Developing a Social Media Engagement

Strategy
by D I A N A on A U P R R B I AL N 2 6 , 2 0 1 0
6 online marketing resources
that can change your business or
Many companies are replacing traditional methods of direct marketing with social blog.
media. The companies with successful social media campaigns thus far have
focused on designing the channels, monitoring the conversation, developing Social Media Monthly
content, and measuring ROI. However, engagement with the audience is one of Content Schedule
Plan out your content strategy
the most overlooked components of a social media strategy.
for each social network and set
daily tasks.
One key benefit of social media is the two-way conversation brands can have
Search Engine
with their audiences. They mistake their “content strategy” as an “engagement Optimization Worksheet
strategy.” But developing content without an engagement strategy is like talking This worksheet is your SEO cheat
to your audience and completely ignoring what they say back to you. sheet. Get more traffic by doing
SEO the right way.
Facebook Checklist
What is an engagement strategy? Create a stand-out Facebook
page in just 4 weeks by following
Simply stated, an engagement strategy is all about communication and interaction. While a content strategy is based this checklist.
on what you’re going to say, an engagement strategy is based on how you’re going to say it, and how you respond
your fans. Your company will need to develop a plan for actually interacting with your audience. But developing Free badges & icons to promote
content without an engagement strategy is like holding a press conference and not allowing Q&A. It seems cold and your social media presence on your
rigid. An engagement strategy is what makes the difference between a fan page with 100 thousand fans and a fan website and gain a following.
page with one million fans. Through this article, I will outline the following engagement fundamentals that you can use Exclusive promotions for the latest
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Free regular advice on internet
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Level of engagement …and much more.
Voice
Posting frequency Free Download Here
What to post
Dealing with negativity
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Every company will approach social media engagement differently based on the nature of the company. But there are
some best practices that could be applied to the social media landscape, and then customized to your company’s Email Address *
goals.

Tone Yes, sign me up!

Most people will come back to your fan page if they feel a sense of community, so it’s important to be open, friendly,
inviting, and personable. Also, stay positive at all times, even (and especially) when responding to criticism.
Find us on Facebook
Have a conversational tone: Social media is casual by nature. Sites like Facebook and Twitter were developed so
that people could connect with their friends. Although companies should maintain a professional presence online, it’s U Stand Out
important to exude a personal, conversational tone on these sites. Like

Be open and friendly: Be fun, friendly, and enthusiastic about your product or service without being overly 3,882 people like U Stand Out.
promotional or corporate-sounding.

Be unique: Avoid imitating the tone of your competitors. Although you want to cater to your target audience, you
do not need to force your tone to cater to expectations. Be unique, so that your fans are interested enough to follow F acebook social plugin
your presence online.

Level of Engagement
Encourage fan participation: The role of your company’s updates should be to encourage fan participation. Avoid To search, type and hit enter
posting only about what you want to promote, and take an interest in your audience’s opinion. Ask questions at the
end of your status updates, or ask fans to upload their own content.
P O P U L A R
Maintain a dialogue: Don’t let your status updates be a monologue of self-promotion. Spark conversation by posing

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questions to the community and posting content that will encourage participation. How to Size your Facebook
Profile Picture & Thumbnail
Share fan content: Share content that your fans have posted to your social channels by re-Sharing on Facebook or
re-tweeting on Twitter; they’ll feel even more connected to your brand.
How to Easily Add an iFrame
Reveal Tab to Your Facebook
Page – no PHP required!
Voice
As a company, there are several options for what the voice of the brand should be. Remember, on Facebook all Free Twitter Badges For Your
updates will be prefaced by the name of the fan page (in the examples below, “The Candy Company”): Website or Blog

First person singular – This POV provides fans a connection with an individual at the company. Example: “The
Candy Company I love the new Tropical Sunshine lollipops.” WordPress Plugins that
First person plural – This POV allows for a personal connection, while still hearing from the brand instead of just Encourage Blog Comments
one individual controlling the social channels. Example: “The Candy Company We love the new Tropical Sunshine
lollipops.”
Third person – This POV allows a feeling of direct communication with the brand itself. This is the more How to Change Your Gmail
conservative, traditional approach for brands on Facebook. Example: “The Candy Company loves the new Account Name After You Get
Tropical Sunshine lollipops.” Married

Get More Likes – How to Add a

It’s generally a best practice to choose between first person plural (we love) and the third person (The Candy
Facebook Like Box to your
Company loves). Avoid the first person singular (I love) approach. Fans want to think that they are interacting with the
Website
brand, not just a single employee or representative. Also, the individual behind these updates would be vulnerable to
liability or even personal attacks. The top brand pages on product do not use the first person singular approach.
How to Change a Facebook Fan
Page Tab Image on Timeline
Pages
Posting Frequency
How to Add the Facebook Like
There is a correlation between the frequency of posts and the number of fans or followers a brand has. There’s a fine Button to Your Blog
balance though; you don’t want to overwhelm your fans. According to a recent study by Sysomos, 77% of Facebook
fan pages have fewer than 1,000 fans, and fan pages tend to be updated only once every 16 days.
How to Get More Facebook
Page Likes Using Exclusive
Content

How to Make Someone an

Admin of Your Facebook Fan
Page

R E C E N T
How to Use Hashtags On Your Facebook Page
6 Proven Ways To Get Backlinks To Your Blog
The 5 Most Effective Ways to Market Your
Infographic
How to Change the Photos Tab Image on
It’s a good practice to update your fan page at least once every day. This should yield comments and engagement
your Facebook Timeline Fan Page
with your brand each day, which will in turn lead to friends of your fans also discovering your page and becoming fans.
How to Add a Recommendations Box to Your
Facebook Page
What to Post
Many brands on the social channels are purely self-promotional, only updating their social sites with updates on their P O P U L A R T O P I C S
own products, deals, discounts, or news. While it’s important to stay relevant to your brand, mix it up with different
Blogging SEO
types of content. There are several different ways to post content on Facebook, including:
Career Social Media
Facebook Twitter
Status updates LinkedIn Wordpress
Shared links
Photo updates
Video updates
Event updates

Here are some ideas for what you can post besides self-promotional updates, which can all be tweaked to fit the
character limits on the various social channels:

Industry and related-industry news

Blog posts written by fans about your industry
Questions to fans asking for their opinions or favorites. This can be a standalone update, or you can pose
questions to fans at the end of any other status update.
Interesting or funny photos relating to your brand or industry
YouTube videos relating to your brand or industry
Happy holiday/weekend/first day of spring/etc. updates
Encourage fans to upload content as photos or videos

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 Share or retweet fans’ content

Sharing or retweeting fan’s content is a great strategy to make your page feel like a real community. The Coca-Cola
Facebook fan page is an excellent example of this. They often share photos their fans post to their walls using the
Share button.

Dealing with Negativity

Although most people seeking out brands in social media are fans of the brand and are coming to show support, there
will be individuals who come to complain. Comcast is a great example of a company who uses their social media
presence primarily for customer support. But if this isn’t your company’s goal, how should you deal with the negative
feedback?

Widespread Criticism: If many people are coming to your page to comment or complain about the same issue, it’s
probably a larger issue that your company does need to address. A good strategy would be to post a video or
comment from management with an explanation or solution. Be candid and open to feedback. This will show that your
company really does value the opinions of its customers, and will make fans feel like valued members of your brand’s
community.

Individual Solution-Seekers: If individuals are coming to your page to give feedback about issues that are unique
to them, it could be difficult to reply to each and every one of them. If you can, that’s great. But if not, have a
spreadsheet of appropriate responses ready for general situations. These messages should direct the fans to a
customer service site, email address, or phone number, be apologetic, and always friendly. Try to mix up the responses
in your spreadsheet so that it doesn’t sound like you’re literally copy/pasting you’re responses to each individual.

Complainers: There are some individuals who may come to your page just to complain, who aren’t seeking much of
a solution but just want to get something off their chest. Your approach will vary by company and legal department.
But a good rule of thumb is not to delete a comment unless the fan is exhibiting troll-like behavior (see the next
section). Fans will notice when they are being unnecessarily censored, and this will make them angrier at the brand. It’s
best to just ignore the comment, and leave it to the other fans to respond. Loyalists to your brand will likely jump in to
offer advice.

Trolls: Internet trolls are individuals whose comments include inappropriate all-caps rants, profanity, and repetitive
bashing of the brand. You’ll be able to tell when someone is being a troll on your page. In this case, it is best to delete
their comments and block them from the page. On certain sites like Twitter, you cannot block someone from
@replying to you, so just flag their accounts and then ignore them.

Solicitors: Delete comments that are promoting anything unrelated to your brand. This could include unrelated
events, links to products on ebay or craigslist, invitations to join a 3rd party application game, spam links, and more.

Fan to fan interaction: If fans on your page are having a debate, there’s no reason to get involved unless you feel
that someone is arguing over a blatantly inaccurate fact. Then it’s fine to jump in and clarify, then remove the brand
from the discussion. Otherwise, it’s best to stay out of it. If fans start posting offensive messages, you can delete these
and block fans when necessary.

Social Media Gives Your Brand Visibility

Compelling and active social channels should be an integral part of your online marketing campaign. These channels
provide an exceptional opportunity for brand visibility, but you need to make sure that your fans will have content to
comment on and engage with. The more comments you have, the more viral your campaign will become!

In the end, an engagement strategy will make your social media campaign a much more compelling and high-impact
aspect of your overall marketing efforts and truly enable you to harness all that it has to offer. When you think about
it, social media is all about socializing, and an engagement strategy will ensure that how you socialize with your fan base
is not only strategically sound, but effective. Not only will this help you to leverage social media to build stronger
customer relations, it will enable your organization to guide and actively participate in the growth of what is only going
to be a more important marketing channel for years to come.

Cross-posted as What is Your Social Media Engagement Strategy on my company Overdrive Interactive’s blog.
Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that specializes in online media, social
media, and search engine marketing campaigns and services.

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 Want to increase your fan base, but aren’t sure how to fit social media into your hectic schedule?
Download the Social Media Scheduling Template.

With this template, you’ll be able to:

Plan your social media schedule for each month

Break down tasks into realistic to-do lists
Increase blog traffic by sticking to the schedule
Organize your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blog activity

Diana Urban is the founder of U Stand Out, a guide for making your web presence
stand out using internet marketing, blogging, and social media tactics. She is the Head
of Prospect Marketing at HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company in Boston.
Tweet with @DianaUrban or like her Facebook page to stay connected!

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 MikeSmithDev
April 27, 2010 at 1:09 pm

This is a great overview. The “What to Post” section hit the nail on the head. Our strategy has
relied on the “varied content, encourage interaction, promote users,” and it has been a very
positive experience.
Dealing with Negativity is also a very important topic, as that is a normal concern of leadership
when deciding to get involved in social media — “What if they say bad things about us?” Chances
are they are already complaining, better they complain to you. This is a chance to show you are
listening and publicly address concerns… of course it is something that can go poorly if your tone
is wrong or you just plain ignore it (or remove posts). Thanks for the good post!

R E P L Y

Diana Freedman
April 28, 2010 at 3:42 am

All good points! And yes, it's better to provide your audience with more points of contact for
feedback, even negative feedback. Not only does it give them the opportunity to have their issue
resolved, but it will provide your company with valuable insight and bring legitimate issues to
your attention as soon as possible. And yes, removing posts should be a last alternative… fans
get very angry when they feel they are being censored.

R E P L Y

CourtneyM
April 29, 2010 at 12:18 am

This is great information that all those looking to use social media need to know. It is great that
you included an in-depth explanation of how to deal with negative issues. It is hard the first time
and you give great ideas of how to get through or past it.
I think your information would pair well with the new white paper by White Horse called the
TIME Method. It is a social media engagement process that was created by the experience of the
agency. This white paper shows you how Targeting your audience, finding your Influencers,
Meeting them in their niches and Engaging them authentically can improve you social media
presence and sales.
Read the whole paper here: http://bit.ly/aJgxwo
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

R E P L Y

Diana Freedman
April 29, 2010 at 8:43 pm

Hi Courtney, thanks for your comment! I've actually finished a whitepaper that will be released by
my company Overdrive Interactive in the coming months. I'm waiting to receive your whitepaper
via email (I signed up on your website but a link to download the whitepaper didn't appear), and
I'm looking forward to reading White Horse's perspective on social media engagement!

R E P L Y

CourtneyM
May 4, 2010 at 4:15 pm

Thanks for letting us know about the problem with the log in. Try this link and let me know if

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 you have any more issues. http://bit.ly/9SfcWQ
Also thanks for the comment about your white paper. I am going to look that up right now!

R E P L Y

Dorothy Lim
December 6, 2011 at 10:19 am

Fantastic site. Lots of useful information here

R E P L Y

Dorothy Lim
December 6, 2011 at 10:29 am

I am glad to be one of many visitors on this outstanding site

R E P L Y

Google Advertising NYC

October 9, 2012 at 10:52 am

This blog is the first place where I have got the most relevant information on this topic otherwise
I had exhausted all my efforts on other places.

R E P L Y

kehinde Thomas
January 18, 2013 at 5:19 am

oh my! im from Nigeria and i just came across this some minutes back! thank you sooo much as
you have made my job way easier!!! YOU GUYS ROCK! VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND!!!

R E P L Y

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How to Use Hashtags On Your Facebook
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