Getting Started
Day 1:
Determine What Your Online Brand Name Will Be and Make Sure It's Available
When establishing your presence online, you first have to make sure your brand name is available. Fortunately, for chambers of commerce, your brand name will most likely be available for use, but for small businesses, you may not be the only “Sally’s Shoes” in the world.
- First, check to see if your brand name is available. Visit http://knowem.com
- Remember, when choosing a brand name on social media sites, you must maintain the same or similar name and be wary of character limits,as they may differ from one site to the next.
- Think about what name your customers would use when they search for you. Your unique URL that you select should be a name that is easily identifiable to your brand.
Day 2:
Complete the Keyword Worksheet (15 minutes)
Day 3:
Set Up Google Alerts (10 minutes)
Google Alerts is a monitoring tool that sends you notifications when your keywords or phrases are mentioned in an online article or on a Web site. Enter the keywords or phrases you created in the "Keyword Worksheet." You can choose to receive these alerts in real time, hourly, daily or weekly.
- Go to www.google.com/alerts
- Go to www.gmail.com
- If you already have a Google account, simply sign in.
- Click on “Create an Account.”
- Fill in all the information requested by gmail and then select “I Accept. Create My Account.”
- You can now continue to set up your Google Alerts account with your new Gmail account.
- Refer to the Keyword Worksheet you completed on Day 2. Use the keywords/phrases you created there as the keywords in your alerts.
- Create a “new alert” by selecting which type of information you would like to receive in your alerts via the drop down boxes: News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups or Comprehensive. We’d suggest “comprehensive.” You can always “turn it down” later.
- Hit “Create Alert” when you are done.
- Create an alert for each one of the keywords/phrases you generated using the Keyword Worksheet.
Day 4:
Set up Your Twilert Alerts (10 minutes)
- Go to www.twilert.com.
- Sign up for a Twilert account by selecting which account you'd like to connect with. We suggest Twitter.
- Sign in to your Twitter Account.
- Go to your email and confirm your Twilert account
- Go back to www.Twilert.com.
- Create your alert by entering in the word or phrase you'd like to search for and when you would like the report delivered. You can only enter in one word or phrase at a time. You cannot separate multiple words by a comma.
- Click "Create Twilert."
- Create an alert for each one of the keywords you crated using the Keyword Worksheet.
Day 5:
Set Up a Document to Archive Your Media Mentions (10 minutes)
It’s valuable to keep a log of each time your brand is mentioned on the web. This will help you keep a running tally of comments being made about your brand so that you can identify trends over a longer period of time. It will help gain an understanding of your brand’s image in the marketplace and also monitor the success (or notoriety) you are experiencing through your social media efforts.
- Open Microsoft Excel.
If you don’t use spreadsheets, you can substitute with a word processing document. Just use tables in the document instead of spreadsheets.
- Create a new Excel Workbook.
Dedicate one spreadsheet within the workbook to “Article Mentions.” Here you will place a link to the article that mentions your brand, the date it was published and 1-2 keywords that describes the article.
Keeping a running tally of any media mention will allow you to respond to these articles in a timely fashion, if necessary. You can also monitor the ROI of your brand as you begin to use social media.
- Be sure to update this spreadsheet every time an article is written about your organization.
These articles will mainly come from the Google Alerts you set up on Day 3.
- View sample workbook here.
Day 6:
Keep Track of the People Talking About Your Brand on Twitter (10 minutes)
- Return to the Excel Workbook you created on day 5.
Create a second sheet within the workbook for mentions of your brand on Twitter.
- On each sheet, set up separate columns for Commenter, Date, Keyword, Link Within Comment, and Comment.
- Every time your organization is mentioned on Twitter, document the relevant information in this spreadsheet.
- Begin searching today for your brand.
- Go to www.search.twitter.com
- In the search bar, type in a keyword or phrase you created within your Keyword Worksheet.
We suggest you periodically check this website, as Tweet Beeps may not catch every mention on Twitter of your brand.
- Updating this worksheet using both Tweet Beeps and the website above will give you a better grasp of what people are saying about you.
- See this worksheet for an example.
Day 7:
Set Up Your Google Analytics Account (20 minutes)
Set up a Google Analytics Account so you can track how effective your online marketing campaigns are.
- Go to www.google.com/analytics
- Select “Sign Up” beneath the blue "Access Analytics" button.
- Fill in your Google account information. If you do not have a Google account, go here to create one. A Google account allows you to use Google services such as Analytics and iGoogle.
- Press the “Sign Up” button.
- Fill in the information about your organization’s website.
- Once you have completed these steps, you will need to insert a code into your company’s website so Google Analytics can begin tracking your campaigns and website. For information on how to do so, and other questions you might have about Google Analytics, visit http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/?hl=en-US.
Day 8:
Build Your Social Media Strategy. (15 minutes)
Before you begin setting up your social media sites, it is important to develop the strategy you will use for each site to make your transition into social media both effective and efficient.
Day 9:
Search Digg and Mashables for Content for Your Social Media Sites (15 minutes)
- Digg and Mashables are websites that host user uploaded content.
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www.digg.com is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet. You can search for relevant content you feel your members or customers might find relevant or interesting.
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www.mashable.com is an Internet news blog. Just like Digg, you can find relevant information for you members and customers and post them to your social media sites.
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