Starting Social Media Campaigns from Scratch

I agree with you there ,there are so many social sites now it's ridiculous , don't mind Facebook and hate twitter ,the only reason I use twitter is because Facebook automatically updates it when I post 

I have that set up too....I used to join in with the local Twitter hours but I just don't have time as it's always when my little girl is going to bed and it's probably the worst time of the day to try and tweet for me!

Straightforward call to action. In this case a targeted message inviting small businesses to join a new service. The ability to target your exact audience and age range made this the winning combination for me. I figured decision makers would be 25+ to 55. Younger would be wasted clicks, as would older who are established an prob less likely to be Looking to gain accreditation. So you then stand a better chance of getting a more viable conversion rate. In real terms, a £200 product has worked out at £10 per conversion. Out of marketing we have done to date for this particular service, FB is currently working out to be the most cost effective, but I suspect that will change shortly as we start pushing brand rather than product.

Nearly 6 months in since your first post - any more thoughts/comments/suggestions other than what you've already stated? 

Originally Posted by mrb

“Nearly 6 months in since your first post - any more thoughts/comments/suggestions other than what you've already stated?  ”

Okdokey, latest scores on the doors.

FB 511 likes, up from 467, Twitter 178 followers, up from 139 and Google Plus a spectacular 6, up from 4 

Facebook wise, now we are over 500 likes, the FB page looks and feels established. Most posts generate interaction, and I've not done any boosted posts for months. The initial start with boosting posts achieved it's aim, and the page will now grow organically and act as a strong social media signal for the website.

Twitter has been a bit slower and in hindsight should have tweeted more, but had some good high profile retweets, some quality industry related followers and like FB, should be a strong social signal. 

Google Plus has been a disappointment and confirms the theory that most social media aware tradespeople still see Google Plus as a low priority.

Tom Buckland who is working with us on a SEO strategy has suggested a good rule for Social Media is 5 posts a day across the board. But obviously keep these non spammy and try to be non salesy.

It can be quite a challenge to generate regular, quality, informative or engaging posts, but if it builds strong social signals back to your domain, then it is worthwhile. Plus a lot of customers, visitors expect social media interaction and prefer that as a more informal means of communication.

Summary

The Social Media campaigns have been established, they achieved their initial aims of generating customer leads while we had no website, and established our social media presence. Primary platform was Facebook, which required a small marketing budget which was used on boosting selective posts rather than a formal PPC campaign.

Moving forward, the growth will be organic, but having a plan and strategy of your aims, ie what to post and how often is key. For us it is about generating strong social media awareness and signals, providing a means to interact with customers and visitors, but relying on organic growth.

Hope anyone following this found it useful.

I'll probably leave it a while now, maybe another 6 months and update then, and see how organic growth has panned out, and if we maintained our posting regime 

dont really get social media but read with interest. so what is the latest or has this now finished?

Blimey, good question and forgot about this post 

So what is the latest? I'll confess that the initial push ended with the last post, so any Social Media growth is now organic. Our MLS stuff grows very well, particularly now it has dedicated attention in the form of Rachael. But our Trusted Trader social media is in need of some digital TLC and have a plan in place.

But waffle aside, scores on the doors.

20 July 2015
FB 511, Twitter 178 followers and Google Plus a spectacular 6

19 Jan 2017
FB 673, Twitter 302 followers and Googe Plus... drum roll... 12

Well to keep a record of ongoing progress, as this account started from zero, here are the current stats for Edinburgh Trusted Traders Social Media.

20 Jul 2015
FB 511 likes, Twitter 178 followers and Google Plus a spectacular 6

19 Jan 2017
FB 673 likes, Twitter 302 followers and Google Plus... drum roll... 12 

23 Nov 2018
FB 840 likes, 22 Reviews/Recommends, Twitter 410 followers and have given up on Google Plus, (and so has Google!)

Nothing earth shattering, more slow and steady. But we can track both customers (new traders) and consumers (users) that have come primarily from the Facebook page, making it a low cost and very viable form of marketing.

The twitter page is harder to track and is simply a low maintenance branding tool, with a daily tweet or retweet. Because of this, as of April 2018, the twitter page has been renamed and is now used as a generic Trusted Trader page to promote multiple Trading Standards schemes in Scotland: Scotland Trusted Trader Twitter page.

We have are looking at experimenting with paid Twitter campaigns in 2019 to target specific trades and schemes, so will see how that goes.

What are the latest stats?

As I am wanting to focus on B2B sales by selling my blog writing service I am primarily focusing on LinkedIn now, with Insta, Facebook and Twitter as ongoing platforms I post on as well. I have so far built my LinkedIn network  by nearly 100 in just over a week, as I am really interacting on a lot of posts, posting myself and using videos as well. I read a few tips and they seem to be working! Most of the connections are being sent to me not vice versa, and most are potentially useful in the future. It is actually interesting to see LinkedIn developing as a social media platform for businesses.

25 March
FB 880 likes, Reviews/Recommends option seems to be down/not displaying?, Twitter 445 followers  and Google+ is now officially defunct, so it was shrewd not paying that any attention! So campaigns without any paid interaction are ticking over and growing organically.

Still plan to do some paid experimentation when budget dictates.

LinkedIn wise, I think it's dependant on the business type. I find it very noisy and self promo. I've got 3,863 connections and I normally go in about once a month to approve new requests and skim through any messages, of which 99% are self promo rubbish. I'm very lazy with linked in, but do keep my profile up to date as I know that some of the work I bid for, normally results in a search of my profile.

I know a few people now that make all of their leads from linkedin, but there's never enough hours in the day to get sucked into another platform, leaving comments, writing blogs etc. But if I was in need of a new means of lead generation, I would take it more seriously.