Michelle Krasniak - Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies

Are curious about ubiquitous social media

Are comfortable using search terms on search engines to find information online

Know the realities of your industry, though you may not have a clue whether your competitors use social media

Can describe your target markets, though you may not be sure whether your audience is using social media

Are trying to decide whether using social media makes sense for your company (or your boss has asked you to find out)

May already use social media personally and are interested in applying your knowledge and experience to business

May already have tried using social media for your company but want to improve results or measure return on your investment

Have a passion for your business, appreciate your customers, and enjoy finding new ways to improve your bottom line

If our assumptions are correct, this book will help you organize a social marketing presence without going crazy or spending all your waking hours online. It will help you figure out whether a particular technique makes sense, how to get the most out of it, and how to measure your results.

To make your experience easier, we use various icons in the margins to identify special categories of information.

These hints help you save time, energy, or aggravation. Sharing them is our way of sharing what we’ve figured out the hard way — so that you don’t have to. Of course, if you prefer to get your education through the school of hard knocks, be our guest.

This book has more details in it than any normal person can remember. This icon reminds you of points made elsewhere in the book or perhaps helps you recall business best practices that you know from your own experience.

Heed these warnings to avoid potential pitfalls. Nothing we suggest will crash your computer beyond repair or send your marketing campaign into oblivion. But we tell you about business and legal pitfalls to avoid, plus a few traps that catch the unprepared during the process of configuring social media services. Not all those services create perfect user interfaces with clear directions!

The geeky-looking Dummies Man marks information to share with your developer or programmer — unless you are one. In that case, have at it. On the other hand, you can skip any of the technical-oriented information without damaging your marketing plans or harming a living being.

You can find an online cheat sheet on the book’s companion website. Go to www.dummies.com and type Social Media Marketing All-in-One For Dummies in the Search box. The cheat sheet contains secrets for social media marketing success, online resources, and more.

The website also has a Downloads tab you can open to download copies of the Social Media Marketing Goals and Social Media Marketing Plan forms, which you can use to develop your own marketing plans. In addition, the website is the place to find any significant updates or changes that occur between editions of this book.

As always with All-in-One Dummies books, the minibooks are self-contained. If there’s a topic you want to explore immediately, start with the detailed Table of Contents or index.

If you’re just starting out with social media, we recommend reading minibooks 1and 2. The chapters in Book 1act as an overview of social media and will help you figure out how to integrate social media into your online marketing plan, which in turn is part of your overall marketing plan. Remember, social media is the tail — your business is the dog! Book 1will help you establish reasonable expectations for a return on investment and structure an appropriate allocation of time, personnel, and funds to achieve success.

Book 2offers an overview of tools to manage your social media marketing efforts. You’ll also learn how to leverage your existing search engine optimization approach to maximize the value of social media postings to earn better ranking on search results pages.

The six minibooks that follow focus on popular and niche social media services, with detailed how-to descriptions for putting together a content marketing strategy, marketing with social media, and advertising on social networks. The final minibook is a deep dive into social media analytics, so you can gather the information you need to make data-driven marketing decisions.

We wish you a fun and profitable experience going social!

Book 1

1 Chapter 1: Making the Business Case for Social Media Making Your Social Debut Defining Social Media Marketing Understanding the Benefits of Social Media Understanding the Cons of Social Media Integrating Social Media into Your Overall Marketing Effort Developing a Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan

2 Chapter 2: Tallying the Bottom Line Preparing to Calculate Return on Investment Accounting for Customers Acquired Online Establishing Key Performance Indicators for Sales Tracking Leads Understanding Other Common Business Metrics Determining Return on Investment

3 Chapter 3: Plotting Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Locating Your Target Market Online Segmenting Your B2C Market Researching B2B Markets Conducting Other Types of Market Research Online Setting Up Your Social Media Marketing Plan

4 Chapter 4: Managing Your Cybersocial Campaign Managing Your Social Media Schedule Building Your Social Media Marketing Dream Team Creating a Social Media Marketing Policy Staying on the Right Side of the Law Protecting Your Brand Reputation

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Accentuating the positives and eliminating the negatives

Latching on to the affirmatives

Integrating social media into your marketing plan

Evaluating the worth of social media

In the best of all worlds, social media — a suite of online services that facilitates two-way communication and content sharing — can become a productive component of your overall marketing strategy. These services can enhance your company’s online visibility, strengthen relationships with your clients, and expand word-of-mouth advertising, which is the best type.

Given its rapid rise in popularity and its hundreds of millions of worldwide users, social media marketing sounds quite tempting. These tools require minimal upfront cash and, theoretically, you’ll find customers flooding through your cyberdoors, ready to buy. It sounds like a no-brainer — but it isn’t, especially now that so many social media channels have matured into a pay-to-play environment with paid advertising.