Monday 24 April 2017

12. Finally, a Synopsis

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the last in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   It’s been a pleasure sharing my knowledge about social media and the independent consumer based business.     Good fortune.


What to post
Where does the informational, marketing and brand content come from?
Accounts that you need:
Holidays and Trends
Company Updates
How To… info
1.       LinkedIn
 Alt week
1 x week
1 x week
Your product in real life, how it can benefit your client… what problem do you solve?   What is your brand about (in terms of benefit to your clients?)  None of this should be in sales or advertising terms.  All of it should sound like a lecture or Ted Talk.
LinkedIn Company Page

1 x week
1 x week
LinkedIn Write Articles


Alt week
2.       Facebook Account
Daily – 1
1 x week
1 week
One liner with title plus link to Blog, YouTube, or LinkedIn Post with information and how to for viewer.
Business Facebook Page

1 x week
1 x week
One liner with title plus link to Blog, YouTube, or LinkedIn Post with information and how to for viewer. 
3.       Twitter account
Daily
Daily
Daily
One liner with title plus link to Blog, YouTube, or LinkedIn Post with information and how to for viewer.
4.       YouTube
never
1 x 2 weeks
1 x week
Primarily a Forum for how to do stuff and real info.   Always include links to your websites
5.       Blogs

1 x week
1 x week
Your product in real life, how it can benefit your client… what problem do you solve?   What is your brand about (in terms of benefit to your clients?)  None of this should be in sales or advertising terms.  All of it should sound like a lecture or Ted Talk.
6.       Instagram
Daily-1
1 x week
1 x week
Photos of your products, services, brand, good works, campaigns
7.       Snapchat




8.       Pinterest
Alt week
1 x week
1 x week
Attach links to your company pages on the pictures, reshare other peoples
9.       Google Maps
Daily – 1
1 x week
1 x week
One liner with title plus link to Blog, YouTube, or LinkedIn Post with information and how to for viewer.
10.    Google+ and Brand Account Google Page
1 x week
1 x week
1 x week
One liner with title plus link to Blog, YouTube, or LinkedIn Post with information and how to for viewer. 
11.    Hootsuite : to schedule future posts

1 x week
1 x week

Wednesday 12 April 2017

11. Hootsuite

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 11th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.   Good fortune.

“And the elves were able to do it all in one night…. “   I envy the elves.  No social networker is an elf with such magical powers.  Maintaining accounts and posting takes buckets of time.  Much of the posting is redundant (same stuff or almost the same stuff across many platforms).  If only there was a piece of software that could automate this process!

Well there is.  No one spot can allow you to publish to all networks in exactly the way you need, however, Hootsuite comes pretty darn near close. 

Sign up for Hootsuite and pay for the basic account (you will need it).   Enter in all your social networks.   

Streams allow you to view whats going on in any of your social networks and also to see what you published and what is scheduled.   

Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts ahead.   

Hootsuite allows you to publish on a number of different platforms - one post going many places.   

These 2 features make Hootsuite an essential service.  

Now you can begin publishing most of your stuff from one single location.  The scheduling feature allows you to spend a day on Twitter or Facebook posts, schedule the series and leave the topic for the next number of weeks or months.  It allows you to experiment with time of day publishing and frequencies.  Finally, it allows you to publish bulk or batch entries.  

Hootsuite is an essential service. 







Thursday 6 April 2017

10. Google Pages

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 10th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Good fortune.
Yes these still exist!!  If you sign in with your Google Account, you have access to Google+ and Brand Accounts.   The Brand Account is a place where you can advertise your business.  

To verify that the business is yours and that you have the right to make edits, Google chooses to use pins which they mail you via the speedy and ultra reliable Canada Post and  US Postal System.   Enter the pin upon receiving it.   There is usually a 2 week expiry on them.  This is annoying, because the pins that I have requested generally come in about 6 weeks due to the responsiveness of the classic mail service. 

This pin system is also used for adwords and why I stopped using adwords for clients.  It is a slow and painful process.   The multiple verifications required make the development process too slow for most clients.  

So, be prepared before you start creating your Google Page and Brand Account.   Have your photos, videos, and written descriptions ready to go. Complete all your basic posting and editing and adding photos before requesting your pin.   Major edits require new pin numbers.

Because Google is a search engine, and the search engine of choice for most of the western world, it is important to have a presence on Google platforms.   
The primary reason for all of this social networking is to be found:   to be seen and heard.  

So, post regularly on Google+ and include tags back to your business and your other social media pages. 

Remember, out of sight is out of mind.