Shreves Ric - Social media optimization for dummies

Social Media Optimization For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014958469

ISBN: 978-1-119-01609-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-01613-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-01612-0 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

Over the past several years, social media has come to dominate conversations about digital marketing. The rise of social media as an online influencer has been dramatic and has happened quite quickly. In traditional media, the concept of word of mouth has always been respected as one of the most influential forms of marketing. In the Internet age, word of mouth now happens online, via social media. When your friends recommend things, you listen. When they share and like things, you notice. The concepts are as old as marketing itself, but the tools are new.

Social media optimization or SMO, as its often called in this book is a marketing discipline that focuses on creating effective social media. This book starts with the assumption that youre already onboard with the idea of social media, but now you want to find out how to work with social media better, faster, and more effectively. Over the course of these pages, we share with you our experiences in managing social media, and try to communicate the lessons weve learned and explain the tools weve used. The goal of this book is to help you build a social media practice that gets results and doesnt make you nuts in the process.

The one given that you have to keep in mind is that social media is a fast-changing, fluid area. New tools will arise. New channels will take on importance. Books, by contrast, are largely static things. After you read this book, the burden is on you to make an attempt to stay abreast of things in this field and to keep your eyes open for new techniques and tools that you can fold into your practice.

Social media has the potential to be rather overwhelming. The sheer volume of channels is daunting. After you pick your channels, the experience is still a bit like trying to drink from a fire hose; the amount of information pouring out can be phenomenal. This book is about taming the beast. Its about how to approach social media marketing, how to find the right channels and the right tools, and how to use them to your advantage.

As you read this book, you should be thinking about how the techniques and tools discussed can be integrated into your practice. Throughout the book, we make an effort to discuss different implementations, but every person has different priorities, abilities, and resources. This book cant be a one-size-fits-all text and it doesnt try to be. Instead, the book highlights underlying principles and then shows how they can be implemented in various scenarios using a variety of tools. In other words, a philosophy is at work here, and you need to think about how its relevant to your work. Dont get caught up in mechanical application of examples; rather, think about the underlying principles and how you can apply them to your needs.

Note the following text formatting conventions:

• Bolded text should be typed exactly as it appears in the book. The exception is when youre working through a step list: Because each step is bold, the text to type is not bold.
• Web addresses and programming code appear in monofont. If youre reading a digital version of this book on a device connected to the Internet, note that you can click the web address to visit that website, like this: www.dummies.com .

The world is full of assumptions, some foolish and some not. Here are ours:

• Youre interested in social media marketing.
• You have some experience with things like Facebook and Twitter.
• You want to be an effective social media marketer.
• Youre comfortable working with a browser and capable of executing common tasks.

The icons you see in the sidebar of the text signal important additional pieces of information.