Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Book 1: The Social Media Mix 5
Chapter 1: Making the Business Case for Social Media 7
Making Your Social Debut 8
Defining Social Media Marketing 9
Understanding the Benefits of Social Media 13
Casting a wide net to catch your target market 14
Branding 15
Building relationships 15
Improving business processes 16
Improving search engine rankings 16
Selling in the social media marketplace 17
Finding alternative advertising opportunities 18
Understanding the Cons of Social Media 19
Integrating Social Media into Your Overall Marketing Effort 19
Developing a Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan 21
Establishing goals 24
Setting quantifiable objectives 25
Identifying your target markets 25
Estimating costs 26
Valuing social media ROI 26
Chapter 2: Tallying the Bottom Line 27
Preparing to Calculate Return on Investment 28
Accounting for Customers Acquired Online 29
Comparing the costs of customer acquisition 30
One is silver and the other gold 32
Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Sales 32
Tracking Leads 36
Understanding Other Common Business Metrics 37
Break-even point 37
Profit margin 38
Revenue versus profit 38
Determining Return on Investment 38
Chapter 3: Plotting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy 47
Locating Your Target Market Online 48
Segmenting Your B2C Market 48
Demographics 50
Geographic location 50
Purchasing behavior in different life stages 53
Psychographics or lifestyle 54
Affinity groups 55
Researching B2B Markets 57
Conducting Other Types of Market Research Online 59
Identifying influencers 59
Understanding why people use social media services 60
Setting Up Your Social Media Marketing Plan 60
Chapter 4: Managing Your Cybersocial Campaign 69
Managing Your Social Media Schedule 70
Controlling the time commitment 70
Developing your social date book 71
Creating a social media dashboard 72
Building Your Social Media Marketing Dream Team 76
Seeking a skilled social media director 77
Looking inside 78
Hiring experts 78
Creating a Social Media Marketing Policy 79
Staying on the Right Side of the Law 81
Obtaining permission to avoid infringement 82
Respecting privacy 84
Revealing product endorsement relationships 84
Protecting Your Brand Reputation 86
Book 2: Cybersocial Tools 89
Chapter 1: Discovering Helpful Tech Tools 91
Keeping Track of the Social Media Scene 92
Saving Time with Content-Distribution Tools 93
Alternative Content-Distribution Services 94
Snipping Ugly URLs 96
Using E-Commerce Tools for Social Sites 97
Selling through links 98
Displaying products on social media channels 98
Selling directly on social media 98
Reviewing third-party products for selling through social media 102
Keeping Your Ear to the Social Ground 107
Deciding what to monitor and why 107
Deciding which tools to use 108
Using free or inexpensive social monitoring tools 108
Measuring the Buzz by Type of Service 112
Chapter 2: Leveraging SEO for Improved Visibility 115
Making the Statistical Case for SEO 116
Thinking Tactically and Practically 117
Focusing on the Top Search Engines 118
Knowing the Importance of Search Phrases 120
Choosing the right search terms 121
Where to place search terms on your site 123
Understanding tags and tag clouds 124
Maximizing Metatag Muscle 126
Tipping the scales with the page title metatag 128
Pumping up page description metatags 128
Optimizing Your Site and Content for Search Engines 129
Writing an optimized first paragraph 130
Updating often 131
Making your site search engine friendly 134
Optimizing for local search 140
Getting inbound links from social sharing, social bookmarks, and social news services 141
Reaping other links from social media 144
Chapter 3: Optimizing Social Media for Internal and External Searches 147
Placing Search Terms on Social Media 148
Optimizing Blogs 150
Optimizing WordPress 152
Optimizing Blogger 153
Optimizing Wix 153
Assigning permalinks 154
Optimizing Images, Video, and Podcasts 155
Optimizing Specific Social Media Platforms 156
Optimizing Twitter 156
Optimizing Facebook 158
Optimizing Instagram 159
Optimizing Pinterest 161
Optimizing LinkedIn 162
Optimizing YouTube 163
Optimizing for Mobile Search 164
Gaining Visibility in Real-Time Search 166
Gaining Traction on Google with Social Media 167
Monitoring Your Search Engine Ranking 168
Chapter 4: Using Social Bookmarks, News, and Share Buttons 171
Bookmarking Your Way to Traffic 172
Sharing the News 174
Benefiting from Social Bookmarks and News Services 176
Researching a Social Bookmark and Social News Campaign 177
Executing your plan 178
Monitoring results 179
Submitting to Bookmarking Services 180
Submitting to Social News Services 181
Selecting content for social news services 182
Preparing social news stories for success 183
Using Application-Specific Bookmarks 183
Timing Your Submissions 184
Encouraging Others to Bookmark or Rate Your Site 186
Using Social Media Buttons 188
Follow Us buttons 188
Share buttons 189
Book 3: Content Marketing 193
Chapter 1: Growing Your Brand with Content 195
Introducing Content Marketing 196
Defining content marketing 196
Examining how content marketing can help your business 196
Determining the Best Content Platform for Your Needs 199
Selling Your Brand through Content Marketing 200
Making Your Content Stand Out 202
Chapter 2: Exploring Content-Marketing Platforms 205
Building a Blog 206
Understanding how blogging can benefit your business 207
Deciding if blogging is right for you 209
Setting up your blog 209
Using Podcasts and Video on Your Blog or Website 212
Deciding if podcasting is right for you 212
Using podcasts to drive traffic and land sales 214
Creating viral videos 215
Interviewing experts on camera 216
Sharing Images 218
Using images for your online content 218
Legalities: What you need to know about sharing images 219
Finding images online 220
Sharing images on photo-sharing sites 222
Using Social Media Platforms for Online Content 223
Deciding which social media platforms to use 224
Creating and sharing content with social media 225
Understanding the importance of community 227
Guest Blogging to Grow Awareness and Expertise 228
Understanding guest blogging 229
Finding relevant blogs and pitching your content 229
Promoting your guest blog posts 231
Chapter 3: Developing a Content-Marketing Strategy 233
Determining Content Goals 234
Driving traffic 235
Making sales 236
Establishing expertise 238
Growing your online community 238
Collecting leads with your content 239
Putting a Strategy on Paper 240
Understanding the elements of a content-marketing strategy 240
Doing a content inventory 241
Taking steps to achieve your goals 242
Delegating tasks 243
Chapter 4: Getting Your Content to the Masses 245
Creating an Editorial Calendar to Keep Content Flowing 246
Exploring the benefits of an editorial calendar 246
Deciding what to include on your calendar 247
Finding the Right Mix between Evergreen and Timely Content 248
Executing Your Content Strategy 249
Sharing Your Content with the Public 250
Measuring the Success of Your Content Strategy 252
Book 4: Twitter 255
Chapter 1: Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool 257
Deciding Whether Twitter Is Right for You 258
Communicating in 280 Characters 260
Promoting without Seeming like Youre Promoting 261
Researching Other Brands on Twitter 268
Knowing Quality Is More Important than Quantity 269
Chapter 2: Using Twitter as a Networking Tool 271
Finding the Right People to Follow 272
Finding the Right Topics to Follow 273
Finding Out Who Is Talking about You on Twitter 274
Responding to Tweets 275
Searching on Twitter 276
Filtering Search Results 277
Tweeting like a Pro 279
Articulating in 280 characters 279
Using the hashtag 279
Sharing on Twitter 280
Knowing when to @reply and direct message 281
Retweeting and being retweeted 281
Blocking people 282
Creating a successful Twitter campaign 283
Using keywords in your tweets 285
Following the Twitter Rules of Etiquette 285
Chapter 3: Finding the Right Twitter Tools 287
Customizing Your Twitter Profile Page 288
Creating a header photo 289
Creating a custom Twitter avatar 291
Pinning Tweets 292
Embedding Tweets 292
Using a Twitter Application 296
Exploring Twitter desktop applications 296
Tweeting from a gadget 297
Chapter 4: Social Listening with Twitter 299
Using Twitter to Listen to Your Customers 299
Responding to questions and complaints 302
Gaining new customers by being helpful 304
Chapter 5: Hosting Twitter Chat 305
Benefiting from Twitter Chats 305
Finding a Hashtag for Your Chat 306
Keeping Track of Who Says What 307
Finding Guests for Your Twitter Chat 308
Promoting Your Twitter Chat 310
Hosting Your Twitter Chat 313
Following Twitter Chat Best Practices 315
Book 5: Facebook 319
Chapter 1: Using Facebook as a Marketing Tool 321
Understanding the Appeal of Brands on Facebook 322
Branding with Facebook Pages 323
Examining the Components of a Facebook Page 324
Making the Most of Your Facebook Page 327
Adding a profile picture 328
Adding a cover photo 329
Adding finishing touches 330
Understanding Your Facebook Administrative Functions 331
Settings 331
Insights 333
Filling Out What Youre About 333
Using a Custom Username for Your Page 334
Inviting People to Join Your Community 335
Inviting friends to like your page 336
Getting likes from others 336
Liking Other Brands 338
Creating Facebook Events 339
Chapter 2: Creating and Sharing Content on Facebook 343
Creating a Facebook Content Strategy 344
Sharing Your Brands Story 345
Creating Content That Sings 347
Sharing and Being Shared 348
Posting content that followers will want to share 349
Using hashtags in your posts 350
Bringing Your Community into the Mix 351
Selling on Facebook 351
Creating polls, quizzes, and contests 353
Offering discounts to your community 355
Making Connections with Facebook Groups 356
Learning through Insights 357
Getting the scoop on your fans through Insights 358
Putting Insights data to good use 359
Chapter 3: Advertising and Selling on Facebook 361
Reaching More Fans with Ads 361
Deciding whether you want to invest in an ad 362
Choosing the right goal for your Facebook ad 363
Creating an ad with Ad Center 365
Targeting your fans 366
Measuring Your Ads ROI 367
Selling on Facebook 368
Facebook Marketplace 368
Shop Now button 370
Facebook Shops 370
Chapter 4: Streaming Live Video on Facebook 373
Understanding the Benefits of Live Streaming 374
Setting Up Your Live Stream 377
Engaging with Your Community via Facebook Live 380
Brainstorming Ideas for Live Videos 381
Book 6: Linkedin 383
Chapter 1: Promoting Yourself with LinkedIn 385
Exploring the Benefits of Using LinkedIn 386
Creating an Online Resume 387
Projecting a professional image on LinkedIn 388
Choosing and uploading a profile photo 390
Filling out your profile 394
Understanding Recommendations and Endorsements 396
Receiving recommendations 396
Giving recommendations 398
Asking for endorsements 398
Using LinkedIn Messages 401
Chapter 2: Promoting Your Business with LinkedIn 403
Exploring the Benefits of a LinkedIn Page 404
Creating a LinkedIn Page 404
Setting up your brands profile 405
Optimizing your company page 407
Adding and removing administrators 409
Sharing your brands content 409
Selling and Promoting with LinkedIn Showcase Pages 410
Highlighting your products and services 410
Utilizing showcase pages 411
Benefitting from LinkedIn Groups 412
Exploring groups 413
Growing a community with a LinkedIn group 413
Establishing group guidelines 415
Growing your group 416
Moderating your LinkedIn group 419
Recommending posts 420
Chapter 3: Using LinkedIn as a Content Platform 421
Blogging on LinkedIn 421
Creating your first post 422
Writing in a professional voice 424
Promoting Your LinkedIn Articles 425
Posting Content on LinkedIn Pages 426
Deciding on the content to post 426
Taking advantage of LinkedIns content tools 430
Book 7: Getting Visual 431
Chapter 1: Pinning Down Pinterest 433
Understanding Pinterest 434
Getting Started 436
Joining Pinterest 437
Setting up your Pinterest profile 440
Navigating Pinterest 441
Business hub 443
Getting on Board 444
Planning your initial boards 445
Creating your first board 446
Pinning on Pinterest 446
Pinning an image 447
Tagging 451
Following on Pinterest 451
Following friends 451
Following folks you dont know 452
Sharing on Pinterest 453
Sharing other peoples Pins 453
Using share buttons 454
Driving Traffic with Pinterest 454
Being descriptive but brief 456
Using keywords 458
Building Your Pinterest Community 458
Commenting on Pins 459
Playing nice 459
Using Tools for Pinterest Marketing 461
Scheduling and automation 461
Growing your audience 462
Finding boards to follow 462
Creating content 463
Chapter 2: Snapchatting It Up! 465
Setting Up a General Snapchat Account 465
Understanding the lingo 469
Touring the Snapchat screens 471
Adding followers 473
Taking Your First Snap 474
Telling Your Snapchat Story 476
Knowing who is viewing your stories 477
Engaging with Snapchat 479
Using lenses, filters, and geofilters 480
Chapter 3: Getting Started with Instagram 485
Promoting Your Brand on Instagram 486
Creating and Using Your Instagram Account 487
Setting up your account 487
Completing your profile 491
Finding friends and fans on Instagram 491
Sharing photos 495
Controlling notifications 497
Determining What Is Photo-Worthy for Your Brand 499
Using Hashtags in Your Instagram Posts 501
Using Instagram Stories 502
Going Live with Instagram Live 503
Chapter 4: TikTok(ing) Around the Clock 507
Using TikTok for Brand Promotion 508
Creating and Personalizing Your TikTok Account 508
Setting up your account 508
Completing your profile 511
Touring the TikTok screens 512
Following (and getting followers) on TikTok 513
Sharing videos 515
Determining What Videos You Should Create 516
Chapter 5: Watching and Listening: Videos, Podcasts, and Your Brand 519
Deciding if Video and Podcasts Are Right for You 520
Determining What Content to Create 521
Informative 522
Company-related 522
Attention-catching (and keeping) 522
Competitive 522
Fun! 523
Getting Set Up with Equipment 523
Choosing software 523
Picking a camera 525
Using a tripod 525
Selecting a microphone 526
Creating Your Content 528
Publishing Your Content 530
Book 8: Other Social Media Marketing Sites 533
Chapter 1: Weighing the Business Benefits of Minor Social Sites 535
Reviewing Your Goals 536
Researching Minor Social Networks 537
Assessing the Involvement of Your Target Audience 540
Lurking 540
Responding 541
Quantifying market presence 541
Choosing Social Sites Strategically 542
Chapter 2: Maximizing Stratified Social Communities 547
Making a Bigger Splash on a Smaller Site 548
Taking Networking to the Next Level 548
Selecting Social Networks by Vertical Industry Sector 550
Selecting Social Networks by Demographics 553
Selecting Social Networks by Activity Type 556
Finding Yourself in the Real World with Geomarketing 558
Going geo for good reason 558
Deciding whether geomarketing is right for you 558
Spacing Out with Twitter 560
Checking in on Twitter 560
Searching real space with Twitter 560
Finding Your Business on Facebook 561
Geotagging on Facebook 561
Getting close with places nearby 561
Checking in on Facebook 561
Making a Facebook offer they cant refuse 562
Making Real Connections in Meetup 564
Making Deals on Social Media 565
Offering savings, gaining customers 566
Making an attractive offer 567
Setting Terms for Your Coupon Campaign 568
The depth of the discount 568
The scope of the deal 569
Grappling with the gotchas 569
Measuring success 570
Further leveraging your deal 571
More upsides and downsides 572
Digging into Groupon 573
Diversifying Your Daily Deals 574
Chapter 3: Profiting from Mid-Size Social Media Channels 575
Deciding Whether to Invest Your Time 575
Entertaining Your Audience with Streaming Content 576
Turning Up New Prospects with Tumblr 578
Setting up an account 579
Advertising on Tumblr 579
Promoting Video with Vimeo 580
Signing up for a Vimeo Business account 581
Advertising on Vimeo 582
Chapter 4: Integrating Social Media 583
Thinking Strategically about Social Media Integration 584
Integrating Social Media with E-Newsletters 585
Gaining more subscribers 587
Finding more followers and connections 587
Finding and sharing content 588
Integrating Social Media with Press Releases 589
Setting up an online newsroom 590
Cultivating influencers 590
Distributing your news 591
Emphasizing content 593
Pressing for attention 594
Measuring results 594
Integrating Social Media with Your Website 595
Coupons, discounts, and freebies 596
Contests and games 597
Microsites 598
Private membership sites 598
Community forums 598
Chapter 5: Advertising on Social Media 601
Integrating Social Media with Paid Advertising 601
Advertising on social media sites 602
Maximizing your advertising dollars 603
Engagement ads 604
Advertising on Facebook and Instagram 605
Getting started 605
Boosting or promoting a post 608
Paying for your Facebook ads 608
Advertising on Twitter 609
Promoting your tweets 609
Followers campaign 609
Promoting a trend 610
Engaging your Twitter audience 610
Creating an ad on Twitter 611
Dealing with Twitter cards 613
Advertising on LinkedIn 614
Targeting Your LinkedIn Ads 617
Advertising on Pinterest 618
Advertising on YouTube 620
Advertising on Snapchat 622
Advertising on TikTok 624
Interfacing with Influencers 626
Book 9: Measuring Results and Building On Success 629
Chapter 1: Delving into Data 631
Planning a Measurement Strategy 632
Monitoring versus measuring 633
Deciding what to measure 634
Establishing responsibility for analytics 635
Selecting Analytics Packages 637
Reviewing analytical options for social media 639
Selecting a URL-shortening tool for statistics 640
Getting Started with Google Analytics 641
Integrating Googles Social Media Analytics 643
Chapter 2: Analyzing Content-Sharing Metrics 645
Measuring the Effectiveness of Content Sharing
with Standard Analytics 645
Maximizing website stats 646
Tracking comments 648
Evaluating Blog-Specific Metrics 649
Visualizing Video Success 651
Understanding Podcast Metrics 653
Measuring Your Results from Pinterest 654
Finding out about your Pinterest audience 656
Third-party Pinterest analytics 657
Comparing Hard and Soft Costs versus Income 658
Chapter 3: Analyzing Twitter Metrics 659
Tracking Website Referrals with Google Analytics 660
Tracking Shortened Links 661
Using Twitter Analytics 661
Using TweetDeck 662
Using Third-Party Twitter Analytics Applications 663
Tracking Account Activity with the Notifications Tab 664
Monitoring mentions 665
Checking your retweet ranking 665
Gleaning meaning from direct messages 666
Using the Hashtag as a Measurement Mechanism 666
Calculating the Twitter Follower-to-Following Ratio 667
Chapter 4: Analyzing Facebook Metrics 669
Monitoring Facebook Interaction with Insights 669
Using Page Insights 670
Accessing Insights 670
Exporting Insights 671
Exploring the Insights Overview and Detail Pages 671
Actions on Page detail page 673
Total Views detail page 674
Reach detail page 674
Post Engagement detail page 675
Chapter 5: Measuring Other Social Media Networks 677
Plugging into Social Media 677
Measuring LinkedIn Success 678
Visitors 679
Updates 680
Followers 682
Exploring Instagram Insights 684
Overview 684
Content You Shared 685
Chapter 6: Comparing Metrics from Different
Marketing Techniques 687
Establishing Key Performance Indicators 688
Overcoming measurement challenges 688
Using A/B testing 689
Comparing Metrics across Social Media 690
Tagging links 693
Analyzing the clickstream 695
Tracking your own outbound links 696
Integrating Social Media with Web Metrics 696
Using Advertising Metrics to Compare Social Media with Other Types of Marketing 699
Obtaining metrics for paid advertising 699
Applying advertising metrics to social media 701
Juxtaposing Social Media Metrics with Other Online Marketing 702
Contrasting Word-of-Web with Word-of-Mouth 703
Chapter 7: Making Decisions by the Numbers 707
Using Metrics to Make Decisions 707
Knowing When to Hold and When to Fold 708
Diagnosing Problems with Social Media Campaigns 713
Fixing Problems 714
Your social presence cant be found 715
Inappropriate match between channel and audience 715
Poor content 715
Lack of audience engagement 716
The four Ps of marketing 717
Adjusting to Reality 719
Index 721