The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing

About the Guide

How social media marketing can benefit you

The impact of social media transcends almost every aspect of our daily lives—work, politics, breaking news and more. Activity is higher than ever before and it's almost universally used by brands to engage with buyers across the entire customer lifecycle. Having a presence on social media channels is no longer optional for brands; it's expected.

Social media marketing provides marketers with a more efficient, effective and cost-effective method to engage with fans, customers, prospects and partners across all channels. According to data from Pew Research, more than 76% of U.S. adults engage on social media platforms. Brands need to be where their audience is—and that's on social media.

With a strategic approach and the right tools, marketers can choose the best social platforms for their brand and efficiently distribute relevant, measurable content across channels. A solid social media strategy helps guide buyers further along the customer lifecycle—and ultimately brings more revenue to the table.

What's in the guide?

• **What is social media marketing and why is it important?**Learn what social media marketing means for today's brands and the value it can bring to your organisation—including increased brand awareness and preference, better search engine optimisation (SEO), networking and peer-to-peer influence and more.
• Create a winning strategy
  Successful social media marketing starts with a strategic approach. Discover how to understand your audience through personas, map your messages to each of the six stages of the customer lifecycle and create targeted content that offers valuable information.
• Choosing the right platforms
  Which social media platforms are right for your audience and your brand? We'll walk you through the features and benefits of some widely used platforms and share tips and tricks to help you to get the most out of each platform, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google Hangouts, Periscope, Snapchat, Presentation platforms and Q&A sites.
• Advertising with social media
  Discover why organic social media may not provide the reach you need and learn how to structure your social advertising strategy for optimum results. We'll cover how to define your goals, identify your audience, pick the right social media platform, use targeting parameters and create dark posts.
• Develop your planning calendar
  Content is nothing without distribution—and timing matters! Find out how to set your cadence and develop the right mix of messages to maximise reach and meet the needs of your audience.
• How to structure your social media team
  The structure of your team and the way you communicate its role to the rest of your organisation will directly affect its success. Get advice on optimal team structures, creating a social media governance board and staffing considerations.
• Integrating social media into your omnichannel marketing strategy
  The best brands find ways to weave themselves into their customers' lives, using omnichannel marketing to create a seamless customer experience. Learn how to use marketing automation for cross-channel social media marketing and drive social media on other channels, such as your website, mobile channels, email campaigns and off-line marketing efforts.
• Your social media technology stack
  Like most marketing, social media marketing is improved both in process and measurement by the technology you use. Discover how to choose a smart tech stack by carefully evaluating each tool and its capabilities and find out how to avoid a “Frankenstack”—a set of individual siloed tools that an organisation tries to get to work together and ultimately results in a mess.
• Measure the ROI of your social media campaigns
  To prove how social media marketing contributes to business growth, you need the right tools to help you to connect all the data points across your channels. Learn how to define key performance indicator (KPI) metrics for early-, mid- and late-stage prospects, such as followers, engagement, reach, new and existing names, cost per lead/acquisition, SQL, opportunities won, revenue won and customer lifecycle value.

Not sure where to start? Download this comprehensive resource to get checklists, worksheets, advice from thought leaders and examples to help marketers at any level create and implement an effective social media marketing strategy.