:
27
S OCIAL M EDIA M ANAGE M ENT, RE S OURCE S & RI S K
The sections below will help you answer the key resourcing and
management questions and develop a plan for adequately man-
aging social media within your organisation.
Their senior management have bought into the fact that modern
organisations and businesses need to use social media well. Hav-
ing bought into the need to do social media, they will commit to
resourcing it and having their staff trained in how to use it well.
So the first step you take if you want to manage social media well
is to persuade management of its value and the benefits of using
it properly.
The next step should be to secure the financial, staff and training
resources to do it properly. Organisations who market and com-
municate well via social media usually have:
In your social media strategy, you will need to address the follow-
ing questions:
28
S OCIAL M EDIA M ANAGE M ENT, RE S OURCE S & RI S K
Social Media Risk
However social media with its emphasis on open, two-way con-
versations presents challenges and risks for organisations.
• Staff using their own social media channels to bring your or-
ganisation into disrepute
29
S OCIAL M EDIA M ANAGE M ENT, RE S OURCE S & RI S K
While some organisations do encounter negative incidents on so-
cial media in many cases they have not taken basic steps to man-
age risks effectively. Many of the social media risks can be easily
managed by:
www.octavedigital.co.uk/digital-learning/online-guides
30
Think about the main risks that could affect your organisation?
Outline what they may be.
31
metrics
Finally, your social media strategy should set out the
main metrics that will help measure whether your ac-
tivity is successful:
Generate Traffic:
Use Google Analytics to measure the level of traffic
from social media and which social media channels
are referring traffic.
Grow Followers:
Followers of your social media channels
Generate Engagement:
Quality and type of engagement with people / cus-
tomers via social media
M ETRIC S
32
Social Media
Troubleshoot Guide
Issues Why they happen What to do about them
‘We have social Started a social media Paid Ads and promoted
media channels but profile – and just left it posts to reach a defined
can’t grow them’ there audience
No training
No time
33
“We are concerned “We are concerned Create a Social Media
about the reputation- about the reputational Policy for your organisa-
al risks”
risks” tion
Free resource:
http://www.octavedigital.
co.uk/digital-learning/
online-guides/
34
Who are we?
Octave Digital is a digital Internet marketing agency founded in 2009 to help business-
es and organisations market effectively online. The consultancy specialises in online
marketing strategy and campaign management and helps clients to understand, adopt
and utilise new technology and media.
Paul McGarrity
Managing Director
Our services include Digital Strategy and Planning, Digital Marketing Training, Search
Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click advertising management, Social Media Marketing,
Website Design and Email Marketing.
Contact Paul McGarrity now on 028 9059 5907 to see how we can
help your organisation market effectively online
45 Belvedere Park Stranmillis, Belfast BT9 5GS t 028 9059 5907 e paul@octavedigital.co.uk octavedigital.co.uk