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.

Social Media Workshops

	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

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. 

Social Media for Business Workshops

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.   

Social Media for Business Workshops

9. Google Maps

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 9th 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.     Happy Capitalism!

Google is the search engine of choice.   The second most popular search engine is YouTube and in 3rd place is Google Maps.   (No one seems to care about Yahoo or Bing any more.)  

Location Location Location.   If physical location counts, google maps will be your entry to business existence.  Here is my Google Maps Listing:

When you login to Google with your google account (a gmail address) you have the opportunity to edit the information contained on the Google Maps listing, add photos, hours of operation, edit the address and more.   

How to?

Go to Google Maps and enter your business name.   If it cannot be found, you will be given the option of adding an entry, complete with pictures and descriptions and more.   As with Google+ and Brand Accounts (next blog in this series), it is important to put in the whole thing correctly, than apply for verification.  

Social Media for Business Workshops

8. Pinterest

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 8th 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.     Happy Communicating!

Pinterest is a suprise.   It becomes useful when your clients are searching via Google.   Google returns articles, but will also find the images and returns them in a search.   If you want to be found, post pictures on Pinterest!

Pinterest is a visual presence for your business.  If it can only be said in words, than Pinterest will be a challenge.   But, because of its SEO significance, Pinterest is worth the investment. 

Like Instagram, it can be the visual identity of your business on the internet and definitely at minimum a visual presence for your business. 

Small Potatoes

If you run a consumer based business, it is an excellent forum to post photos of charity events that your company sponsors, pictures of your product and brand, and raise awareness of your business services.  

The whole Shabang

If you have the resources to create a major campaign, instagram is an excellent place to do so. 

Consider a contest where the prize would be $5,000 to a charity of choice based on the number of likes that a proposal or charity were to garner.  Think of the incredibly successful movember campaigns or ice bucket challenges. These types of campaigns are ideal for a photo/video based social network.

How To:

1.    Start by signing up

2.  Create a few boards that align with your market space.  Here you identify and decide on your branding and your target market.

3.  Upload and post pictures that align with Step 2 above, that your prospects may search for or come across.

4.  These pictures should have, in their properties, links to your website.  (Backlinks are always good SEO karma). 

5.  These pictures should have, in their properties, tags with likely search keywords and phrases.

6.  When you’ve run out of ideas, take a breather by searching and posting other peoples pictures on your boards (but not too often, or this dilutes the message too much). 

What makes Pinterest work for you?   

Essentially, when a prospect searches for something using a phrase or keywords, your pictures show up as part of the results in the Google search.   When the prospect clicks on your picture, the link should take them to your website.   The more often that you are found, the more likely that Google will return you as one of the search results on the first page.  

Social Media for Business Workshops