Utilizing Social Media for Your Business Jenny Dewey Rohrich prairiecalifornian.com Why Utilize Social Media? We don t have a choice on whether we do

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1 Utilizing Social Media for Your Business Jenny Dewey Rohrich prairiecalifornian.com Why Utilize Social Media? We don t have a choice on whether we do social media, the choice is how well we do it. -- Erik Qualman, #Socialnomics People are talking about your business online whether you are there or not! Creates a hub for your business online Discoverable: when people search for you, they will find you Connected: have conversations with your customers Timely: reach customers regarding new products, innovations, or current events/trends Insightful: analytics will help you understand your customers What Platforms Are Best For You Website/Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Why Website? = Home Base Content: You own your own content, always have access to it Community: You are building your own community on your own site Control: You have control of community and what you post Insights: You have in depth information about who is visiting your page and what they are looking at Utilize social media to grow blog community Website or Blog Most already have website. Add blog portion to it! Website Basics Essential to stay up to date. Website is an investment. More traffic = more customers (Templates make this more simple) USE PHOTOS! People love to know that people run a business & brand About Page: give the reader a preview of who you are, what people can expect from your business o Share Family Stories: people love connecting with a personal story Contact Page: give readers a way to contact you Call to Action: subscription, follow, like on social media Sidebars, Headers, Footers: keep it simple, not cluttered, clearly label, utilize them to keep people on your page Creating Your Facebook Page Profile Photo o Make it recognizable, whether it be brand or faces, can point back to website in description Cover Photo o Keep in mind that cover photo dimensions are 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, use high quality photos Add Call to Action Button o Store, newsletter, contact us Utilize About Section

2 o Add keywords in your description so that you re easy to find/searchable Be Facebook Savvy Be Consistent: anywhere from 1-3 times a day OR 1-4 times a week, depends on your audience Share images/photos from the SOURCE o ALWAYS give credit to the original author/creator of any posts o Can tag by symbol plus name of FB page Saving photos and reposting them as originals is NOT the appropriate way to share content o Technically, it is illegal as those images are copyright to someone else o If you can t find original poster, just don t share To help with consistency, use FB Schedule tool! Facebook Live Estimated by 2018, two thirds of social media usage will be video, FB already giving priority to video in its algorithms Anatomy of a Tweet Reply (automatically mentions user who tweeted Retweet o Direct (posts tweet directly to your feed) o Add Comment (add your own commentary) Like o Lets user know you ve liked their tweet #Hashtags o Searchable key terms o Can be added by you in mention or retweet o Exposes content to more people o Most popular hashtags will be trending Creating Your Twitter Page Create username o Shorter the better, 140 characters to use your username is part of those character Connect with Others o Twitter is more about building connections than intimate or personal communities Add Profile Details o Profile photo: easily recognizable o Header photo: great place to put other social media usernames o Bio: don t go overboard with hashtags. Cleanly and simply describes what your business is about o Can use custom colors to match your logo Be Twitter Savvy Keep it short o 140 Character limit. link to a blog post or website if you have a longer message to convey. Use visuals in your Tweets o Add image, video, or GIF to your Tweets, people are 3xmore likely to engage with Tweets that contain videos and photos o Can attach up to four photos to a single Tweet. Incorporate relevant hashtags o Focus on keywords that are relevant to your business. Best practices recommend using no more than two hashtags per Tweet. o Search out popular hashtags on Twitter

3 Ask questions and run polls o Asking questions is an effective way to to interact with your audience. o Use Twitter polls to survey on specific responses. Curate and connect with Retweets and replies o Retweeting relevant content and replying to Tweets are great ways to build community. o Remember: your Retweets reflect back on your business and should align with your purpose and values. Be responsive to any questions, comments, and criticisms that come your way. o To avoid long exchanges, switch to Direct Messages to resolve any complex issues. Twitter s Video Platform: Periscope Twitter s version of Facebook Live - Only live for 24 hours, doesn t store like Facebook Live Instagram: What Kind of Content? Instagram is the one platform that most brands create content exclusively for, cross posting doesn t work (links aren t clickable) All photos and short 15 second videos Use #Hashtags o Hashtags are searchable, easy to see what hashtags are most popular Creating Your Instagram Page Fairly Simple & Basic Username: Try to keep short, helps if same as Twitter username Profile photo: will be cropped into a circle and appear as a 150 x 150 pixel image Bio: simply describes what your business is about Be Instagram Savvy Use Captions o Play with different caption lengths for your audience. Incorporate #hashtags Engage with Your Audience o Engage with comments, questions, hashtags, location tags, behind the scenes photos o Can create a community #hashtag for people to share posts with your products! (Regram - app - their images on your IG account) Location & People Tags o Include location (geotag) of your business or tag other relevant businesses in your post. Image tools o Edit your images and videos with filters and other creative tools (like Hyperlapse, Layout and Boomerang) available in the Instagram app Search & Explore o Use Search & Explore to discover people, locations, and posts that may be relevant to your business Pinterest: What Kind of Content? Pin content your audience likes o Recipes, how-to s, infographics, meat resources o Amazingly, Whole Foods is one of the best examples out there Pin to increase traffic to website/blog o Make your website Pinterest friendly (Plugins for many sites) Pin for online sales o Utilize out of the box images to sell products No matter what you pin, make sure it is visually appealing and engaging. Pinterest is ALL about the pictures. Create Your Pinterest Page

4 Set up your business account o Verify your website, link to your other social media accounts Set up your Boards o Create boards that will be attractive to your customers o Pinterest Board names are also searchable, so include key words! Pin to your boards Search under Keywords and Categories on the Pinterest Dashboard to find content to repin o Pin content from your own website or other sources Feature VERTICAL images people will want to share o Vertical images must be at least 600px wide for Pinterest o Try text overlays to help people browse and discover faster Optimize your website to allow Rich Pins o Rich pins show more information about the link you want people to click on. Pinterest currently has five types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product, and place. Be Pinterest Savvy Utilize Pinterest s categories (Food & Drink most popular) Be creative with your Pin captions ( characters) o explain why this content would be useful to your customers o mention your company s name and website URL in the caption (if applicable) o Use keywords (all words in captions are searchable on Pinterest) Be Copyright Savvy o Don t firsthand pin any images that aren t your own Check the Source of the Pin o When re-pinning, click to see if pins are sourced to a legitimate website. o Give credit where credit is due! Pin across a range of Boards o Add pins gradually, and start new boards as you feel necessary. May be possible to pin something to two different boards Create Group Boards o Allow multiple people to pin to one board Three C s: Creating & Curating Content Some questions to ask yourself o Who I am writing to? o What message do I want to get across? Keep a list of ideas to pull from o Pool resources & related images on subject Best Approach? o A mixture of created AND curated content Some general rules for posting: o Follow 80/20 rule, 80% of posts should be social. 20% of posts should pertain to product/services/selling o Keep posts within about 80 characters o Don t publish anything you wouldn t want to be already public Three C s: Building Community Pick a platform that works for you and use it consistently Takes time & work Establish schedule, consistency is key

5 o Depending on platform, could be 1-4 times a day or 1-4 times a week, find what works best for you o Include multiple contributors: much easier to be consistent if you have several people sharing the responsibility of curating content. Collaborate with a neighbor, friend or coworker Be authentic, don t be something you aren t o Don t be an expert/authority on something you aren t Engage with your readers o ASK QUESTIONS! Questions have 92% higher comment rate! o Respond to comments AND questions, best time frame within 24 hours o Engage them in polls Know your audience o Who are your customers, what do they like? Utilize Insights o Vary posts to see which ones do the best o Can help you target posts to certain audiences even without paying for it Engage with your readers & other companies o Tag other companies in shares, share other companies relevant posts (@ symbol plus handle/name Utilize #Hashtags on relevant platforms o Search #hashtags to see which are popular and most searched Utilize other forms of social media, cross post o Different communities on different platforms, may not see content on a certain platform o More advanced, tailor content to the specific platform Include links to website on social media platforms Let customers know you re on social media Be Social Media Savvy Keep in mind who your audience is o Stick to your experience, if you aren t an expert someone out there is (connections) o Post content relevant to your audience Keep it simple, utilize popular keywords or #hashtags Define any industry terms (even simple ones!) Put your voice in every post If necessary, provide related info & links Quality wins every time o Proofread and then proofread again! Try to be consistent in usernames, logos, & profile photos on all platforms makes you more recognizable Resources for Social Media Website o Platforms: Wordpress, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, many more! o Themes: Themeforest Image Resources o PicMonkey or Canva Scheduling Resources (Some free, some paid some provide mobile access) o HootSuite (Twitter, FB) o Tailwind (Pinterest)

6 o Coschedule (Twitter, FB, Pinterest, Blog) o In-app scheduling Storing Links/Photos/Posts, etc. o Evernote (easily sinks with phone via app, share content on both devices) o Dropbox (files only- also sinks with phone via app) o Secret Pinterest Board o Content Resources National & Local Animal Associations o Pork, Beef, Poultry National & State Meat Associations Other Meat Processors Food Bloggers (recipes, how-to videos) Questions? Contact Jenny (701) jenny@prairiecalifornian.com prairiecalifornian.com

How to Set-Up a Basic Twitter Page

How to Set-Up a Basic Twitter Page 1. Go to http://twitter.com and find the sign up box, or go directly to https://twitter.com/signup 1 2. Enter your full name, email address, and a password 3. Click Sign