Playing in the “Social Media Sandbox” can be exhilarating, fun and often rewarding. Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and blogs have created endless opportunities to share brand messages, engage and grow. But, ones presence in the social media world has to be more than simply shooting from the hip. Careful planning, strategic implementation and setting of goals are key to social media success. Even if your organization has already started using social media, even aggressively, going back to square one and setting goals is still key. Here are my Top Ten Goals every enterprise should set:

1- Define Your Goals:

Before the actual setting of goals it is essential to understand why you are crafting them and prepare to define those goals clearly. By clearly defining goals you will be able to measure success and failure. So many times I get asked the question, how do I report back our return on investment (ROI). There can be no measuring of success or reporting ROI if your goals have not been clearly defined. This should be step one and your team must be ready to put significant time and thought into each goal as it pertains to your organization.

2- Create a Way to Measure ROI

ROI is a word that gets thrown around a lot. In fact, its one of the most popular “buzz” words used in conjunction with social media. But, what exactly does ROI mean and better yet, what does it mean for your organization. When it comes to measuring return on investment in the social media world things can get a bit murky. Investment can mean several things, dollars, hours etc…. Before you can measure what the return on investment is there must be a discussion that helps define what the organizations social media investment is. The next question to answered – what is the “return” your organization is looking for. Is it a particular number of “Likes” on Facebook or Twitter followers. Or, is it about engagement, clicks, check-ins, purchases or a combination of all or some of these things. Social media encompasses many different platforms, interactions and results so it is imperative your organization has a clear understanding of what results/return, they are expecting.

3- Craft a Top-Notch Social Media Policy

Recently Global Strategic Management Institute hosted the Social Media Legal Risks and Strategies Summit in Boston. During the event the common thread was the importance of crafting a detailed and organization specific social media policy. Simply locating a policy from an organization that is similar to yours and re-purposing that document is not enough. Your organizations social media policy is an essential document that will both protect and help build your brand. For a starting point check out Kyle-Beth Hilfer’s post on Social Axcess: A Guide for Managing Employees on Social Media

4- Social Media Education

While most people have heard of Facebook, Twitter and blogging, and maybe even have accounts on some or all of these social platforms, that doesn’t mean they understand how to use them for your organization. Prior to giving any employee access to these accounts there must be some type of education and instruction. Even for those who don’t have direct access to accounts, they should be, at a minimum, briefed on how the organization is using social platforms.

5- Define Roles

Who will be running each social platform? Will it be a team, one person, or will you hire an outside agency? Why is that person, group of people or agency going to be assigned to that role? These are just some of the many questions that need to be answered before you begin your social media strategy. Defining roles should take careful consideration and time. The goal of defining roles must be defined clearly and met before launching any social strategy.

6- Find Your Brands “Voice”

Having the right social media voice for your enterprise is key. This can be difficult when multiple people are crafting messages and even more difficult when an outside agency, not as familiar with the day-to-day workings of your organization, becomes the voice. There are many considerations that will go into finding your voice including, your audience, what products/services are being sold, what the over-all social media goals are etc…. Reaching goal five, Defining Roles, before finding your brands voice is important as those individuals should be a part of finding the right voice behind the brand.

7- Select the Right Social Media Monitoring System (SMMS)

When you first start engaging on social platforms you won’t have too difficult of a time monitoring interactions. However, as your presence grows it will become more and more overwhelming and that’s why it’s important to find the right social media monitoring system. Recently GSMI has research some of the leading SMMS and have been releasing their findings. Feel free to use these reports to help you find the right social media monitoring system for your organization.

8- Create a Social Media Presence Across Platforms

Many people think the first goal/step should be to create a presence on social media platforms. However, setting and reaching goals one through seven, should come before creating a presence on any social media platform. Many reading this post have most likely already created accounts on Facebook, Twitter and many even a blog, this is okay. Just take a step back and re-evaluate your presence on those platforms you’re using. In addition, look at some of the less “popular” social platforms and consider if you might want to establish a presence on those as well. Make sure you understand what the brands goals for each platform are and how you expect to reach them. Just “being” there isn’t enough.

9- Listen and Understand

Listening is key. There are countless businesses of all shapes and sizes using social platforms. Start by looking at what these organizations are doing and figuring out if their efforts are working or, as the Twitter world puts it, are they a #Fail. Listen to your consumers, what are they talking about, what do they respond to on social sites and where exactly are they. The world of traditional marketing allowed brands the opportunity to shout out messages with little to no room for consumer feedback. In the world of social media consumer feed back rules and you must be prepared to listen if you want to be successful in the social media sphere.

10- Engage

The last goal should be to begin social media engagement. By establishing and meeting goals one through nine first, engagement should come naturally and result in higher success rates. Be ready to constantly revisit goals one through nine and make sure you continue to reach those goals as they change and shift. Social media is not static and your strategy should be adaptable.

Check out GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Summit to learn more ways to improve your social media marketing strategies.

1- Define What Makes a Brand Evangelist

Before you can begin to locate brand evangelists you must first define what makes someone one.  Is it the number of comments they post, how many times they re-tweets, their frequency of likes or pins or, instead, is it the quality of their actions, meaningful comments, answering brand questions, purchasing significant products or services?  There are many things that could qualify someone as a brand advocate so take the time and decide whats the perfect recipe for a your organizations brand evangelist.

2- Define Who Qualifies as a Brand Evangelist

Can employees, family and friends of employees be brand evangelists for your organization? Do brand evangelists have to be from a certain state, country or set of countries?  Be clear on qualifications for who can and who cannot participate as a brand evangelist. Knowing who can and cannot qualify as a brand evangelist will help you find the right supporters quickly.

3- Pull Together a Brand Evangelist Program

If you’re looking for brand evangelists you should have a clear understanding of why you are looking for them and what you will do once you find them. Further, this step can help you decide what actions and types of folks would fit well into the brand evangalists program, allowing you to search more specifically.

4- Decide what to Look For

There are literally millions upon millions of conversations via social media platforms so sifting through these can be difficult. Some of your strongest evangelists may not be posting directly to your Facebook Page or Tweeting you. Instead they may be talking about your brand, giving recommendations and singing your praises on blogs, forum you’ve never heard of and on Facebook Pages and to Twitter handles not directly connected to you. These are the folks you want to locate.  To do this create a strong list of key words that will alert you when the right conversations are happening. Set up alerts and searches through Google Alerts or another free or paid service like Radian 6, Shoutlet or Wildfire.

5- How Many Brand Evangelists

Depending on your strategy for utilizing brand evangelists you will want to decide on a number of evangelists you’re are looking for.  Whether your limit is 10 or 10,000 it is important to know your top number before you start.  This will help you better qualify each possible evangelist.  Once you find a brand evangelist you will want to do something with the very important group.  Be sure your strategy or program is something that can be handled by your team.

6- Check Your Social Sites

Along with being alerted for conversations it’s still extremely important to watch all of your social sites to see who is engaging, how often and in what manner. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin and Pinterest are some of the main sites that should be monitored on a daily basis. While monitoring these sites pay close attention to whose engaging.

7- Track Activity

To have a clear understanding of who is truly a brand evangelists and not simply posting or talking intermittently it’s a good idea to track activity.  Keep a spreadsheet with the names, types of activities and how often to show you who stays involved in a meaningful way over a period of time.

8- Reach Out to Evangelists

You’ve been watching from afar, taking notes and judging activity but there will come a time when reaching out and starting a conversation will be required.  If you think someone may be a true brand evangelist reach out and ask some questions to find out if your perception of their brand loyalty is accurate and if that person would even be open to being your organizations evangelist.

9- Use the Right Tools

Monitoring manually should absolutely be part of your strategy but it can’t be the only tool.  There are too many conversations, too many social platforms and not enough eyes on your team to track all of this.  In order to run a successful brand evangelist program and get the best evangelists participating you’ll need to start using some search and alert tools. There are free tools like Google Alerts and then there are more advanced tools that aren’t so free like Radian6 and Shoutlet that will do a lot of the work for you.  In fact, Shoutlet has the ability to rank how people engage with your brand.  These days there’s probably a tool available that can do most of the searching and organizing for you, if you can afford it.

10- Do Something with your Findings!

Now that you’ve found the best brand evangelists for your organization it’s time to get your strategy running. Whatever you do don’t just locate these brand evangelists and keep their names on a list somewhere. My next top ten will give you guidance on how to get your brand evangelist campaign up and running but for now keep on looking and cultivating your evangelists!

If you’re interested in learning more about social media marketing consider attending one of GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Summits:

SMSS Denver August 21-22, 2012

SMSS San Francisco September 25-26, 2012

SMSS Minneapolis October 3-4, 2012

SMSS Boston October 23-25, 2012

SMSS London November 6-8, 2012

SMSS Las Vegas February 5-7, 2015

1) Monitor for Risk Management

Risk management is an important part of any social media strategy.  There are lots of things that can go wrong and social media can quickly escalate any situation.  Engaging on social platforms can be a bit scary when we’ve seen hashtag’s go wrong for McDonalds, negative viral videos popping up for Dominos and emails sent to thousands of customers rather than internally. Any risk management strategy must include monitoring for those possible risks so you can get involved as quickly as possible and not get caught off guard.

2) Monitor for Negative Chatter

Not all negative chatter rises to the level of a “crisis” but that doesn’t mean negative comments, tweets or posts aren’t important. Monitoring for negative social conversations around even topics that are relate to the organization is extremely important. These conversations can give your organization direction and insight and also allows an opportunity for the brand to get involved in the conversation. Even though people may not agree with everything your brand does or says they will respect that you’re paying attention and willing to join the conversation

3) Monitor to be a Resource

If your organization can answer questions, give guidance and be a resource this creates positive sentiment for the brand. As we all know, times have changed and brands are now expected to do more than push their message out to the masses.  In order to be a resource it will be necessary to locate the conversations you can contribute to.

4) Monitor to Keep Tabs on the Competition

Social media has given us all a very unique opportunity to hear what our competitors are saying, watch what they are doing and understand what their plans of action are.  Not paying attention to what competitors are doing in social media is a lost opportunity.

5) Monitor to take Advantage of PR Opportunities

Public Relations plays a very important role in every organization no matter what size or type.  Using social media as a listening tool increases the number of opportunities you will be able to take advantage of.

6) Monitor for Spikes

Understanding why social media conversations, Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers etc…. spike is key to making those spikes occur on a more frequent basis.  This requires significant monitoring to understand what factors contribute to those spikes and when spikes are actually unrelated to any actions your organization has taken.

7) Monitor to Find Brand Evangelists

Every organization has brand evangelists, super fans and customers who support organizations they love on social media platforms. The best way to locate and cultivate brand evangelists is through social media monitoring. Monitor for conversation around your organization on various sites such as, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Linkedin and your blog.  Keep a log of who engages with your brand on various sites, how often and what types of engagement.  This can be done by simply using a spreadsheet, does not have to be fancy or extensive.

8 ) Utilize Monitoring Tools

There are plenty of free management tools but there are also some great paid tools that can help your monitoring efforts. Take the time to figure out what types of tools would work best for your organization. Here are three I’ve found have the necessary applications to take your monitoring efforts beyond simple looking for your brand name mentions:, Radian 6, Sisimos, Shoutlet

9) Create a Monitoring Team

Having more than one set of eyes on social chatter is always a good idea. Different people see different things and from unique points of view.  Don’t passively watch the chatter go by. Instead have a dedicated team who are willing to work together to monitoring in a way that is most effective.

10) Report Findings

No matter how extensive your monitoring if you do not report on findings, and frequently, your efforts will never find true success. Report your findings on a regular basis and track all your monitoring efforts.

We have some amazing Social Media Strategies Summits coming up this fall so take advantage today as early bird pricing for most events is still in effect:

Social Media Strategies Summit, Denver August 21-22, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit for Non-profits September 18, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit, San Francisco September 35-26, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit, Minneapolis October 3-4, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit, Boston October 23-25, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit, London November 6-7, 2012

Social Media Strategies Summit, Las Vegas February 5-7, 2013

1- A Great Twitter Bio

Before you start worrying about what to Tweet and when to Tweet it be sure your bio is up to snuff. There isn’t a lot of space so be careful with word choice and keep to the point.  And, do not forget to include a link to your website, blog or Facebook Page. If your followers like what you have to say they will most certainly be looking for more information about you and your products or services.

2- Management Tools

Keeping track of what your tweeting, who you’re following, whose following you, what tweets are getting the most clicks, what time of day is the best to tweet…….can get very over-whelming! In order to keep track of what your doing and what’s working I suggest investing in a management too. My favorite, Sprout Social because it’s usability is top-notch and the price is just right.

3- Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to be found.  Some people don’t realize Twitter is one of the largest search engines.  If you’re using Twitter it’s likely you want to be found. Increase your search-ability by simply adding a hashtag (#).  For example, if you’re blogging about social media try adding #SocialMedia to the end of your tweet.

4- Follow the Right Tweeters

If your goal is to reach a particular audiences then make sure you follow those tweeters.  The good news, it’s free. The bad news, it takes a significant amount of time and thought. Don’t fall for one of those, get 5,000 followers for $99 because those tweeters aren’t worth one cent. There’s no short cut to reach real people on Twitter. Look for Tweeters who are prominent in your industry and follow those tweeters who are following them.

5- Un-follow the wrong Tweeters

It’s a good rule of thumb to never be following twice as many people as are following you. While following people is key to getting new followers don’t go crazy and be sure to unfollow those whose tweets don’t interest you and/or those who don’t follow you back.  Keep in mind that everyone can see who and how many people you follow so keep it under control.

6- Catchy & Relevant Headlines

The goal for businesses using Twitter should be to grab people’s attention and then drive them to a platform where you deliver on what you’ve promised.  That means your tweets should be catchy, interesting and on point.  Think of your tweets as newspaper headlines.  But, be sure you can deliver on those headlines or you will lose credibility and followers.

7- Participate

One big mistake many brands make when using Twitter is failing to participate.  No matter how large your brand it’s necessary to do more than simply shout your messages out. Thank people for Re-Tweeting, ask and answer questions and when someone tweets you do your best to respond. When you don’t you are essentially ignoring them in front of millions of people.

8- Be Sure to Use Links

There are only 140 available characters when tweeting so make them count! If you’re not asking or answering a question you should probably be including a link to your website, Facebook Page, Podcast or interesting article. Twitter is a great opportunity to drive traffic to your various online platforms so don’t forget to use links.

9- Photos and Videos

Many people don’t realize Twitter allows you to use photos and video.  There are several cool tools for including photos when you tweet, Twitpic, Plixi, Pikchur and many of the online management tools have picture options built in.  Adding pictures and video ads an extra depth to your message so try it out.

10- Be Consistent

Being consistent is important when it comes any type of marketing, especially social media marketing.  It takes time and effort to build a strong Twitter following but if you commit it’s worth it.  Take it one day at a time and don’t give up!

Learn more about Twitter and other social media marketing tools at one of our Social Media Strategies Summits:

SMSS Denver August 21-22, 2012

SMSS San Francisco September 25-26, 2012

SMSS Minneapolis October 3-4, 2012

SMSS Boston October 23-25, 2012

SMSS London November 6-8, 2012

1- Sending Out the Same Messages Across All Platforms

Each social platform has its own language, rules and etiquette.  Understanding how all the social platforms work and following the “rules” is important if you want to successfully build an engaging community.  Because of this you must watch out for sending one message out, via a social management tool, across all the platforms. The use of hashtags (#) and handles (@) are common, and in fact very important, on Twitter but should never be used on Facebook.  In order to assure your messages are received positively its essential messages are crafted individually for each platform.  This might take a bit more time and effort but it’s an important rule to follow.

2- Scheduling and Forgetting

There are some fantastic social management tools that allow you to schedule tweets and Facebook updates.  This can save time and allow you to operate on social platforms 24/7.  In the social media marketing world there is no such thing as 9-5 and its imperative to have a presence on each platform during the week, weekends, mornings, afternoons and evenings.  Without a social media management tool one would be required to have someone on staff 24/7 and that just isn’t an option for most.  However, while scheduling messages can be a huge time and money saver be careful.  One of the biggest mistakes social management users make is they schedule their messages for months in advance and walk away.  Be sure to check over your scheduled messages to ensure they are still relevant and correct information.

3- Not Responding

Its great to schedule messages but don’t forget to pay attention and respond when social users communicate with you on your various platforms. Most social management services have great tools for listening and users should pay just as much attention, if not more, to these listening tools.  Set up alerts for when your organizations name is mentioned, when a comment is posted or your twitter handle is tweeted to and then respond promptly.  This is a new media world and the rules of traditional media do not apply.  Now we are required to do more than simply shout our messages out. Don’t make this mistake!

4- Missing the Bigger Picture

Getting your organizations message out is important but don’t forget to keep the bigger picture in mind.  What messages do your current and potential consumers want to receive? How is your strategy working? Do you have goals and if so are you reaching them? Is your audience who you thought they were? Social media allows easy ways to answer all these questions and more. Don’t loose sight of the bigger picture even though it may seem easier to simply shout out the messages you want. In the end, if this is all you do, your social media strategy will surely fail.

5- Shouting Out Messages

As stated in the previous mistakes to avoid, the goal should not be to simply shout your messages out.  Messages should provide useful information, answer common questions or simply show the human side of your organization. The Top Ten Social Media Communications post has a plethora of message examples that work.

6- Ignoring Time Zones

This is an easy mistake to make but very important! If your an organization that sells products and/or services across multiple time zones keep that in mind.  For example, Global Strategic Management Institute provides an assortment of educational services for enterprises, including conferences.  Our attendee’s come from all over the country and world! This means messages going out at 9 am EST are will be received only by our West Coast customers who are super early birds, 5 am.  This doesn’t mean we don’t send messages out at 9 am EST but we are aware that a second message, for our West Coast friends, should go out later.  Most scheduling tools allow you to change time zones but if they don’t just do the math.  To help you check out this Time Zone Table

7- Getting Stale

Be sure to stay relevant when posting messages.  Consider what’s going on in the world at the time, is it a holiday, special day for your enterprise or maybe an awareness month?  When scheduling out posts one can risk missing out on crafting messages that are relevant because of whats going on, at the moment, in the world around us.  If you’ve already scheduled your posts don’t be afraid to slip in some additional messages based on current events, special occasions and more.

8- Being Irrelevant

Have you picked up on the theme yet? Don’t get caught up in scheduling and then walking away from your community. Doing this could lead to your brand being irrelevant on the social platforms it inhabits. Be part of the conversation, post directly on the platforms once and a while and comment on others comments to your posts.  Scheduled messages should only be a part of your content strategy.

9- Not Listening

One of the best times to listen is when you are posting on the social platform. You can, literally, see if brands are sending out similar, maybe even better, messages. You will also see what type of traffic is going on, whose involved and what the discussions are about.  When you log into a management system and schedule out your Facebook updates and Tweets you are undoubtedly missing out on this opportunity to listen. Don’t get the wrong message, I am not saying you shouldn’t schedule your messages. However, if you do, be sure to still go onto all social platforms throughout the day and listen. Your message may have already posted but that should not be the only reason you’re on the various social platforms.

10 – Not Being Part of the Online Community

All of these mistakes to avoid lead to one big, very important, tip —- Do NOT take yourself out of the conversation.  The goal, for every organization, should be to build a strong and engaging community. While this community is built around your organization the brand still needs to be a a part of it. Not only should every organization work hard to play a role in their own community they should be out there researching other organizations presences on the same social sites.  Learn from what others are doing well, what they have failed at and what the chatter around their communities are.

1- Social Media Pitfalls to Avoid:

Many people focus on what they should be doing in order to have a successful social presence. While doing the right things is extremely important one must also avoid those nasty social media pitfalls that can stop your social media marketing in it’s track.  In this Top Ten I share 10 pitfalls every organization should avoid in social media marketing.

2- Integrate Loyalty into Social & Mobile

It’s clear social media and has become a powerful tool for marketing. Combining social media with traditional marketing methods, such as loyalty, can enhance any social or mobile strategy!  Look at Yelp, Foursquare and Facebook Places for just a few exciting examples of how integrating loyalty into mobile and social can yield exciting results. In this Top Ten Post I share my top five favorite ways to integrate loyalty programs into social and mobile marketing followed by the top five pitfalls to avoid.

3- Social Media Tips for Businesses

Social media can be very overwhelming! There are countless social platforms, millions of people engaging on them and an enormous amount of content to create and curate. In an effort to help businesses better navigate social media I wrote a Top Ten Post providing my top ten social media tips for businesses.

4- Tips before Measuring Social Media ROI

Measuring return on investment (ROI) is necessary but also difficult and time consuming. In this Top Ten Tuesday post I wrote about starting from square one to understand what you are doing, why you are doing it and what expectations your organization has. I share ten things every organization should do before asking the question, “what is the ROI”.

5- Create a Killer Social Media Policy

One of the most popular topics at our Social Media Strategies Summits is “How to Craft the right Social Media Policy”. While there is no one simple answer there are some simple tips and tricks that can help ensure your organization’s policy hits the mark. This post shares my 10 top tips for crafting a killer social media policy.

6- Social Media Crisis Management Tips

Social Media is a fantastic tool for building brand loyalty, awareness and of course engaging with customers. But social media can also be an extremely useful tool for handling all sorts of crisis.  This post shares my top ten tips for handling a crisis via social media.

7- Ten Simple Facebook Tips

Facebook is still the number one social platform and so it’s important to continue to stay abreast of all the innovative ways to benefit from having a presence there.  That’s why Ten Simple Facebook Tips makes onto my Top Ten favorite Top Tens.

8- Ten Simple Pinterest Tips

It’s not often that a new, easy to use and populated social platform comes around! Pinterest has been peeking my interest for a while now and I believe it’s going to become even more popular with businesses over the next 12 months. If you’re looking for ways to utilize Pinterest check out these ten simple tips.

9- EdgeRank Secrets to Master

Although I just recently wrote this Top Ten post I felt it needed to be on this Top Ten list. Understanding and taking advantage of Edgerank is key to having success on Facebook. I always say, you can have the best idea, most exciting product and competitive price but if no one knows about it you will likely fail. Edgerank is what dictates what is seen and what is now.  Check out this top ten article to get a handle on how the navigate and manipulate edgerank so that your Facebook posts are seen by more people.

10- Mistakes to Avoid When Scheduling Social Messages

This top ten is an oldie but a goodie!  There will come a time when scheduling social messages (Tweets, Posts etc…) will become necessary.  When you this time comes be sure to avoid these common mistakes!

To learn more social media tips, tricks and secrets consider attending one of GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Summits:

SMSS Denver August 21-22

SMSS San Francisco September 25-26

SMSS Minneapolis October 3-4

SMSS Boston October 23-25

SMSS London November 6-8

We are very excited to have the endorsement of celebrity CMO, best selling author and thought leader, Jeffrey Hayzlett.  In addition Hayzlett will be giving the opening keynote for Social Media Strategies Summit, Boston October 24th.  Don’t miss out on the most comprehensive social media marketing event of 2012.

Register before the event is sold out!

1- Understand what EdgeRank is:

It is essential for any business using Facebook as a marketing tool to understand EdgeRank.  EdgeRank is the algorithm used by Facebook to determine what is displayed in everyone’s Newsfeed. Just because an individual clicks “Like” on your Facebook Page does not mean that person actually sees what you’re posting.

Facebook uses three key factors when deciding edgrank; Affinity, Weight and Time Decay.

2- Understand Affinity

Affinity is the strength of ones relationship with a Facebook friend, Group or Page.  This is determined by how often someone engages with their Facebook friend(s) or company Page(s). It is important to understand Affinity is decided on a case by case basis.  If I engage often with Facebook.com/gsmiweb then posts from facebook.com/gsmiweb will likely appear in my Newsfeed.  On the other-hand, if I never “Like” any of their posts, never comment and never share then posts by facebook.com/gsmiweb will not appear in my Newsfeed.

In a nut shell, anything you post will only appear in the newsfeed of those individuals who engage often with your Facebook Page.

3- Understand Weight

Weight considers not how often someone interacts but what types of interaction they engage in.  Different interactions carry different weight.  For instance, if someone simply likes one of your posts that carries smaller “weight” than if they comment on the post or even share that post.  No one knows the exactly calculations but it’s appears as though commenting and sharing carries larger weight than simply browsing or liking.

4- Understand Time Decay

Time Decay simply factors in how recent your post is. Something that was posted a week prior will most likely not show up in someones news feed even if they have a high affinity and it’s a heavily weighted post

5- Post More Engaging Content

To increase affinity you will have to figure out a way to get people to engage with your Facebook Page more often.  Keep in mind you must increase affinity for each person who likes your page, or at least most of them.  To do this post engaging content that appeals to most of your community.  Things like questions, polls and trivia are great ways to engage an online community.   Remember, affinity is decided on an individual basis.

6- Provide Clear Calls to Action

Once you’ve figured out what types of post will encourage your community to engage the next step is to provide clear calls to action.  If you post a trivia question be sure to instruct people to comment on the post with their answer. Include instructions for people to Like their favorite photo, tag themselves in photos and share content. Affinity requires people engage with your Page so be clear and instruct people as to how they can engage.

Clear calls to action will also help increase weight.  Again, different levels of weight are assigned to various actions people take on your page.  Because of this you should switch things up and ask people to do different things.  This will be more interesting for your Facebook community and will help increase weight in the Edgerank algorithm.

7-Appeal to Larger Audience

Because Edgerank works on an individual basis you should be working to engage a larger audience. If you have a small group of people who engage often with your page your posts will likely show up in their newsfeed.  But, what about everyone else?  Try different campaigns that will engage more of your audience more often.  Dunkin’ Donuts does this well with their Fan of the Week contest.

8- Avoid Attracting Low Affinity Likers

Contests simply giving unrelated prizes away attracts folks who will never engage with your brand and thus your messages won’t show up in their newsfeed. Instead attract those who will engage with your brand. If you have a million Likes but only 25 people who actually see your content you’ve lost the Facebook race.  Build a meaningful online community instead of trying to stack the decks.

9- Include Photos, Links & Videos as Often as Possible

Facebook Pages with the best edgerank scores are those that  always include photos, links and videos in their post. Text only posts don’t provide many options for engagement and certainly don’t catch people’s eyes.  Consider including a photo, link or video all of your posts to increase the likely hood that someone will watch, browse, click, like, comment or share. When someone engages this increases both your affinity and weight to be sure to increase the likelihood that people will engage in meaningful ways!

10- Post Consistently and at the Right Times

To avoid Time Decay it is imperative you post often, at least once a day.  If your affinity and weight are good it won’t matter one bit if you post infrequently.  Make it a habit to post at least one time seven days a week.  Studies have shown the best times to post are; 7am EST, 5 pm EST, 11pm EST.

I hope you’ve found today’s Top Ten helpful! If you have any suggestions of how people can increase their Edgerank please leave a comment. If you would like to share your brands Facebook Page please do so and I will be sure to Like and engage as often as possible!

To learn more about Edgerank and other social media marketing tools, strategies and tactics consider attending one of GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Summits:

SMSS Denver August 21-22

SMSS San Francisco September 25-26

SMSS Minneapolis October 3-4

SMSS Boston October 23-25

SMSS London November 6-8

1- Plan for All Phases of Social Success

2- Know the Rules of the Game

3- Social Media Policy Must Haves

4- Craft Killer Subject Lines for your Email Marketing

5- Social Service is a Failure

The founder of Social Media Customer Service, Frank Eliason, shared some key insights during his keynote presentation this past Thursday. Eliason told his audience; Social Service is a Failure! Eliason gave three key reasons for this statement

1. Social Service is not about shutting up the loudest Customers!
2. Each interaction must drive change through all service channels
3. Customers prefer social! Not! Sorry this is a myth

6- Social is no Longer just a “Marketing” Goal

Spredfast was a sponsor of Social Media Strategies Summit, Miami and their Director of Social Media, Jordan Slabaugh presented Scaling Social Across the Enterprise.  Slabaugh shared many useful tips and advice but the one that stood out the most for me was her insight that social is no longer just a marketing goal but also includes community, brand awareness, sales and customer service.

Social media helps activate community, build relationships and power word of mouth marketing (WOM). In addition social aides in building awareness of your brand, messaging and company.  When it comes to sales social media can generate leads and make online sales. Finally, social can be used to conduct Social Care efforts to help customers and prospects.

7- Data by Itself is Virtually Useless

Murray Izenwasser shared some extremely useful insights at Social Media Strategies Summit, Miami. Data has been a big focus for brands for many years.  The rise of social media has only enhanced the desire for data. For data to be helpful Murray explains you must have History, Relevance and Context.  With all data you must understand the relationship to the past (History), understand the relationship to someone’s job (Relevance) and the relationship to programs (Context). Once their is a clear understand of how the data relates to history, relevance and context it is only then that you will have real data that will make sense and make a difference.

8- When in Doubt Disclose

Warner Bros. Attorney Dana Lira presented a case study on how Warner Bros. successfully marketed Harry Potter through social media channels. During her presentation Lira spoke about FTC Guidelines On Testimonials and Endorsements.  She spoke about how this impacts what employees/representatives can say about products & services.  The audience was anxious to hear how they could navigate this to which Lira told them to ask themselves two questions; Is the statement or communication “sponsored”? and does the statement or communication constitute advertising? If the answer is yes to either of these questions you have an endorsement.  However, when answering these two questions Lira highly recommends, when in doubt disclose!

 9- Profile Your Target Follower

We were very lucky to have a keynote dedicated to the hugely popular social platform, Pinterest. Daniel Maloney and Alex Topiler walked attendees through the steps necessary to build a powerful presence on Pinterest. During their presentation Maloney and Topiler advised Pinterest users should profile their target follower.  To do this they suggested the following:

• Pick 2-3 Pinterest categories that are most relevant to them
• List 5 things they LOVE
• List 5 things they have a hard time finding
• List 2 things you want to expose them to
• List their 10 favorite sites

10 – Build 12 Boards

Well we can’t leave you hanging with #9 so our final top ten is also provided by the Pinterest guys.  After you’ve profiled your target follower Maloney and Topiler recommend you build 12 boards; 5 things they LOVE + 5 things they have a hard time finding + 2 things you want to expose them to.  They go on to share several tips for doing this; List boards in the 2-3 Pinterest categories, Pin content from their 10 favorite sites, Minimum 10 pins per board, Pick a beautiful, landscape cover photo

There were many more amazing tips, advice and insights provided at Social Media Strategies Summit, Miami. If you missed this event be sure to register for one of our upcoming summits:

SMSS Denver August 21-22

SMSS San Francisco September 25-26

SMSS Minneapolis October 3-4

SMSS Boston October 23-25

SMSS London November 6-8

STEP #1: Request an Invitation

Pinterest is not open to the general public so don’t expect to sign up for an account without some work.  There are two ways to start a Pinterest account for your business: 1) Request an invitation directly from Pinterest OR 2) Get invited by a friend who already has an account.

If you request an invitation directly from Pinterest it can take as little as one day or as long as several weeks before your request is approved.  This can be a bit annoying if you’re excited to get started but rest assure you will be approved eventually.

For those lucky folks who know someone who already has an account on Pinterest you can get started much faster. Simply ask your friend for an invitation and you will receive an invite to join Pinterest immediately.  Because I appreciate all my readers I will be more than happy to send each of you an invitation. Simply email me at meaghan[dot]edelstein[@]gsmiweb[dot]com and I will send you a Pinterest invite.

STEP #2: Receive Invitation and Create Account

Once you’ve received your invitation, either from Pinterest or another Pinterest user, simply click on the link provided in your email invitation.

When you click on the link you’ll be brought to a welcome page on Pinterest. From here you will need to sign up with either Facebook or Twitter.

IMPORTANT: keep in mind Pinterest is designed for individuals and not businesses. If you sign up for Pinterest through your Facebook account your Pinterest account will be directly linked to your personal Facebook profile and not your businesses Facebook Page.  Because of this I highly recommend you sign up for Pinterest using your business Twitter account.

STEP #3: Click 10 Pins that Fit your Businesses Personality

The next step is where the fun begins! Pinterest wants to know a bit more about you so they can suggest Pinners you might want to follow and figure out what Pinners might share interests with you.  Take time to select 10 images that fit well with your brand.

STEP #4: Create First Boards

Now you get to create boards. Pinterest boards are where you will pin images so take time to figure out what types of boards would make the most sense and appeal to your audience. New boards can be added any time so don’t rush the process.  Example of some good business boards:

STEP #5:  Build About Section

This is a very important step! Again, keep in mind Pinterest was designed with the individual in mind. Don’t go through the process to quickly and accidentally enter your actual name or personal information instead of the business.  If your business is Global Strategic Management Institute enter the first name as “Global Strategic” and last name as “Management Institute”.  Whatever you enter as first and last name will be what appears at the top of your organizations Pinterest account.  In addition, this is how people will find you when they enter your organizations name in the search box:

You also want to be sure to provide a complete and accurate about section and always include your website. This is how Pinterest users will know who you are, what you do and how to find you.

STEP #6:  Start Pinning

Now you can finally start Pinning images.  But before you get going make sure you know the best types of images to pin, times, frequency and how to optimize all of your pins!

I hope this has been helpful.  If you’re looking for more guidance on how to best utilize Pinterest and other social platforms for your organization check out one of our Social Media Strategies Summits!