Introduction to Social Media
Bethany [email protected]
http://www.ggsocialmedia.com
Global Girl Social Media Presents:
Five Phases of Social Media
Discover (friends/colleagues and your competition)
Strategize (set objectives and goals)
Skills (identify where you struggle and where you thrive, educate yourself)
Execute (get the tools you need, integrate your strategy and start putting the strategy into motion)
Maintenance (monitor your social media sites and adapt as the conversation grows)
Source: Five Phases of Social Media Marketinghttp://socialcomputingjournal.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=789
Facebook: Pages vs. Profiles
On Facebook, profiles are meant for people and pages are meant for businesses. To fully immerse yourself in the social media world (so you'll be able to speak intelligently regarding social media), you should create a personal profile. Your business should have it's own page. Pages have a whole set of tools that profiles do not, so it's imperative you set up a page for your business to take advantage of these tools.
Pages allow you to: Set up multiple people to manage to your page Be ranked on Facebook and search engines Categorize your business to target your demographic more effectively Immediately accept new people to follow your page Place ads to generate more business Use Facebook analytics to track traffic on your page and adjust your
social media strategy as necessary Interact with other businesses as your business, which helps gain more
corporate followers!
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Setting up a Facebook
Business Page, Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
You’ll get a page that looks like this:
Right away you should:
Upload a photo (click on the pencil that appears when you hover over the grayed out question mark). Use either your logo or a professional headshot for your image. Make sure this is the same image that you use across the board with any other sites you are on
Start posting content (relevant to your voiceover career)
Invite your friends to ”Like” your page and request they pass along word that you’re now active on Facebook for your business
Go to the info section and add in as much information about your business as you can, typically this is taken directly from your website
What the info section looks like:
Taking Advantage of the Perks of Facebook
Pages: Connect with other businesses while using your business
name: Click "Use Facebook as (YOUR BUSINESS)" when on your business page. Then research other VO talent you admire or want to follow, as well as local businesses you may want to do VO work for and "Like" those businesses or comment on their page
Learn the patterns of your followers: By looking at the analytics of your page, you will be able to recognize patterns and see what kinds of content people are interacting with most, what is driving traffic to your page and more. All of this helps fine-tune your social media marketing strategy. Obviously if you see something that is boosting your stats, make sure you try to do it on a regular basis (whether that's posting links, talking about your demos, linking to your blog, or something else)
Create a custom Facebook URL: Once you have 25 followers, you can create your own customer Facebook link which typically consists of Facebook.com/YOURBUSINESSNAME. This makes it a lot easier to send to potential clients or people you want to follow your page. It also makes it easier to place on an email signature or business card
Setting up a Twitter account:
Go to http://www.twitter.com
Click “Join the Conversation!”
Create a username (your business name or the domain of your business name minus the “.com” portion of the site address)
Add your email address (the email address you use for all of your business correspondence)
DONE!
About Twitter hashtags #
Hashtags are keywords that are searchable on Twitter and are always prefaced with the “#” symbol. You can use more than one hashtag per tweet, but it’s not recommended that EVERY tweet you have is riddled with hashtags
Common hashtags for the voiceover industry are #vo and #voiceover
You should not only use hashtags to search for other people to follow, but you should use them in your tweets to make it easier for people to follow you
Hashtags should not be used to reference companies that have Twitter accounts, instead you should try to find their Twitter handle and reference them directly. A Twitter handle is the username they use when tweeting. For instance, the Such A Voice Twitter handle is @SuchAVoice
For instance, let’s write up a tweet on Starbucks:
My iced #coffee from @Starbucks was great today, and $1 was donated to #charity. Can’t complain about that! #givingback
Thoughts While Posting Content:
Only post relevant content, and don't promote your business in every post. You can also gain followers by promoting someone else's content if it interests you and is relevant.
Don't post the same content on your personal page as your business page (because people will wonder why they should be following both of your pages if it's all the same content).
Be personal and act like a brand. Don't broadcast, don't brag. Speak like yourself, not like a business, and personify your brand. People want something they can relate to.
Maintain consistency, studies have been shown that 8AM is the most effective time of day to post content on social media (probably due to people looking at social media before work). Facebook is best if you post content 2-4 times a day, Twitter is best if you update regularly throughout the day (just remember to vary your content and not post the same thing repeatedly).
Helpful Websites: If you are still struggling with marketing, check out the
marketing materials from Such A Voice (including 4 CD's and a video), go to: https://www.suchavoice.com/Clients/
For ongoing support on Facebook pages, make sure you are following the Facebook page for Facebook pages: http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages
The best site to educate yourself on all things social media: http://www.mashable.com
If you are finding that you are spending too much time on social media, and want to streamline things, take a look at either: http://www.hootsuite.com or http://www.tweetdeck.com
For a variety of social media tutorials and tips, check out: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-resources/
