Running head: MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING Master of Professional Communication Final Project Report: Cyan Social Marketing Ryan Lloyd & Casey Mortensen Weber State University Project created in partial fulfillment for the Master of Professional Communication Program, April 8, 2014 Master of Professional Communication Final Project Report: Cyan Social Marketing Table of Contents Final Project Report Project Scope ……………………………………………………………………………………………1 Communication Issues to Resolve…………………………………………………………….1 Audience Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………….3 Competitor Analysis………………...……………………………………………………………….4 Communication Goals………………………………………………………………………………5 Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………………….6 Lessons Learned……………………………………………………………………………………..12 Conclusion…..………………………………………………………………………………………….13 References...……………………………………………………………………………………………14 Appendices Talk for me Tees Executive Summary..……………………………..…………………...1-­‐A Talk for me Tees Facebook Tips, Tricks & Stats…………………………………….1-­‐B Talk for me Tees Review…………………….……………...………………………………….1-­‐C Cyan Wireframes and Mockup..…………………………………………………………….1-­‐D MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 1 Project Scope The intent of this project was to start Cyan Social Marketing, a small social media consulting firm dedicated to helping local small business owners with their social media marketing needs. During the course of the project, we hoped to learn about the process of starting a business, as well as applying many of the principles we had learned throughout the Masters of Professional Communication program. Thus far Cyan has contracted with one business for consulting purposes. Our first customer experience has allowed us the opportunity to determine structure, processes and services provided. Communication Issues to Resolve Social media is a growing trend in the consumer market. As more people begin to use social media in their everyday lives it becomes more vital that businesses reach for consumers in that space. It has long been known in the marketing world, some of the most effective advertising is done in the spaces where consumers already are. Each day larger corporations are realizing the potential of social media and are investing large amounts of personnel hours and time into their social media strategies. In a recent ClickZ article, John Elkaim explains the growing opportunity businesses have to utilize social media as a marketing tool. “For marketers, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. The rapid transition from mass to social media presents the opportunity to create impactful, relevant marketing messages. This data-­‐powered personalized marketing approach is not only much more effective, but also more cost-­‐efficient and scalable” (Elkiam, 2013). Therefore the question is not if and how social media is a relevant marketing tool, but more about how to find opportunities to provide consultation services to small business looking to utilize the existing sphere. Cyan Social Marketing is designed to help small to medium-­‐ sized businesses with their social media marketing efforts that lack the manpower and resources or knowledge to grow their businesses using social media. The communication issues we had to resolve during project were two-­‐fold: 1. We had to get our own business off the ground and determine if our business model was viable. The key to this was developing effective ways to communicate the importance of social media to small businesses. 2. We had to learn about each client and their unique circumstances. Moving forward, we have learned we need to determine things like: a. How can they use social media most effectively? b. What platforms make sense for their business to use? c. Who are their key audiences? MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 2 Until now, neither business owner had owned a business or had any advanced education in how to do so. As part of this project we sought the advice of free business resources available through the small business center at Weber State University as well as other services. By consulting with these resources and gaining experience throughout this project, we hope to continue to overcome obstacles and be successful with this business venture. Audience Analysis As the business progresses, it has been determined that the primary audience will be limited by region and size of operation. Below are the characteristics of the business owners we hope to attract: v Size: Less than 500 employees v Organization Types: o Businesses o Community service organization o Religious organizations v Location: Northern Utah v Needs: o Social media platform training o Analysis of current social media strategy o Posting and moderation of posts o Direction and information on best practices o Trying to increase engagement and customer base Analysis of the Wasatch front has shown there are upwards of 60,000 small businesses in the area largely focused on business-­‐to-­‐consumer (B2C) business models rather than business-­‐to-­‐business (B2B) business models. (“Statistics of U.S. Businesses,” 2010) A breakdown of the number of small businesses in each one of these categories can be found in Figure 1.1. The criterion for Figure 1.1 was small businesses located within zip codes along the Wasatch front with a B2C focus and that employ less than 500 employees. (“Reference USA Utah Business,” 2013) Figure 1.1 Business Category Quantity Targeted Northern Utah Small Businesses 64,853 Services 33,196 Health Services 10,809 Business Services 4,451 Engineering and Accounting/Management Services 3,150 Personal Services 3,143 Legal Services 2,493 Auto Repair Services/Parking 2,198 MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 3 Social Services 1,967 Membership Organizations 1,828 Miscellaneous Repair Services 1,373 Amusement and Recreation Services 1,285 Educational Services 1,199 Hotels Rooming Houses and Camps 305 Miscellaneous Services 252 Motion Pictures 220 Museums and Art Galleries 86 Retail and Trade 13,298 Miscellaneous Retail 4,065 Eating and Drinking Places 2,989 Home Furnishing Stores 1,882 Auto Dealers/Service Stations 1,681 Food Stores 1,496 Building Material Stores/Hardware 1,299 Apparel and Accessory Stores 1,016 General Merchandise Stores 503 Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate 6,904 Construction (Trade contractors and single family home construction) 4,589 Because of this information, we believe the audience, as far as number of businesses, is sufficient at least to get our business started. As mentioned before, the great thing about a business like this is there are no borders. If we need to expand the business geographically we can do so very easily through virtual means, without having a physical location. In talking to small business owners we found many of them are aware of social media and use it personally, but they don’t know what it means for their business. They don’t know the steps to take to get their business not only using social media, but using it effectively. This is the niche we plan to fill. We’ll help these small businesses by crafting a social media plan to get them started in this growing communications medium. Even with this information, finding organizations interested in social media marketing will be tricky. Some businesses can be found using Internet resources, but it’s difficult to determine what companies need help and have the money and resources to implement a strategy. We anticipate that much of our business will derive from word-­‐of-­‐mouth marketing. Gaining a client-­‐base by using social media will obviously be part of our strategy. Our business strategy also includes networking opportunities like: presenting or having a presence at small business conventions, providing incentives for current clients to refer other business owners they may know and providing free courses or information about how small businesses can become more educated on social media. Focusing on finding MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 4 businesses and people who are not active on social media, but want to be, will be a critical success factor. Competitor Analysis An analysis of the potential number of competitors in the area shows that there are 397 registered advertising/marketing businesses located on the Wasatch front. Of this number 60 seem to have a focus on digital media marketing strategy specifically. It is assumed that an even smaller number of these focus on social media marketing as a specialty. Small business owners could also be inclined to learn from self-­‐study methods. Therefore some of our biggest competition comes from books and Internet resources. This is obviously a cost effective solution and could be preferred by those lacking time and money. There is plenty of online material, but much of that differs in opinions and can be confusing. Excluding online resources, below is a brief summary of the most relevant competition: v R&L Marketing Solutions Basic Overview: The information on this company is a little vague. They seem to focus more on web design, but discuss integrating social media marketing as a service. Locations: Logan, UT area. Pricing: They offer social media campaign services for $299 per month. v Sitefury Basic Overview: This company’s services are very broad. They consult on websites, content management, marketing, SEO, customer acquisition, strategy, content writing, social marketing, ecommerce and mobile. They also offer web development services and technical solutions for marketers. Location: Based out of Provo, UT but have customers across the western US. Pricing: Pricing varies by the service provided but range from $100 to $500 per page or platform. v Oozle Media Basic Overview: Oozle Media specialize in creating Internet marketing solutions. Their services include SEO, pay-­‐per-­‐click, social media, web design, ecommerce, viral videos and call tracking. They specifically state that they are geared at helping small to medium size organizations. Location: Sandy, UT Pricing: Unknown MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 5 v Face It Social Media Marketing Basic Overview: This company has a broad focus on social media marketing and specializes in: media channels, profile creation and development, site maintenance, reputation monitoring, social media platform training, seminars, mobile marketing, QR codes, ghostwriting, point of purchase displays and strategic planning. Location: They are based out of Park City, UT but have no allegiance to Utah or small businesses. Pricing: The first consultation is free and additional pricing is based on company needs. v Codella Marketing Basic Overview: Pete Codella is a digital PR consultant. He specializes in messaging and content creation for all digital platforms. He specifically focuses on social media tools and techniques, blogs, online newsrooms, SEO, communication audits and website strategy. He is also a blogger and public speaker. He is local, but does consultations outside of Utah. Location: Bountiful, UT Pricing: Pricing is not specified. However, he charges for both consulting and event speaking. v Social Media Marketing Books Basic Overview: Books like Social Media Marketing for Dummies, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, and Likeable Social Media provide low cost ways for business to learn how to engage customers using social media outlets. Pricing: Cost range from $10-­‐$30 All of these major competitors provide a wide range of services and have capabilities to provide in depth service. Our organization is hoping that by specializing and keeping costs low, we can be competitive in this marketing sphere. Communication Goals It was determined that it was best to divide into different functions by business owner. There was obviously some overlap between the responsibilities, but we felt it was imperative to our success to have one of us designated to oversee each one of these areas: Ryan Casey Web Development Account Management Graphic Design Marketing Project Management Social Media Strategy Financial/Budget Responsibilities Financial/Budget Responsibilities MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 6 In order to have a successful project, certain goals and objectives had to be achieved. During the span of this project our business focused on the following goals: v Apply the Principles Learned in the MPC Program – through real-world experiences and knowledge of communication practices, Cyan hopes to continually: o Use communication principles to communicate our own organization’s message over social media. o Assist other businesses in effectively communicating their message over social media. v Identify Organization Structure & Processes – through the competitor and audience analysis, along with experience, our business solidified a business model that helps ensure the operation is effective in both its outreach and services provided. v Develop a Company Brand – through market research, we have enabled our company to be recognizable. Based on the research we were able to create a brand that will speak to our target audience, small businesses. v Develop, Build and Maintain a Website –The content of this site will help new customers understand our business model, pricing structure and objectives. v Implement Marketing Practices to Gain Business – one of the biggest challenges is to identify ways to grow the business. Excluding the website the following methods will be used to find new customers as the business progresses. o Maintain a Social Media Presence – to reach small business owners, our business will maintain a prominent social media presence. In other words, we will practice the exact tactics we’re helping others learn. o Increase Business Through Face-to-Face Contacts – while striving to gain social media followers and web traffic are key, there is still something to be said about face-to- face contact with potential customers. Our business will continue to look for customers by word-of-mouth, community outreach and networking. By looking for ways to attend events or give free public lessons or speeches, the business could gain significant traction. Whether by in-­‐person networking or online, the most important goal is to build a relationship with potential customers. Literature Review Introduction With the constant changes in technology and social media, keeping up with the latest news and literature is a must. In order to maintain the knowledge and skills needed to consult with other organizations, industry experts must constantly search for articles about the development of platforms and updates to applications. This literature review includes many of the articles (by topic) that were most helpful in the creation of Cyan Social Marketing. Business-­‐to-­‐Business Marketing (B2B) MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 7 Cyan is primarily marketing to other businesses seeking to gain customers. It’s therefore critical to understand best practices of B2B marketing. In the article Business-­‐to-­‐Business Marketing a Defined Strategy, Dawn Lawin explains how building the client base is important to the success of any new business. This article takes a look at industry examples on how to reach B2B goals (Lawin, 2004). Understanding how to reach organizations and maintain relationships will be a key for Cyan’s success. One obvious way for Cyan to reach its target audience is through social media. Social media between businesses has seen a surge in recent years. Christopher Hosford explains how many companies are using social media as a means to reach other businesses as potential clients. Social platforms can be used as a soft marketing tool to increase B2B for outreach (Horsford, 2012). While many assume that B2B companies are less engaged in social media than their business-­‐2-­‐customer (B2C) counterparts, studies show the opposite. A study of social media use conducted by Business.com revealed that North American B2B companies are more likely to be using social media tools when compared to B2C companies (Parr, 2010). Finding information about the importance of using social platforms in B2B marketing is easy. Finding successful ways to implement strategies can be more challenging. In her articles 4 Tips of B2B Marketing on Facebook, Leyl Master Black recommends using Facebook, in particular, as a resource for information to increase engagement rather than focusing on continual product marketing-­‐centric posts in B2B marketing (Black, 2010). Social Media Marketing Starting a social media marketing B2B consulting firm is an interesting situation. In essence Cyan is trying to reach customers the same way we’re finding ways for other organizations to do the same. One obvious way for Cyan and other companies to reach customers is through social advertising. The article 4 Best Practices for Social Advertising instructs readers to look for commonalities between what your customers are buying and what they’re interested in to develop advertising campaigns that will reach buyers. Further it explains how data is the most critical step in developing social media advertising (Wasserman, 2013). Along with reviewing marketing data on the front-­‐end of a campaign, it’s equally important for an organization to review the success of campaigns after implementation. An article featured in Social Behavior and Personality displays how every good marketing campaign targets key audiences and how social media platforms allow marketers a rare opportunity to see how their campaigns are reaching key demographics (Özguven & Mucan, 2013). Of course every organization hopes their social advertising and social media posts go viral and are seen by a large audience. However, creating content, images, videos and memes that are viral worthy is not an easy task. Finding the right way to help create compelling and sharable content will help create solid marketing strategies while building better client MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 8 relations. In the article Virality in Social Media, the author examines a progressive flow to successful viral campaigns (Mills, 2012). Engagement & Community Building Viral campaigns can help build brand awareness and spark interests in new products and businesses. But what happens after you gain social media followers is an entirely different challenge. Through Social Media Examiner, Bryden McGrath discusses how organizations can keep communities involved by using seven different tactics to build engagement. McGrath addresses the true importance of building a stronger social community through more engaging posts using various different platforms (McGrath, 2013). Part of the reason companies are trying to maintain engagement among existing followers or customers is to gain a deeper relationship with people interested in their services or products. According to SME Digital President, Nicole Kelly, “Social media represents a low-­‐ cost way for companies to engage customers in two-­‐way dialogue and develop deeper relationships. Relationships are a benefit that is difficult to achieve with other marketing channels” (Kelly, 2012). Tom Mohr’s article Why Businesses Need Social Engagement to Be Relevant in Social Search further supports the concept that companies need to focus more on building stronger relationship through engagement. Mohr believes that smart businesses have adapted and recognized the social revolution occurring and are already working hard to create and maintain engaging content with consumers. He further explains that moderation and communication between businesses and consumers will become increasingly important as consumers communicate with other consumers (Mohr, 2013). With people talking back in social media, it’s extremely important that those moderating posts and managing their communities listen. “Community managers are great listeners, constantly in tune with what people are saying and where they’re saying it online” (Peters, 2013). Education & Training Perhaps the most difficult part of the consulting business is teaching people to fish rather than fishing for them. So the question of the day is: How do we as consultants teach other to become content managers, community builders and social media experts? In her article 4 Steps of Successful Social Media Training, Sharlyn Lauby argues that concepts are the most important thing to teach social media managers. Lauby believes that users will figure out how to adapt technology and platforms changes, but they must have a solid foundation on key concepts. She encourages trainers to focus on personal privacy, creating good content and digital citizenships (Lauby, 2013). Author and Facebook app builder, Jim Belosic advises social media trainers that the first step is to develop a style guide. “Agreeing on a style for outward-­‐facing content helps MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 9 solidify your company’s identity and character, and is the starting point of good social media employee training, because it puts all agendas on the same page” (Belosic, 2012). Analytics Besides training social media users on the best practices for posting and regulating content, measuring success with analytics is of equal importance. In her article Why Analytics Matter to Small Businesses, Christine Erickson advises small business owners to measure: reach, engagement, advocacy and return on investment (Erickson, 2012). For some small businesses, tools to measure analytics may be difficult to utilize because not all tools are free. However, part of our role as consultants will be to help small business owners identify not only what metrics to use, but also different tools that can be used. The Social Media Examiner article, 4 Social Media Goals Every Business Should Measure, displays free tools to help users find the right solutions for the analytics they want to track. The article states, “By measuring your social media impact, you ensure the best use of your time and resources” (Kirk, 2012). Starting to Build a Customer Base In an article titled, “How to Get Your First 1,000 Users” Griggs states: “Your biggest competitor isn’t someone who offers a similar service. It’s indifference. Every single one of your target customers is bombarded daily with requests for time, attention, and money” (Griggs, 2013). Getting people and potential users is a difficult task and one that requires careful planning and implementation of sound strategies. Building not only a large customer base, but also one that is loyal, is very important to the success of any business. One of the ways to build this customer base is through thorough audience research. This research is done by asking specific questions such as: What circles do they travel in? What music do they like to listen to? Where do they look when they want to buy a product or a service? (Attard, 2011) Exploring these questions and finding out the answers will inform decisions moving forward and ensure the business’ marketing strategies are built on strong and reliable foundations. Once a generic customer is identified, strategies need to be built around giving the customer a reason to frequent or take part in the business. The business and its marketing need to be engaging at some level, whether through educational, informative, or entertaining (Blank, Dorf, 2013). There has to be a reason for customers to first give their business and for them to keep coming back. Several strategies exist for gaining a larger base of customers and one of the most effective is a host-­‐beneficiary strategy (Sugars, 2013). This basically means a smaller company will leverage the already large customer base of a larger company in order to start building a customer following. The smaller company identifies a larger company with a similar customer demographic. A giveaway campaign is then executed involving the larger company notifying their customers of a freebie that is given by the smaller company. The MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 10 larger company gains more loyalty from their customers by offering a freebie and the smaller company gains more exposure as well as the possibility of revenue depending on how the campaign is executed. A giveaway with the stipulation a customer must come into the store to redeem is one example. The most important thing to remember is for businesses to be close to their first few customers. Businesses will have an easier time building strong lasting relationships when they have a few customers than down the road when they have many. Focusing on those first few customers more than normal will ensure businesses have a strong customer base for the future (Shenoy, 2013). Mastering Effective SEO Practices A great way to gain more customers, and in-­‐turn more business, is to have a strong search engine optimization strategy. Expanding on the idea of strong relationships talked about earlier, one idea for creating strong SEO doesn’t happen online at all. Building relationships at networking events, conferences, and other gatherings can be powerful. Setting your business up for opportunities to be linked to from other larger organizations will be a powerful force in SEO success (Siu, 2012). Aside from this suggestion some would divide good SEO into what have been called the “three pillars”(Demers, 2013). These three pillars are: content, inbound links, and social media. It has long been said that content is king. Having engaging content that gains the attention of current and potential customers will drive traffic to business websites. “Come up with a clever way to tell your story and effective SEO will follow” (Virji, 2013). “Link juice” is another often used term to describe the SEO power a website is given when other websites and web properties link to it. Having as many external links as possible to a business site is a must. And finally leveraging the power of social media in building buzz around a business will innately boost hits to the site and increase the effectiveness of the SEO for the future. One key in all of this is being aware of what Google’s, and other search engine’s, requirements are for good SEO, specifically for mobile devices. More and more content online is being consumed by mobile devices (Quinlan, 2012). Because of this it has become increasingly important for businesses to build websites and an SEO strategy that are mobile friendly. Some great guidelines for this include: v Eliminate 404 errors due to desktop site redirects to mobile site v With separate mobile sites, create mobile URLs for corresponding subpages, not just the homepage v Make all video content playable on mobile devices by not using Flash and using HTML5 (Chaffey, 2013). By following these and other guidelines businesses can ensure that they not only have a mobile web presence, but that potential customers can find the business on their phones just as well as on their computers. MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 11 Marketing on Facebook As mentioned, the third pillar of great SEO is social media. Of all social media platforms, Facebook may be the most powerful social platform. Knowing how to create an effective Facebook presence and market a business is very important. One of the first steps in building an effective Facebook presence was already mentioned above, that is to research the audience. Facebook has some powerful built-­‐in tools that can be used to find out about potential customers. Use the graph search tool to see what pages friends of competitor’s have also liked. This will help gain some insight into what other interests your targeted customers have. This information can then be used to customize some content around these interests (Loomer, 2013). Once a business is in-­‐touch with whom their customer is another important thing to take into consideration with Facebook is the different types of pages available. There are differences between business pages and community pages. Community pages are generally built around a group of people with a specific interest. Using community pages, Facebook tries to help users build a community where people can come to discuss that topic. Most businesses will want to create a business page as this gives the business full access to all of Facebook’s metric tools as well as other services. Some of these are not available on community pages (Smith, 2010). The business page can be a powerful tool in creating a place where users can come to get the most up-­‐to-­‐date information on a business. The cover image is a powerful tool to use to advertise current messages in a prominent location. Facebook recently changed its specifications for cover images, now allowing text to be posted in the images. This is a great place to promote sales, marketing campaigns, or other messaging (Wilson, 2013). Apart from an effective page, the content a business posts in comments on Facebook is very important. Comments will act as the voice of the business and will be the mechanism by which new business is gained or a message is shared. Various methods and strategies can be used in such content to increase its effectiveness. One such method is the use of hashtags. Hashtags can be used to group comments and content to make it more likely to be shared or seen. The effectiveness of hashtags on Facebook has long been debated because of the friend segmentation that Facebook has in its setup (McHugh, 2013). Of course the key for any business to be successful is being able to effectively analyze metrics from their users. Reach and page likes are the most popular measurements for Facebook users. However, there are many other metrics available on Facebook for businesses. An export from the insights tool reveals metrics such as: fans reached, engaged fans, link clicks and positive feedback metrics. Each of these is essential in understanding the full picture of how users are interacting with a business on Facebook (Loomer, 2013). By focusing information intake on the areas of this paper, Cyan can help other small business owners have success with their social media campaigns. The significance of finding applicable information will become increasingly important as clientele increase. MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 12 Therefore, one of Cyan’s continuing priorities will be staying current with information about the quickly changing technology that is just getting started. Lessons Learned Part of the learning process during the project was finding differences between our expectations and reality. These differences provided several learning experiences. Below are a few of the key lessons we learned thus far: v Determining Products & Services – When we first started talking to potential customers, we realized that our perception of what clients needed might have been wrong. Because of resource limitations and lack of marketing knowledge, some small business owners don’t realize the importance of marketing, branding and the need for quality marketing content. Therefore within our products and services offering, we had to include ghost writing, content calendars and the photo shoots to ensure social posts were done effectively. v Determining Costs – Perhaps one of the biggest obstacles encountered was determining the cost structure of the products and services offered. In order to establish a pricing structure we had to research competitors, talk to industry professionals and review time spent working with our first client. This was a difficult process and required much more time than expected. v Website Design - We employed many of the principles we learned in the communications courses when establishing a strategy for the company website. Many of these principles were learned specifically in the web usability course. Through research we established a customer persona for our website. Through this research we determined that more and more web users are accessing content and websites through mobile devices. As a result of this research we thought about mobile usability beginning in the early stages of site design. Wireframes and mockups (appendix 1-D) of the website were designed with this in mind and a final version was programmed and can now be found online at www.cyansocialmarketing.com. v Gathering Small Business Information – During the initial exploration stage, we went through a process of analyzing the number of small businesses that would fit our marketing segment. By running data from a government site, we were able to find the number of small businesses along the Wasatch Front and their industry. This key piece of information has given us a much better idea of where to focus our outreach efforts. This finding was brought about during a discussion via the coursework submitted for the project. v Understand Client’s Training Needs – During the initial client meetings with Talk for me Tees, we quickly learned that their knowledge of social media marketing was very low. In fact some of the basic documents we created were too advance for their level of knowledge and experience. During the first meeting we could have better assessed the clients needs and developed more applicable training documents. Instead we had to have additional discussions and closer interaction via email than expected. Knowing this for future clients will help us better determine the project scope and cost. MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 13 Conclusion To help increase visibility, a website has also been created. This will help potential clients understand the services offered and pricing structure. The website can be found at the following URL: http://www.cyansocialmarketing.com Working directly with an allergy awareness t-­‐shirt company called, Talk for me Tees, Cyan has been able to create both an executive summary and job-­‐aid that will assist in future business opportunities (see appendices 1-­‐A Executive Summary Talk for me Tees and 1-­‐B Talk for me Tees Facebook Tips, Tricks & Stats ). Talk for me Tees has seen positive results in meeting their business needs. They have been able to create business pages on: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and Pinterest. They have also created allergy awareness campaign pages on Facebook as well as a blog. Here are some key statistics that show positive momentum in their social media outreach: v Talk for me Tees Facebook page has had a lifetime total reach of 2,924 since 12/1/13 to 3/13/14 (13 total posts). v Their allergy awareness Facebook page maintained an 18% engagement rate from 12/1/13 to 3/13/14 (56 total posts). v As of 3/13/14 their Twitter account has 254 followers and have posted 155 tweets. Other social media accounts have just recently started, but because of standard branding elements and content, they have already seen established links and relationships among followers on various accounts. A letter from the company’s owner (see appendix 1-­‐C Talk for me Tees Review) conveys the close working relationship we maintained with the company throughout the project. Being able to create a strong and faithful customer base, build strong SEO so those customers can find a business, and create strong social communities for customers are essential to a business’s success. By being well educated and efficient in these areas any business will be well on it’s way to success. The hope is that Cyan Social Marketing will follow some of these practices and implement these key takeaways for it’s own success. In the future, Cyan Social Marketing will hopefully see growth and progress and go beyond the scope of this project. Thus far, this experience has been a great tool to propel the business opportunity in a positive direction. MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 14 References Attard, J. (2011). Thirteen Ways To Find Customers. Businessknowhow.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/findcustomers.htm. Belosic, J. (2012, March 14). 8 tips for training social media marketers. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/8-­‐tips-­‐for-­‐training-­‐social-­‐media-­‐marketers/ Black, L. M. (2010, May 20). 4 tips for B2B marketing on facebook. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/05/20/facebook-­‐ b2b-­‐tips/ Blank, S., Dorf, B. (2013, June 12). Startup Owner's Manual: How to 'Get' Customers. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223770. Chaffey, D. (2013, June 17). Google’s changing recommendations on SEO for mobile. Smartinsights.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www.smartinsights.com/search-­‐engine-­‐optimisation-­‐seo/mobile-­‐ seo/googles-­‐changing-­‐recommendations-­‐on-­‐seo-­‐for-­‐mobile/. County Population, Utah. (2010). Retrieved September 18, 2013, from http://www.onlineutah.com/countypopulation.shtml Demers, J. (2013, May 23). The Three Pillars Of SEO In 2013: Content, Links, And Social Media. Forbes.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2013/05/23/the-­‐3-­‐pillars-­‐of-­‐seo-­‐in-­‐ 2013-­‐content-­‐links-­‐and-­‐social-­‐media/. Elkiam, J. (2013, 10 14). Say goodbye to the age of generalization: how social data changes everything. Retrieved 10 19, 2013, from ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2300250/say-­‐goodbye-­‐to-­‐the-­‐age-­‐of-­‐ generalizations-­‐how-­‐social-­‐data-­‐changes-­‐everything Erickson, C. (2012, July 15). Why analytics matter to small businesses. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2012/07/15/analytics-­‐ small-­‐business/ Griggs, W. (2012, June 27). How to Get to Your First 1,000 Users. Mashable.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://mashable.com/2012/06/27/startup-­‐guide-­‐1000-­‐ users/. Horsford, C. (2012, May). 'BtoB' study shows surge in social media marketing. BtoB Magazine , 1. MPC FINAL PROJECT REPORT: CYAN SOCIAL MARKETING 15 Kelly, N. (2012, May 10). 5 ways social media can increase your revenue from existing customers. Retrieved October 21, 2013, from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/turn-­‐customers-­‐into-­‐increased-­‐ revenue/#more-­‐18127 Kirk, A. K. (2012, September 17). 4 social media goals every business should measure. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-­‐social-­‐media-­‐goals/#more-­‐24625 Lauby, S. (2013, January 8). 4 steps for successful social media training. Retrieved October 25, 2010, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2013/01/08/social-­‐ media-­‐training-­‐3/ Lawin, D. (2004, December). Business-­‐to-­‐business marketing: A defined strategy. Franchising World , 24. Loomer, J. (2013, July 11). How to Build a Facebook Audience From Scratch. Jonloomer.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from https://www.jonloomer.com/2013/07/11/increase-­‐facebook-­‐likes/ch. Loomer, J. (2013, October 28). How to Analyze Your Facebook Metrics to Improve Your Marketing. Socialmediaexaminer.com. 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Retrieved 10 18, 2013, from ReferenceUSA.com: http://www.referenceusa.com.ulc.idm.oclc.org/UsBusiness/Search/Custom/c3f183 f9a93b431f938ad4275d22bb05 Shenoy, G. (2013, September 4). The four stages of life every successful startup must go through. Pandodaily.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://pandodaily.com/2013/09/04/the-­‐four-­‐stages-­‐of-­‐life-­‐every-­‐successful-­‐ startup-­‐must-­‐go-­‐through/. Siu, E. (2012, September 26). 5 Effective SEO Tactics That Will Bring You More Traffic. Teamtreehouse.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/effective-­‐seo-­‐tactics-­‐that-­‐will-­‐bring-­‐you-­‐more-­‐ traffic. Smith, M. (2010, June 23). Facebook Community Pages: What Your Business Needs to Know. Socialmediaexaminer.com. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-­‐community-­‐pages-­‐what-­‐your-­‐ business-­‐needs-­‐to-­‐know/. Sugars, B. (2013). The Fastest Way to Find New Custso. Entrepreneur.com. 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Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Appendix 1-­‐A Talk for me Tees Social Media Plan Last updated: 3/16/2014 Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Table of Contents Current State ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Marketing Analysis ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Product/Business Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 3 Key Audience Groups .................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Target Segment’s Priority ........................................................................................................................................................... 4 Audience Detail: Concerned Parents (Prime Market) ..................................................................................................... 5 Audience Detail: Fashion Conscious Parents (Prime Market) ..................................................................................... 5 Audience Detail: Concerned Family & Friends (Secondary Market) ....................................................................... 5 Audience Detail: Online Vendors (Tertiary Market) ........................................................................................................ 6 Audience Detail: Medical Community (Peripheral Market) .......................................................................................... 6 Competitor Analysis .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Competitor 1 ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Competitor 2 ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Desired State ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 Overall Strategy Summary ............................................................................................................................. 9 Phase 1 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Phase 1 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Objective 1 – Facebook Interest Page ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Objective 2 – Facebook Business Page ................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Phase 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Phase 2 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Current State Marketing Analysis Product/Business Summary Talk for me Tees’ goals are to create allergy awareness clothing that is fun for children to wear, and can be used as a tool to help keep children safe from having a potentially life-threatening reaction. They would also like to become successful enough to give back and contribute to food allergy research while becoming a resource to other parents. Key Audience Groups Audience Group Description Need Concerned Parents Primary caregivers concerned about potential health risks to their children A way to alert others to about child’s medical needs (probably using t-shirt along with products) Fashion-­‐Conscious Parents Primary caregivers desiring a fashionable way to communicate allergy issues A different, trendy way to alert others of child’s needs (different than medical alert bracelets Concerned Family and Friends People seeking different ways to help kids with allergies People trying to help kids and their families communicate allergy issues Medical Community Groups of medical providers to children with allergies Medical community willing to share information about the products to help children and their families Online Vendors Organizations hosting allergy and medical product sales Trying to increase product offering to consumers Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Target Segment’s Priority Market Segment Audience Group Notes Prime Markets Concerned Parents, Fashion Conscious Parents Secondary Market Concerned Family & Friends Tertiary Market Online Vendors Peripheral Market Medical Community Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Audience Detail: Concerned Parents (Prime Market) Characteristics: • Parents (primary caregiver • Age: 20 to 44 years-­‐old • Working Class • Parents of severe or more life-­‐threatening allergies • Using product as an additional means of communications Sales Potential: • 8% of all children suffer from food allergies • 38.7 of all children with food allergies have a sever reaction (over 638,000 in U.S.) Audience Detail: Fashion Conscious Parents (Prime Market) Characteristics: • Parents (primary caregiver • Between 20-44 years old • Perhaps parents of children without life threatening allergies • Looking for fashionable clothing to communicate allergies • May be only or primary means of communication Sales Potential: • 8% of all children suffer from food allergies (1.68 to 3 million) Audience Detail: Concerned Family & Friends (Secondary Market) Characteristics: • Family members excluding parents • Family friends (usually friends of parents) • All age ranges (siblings to grandparents) • Gift seekers • Concerned about child’s well-being Sales Potential: • 8% of all children suffer from food allergies (1.68 to 3 million) • Many people will be friends or family of a child allergy sufferers Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Audience Detail: Online Vendors (Tertiary Market) Characteristics: • Organizations/companies • Seeking products to sell on collaborative sales space o Rely on these sites to increase interest and sales • Some target allergy or medical type products Sales Potential: • Two websites found: o http://www.foodaller gybooks.com/links6. htm o http://www.cafepress .com/+food-allergy+ t-shirts Audience Detail: Medical Community (Peripheral Market) Characteristics: • Community or medical organizations trying to build allergy awareness • Usually will have office space with customer front o May need some printed items to lead people to social or web space Sales Potential: • Local area specific o 5 major clinics between Ogden and Provo o 3-4 county health facilities between Ogden and Provo Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Competitor Analysis Competitor 1 Allermates Description: Allermates create character based allergy awareness products. Their objective is to keep allergy kids safe while feeling good about themselves. Most of their products are bracelets and jewelry. Social Media Platforms Facebook 7,000+ followers Very active at posting Engagement inconsistent Twitter 1,500+ followers 1,600+ tweets Sharing content by followers YouTube 18 total subscribers Low video quality Posting videos created by FAAN Instagram 162 followers 44 total posts People tagging kids wearing products Pinterest No current presence Other Social Media Google+ setup with no posts Search Engine Optimization Google Not coming up on first few pages for allergy apparel related terms Bing Not coming up on first few pages for allergy apparel related terms Website They have a community blog but there is little activity. The site is also very busy and outdated. Other Marketing Channels The bracelets were featured on the Today Show on July 10, 2012. Opportunities Allermates do not offer any apparel as far as clothing. Mostly they focus on bracelets and other equipment such as epi pens and packs. Talk for Me Tees has an opportunity to provide a line of clothing that can be used by kids with allergies, this is something that Allermates does not offer. Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Competitor 2 Allergyapparel.com Description: This company creates apparel and products by using a skull and crossbones theme. They use this logo because they feel it communicates the dangers of childhood allergies using a modern style. Social Media Platforms Facebook 300+ followers Only posting once a month Low engagement Twitter 785 followers 3,000+ tweets Posting a lot of allergy free recipes YouTube Only have 6 videos Instagram 45 followers Only 2 posts – not very active Pinterest No presence Other Social Media N/A Search Engine Optimization Google First result when searching “allergy apparel”. Bing First result when searching “allergy apparel”. Website Website is very basic. They have a blog with allergy related content. No social media linking from the site. They are selling products from other companies on their site. Other Marketing Channels Allergyapparel.com isn’t marketing via any other channels Opportunities While they do offer some clothing and t-­‐shirt designs, Allergyapparel.com offers a very limited variety of clothing. They only offer a few designs and all of these designs play off of the skull and crossbones design strategy. By coming up with an offering of t-­‐shirts with a variety of designs that can be worn every day Talk for Me Tees has a great opportunity to create a niche in the marketplace. Plan compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com Desired State • Make money o Make enough money to be able donate funds to allergy research • Be known for: o High quality o Fashionable/trendy clothing • Don’t make kids feel different • Create gender specific clothing • Be recognized as a resource for allergies Overall Strategy Summary Phase 1 Phase 1 Objectives Phase 2 Phase 2 Objectives • Create Business Instagram account • Develop logo as part of beginnings of brand creation • Create Business Pinterest account • Create a Kid Allergy Interest Facebook Page • Develop logo, slogan, graphics, and color scheme as part of beginnings of brand creation • Set Up a Business Gmail Account • Begin Following Other Allergy Facebook Pages • Create Business Facebook Page • Pre-­‐create Content Prior to Launching Facebook Pages • Begin Using Google Alerts • Create an official hashtag and begin using in all posts Compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com APPENDIX 1-­‐B Talk for me Tees Facebook Tip, Tricks & Stats -­‐ General Rules -­‐ ü Always spell check, review, and edit each post. You don’t want to lose credibility over minor mistakes. Consider doing these things when posting: o Use the other person to do a quick check to make sure everything looks good. o Put each post into a word processor and run a spell check before posting. ü Post during popular times. The most popular times to post are 6-­‐8am and 2-­‐ 5pm. Sunday is generally not a good day to post content. ü Develop a content schedule each month. This is an easy way to make sure you’re getting a good mix of content. ü Use Bitly to shorten URLs. This will keep the post short and allow you the ability to see how many people clicked on the link associated with your posts. ü Gauge your success by how many people are talking about your posts. This stat can be found by your number of likes at the top of your page. ü Use images as often as possible. Remember people have a lot to look at in their newsfeeds and good images will draw eyes to your posts. ü Don’t be afraid to try different posts, but always monitor the success of your posts by looking at likes, shares, and comments. This is a good indicator on how far your content is reaching. ü Don’t be afraid to link to another group’s Facebook post if this content is relevant. This is a good way to form relationships with other page owners and gain their followers. ü Monitor posts and respond quickly. Don’t let posts that needs a responses sit for too long. Watch for comments and respond quickly as needed. If someone questions your information stay positive and state where you got your information. ü Change your cover image and profile picture every couple of months. This is an easy way to get people to like a post and keep your page looking fresh. ü Include a call-­‐to-­‐action in some of your posts. Ask your users to do something with your posts that will increase community engagement. Compiled by Cyan Social Marketing www.cyansocialmarketing.com • cyansocialmarketing@gmail.com -­‐ Specific Types of Posts -­‐ ü Allergy-­‐free recipes (4 per month) o There are a lot of these out there. They’re applicable to your audience, you can track click throughs, and it’s a value added resources to parents. ü Interesting stories & articles (4 per month) o People joined the group to engage in a community. Post stories or articles people will be likely to comment on or find interesting. ü Statistics (3 per month) o Make sure the information is somewhat current. o Try to find stats with images or graphs so people can quickly ingest the information and comment on the post. ü Talk for me tees specific ads (1 per month) o Only do these when you’re trying to sell a new item or increase sales on an existing item. o Consider posting other for sale items that aren’t competitive. ü Schedule allergy specific events (when possible) o When you hear about events or national celebrations take advantage of posting them on your Facebook calendar. o Don’t be specific to Utah. Remember you want to have users from across the country and posting to Utah only will be a turnoff to those outside the state. ü Post non-­‐allergy related content (2 per month) o Post items that are interesting to your audience not specifically related with allergies -­‐ kid activities, crafts, events for kids, etc. o Be a resource for your audience and provide a variety of content that will resonate with your followers. APPENDIX 1-­‐C Note: The following is a review written by the co-­‐owner and primary contact of Talk for me Tees, a local small business Cyan has been collaborating with the build a social media presence. My partner and I know the importance of a strong social media campaign when it comes to growing your small business. Both of us however had little to no knowledge of how to make that happen. Casey and Ryan were patient and professional in helping us develop our Facebook pages. They first did a full analysis of where the audience for our business would most likely be found. They provided us with information and statistics from the different sources they used to find what venue would best fit our needs, and then showed us how to most effectively use those tools. On Facebook they helped us understand the benefits of business vs. an interest page, and how they would both benefit us. Both pages were set up and then administered by Casey and Ryan for the first month so they could best determine how the audience was responding. Once their research was complete they met with us again to help us understand the needs of our audience, and instruct us on an effective posting schedule. Once the posting was turned over to us they continued to monitor our pages and make suggestions to help make them more interactive. They showed us how to use Facebook insights to learn how to reach out to our audience. They also helped us understand the importance of Tags and how to incorporate them into our posts. We are now leaps and bounds ahead of where we would be without the hard work and support of Casey and Ryan. -­‐ Jodi Mills Key Goals • Find key information quickly • Information on cost • Information on services/process • Information on how to request services • Learn how social media can achieve business goals Behaviors • Reluctant to spend large amounts of money on social media • Generally doesn’t have a lot of extra time to research social media • Is business savvy but not overly tech savvy We Must • Make site simple and extremely easy to use • Use site to sell the importance of social media • Provide affordable services affordable by small business We Must Never • Make site too large and confusing • Explain social media too in-depth Rob Lopez “I know social media can help my business. But how?” Owner - Express Heating Repair, LLC ob has run a home heating repair busi-ness for the last three years. He has grown his business over the last few years and now has a staff of 15 employees. Rob would like to expand further into multiple loca-tions and thinks social media would be an efficient and cost effective method to drum up enough busi-ness to do so. Rob has used social media a bit himself personally and also has a nephew who knows how to use Facebook and social media. However, Rob isn’t sure if his nephew, or his own knowledge, would be enough to help get the best business results from social media. Rob turns to Google to search out any professional options in the area to help him with his social media plans. Rob doesn’t have a lot of extra time on his hands and needs to learn about the social media services available to him quickly. R Appendix 1-D Logo/Branding Product Portfolio/Clients Request Quote Why Social Media? Contact Us Facebook Twitter Background graphic extending behind logo Mantra Statement/ Explanation blurb How it Works - ow diagram Secondary Graphic Logo/Branding Product Portfolio/Clients Request Quote Why Social Media? Contact Us Facebook Twitter Background graphic extending behind logo Logo/Branding Product Portfolio/Clients Request Quote Why Social Media? Contact Us Facebook Twitter Background graphic extending behind logo Request a Quote Request a Quote Request a Quote Learn more... Learn more... Learn more... Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 $500 $1000 $1500 Breadcrumb Page Title Breadcrumb Page Title Request a Quote Package 1 $500 Component Title Component Title Component Title Component Title Menu Mantra Statement/ Explanation Blurb How it Works - ow diagram Logo/Branding Facebook Twitter Menu Logo/Branding Facebook Twitter Mantra Statement/ Explanation Blurb How it Works - ow diagram Product Porto io/Clients Request Quote Why Social Media? Contact Us Logo/Branding Facebook Twitter Menu Breadcrumb Page Title Package 1 $500 Request a Quote Learn more... Package 2 $1000 Logo/Branding Facebook Twitter Menu Breadcrumb Page Title Component Title Request Quote Request Quote Request a Quote Package 1 $500 Menu Functionality Scroll Scroll rst screen to last screen cyansocialmarketing.com Wireframe Seeking Product Information - Ryan Lloyd Menu Functionality Scroll Scroll rst screen to last screen cyansocialmarketing.com Mockup Seeking Product Information - Ryan Lloyd