Social Media

A Guide
for Entrepreneurs
Table of contents

Introduction
Social media:
A vital business tool

1 2 3 4
Getting started Establishing your social Creating content Monitoring and
media presence for social media measuring your social
media success

Conclusion
Well worth the effort

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Introduction

Social media:
L
ong gone are the days when social media was just
about posting your vacation photos or letting friends
know what you were having for lunch. Today, social media

A vital has become a vital business tool that entrepreneurs can’t

afford to ignore.

business tool Social media is everywhere. We use it to make buying decisions,

to stay in touch with friends and family, and to develop new
relationships—both personal and professional. However,
many entrepreneurs still aren’t taking a systematic approach to
social media.

With the help of this guide, you will learn how to create a social
media strategy, build your presence, produce engaging content
and measure your impact.

Our goal is to help you find your place in the social media revolution.

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Getting
started
You’ve decided your business should make
the move into social media. But how do you
get started?
The good news is that with the right
planning, and a bit of effort and patience,
you can learn to use social media to attract,
engage and retain customers inexpensively.
What is social media? Once you have established your presence
and learned the fundamentals, you will find
How to start using social media that using social media is both
straightforward and rewarding.
5 social media strategy must-haves

10 do’s and don’ts for social media

Case study: Martell Custom Homes

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1
Getting started

What is
social media?
Social media refers to a wide range of Internet
and mobile services that allow users to
participate in online conversations, contribute
content or join online communities.
Here are a few of the benefits for your business
> A more direct relationship with
new and potential customers
> Word-of-mouth referrals
> A higher public profile that puts you top of mind
> Brand promotion
> Better customer service
> A way to manage your reputation
> A way to attract qualified employees
> Interaction with other professionals in your field from
around the world
> Page ranking improvement on web searches

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Getting started

How to start 1 Visit key social media platforms

Visit Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to get familiar with how

using social media
they work.

2 Create personal pages

This will help establish your presence and give you the access
you need to understand how social media could be useful for
Monitoring social media is a critical starting point to your business.
help you understand where you should focus your
efforts and how you should establish your social media 3 Start searching
strategy. If you’ve never used social media before, Use search tools to look for mentions of your business,
get started by following these five steps. products or brands.

4 Look at what your competitors are doing

Conduct simple market research within your industry to see
whether you can adapt some of your competitors’ practices
to your own brand, and where you might have opportunities
to fulfill unmet needs.

5 Create a social media strategy

Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with social media and
know where your business stands in relation to others in your
industry, you’re ready to plan your social media strategy.

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Getting started

5 social media
strategy must-haves

A social media strategy is a roadmap you can use

1
Goals
to invest resources in social media. It also provides Determine the main business objectives of your social media
guidelines your employees can follow. presence. These can be any of the following:
Here are five key elements you should include > Increase sales
in your social media strategy. > Improve customer service and boost loyalty
> Find new customers
> Increase brand awareness and engagement
Your goals will determine what metrics you measure and how you
define success.

For example, if your goal is to increase brand engagement, you’ll want

to measure how many comments your social media posts are getting.

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Getting started

2
Audience
3
Key messages and content
Next, define your target audience. This will, in turn, allow you to When thinking about what key messages and content to share on
choose the best social media platform(s) to reach them. social media, start by asking these questions:

Identifying your audience members will also help you develop > What key messages are at the core of my brand?
content that speaks to their interests. > What messages and types of content are relevant to
my audience?
> Which channels will best serve my goals?
Frame your content around key messages aligned with your
marketing strategy and overall business plan.

How do you develop your key messages?

> Use your market knowledge and research

> Organize a focus group
> Seek professional advice

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Getting started

4
Social media action plan
5
Monitor
Now you’re ready to create your action plan. It should answer the Use web and social analytics tools, such as Google Analytics,
following questions. Facebook Insights and YouTube Insights, to assess the effectiveness
of your strategy. Base your metrics on your strategic goals.
> Who will do what?
Tasks to assign in your company include the following: It’s also important to monitor conversations about your company,
• Monitoring social media traffic brand and industry. These will provide valuable market insights as well
• Creating content as opportunities to see what other companies are doing.
• Posting to social media sites

> What material will be shared and at what time?

> How will you monitor results and adapt your actions?
> What existing material can you reuse or rework on social
media platforms?
> What new material can you create and tailor to social media?

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Getting started

1 Tailor your social media activities 7 Don’t use a hard sell and avoid being
to your business goals and target pushy. Instead, allow people to come
audience. to you. An engaged follower is more
likely to become a customer.

10 do’s
2 Grow your audience by offering
helpful, value-added content. 8 Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Instead, be likeable and authentic.

and don’ts
3 Create social content that stands out Remember that social media is about
from your competitors’.
building relationships.
4 Always maintain a polite and 7 Don’t rush to create a Facebook page
respectful tone when interacting with
or Twitter account without proper
clients on social media.
planning. You might waste resources
5 Keep learning and listening to what’s and achieve poor results.
being said about you, your company

for social
Don’t post material that’s inappropriate
and your industry.
or outside your area of expertise.
6 Be patient. Like any relationship,
media social media success takes time.

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Case study “
You always want to be
helping, adding value and
Martell Custom giving information.”
Homes — Pierre Martell
President
Martell Custom Homes
Pierre Martell knew virtually nothing about social media when he
Moncton
got started, but he did know he needed a new way of promoting
his home-building company in Moncton, New Brunswick.

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Getting started

>>Martell Custom Homes’

Facebook page

Martell decided to harness the low-cost power of social media.

He created a YouTube channel and posted short interviews with
contractors offering renovation tips. It was a soft sell, aimed at
boosting his profile as an expert.

Martell also developed a robust presence on Twitter and

Facebook. His social media efforts have contributed to rapid
growth at Martell Custom Homes.

Martell’s social media strategy focuses on directing traffic to his

website. There, visitors can see a two-minute video about his
business and read the company blog. Martell’s social media efforts
have been key to reducing his average sales conversion time (the
time between first contact with a customer and a sale) from seven
or eight hours to two hours.

“Social media has allowed people to get to know us and trust us

before we physically meet them,” says Martell, who now has more
than 11,000 Twitter followers.

“Figure out what you like to do and are good at, and do that. If you
have a good presence, do YouTube videos. If you have no time or
don’t like to write, Twitter is a good option.”

> Read more

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Establishing your
social media
This section offers an overview of the major social
media sites, with tips on how to use them effectively.
It is generally a good idea for your business
to have an account on every major social media site
to reserve your place and protect your brand name.
presence However, you should focus your efforts on one or
two platforms.

Choosing the right social network

Other social media platforms

Social media best practices

Advertising on social media

Case study: Gongshow Gear

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Establishing your social media presence

Choosing the right social network

Scale and reach* Why should I use it? Why should I advertise? Top tip

Facebook
> 2 billion Communicate with consumers
directly or use it as a
Reach and targeting
Reach people on a global
Start using Offers
Facebook’s Offers feature
active monthly users
basic company listing that scale while carefully allows you to send special
worldwide in 2017
customers can use to find and targeting ads to identify deals to your fans and friends

> 23 million contact your business. potential customers via their

personal data.
of fans. This is a great way to
get new customers to follow
active monthly users in
you without having to spend
Canada in 2017
too much money.

LinkedIn
> 500 million Probably the largest directory
of potential business-to-
B2B sales
Target people according
Start recruiting
With millions of professional
users worldwide in 2017
business (B2B) buyers in the to their job title, industry, profiles in a single place,

> 12 million world, LinkedIn is a great

place to network and get new
company size and so on.
A business can, for example,
LinkedIn has become the
world’s most complete human
users in Canada in 2016
sales leads. create an ad targeted resources database. The
exclusively to chief financial paid product allows you to
officers at medium-sized confidentially look at profiles,
Canadian businesses. search for specific skills and
keep a file on people who
interest you.

*
All data come from the social network unless otherwise noted.

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Establishing your social media presence

Scale and reach* Why should I use it? Why should I advertise? Top tip

Twitter
> 328 million Twitter is the digital-age
version of the water cooler—
Events and followers
You can pay to promote
Join the conversation
Resist the urge to use Twitter
active monthly users
a thriving meeting a Twitter trend. These are as a broadcast platform only.
worldwide in 2017
place where you can topics and hashtags that The goal is to converse and

> 37% engage with customers,

journalists, bloggers and
will be placed at the top of
the trending topics list. This
engage with like-minded
people or customers. Using
of Canadians had an
industry personalities. can give an event you’re Twitter only to push your
account in 2016**
organizing more visibility, brand messages and products
for example. You can also will likely be ineffective.
target users based on whom
they follow.

Pinterest
> 175 million Users create pins (content)
and virtual boards that
Digital wish list
People often use Pinterest
Start using rich pins
Rich pins are special pins that
active monthly users
function like visual bookmarks to create a digital wish give users more information
worldwide in 2017
for pictures of delicious- list—a place where they about the image being

> 31% looking foods, gorgeous

products or funny cats. It’s
collect products they want
to purchase. Promoting a pin
displayed. There are four
types of rich pins: product
of Canadians had an
a great place to showcase will ensure more people see pins, recipe pins, article pins
account in 2016**
your products. it and can be a great way to and App pins.
boost online sales.

*
All data come from the social network unless otherwise noted.
**
We Are Social, GlobalWebIndex, 2017.

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Establishing your social media presence

Scale and reach* Why should I use it? Why should I advertise? Top tip

Instagram
> 700 million Instagram is an interesting
network for companies that
Facebook integration
You can create Instagram ads
Use hashtags
Hashtags are an important
active monthly users
can post beautiful pictures or through Facebook’s Business part of sharing and
worldwide in 2017
videos that attract eyeballs Manager service. It gives you discovering content on

> 8.5 million and build their brand image—

apparel, entertainment and
access to all of Facebook’s
ad creation tools, as well as
Instagram. The trick is to use
popular hashtags that will get
active monthly users in
travel businesses, for instance. its analytics and targeting your images seen and your
Canada in 2017
options. This also means that business discovered.
you can use Facebook’s user
data to target Instagram users
and vice versa.

YouTube
> 1.5 billion A YouTube channel is an easy
and inexpensive way to reach
Target television ads
TrueView ads play before or in
Answer customer questions
Answer frequently asked
active monthly users
potential clients. Content that the middle of a YouTube video. questions or demonstrate
worldwide in 2017
performs well tends to be You only pay when a viewer how to install your products.

> 75% funny, tell a story or provide

useful information, such as
watches your ad to the end
or for at least 30 seconds,
Customers appreciate
these types of videos,
of Canadians had an
a how-to video. whichever time period is which position you as
account in 2016**
shorter. YouTube advertising a helpful partner who can
allows you to target your solve problems. They also
audience according to give potential customers
demographic group, location a better idea of what they will
and interest. be purchasing.

*
All data come from the social network unless otherwise noted.
**
We Are Social, GlobalWebIndex, 2017.

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2
Establishing your social media presence

Other social
> Snapchat
Snapchat is primarily a private messaging service that uses
short videos and photos that can be edited with the use of

media platforms filters, captions and drawings. These messages—known as

snaps—disappear after a defined period of time. You might want
to consider Snapchat if the majority of your customers
The social media universe includes an are under 25 years old.
ever‑growing collection of platforms with > Reddit
varying features, audiences and uses. Reddit is a community of online bulletin boards where users
can submit content and discuss topics. Businesses have
Here’s an overview of other platforms you might
successfully used Reddit to create buzz for products or
want to consider for your business.
brands. However, make sure you understand the culture of this
online community before you start using it. A badly designed
campaign could easily backfire.
> Groupon
Groupon and similar sites provide deep discounts on products
and services, with coupons offered on the site and via email.
They can be good ways to reach new clients.
> Yelp
Yelp is a crowd-sourced review site that awards one- to five‑star
ratings to local businesses. Users can write reviews and give
a “thumbs up” to a review they find useful. As a business owner,
you’re able to respond to these reviewers privately or publicly
on your profile page. Yelp is a great way to learn from customers
about what works and what doesn’t in regard to your products
and services.

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Establishing your social media presence

Social media
best practices
> Introduce your brand > Choose a custom URL
Your social media pages give you a chance to tell your story. Most social media platforms allow you to choose a custom URL
Be sure to include branded visuals, such as your logo and (Internet address) when you create your account. Choose one that
company colours. looks professional and will be easy to promote.
> Use your social media pages as a company listing > Build a following
Social media will be one of the first things that comes up in Prominently display links to your social media pages on your
online search results. Display your website address, location, website, on business cards and in your emails. The more people
phone number and hours of operation so people can easily who follow you, the greater your reach and impact.
go from social media to doing business with you. > Find the right voice for the right platform
> Give your page a human face Each platform has its own characteristics. You’ll want to find out
Try to feature pictures and stories of your team, clients and which sites your customers prefer. Remember to adapt your
business partners as much as possible, while being careful to content to each platform. Your Facebook followers will have
comply with privacy restrictions. Featuring people who work different needs than those on Twitter or Pinterest.
with you is a great way to create engagement and strengthen
your network online.

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Establishing your social media presence

Advertising
on social media
As social media platforms have grown, they have Tips for advertising successfully on social media
limited the ability of businesses to reach their
Find out which platform is right for you, compare prices and
followers through organic (unpaid) posts. As a result, decide how much you’re willing to invest before you start.
business owners often have to buy advertising
to reach their target audience. Use paid posts as part of a strategy to find customers.
Promote contests, webinars or eBooks to get fans on your
email lists and create a relationship with them.

Are you getting good bang for your buck? Make sure you
measure your results with solid goals and metrics.

Change the content you’re promoting every couple of days to

ensure your audience doesn’t see the same ad or promoted
post over and over again. You may also want to tweak your ad
design, content and targeting to optimize your investment.

Managing advertising campaigns on social media can be

very technical. It’s often a good idea to get help from an
external advisor.

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Case study “
You sometimes have to
think outside the box to get
Gongshow Gear in front of your customers.
You have to inspire people
Ger McNamee and Craig Kennedy decided early on that their with your brand and reach
company, Gongshow Gear, would be more than just a hockey
apparel company. Their brand would be hockey itself—the them where they are living
excitement, the camaraderie, the memories of playing shinny and breathing.”
on a frozen pond.
— Ger McNamee
Owner
Gongshow Gear

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Establishing your social media presence

>>Gongshow Gear’s
YouTube page

“We wanted to take all those warm, fuzzy feelings people have about Canada’s
favourite sport and infuse them into our products,” McNamee says. “We wanted
people to say, ‘Hey, these guys get me.’”
But they didn’t hit their branding sweet spot right away. Their first efforts
flopped when they tried to market their product through ads in newspapers
and magazines, and on billboards.
They soon realized conventional ads didn’t resonate with their customers.
Their marketing wasn’t consistent with their products, and the company wasn’t
building a community.
McNamee quickly switched gears, targeting social media and trying
unconventional approaches to reach their core market.
Gongshow’s YouTube channel shows fun hockey-related videos. For example,
a friendly shooting match between NHL players Bobby Ryan and Claude Giroux
attracted more than 200,000 views.
On Twitter, where the brand’s account has more than 75,000 followers, they
tweet about hockey and give merchandise away to their fans. The company
went so far as to trademark the Twitter hashtag #BeautyService to highlight its
customer service and Canadian hoser charm.

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Creating content
for social media
Regularly posting on your business’s social media
pages can be the hardest part of creating a social
media strategy. What do you say? Where do you
say it? And how?
Social media is about engaging with people to
build relationships. It can be a powerful tool
4 steps to creating great content for any social to sway followers toward your goals—but not
media platform without the right content.
Case study: Hillberg & Berk A good place to start is to think about the
questions your customers ask you every day.
Blogging for social media How do you respond? What solutions can you
Creating video for social media
provide? These can be the basis for blog posts,
how-to videos or an infographic (a graphic
Creating visuals for social media representation of information, data or knowledge).

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Creating content for social media

4 steps to creating
great content for any
social media platform

1
Get informed
2
Focus on content that builds a connection
> Look at the social media efforts and initiatives of successful > Find ways to be of service to your community. For example,
companies within your industry to see what works and where you an auto dealership could blog and post videos about car
can fill the gap with fresh content. care tips.
> Review posts and comments to learn how businesses engage > Create a good mix of content. Include how‑to blog posts,
their community and what their fans are interested in. links to useful articles, educational videos, Q&A sessions with
> Try to find out what types of content your customers like to knowledgeable employees, announcements of live events and
share online, whom they follow and what they like, so you can industry news.
address their needs and interests. > Put a human face on your business by highlighting the work of
your employees and your impact on clients.
> Guard against plagiarism. Don’t post someone’s article or
other material without ensuring it’s in the public domain and
acknowledging the source.

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Creating content for social media

3
Build a following
4
Engage with your audience
> Kick-start a following by inviting people on your personal and > Respond promptly (generally aim for less than six hours)
business email lists to subscribe to your new social media page. to those who interact with you. Be sure to thank those who
> Prominently display links to your social media pages on contribute, and respond to any customer issues.
your website’s home page, and in your email signature and > Hold contests where you offer discounts or prizes. Tie your
marketing campaigns. contest to your products, brand or business goals (by, for
> Consider spending money to promote your content. You can example, collecting customer email addresses).
use the ads to home in on your target audience without wasting > Survey your audience. This is a good way to solicit customer
precious ad dollars on anyone else. You can optimize your feedback and engage with your audience.
advertising based on data you collect as you progress. > Post regularly. Social media pages quickly lose fan attention if
they’re not updated regularly.

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Case study “
It’s so much easier to reach
out to your target customer
Hillberg & Berk through social media.”
Rachel Mielke started making jewellery as a hobby in high school.
— Rachel Mielke
Little by little, her hobby grew until she started Hillberg & Berk in
Founder and CEO
her native Regina in 2007.
Hillberg & Berk

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Creating content for social media

>>Hillberg & Berk’s Twitter page

Close to a decade after its founding, Hillberg & Berk is now known
for its handmade products, created using sterling silver, vermeil,
semi-precious stones and Swarovski crystals. Mielke has had
pieces showcased on the Academy Awards and she got a big
publicity boost when Queen Elizabeth wore a custom-designed
brooch Mielke created. She also landed venture capital investment
after appearing on CBC’s “Dragons’ Den.”

Social media has been a key part of Mielke’s success story.

“It’s so much easier to reach out to your target customer through
social media,” she says. “It has really allowed us to build a better
relationship with customers.”

Mielke uses monthly contests on Facebook and Twitter to build

her social media following. For example, she’s asked fans to post
their favourite piece of Hillberg & Berk jewellery on Facebook for
a chance to win $1,000 worth of prizes.

She advises other entrepreneurs to start by creating a social media

strategy. “Decide what you want out of it and how much time you
are willing to dedicate to it. Then track the results.”

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Creating content for social media

Top tips
Blogging when blogging
for social media for social media
A business blog is one of the most cost-effective > Create a content plan and stick to it
ways of creating quality content to promote your Take time to decide what you want to write about over the next
website on social media. Since blogs first rose to few months and set a publishing schedule to stay on track.
prominence in the early 2000s, many businesses > Write for your customers
have adopted them as a versatile online tool to Think about the needs and challenges of your customers,
promote their thought leadership. and find ways to help them solve their problems.
Social media and blogging are complementary > Invite guests
activities. Blog posts can be shared on social Lighten your writing load and broaden your appeal by using
media to gain more followers, while your social guest bloggers who don’t necessarily work for your company.
media efforts may draw more readers to > Look up keywords
your blog. You can use Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool to find words and
phrases your customers are searching for online. Use them to
If you don’t yet have a blog, creating one isn’t difficult. Blogging
create titles and to help you find blog topics to write about.
platforms such as WordPress, Medium, Blogger and Quora are
easy to use and offer a variety of templates. > Share your documents
A blog can be a good place to share longer electronic
You can also host a blog on your own website, but be aware documents, such as guidebooks, studies and white papers.
that this will take more time and technical savvy.

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Creating content for social media

Top tips
Creating video for creating video
for social media for social media
If you’re aiming for true viral fame, there’s no better > Find testimonials
way to do it than with video. Even if your video Consider asking customers to contribute video testimonials
doesn’t reach millions of eyeballs, videos will tend to post on your social media pages or arrange to shoot
to get more shares than other types of content, them yourself.
and visitors will spend more time on your website. > Solve problems
How-to videos demonstrating your products or services, and
Uploading your video to YouTube allows you to share it on
answering common questions, can have great success online.
your social media sites and embed it on your blog or website.
If you plan on sharing your video on Facebook, it’s also a good > Promote your events
idea to upload it directly to Facebook’s video platform, since Planning an event? Consider creating videos to promote it
Facebook’s algorithm gives preference to its own video content. and show what happened afterward.
> Give an office tour
Show off your cool office space or your new machines by
recording a tour of your business.
> Keep it light
It’s generally a good idea to make fun, concise videos that get
straight to the point. Light-hearted videos, as well as those
telling a story, often work well online.

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Creating content for social media

Top tips
Creating visuals for creating visuals
for social media for social media
Articles with a picture or infographic get 94% more > Take action shots
views than those without, according to content If you are speaking at an event, providing training in a seminar or
marketing company Skyword. Another study, visiting a unique location, remember to take pictures so you can
conducted by Buffer, found that Twitter posts with share them on social media.
images receive 150% more retweets. > Create original content
Be the one whose content gets shared rather than the one
Images tend to grab a person’s attention and can
who shares others’ work. If you can’t afford professional graphic
often convey information more clearly than text.
design, there are many free and low-cost online tools you can
Posting images on social media, adding pictures to
use, such as Easel.ly, Canva.com, PicMonkey.com, Pablo.Buffer.
your blog posts or creating infographics can help
com, Slide.ly and VSCO.co.
tell your story and reach a wider audience.
> Share visual step-by-step instructions
As a bonus, visuals can be made cheaply or even for free. It can Using a series of pictures to demonstrate how to install a product
be as simple as sharing beautiful pictures of your products, or carry out a process is a great way to help your customers while
or publishing pictures of you and your team having a good time promoting your business.
at a company event.
> Use free stock photos
There are hundreds of stock photo websites offering free pictures
on the Web. Just make sure they are under the Creative Commons
licence. For example, you can visit StockSnap.io, Pexels.com or Burst.
Shopify.com.
> Make your own GIFs
These short animations are easy to make and perfectly suited to social
media. You can make GIFs using software such as Photoshop or use
one of many free online tools, such as Giphy.com and Imgflip.com.

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Monitoring
and measuring
How do you find out what customers are saying
about you? And what do you do when a dissatisfied
customer criticizes your business in an online forum?
Monitoring is your first step to solving this problem.
You need to gather all your customer feedback and
respond promptly to deal with issues before they
harm your reputation.
But your work isn’t done there. To maximize the
impact of your online presence you also need to
track and analyze your online efforts.

your social
media success
3 steps for monitoring social media

Automating your monitoring

Best practices for interacting with social review sites

Dealing with negative comments

4 types of results to measure

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Monitoring and measuring your social media success

3 steps
for monitoring social media
Create a monitoring routine

1 2 3
Every day, check your social media Check for new fans or followers, and Search your company’s name on
pages for new comments and other see how people are interacting with Google to see what comes up.
contributions from readers. your content and pages. Do this daily or several times per week,
Engage with your followers as appropriate. Look at who those fans are. Who has depending on the volume of material you
For instance, thank them for their feedback, retweeted your Twitter posts? Who has find. Look for mentions of your company,
answer questions and address customer looked at your LinkedIn profile? How many brands and products; consumer questions
concerns. Also, take note of feedback people have viewed your YouTube videos and complaints; content to share in your
and save it. This can be important and subscribed to your channel? This will social posts; and industry news. You should
business intelligence. tell you how your audience is engaging with also monitor relevant hashtags on Twitter,
various types of content. Instagram and Pinterest.

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4
Monitoring and measuring your social media success

Automating
> Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to see where visitors come from
and how they use your website. For example, you can track

your monitoring users as they go from your Facebook or Twitter page to your

website and see how they interact with your web content.
> HootSuite
Social media monitoring tools automatically help HootSuite can help you manage all your social media
you follow what people are saying about your activities from a single dashboard with powerful monitoring
brand, products or services. They can help you and analytics tools that can track trends and keywords. The
quickly address customer complaints, spot free version is quite powerful and might be all you need to
trends, analyze the effects of your initiatives and get started.
consider how social media activity is affecting > Salesforce
your firm. While Salesforce is primarily known for its customer
The key is to set clear goals, isolate which metrics relationship management software, since purchasing Canadian
matter to your company and find the tools that social media monitoring company Radian6, it has also been
will present that information to you simply. offering very powerful social media analytics products.
> SocialMention
While social media platforms have their own
SocialMention is a social media search engine that helps you
monitoring tools, standalone software includes
track collective opinions about brands or topics across social
more powerful features.
media networks. It also lists top keywords and lets you set
daily alerts.
> Go deeper
Consult this thorough list of free and low-cost social media
monitoring tools.

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Monitoring and measuring your social media success

Best practices
Follow these best practices to ensure that social review
sites help rather than hinder your business.

for interacting Be sure you’re listed

Make sure you’re listed on the site, with a link to your website.
You can also insert a link to this listing on your website and

with social social media pages.

Monitor regularly

review sites Look not just for mentions of your company and products,
but also at what customers are saying about your competitors.
This is valuable intelligence.

Ask before you post

Never post customers’ positive feedback without first getting
their permission, and don’t post fake reviews. Instead, invite
Social review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp customers to contribute testimonials.
offer reviews on a wide range of businesses.
These sites are especially important to monitor, Don’t panic
because consumers will often check them before Be aware that a bad review isn’t always bad news for your
making a purchase. While you can’t control what’s business. Consumers are suspicious of consistently positive
said about your business on review sites, you can reviews and find it more credible when there’s a variety of
take steps to ensure you respond well. comments upon which to base their decision.

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4
Monitoring and measuring your social media success

Dealing with
> Respond to negative reviews respectfully and quickly
Try to remain polite, calm and neutral in tone, regardless of the
language used by the other person

negative Invite the person to work out any differences offline,

if necessary, and do your best to resolve the issue.

comments > Create a customer service script for staff

Include a standard approach for resolving issues or moving
them up the ladder to a superior.

> Resolve any issues as promptly as possible

Customers often feel very grateful to a company that admits
its mistakes and acts quickly to correct them.
Most mentions of your business on social media > Look into problems and fix them
will be positive or basic questions. When you see Negative feedback can be a great opportunity to improve
such mentions, respond promptly, beginning with your business. Take advantage of it by fixing issues identified
a thank you. You can deepen your relationship by by unsatisfied customers.
taking the time to give a full answer, and perhaps
offer a link to a useful article or web resource.
For negative comments, the key is to be polite,
truthful and transparent. Here are some best
practices for dealing with negative social
media posts.

bdc.ca Social Media – A Guide for Entrepreneurs

 

4 types of results
to measure
Once you’ve begun tweeting, posting how-to
videos or interacting on Facebook, you’ll want
to track how well you’re doing.
The simplest way to measure your results is by
watching the number of fans you get on your
social media pages. However, that’s not always
a good indicator of effectiveness. What’s more
important is that you measure indicators that are
connected to your goals. For example, if your
goal is lead generation, your metric is likely to
be how many leads you got and how much they
cost you.
Here are four types of results you will likely want
to measure.

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Monitoring and measuring your social media success

1
Online traffic
This is the simplest metric for measuring the success of your social > Cost of engagement
media strategy. You can get traffic data using free tools available on Compare your social media budget and time spent on social
most social sites and blogging platforms. You can also use Google media efforts to the number of interactions you get, such as
Analytics to get detailed data on traffic to your website. Monitor the comments, liked posts, retweets and leads. Break down your
following information. cost per lead generated for each site, and compare it with
results from other advertising activities.
> Traffic volume
Measure the number of visits, page views and fans on your > Sales conversion rates
social media pages. Measure how much traffic to your website is Compare your conversion rates for social media followers with
generated by social media. those for leads generated via other sources.

> Engagement
Measure the number of comments, liked shared posts versus
your page’s total number of fans.
> Lead generation
Track how many people download your content; sign up for your
email list, blog or newsletter; fill out your contact form; enter
contests; and/or respond to surveys.

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Monitoring and measuring your social media success

2
Return on investment
Determining your return on social media efforts can be difficult, > Track your effort through time
because it may be hard to establish what role social media played An alternative metric is correlation. Create a timeline where
in your customers’ purchase decisions. However, you can still get an you plot your social media activity and sales results. Look
indication of your return using proxies. for possible correlations, keeping in mind that a correlation
doesn’t necessarily mean causality (i.e., other factors may have
> Track sales leads
influenced sales fluctuations).
You can create a dedicated Internet landing page or promotional
code available only to followers of your social media pages, and
then track those sales.
You can also track and compare the number of leads you
get per dollar spent on various platforms to determine which
platform is the most effective for your business.

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Monitoring and measuring your social media success

3
Sales lead generation
4
Customer service

The key for this metric is to track the source of your leads. To measure the effectiveness of your customer service on social
media, follow these steps.
> Include a field in your contact form asking how customers
found you. > Calculate how much you’re spending on it.
> Track your website traffic from social media sites. > Determine your daily cost per issue resolved.
> Determine what percentage of total leads come from social > Track this figure for your social media sites versus your other
media, and break this data down for each social media page. channels, such as phone, email and web support.

> Track and compare how many leads you get per follower > Factor in peer-resolved issues in social media discussion forums
on your various pages to determine where you’re being the that didn’t need in-house attention.
most effective.

bdc.ca Social Media – A Guide for Entrepreneurs

Conclusion

Well worth
A
s an entrepreneur, you are already close to your
customers and business partners. Social media is
about making those relationships deeper and building

the effort new ones.

If you don’t have the knowledge and expertise you need, BDC is
here to help. Our team of independent and objective professionals
Successfully using social media takes time and can offer the advice you need to get started with social media or
patience. You shouldn’t expect overnight results, take your existing social media efforts to the next level.
but it’s well worth the effort. Consistently listen,
engage, measure and learn, then adjust your
strategy on the basis of what’s working best. It’s
a continuous cycle.

bdc.ca
Social Media A Guide For Social Media – A Guide for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs 39
 BDC is here to help.
We provide business loans to finance
social media marketing campaigns and
advice  to help focus your online sales
and marketing efforts.

Learn more about our financing solutions

Learn more about our advisory services

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($50)

For more information,

contact us or visit your nearest
BDC Business Centre.

1-888-INFO-BDC (1-888-463-6232)
[email protected]
bdc.ca

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