Local Marketing & PR :: Social Best Practices
Social Overview
Consumer attention and demands for content are forcing companies to evolve their content marketing approach. Brands are moving beyond the episodic, product focused content to more frequent, bite-sized, story driven content.
You must create valuable content and distribute that content across paid, owned and earned channels to attract, acquire and engage your target consumer.
Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what a friend tells a friend it is.
Be sure to follow Bryant on Facebook.
Facebook Overview
Serves as the primary branded destination that anchors the brand in social. Meaning, most of your time on social media will be spent on Facebook – building community/followers, pushing out content, etc. Facebook should be the primary focus of your social strategy followed by Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
- 1.44 billion monthly active users as of March 31, 2015
- 936 million daily active users on average for March 2015
- 1.25 billion mobile monthly active users as of March 31, 2015
- 798 million mobile daily active users on average for March 2015
- 57% Female & 43% Male
- 52% are between 18-34
- 68% are older than 35
- 405 minutes, avg. time spent per month
Source: Facebook
Facebook DO’s
- Vanity URLs are recommended – ex: www.facebook.com/dealername. It gives the page an easy-to-find and easy-to-share URL that looks professional and branded.
- A vanity URL is a unique web address that is branded for marketing purposes. Vanity URLs are a type of custom URL that exists to help users remember and find a specific page. Therefore your vanity URLs should be easy to remember, use, and share.
- To update your Facebook URL visit www.facebook.com/username
- Respond to fans regularly, frequently & uniquely – Companies who allow fans to interact with page administrators have the best chance of creating deeper relationships.
- Tell fans what you want them to do – Deliver calls-to-action that move fans to engage in your preferred action (click link, call, watch video, like, comment, etc.).
- Build relationships with fans by listening to their needs and being transparent yet authentic – When listening and speaking with them, the end goal should always be creating active advocates and evangelists who will help sustain and promote your business.
- Post 3-4 times per week minimum – First thing in the morning or in the early evening typically sees the highest number of people on Facebook. You can review your Facebook Insights to know which days and times your fans are on Facebook. Consider posting on the weekends as well.
- Make posts short & sweet — The length of a post can affect the engagement with that post. Posts with 90 characters or less receive higher engagement.
- Create a content calendar – Consider Facebook your company’s digital “magazine” of timely and relevant content and features
- Use a mix of photos, videos, link posts, etc. – Videos typically receive higher impressions than link posts and photos, respectively.
Facebook DON’Ts
- Don’t be a brand shouting at your fans – Content should put the consumer first and consider their experience with the page.
- Don’t use only copy in your posts. Include photos, infographics, videos, etc.
- Don’t “Like” your own posts on the page – Check your admin settings.
- Don’t forget to make frequent updates to your page – Create a publishing plan that aligns with your content calendar.
Twitter Overview
- 302 million active users
- 500 million tweets sent per day
- 80% active users on mobile
- 59% Female & 41% Male
- 43% are between 18-34
- 58% are older than 35
- 89 minutes, avg. time spent per month
Source: Twitter
Twitter DO’s
- Keep your Twitter @handle short and branded.
- Respond to fans regularly, frequently & uniquely – Companies who allow fans to interact with page administrators have the best chance of creating deeper relationships. Respond to tweets (@replies) and direct messages sent to your page within 24 hours. The sooner the better, as it shows you are actively listening and there for the customer.
- Tell fans what you want them to do – Deliver calls-to-action that move fans to engage in your preferred action.
- Reach a broader potential audience to generate conversations – Include relevant, popular #hashtags in tweets, but don’t use too many (no more than 2-3) hashtags per tweet to avoid looking like spam.
- Build relationships with fans by listening to their needs and being transparent yet authentic – When listening and speaking with them, the end goal should always be creating active advocates and evangelists who will help sustain and promote the community.
- Tweet 4 times or less per day, throughout the day – Twitter engagement is high during “busy hours”: 7AM – 8PM. Consider posting on the weekends as well.
- Keep posts short & sweet – The character limit is 140 but the length of a post can affect the engagement with that post. Studies show that posts with 100 characters or less receive higher engagement. This also allows followers to insert their own text before your content when @replying and ReTweeting.
- Emphasize the positive — ReTweet and Favorite positive sentiment from followers to reinforce a positive image in someone else’s words.
- Optimize — Find the “tweet spot” for your tweets; if your company’s content performs the best over the weekends, post then.
- Use images and #hashtags to drive highest engagement – But, make sure it’s relevant to your brand and the conversation.
- Listen to keywords for opportunities to engage in conversations – This includes branded (Bryant, products, dealer name, etc.), non-branded (summer, hot, AC, heat, home, comfort, etc.) and even competitors (Trane, etc.).
- Identify influencers and brand advocates – Are there people that are constantly talking positively about your brand and their experiences working with you? If so, continue to engage in conversations with them to encourage them to keep advocating.
- Follow other relevant brands, industry leaders, etc.
Twitter DON’Ts
- Don’t forget to tag pages in your Tweets when relevant.
- Don’t overuse hashtags – No more than 2-3 per tweet.
- Don’t use #hashtags without checking to see what the hashtag conversation is about – Certain hashtags are safe like #Summer but if it’s something that is trending, etc. make sure you check to see what the topic/conversation is before you insert your brand into the conversation.
- Don’t @reply to someone without first checking their profile to see who they are and the type of content they post - If they are negative, controversial, political, discriminating, etc. you’ll want to avoid engaging in conversation, as not to associate your company with their views.
- Twitter is a 2-way conversation - Don’t just tweet - listen and engage with your followers just as much as you insert yourself into conversations.
- Don’t tweet without having a dedicated brand voice for your handle.
Instagram Overview
Instagram is a mobile photo and video-sharing social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos (max 15 seconds).
- 300+ million users
Instagram DO’s
- Use real-time, authentic images – Part of the Instagram experience is including fresh content that is taken in real time. Avoid stock images and ads.
- Ensure visuals reflect your brand’s social voice and tone – Ensure all images and video reflect the brand personality.
- Be seasonal and timely – Post content that is seasonably relevant and timely to the latest news headlines. These posts can be given a twist by also leveraging brand personality.
- Utilize a strong call to action – There are over a 1,000 comments posted to Instagram per second. Posts that supply users with a specific, designated action when requesting comments receive the highest response rates.
- Create great content that is posted regularly – Ensure new content is posted 3 to 5 times a week and emphasize quality images over quantity.
- Utilize hashtags that fit within your brand personality – Include popular hashtags that are relevant to your brand when posting content to drive page views. Use five or less hashtags per post to avoid overwhelming viewers.
- Search brand-relevant hashtags – Set up key search terms to assist in finding user-generated content (UGC).
- Utilize user generated content (UGC) – 8 in 10 users said UGC from people they don’t know influences what they buy and indicates brand quality. UGC posts also receive some of the highest engagement rates. Ensure you have established a legal approval process for this content before posting.
- Utilize Instagram’s video feature to appeal to followers in a new way and deliver more personalized content.
- Follow other relevant brands, industry leaders, etc.
- Cross-promote your pages on all owned social properties to maximize awareness and the number of page viewers.
YouTube Overview
Social video sharing service owned by Google with organic search (SEO) value if content is optimized with proper keywords and tags. Gives front row access where consumers can learn about the ideas and topics of interest.
- 800 million active users
- Over 4 billion views each day
- 2nd largest search engine
- 3rd most visited URL in the world
- Online video is expected to grow 55%
YouTube DO’s
- Vanity URLs are recommended – ex: www.YouTube.com/dealername. It gives the channel an easy-to-find and easy-to-share URL that looks professional and branded.
- A vanity URL is a unique web address that is branded for marketing purposes. Vanity URLs are a type of custom URL that exists to help users remember and find a specific page. Therefore your vanity URLs should be easy to remember, use, and share.
- To update your YouTube URL visit https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2657968
- Always keep the content as fresh as possible by consistently uploading new videos and rotating out the featured video.
- Always add a call-to-action for your social properties/website at the end of videos.
- Always think like a consumer who is searching for info/content – Use keywords they might search when creating video titles, descriptions and tags. For example, a consumer would search “How do I change an air filter” vs. "Dealer Name Heating & Cooling"
YouTube DON’Ts
- Don’t expect your video to go "viral." – While it can; there is no guarantee.
- Don’t let YouTube work in a silo – Always cross-promote between social platforms and sites. Note: Facebook ranks videos posted natively on their platform higher than YouTube links. Consider your channel and post accordingly. If you create a video, upload it to YouTube and Facebook separately to maximize Facebook reach. But feel free to embed your YouTube video on your website and other owned properties.
- Don’t upload more than one video at a time – While it’s important to keep content fresh, you need to give visitors a reason to come back.
- Don’t block comments from your videos – But, make sure you are monitoring videos’ comment sections.
Additional Recommendations
- Define your brand’s voice and tone and be consistent across the different social platforms.
- Optimize – As you continue to create content and engage with fans, you’ll start to see the type of content that receives great reach and engagement. Continue to build on your successes.
- DON’T hire your teenage nephew to run your social communication!!
- Empower your employees to help capture and create content. But filter through a single community manager to insure brand identity is consistent.