Social Media Survival Guide for

THE FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

Where, How and Why?

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com B2C

1
CONTENTS
KEY TAKEAWAYS 4

FOREWORD 5

INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION 6

BLOG 8
Facts
How to get started
Case Study: Innocent drinks

FACEBOOK 11
Facts
How to get started
Campaign ideas
Best Practices

TWITTER 17
Building brand awareness
Lead generation
Customer services
Best practices

YOUTUBE 23
Facts
How to get started
Case Study: Innocent Drinks
Best Practices

PINTEREST 26
Facts
How to get started
Case Study: Whole Foods

THE POWER OF GOOGLE+ 30

MORE DIGIMIND EBOOKS 33

CONTRIBUTORS 34

ABOUT 35
Digimind
Digimind services

DIGIMIND SOCIAL 36

CONTACT DIGIMIND 38

REFERENCES 39
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Thank you for downloading Digimind’s Social Media Survival Guide for
THE B2C FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY. This eBook gives you all of the
information you need to implement a winning social media strategy.

We guide you through:

How to get started on your recommended social media channels

Key statistics and specific case studies

Best Practices for each network

Industry insights about Google+

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 4

FOREWORD
Thank you for downloading this eBook.
Digimind is constantly working to bring you
useful and insightful content to make your
job easier and help you navigate the complex
world of social media.

With the launch of our next generation social

media monitoring tool, Digimind Social, in
October 2013, we are now better equipped
than ever to assist you through these
turbulent waters. Beyond our technology,
our teams in North America, Europe, Asia
and Africa are constantly gleaning the latest
social media and digital marketing trends
and insights and delivering them in easily
digestible formats.

We are very happy to share our insights

with you and we hope you find this eBook
interesting and insightful. If you like what
you see here, you’ll find many more similar
resources and best practices on our website.

Enjoy,

Paul Vivant
Founder & CEO

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 social media platforms that have the greatest
INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION number of users like Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, Youtube, and Pinterest, as well as
creating a blog which people can subscribe
to. Here we show you how to capitalize on the
Deciding which social media platforms to best social media platforms for your industry.
use is easier for B2C than B2B companies,
given the huge consumer audience on all of
the social networks. But what is challenging
for B2C companies is figuring out how to
influence such a big audience and monitor
what all of these people are saying. Are they
asking for advice? complaining? or generally
happy with your product? Social listening is a
key role for your Community manager who
can leverage smart social media monitoring
tools to listen, analyze and engage with your
customer base to make better business
decisions. These insights are not limited to
your Community Manager. Your Sales and
R&D department can also use these tools to
find quality leads or see what people like and
dislike about your product.

Let’s have closer look at your industry.

Social media is extremely important for this

sector because it is a source of potential
clients and unfortunately also a source of
potential crisis. Today the impact of word
of mouth recommendations or criticisms is
much greater than in the past given how fast
things spread via social media. KPMG’s Food
and Beverage Industry Outlook Survey from
2012 showed that 63% of survey respondents
acknowledge that social media is having a
significant impact on their industry.

So which social media platforms should be

used for the Food & Beverage sector? Because
this sector touches all people who eat and
drink you have a big audience and a lot of
possibilities. You should definitely target the

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“...this sector touches all
people who eat and drink you
have a big audience and a lot
of possibilities...”
 build business relationships. You must set out
BLOG specific goals in order to develop an effective
social media strategy.

Content creation and having a strong blog Who is your audience?

should be central to your marketing strategy, Because the Food & Beverage industry is so
as you can provide information about your universal, your audience is everywhere online.
products and services and explain how and However, you need to work out exactly what
why they will benefit your target audience. your audience is interested in so that you can
A blog is a social media platform that you create targeted, effective content. The best
own so you can edit it on a daily basis in way to do this is by engaging with them on
order to provide a continual stream of fresh social media sites or asking them to subscribe
content that will feed other social media to your blog and give feedback.
networks and enhance your online presence.
According to Social Media Examiner’s 2013 What sort of content format will
Social Media Marketing Industry Report 1, generate leads?
marketers generally underutilize blogging; Given your sector, you should focus on
less than one in five put it at the top of their providing visually interesting content; this
list. Furthermore, marketers who are using means illustrated recipes involving your
blogging are missing out on generating product, how to videos, infographics about
valuable leads because they are not your industry, and photographs of different
mobile-optimizing their blog, despite the ways people can use and enjoy your product.
fact that the Pew Internet Project’s social
networking research 2 has shown that 40% of What is the optimum content
cell phone owners use a social media site on frequency?
their phone, and 28% do so every day. In order You should update your content regularly and
to access these potential leads, you must first be sure to capitalize on occasions like Easter,
create your blog. Thanksgiving, Christmas etc to give people
seasonal ideas for using your products and
enjoying themselves generally. This is a great
How to start a blog? way to ensure you don’t overload your blog
visitors with heavy marketing content. Create
Digital Marketing Expert Heidi Cohen’s ‘How To an editorial calendar so you can keep track of
Plan Your Blog’ 3provides some great insight. when and who should post.
Before you begin, you must ask the following
questions: The cheapest and easiest way how to build a
blog is by using Wordpress (or another content
What is your goal? management system such as Drupal, Joomla
Blogs serve several purposes; you can use it etc). There are plenty of different templates to
to build brand awareness; gain marketplace use and a number of freelance blog builders
insight; attract more potential clients; improve who can take over for a small fee, although
SEO, exposure and traffic; support sales and using in-house human resources will

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 minimize your total marketing expenditure.

Don’t forget to implement the Google

Analytics tool to measure your traffic and
exposure, and to discern what kind of content
is the most popular. You will gain insight into
the sort of information people are searching
for in your sector, such as typical reasons
for complaints or a product or service that
is desired but unavailable, and you will find
topics being discussed by consumers which
you could use as a communication strategy.
Google Analytics is a great social media
monitoring tool as it will enable you to adjust
your content according to the information.

Finally, when you have constructed your blog,

you should implement a social media sharing
toolbar, as there is a huge space to promote
it on your other social media platforms. With
social media sharing, your blog posts will keep
on giving long after they have been published.

Here is how one drinks brand is capitalizing on

this social media platform.

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 Case Study the season, information about competitions
they’re running and information about
Who: Innocent drinks national events such as ‘National Poetry Day.’
This encourages their blog visitors to engage
Product: Healthy, sustainably-produced fruit with them as they are not just marketing
smoothie and juice drinks their products. Furthermore, innocent
encourage people to share posts on their
Social Media Platforms: Blog, Facebook, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, and also
Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, provide links to all of their other social media
Instagram sites so that their content is shared and users
of other social media platforms can get in
Approach: touch with them. Their content could be
The innocent blog is very well branded right improved by providing more interesting types
down to the font they use for their blog posts of media like video which will encourage
which matches the font on their drinks. The more sharing, as currently their blog only
domain name is attached directly to their provides images and text.
main website so those looking to visit the
blog on the site simply need to select the
‘blog’ tab where the posts are organized
by the most recent entries, but can also be
accessed by month or category. For innocent,
keeping their blog attached to their website is
a good idea because they blog solely to share
information relevant to their industry, rather
than directly about their products. They
keep things light and relevant by regularly
posting healthy eating tips to coincide with

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 The Like button on your page is very
FACEBOOK important for generating Facebook followers.
When you’re ready to launch your page, think
about campaigns (both free and paid) that will
help you generate Likes and a following for
Why Facebook? The answer is simple; with
your page. We bring you some ideas.
665 million active daily users6 it is by far the
most frequently used social media platform.
Consumers in your industry are using
Facebook on a daily basis, engaging with each
other and sharing their experiences, desires,
delights, and disappointments. Through
Facebook you can connect with these active
users and consumers by joining discussions,
offering advice and recommendations, and
replying to any criticisms they might have
about your product. However, in order to
benefit from this communication strategy, you
must first create a Facebook page.

How to set up your Facebook page?

Begin by creating a Facebook page which will
be attractive to your consumers. You should
use images which represent your brand, and
a cover photo which communicates the main
message of your organization. Remember
to keep the profile photo simple; using your
logo or mascot will create a strong brand
association when it is shared and Liked on the
network.

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 FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN
IDEAS

“Fill in the blank” posts

Encourage your consumers to engage with
you, either by asking them to complete
a puzzle or by asking general knowledge
questions that are relevant to your industry.

Offer your followers an exclusive

discount, information or special offer
on your page
This will generate interest in your page,
especially if you make the giveaway
conditional upon them posting about your
brand.

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 Use an events page to promote your
new product, charity activities, promo
offers etc.
This will generate social media buzz for your
brand. If you decide to host an event, be sure
to post photographs of the event on your page
so that your consumers see the people behind
the brand.

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 Ask your fans to create a new product
A great example is Create Dunkin’s Next
Donut” contest which generated more than
130,000 donut submissions and 174,000 votes.

Let your fans play games or enjoy

your special videos/apps
The big advantage of this kind of content is
that you can collect user info.

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 Vary your content Connect your social networks
Combining infographics, videos, recipes You can do this simply by typing ‘tab for...’ and
and information will make your page then the name of the social media channel
interesting and attractive for consumers. you want to connect to into the Facebook
Video is particularly effective, as you can search bar. For example, by typing ‘tab for
provide valuable information quickly without Pinterest’ into the search bar you will be
overwhelming your consumer with too much directed to the app page in the app centre
detail and losing their attention. where you can install the application quickly
and easily. Any posts you make on your
Pinterest will then automatically appear on
your Facebook page. You can add apps like
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr,
Blog (for blog search for ‘RSS tab’) etc.

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FACEBOOK BEST PRACTICES:

• Share photos and videos rather than a link

It is important to ensure that all of your content is accessible in one place.

• Keep your posts short

You want to capture the attention of your consumer without overloading them with information.

• Call to action
Asking your followers for their opinion is a good communication strategy, and a good way of
generating leads.

• Always answer your follower’s questions

You cannot expect people to answer your calls to action, if you are not willing to do the same in
return. Answering your followers is a key communication strategy as you need to build a relationship
with consumers in order to convert leads into sales.

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 you, which will help you to build relationships
TWITTER with prospects and create your own online
community. Including 1 or 2 hashtags in every
tweet will get you 21% more engagement
from other twitter users.
Twitter is another good social media platform
because you can provide quick, easily As you can see, Twitter is a place where you
digestible news about your industry and can build brand awareness, provide customer
brand, and it is a great source for potential service, retain loyalty or promote your product
customers, followers and brand ambassadors. or service.
Many companies are using Twitter as a
customer service channel because it enables
them to respond to queries in real time and
provide information about their brand without
aggressively marketing themselves. It also
enables them to create an online following.

Here are some facts about Twitter, courtesy

of statisticbrain.com and bufferapp.com4, and
information about how it will benefit your
brand:

140 million tweets are sent per day on

average - There is a huge audience for your
organization waiting to be tapped into.

40% of people on Twitter don’t tweet

but watch other people tweet – You can
generate leads and sales simply by providing
good, informative content.

You can link your Twitter account to your

other social media sites – You can increase
exposure for your blog and official website
simply by linking them to your Twitter
account. Furthermore, you can provide links to
content on your other social media networks.
Remember, including links makes tweets 86%
more likely to be re-tweeted.

You can #hashtag certain topics – This will

enable you to interact with other twitter users
who are talking about the same topics as

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 Let’s look more closely at different ways to
use Twitter.
Twitter competition

Building brand awareness A good way how to gain more followers is

to organize Twitter competition. Jeff Bullas
If you haven’t yet set up your Twitter page, wrote a great article “4 Awesome Types of
you must create a profile with your logo, a Successful Twitter Contests” 5 on this topic
header and a good biography. The next step is in which he describes four types of Twitter
to start tweeting, follow people, and of course competitions: creative answers, sweepstakes,
gain your own following. Below are three tools photo contests, and Question & Answer.
which will help you find the most suitable
people to follow on Twitter: Creative answers - The organiser will ask
http://followerwonk.com/bio users to reply to a question using a specific
http://tweepz.com hashtag. The winner will be the person who
http://wefollow.com tweeted the best or most creative answer.
Note that it is very important for people to
Remember, photos are particularly important follow the specific hashtag mentioned.
when it comes to brand awareness, and good
ones are worth far more than 140 characters. Sweepstakes - Sweepstakes are very
You can be creative, or focus on a specific popular in the US. The main principle is that
event, while still marketing your products or winners are chosen at random or through
services, and below is one example from the a ‘lucky’ draw. Here you can ask people to
coffee chain ‘Starbucks’ after the birth of the retweet a specific tweet to win a prize.
royal baby in Britain.
Photo Contest - Ask people to take a photo
with your product to win the contest and get a
prize. Of course, don’t forget to add a specific
hashtag for the contest.

Question & Answer - This is a very simple

way to organize a contest, but it is still
effective. You can simply ask a question
about your product or service that has a
right or wrong answer, and the winner will
be the person who answers most quickly or
accurately.

REMEMBER ALL COMPETITIONS OF THIS

NATURE MUST BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH
THE LAW AND TYPICALLY REQUIRE OFFICIAL
RULES AND REGULATIONS.

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 will return the search results below.
Lead generation
Many drinks companies market themselves as
140 million tweets are sent per day on
both B2C and B2B, which is why using Twitter
average. Amidst all of this noise are your
is a good idea. An alcohol brand could engage
target consumers talking about products
with a company or a bar to encourage them
and services you offer and asking for advice.
to stock and sell their product, or engage with
It is the perfect opportunity to reach out
individuals who are looking to throw a party
to these consumers, recommend your
and give them different ideas for how to use
products or services and perhaps offer a
their product.
sample or demonstration. It might seem
like an impossible task to sift through the
Twittersphere to find your target audience,
but we will show you how through a simple
keyword search:

By simply using the query -http ? “keyword”,

you can bring up a targeted stream of search
results for a given keyword on Twitter.

For example, the query -http ? “cocktail party”

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 Dell began a customer service campaign
Customer Service on social media which has been extremely
successful. They offer solutions to unhappy
The days of sending letters and using
customers in real time, meaning that they
Customer Service hotlines are largely over,
have recovered their brand reputation and
especially for companies in your industry.
escaped the ‘Dell Hell’ catchphrase.
Consumers are now demanding more
immediate attention, so customer service
Dell are offering one of the best customer
has moved online and more specifically, onto
services out there, and they are receiving
social media sites like Twitter. Nielson’s 2012
positive feedback on their Twitter page which
Social Media Report showed that 47% of
will encourage other social media users to buy
customers looking for customer service turn
their products, because they know there will
to social media, with 27% turning to Twitter.
be help at hand if they have a problem.
This is good news for you, as Twitter is free
and already has millions of existing users; it is
just up to you to find your customer base.

Dell is a good company to look at when it

comes to company service. After Jeff Jarvis
posted the catchy phrase ‘Dell Hell’ referring
to poor customer service on his blog, it
travelled around the internet and was even
mentioned in the New York Times, resulting in
an online crisis for the company. In response,

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TWITTER BEST PRACTICES:

• Keep tweets shorter than 140 characters

People will be more likely to retweet your comment as every RT includes the @nickname of the user
who tweeted initially. Shorter tweets are therefore simpler to RT.

• Use hashtags
Hashtags are being used more and more by Twitter users so it is much easier to locate and target
your audience. But remember, you should use max.3 hashtags per tweet.

• Grow your following

You should keep adding followers as a number of people will follow you back. This is a very simple
way to grow your online community.

• Retweet with a comment

Whenever you retweet, be sure to add your own insight or comment on the topic to make it more
personal for your followers..

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“...people prefer receiving
information through more
interactive formats like
video...”
 Per month, YouTube attracts more than 1
YOUTUBE billion unique visitors, who are spending
2.9 billion hours on the site and watching
6 billion hours of video – These numbers
speak for themselves; your brand can
In this age of distraction, most people capitalize on the huge volume of traffic that
prefer receiving information through more YouTube videos generate each month.
interactive formats like video. For companies
in the food and beverage industries, YouTube YouTube Analytics Tool allows you to keep
is a great option as it allows you to provide track of your audience – Who are your
intelligence behind your products, popular viewers? How do they find you? What do
adverts, employee testimonies, customer they like/dislike? You will have all the details
testimonies and information about new to understand and engage with your target
products all in one place. It is a great way for audience.
people to get to know more about your brand
without being overwhelmed by information. YouTube is available on smart phones
and tablets – This means your brand will be
There are two big advantages to using automatically mobile-optimized.
YouTube:

1. Videos are more likely to go viral than

purely text posts.
How to set up your YouTube channel?
2. You can easily embed YouTube videos into
It’s simple to get started. The first step is to
your blog or website without the weight
create your profile and channel, and then you
of the video slowing things down.
can customize your channel to reflect your
brand identity. Google provides a great guide
Still not convinced? Here are the facts about
on how to customize your YouTube channel -
YouTube, courtesy of YouTube Press, and
https://support.google.com/youtube.
information about how it will benefit your
brand:
Then it’s time to create a content strategy.
You can simply share your commercials,
400 Tweets per minute contain a YouTube
interviews or how-to videos, but always make
video – Online videos are a media which will
sure your content is original, frequent, and no
keep contributing to your brand long after
longer than 15 minutes.
they have been viewed.

YouTube’s search bar is the No.2 online

search bar, second only to Google – YouTube
has also been part of the Google group since
2006, meaning that your brand automatically
benefits from SEO when any of your videos
are searched for on Google.

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 Here is how one beverage organization is speakers who give inspirational talks about
using various approaches to capitalize on this healthy living. The videos are aligned with
social media platform: their brand message, but the speakers range
from musicians to up-and-coming chefs
Case Study like Ollie Dabbous. Using brand ambassadors
increases the reach and influence of these
Who: Innocent Drinks videos, as their fans could become fans of the
Product: Healthy, sustainably-produced fruit brand and vice versa.
smoothie and juice drinks
Social Media Platforms: Blog, Facebook, Approach 3: Direct Customer Service
Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram Innocent use this channel to get their
customers involved with their brand, and
Approach 1: Organization and to create a discussion. Each year they hold
their ‘AGM meeting’ where 150 customers are
Presentation
chosen to go to their HQ and ask questions
Innocent drinks are really capitalizing on
or discuss their own ideas for the brand.
this social media channel because they
Employees of the brand then answer the
know the importance of visual marketing
questions and give insight into their working
for their consumers. They have created a
life. The videos are then uploaded onto
welcome banner for the top of their page to
YouTube under the title of the query, however
show visitors that this is the official innocent
not all of the questions are about the brand
channel, and organized their page into
so it does not come across as aggressive or
playlists to make it easy to navigate. They have
staged marketing. It is relaxed and the tone is
a ‘big knit’ playlist to keep followers updated
kept light with questions like; ‘What are your
on their online competition, an ‘innocent
hobbies?’ or ‘Is that the same shirt you wore
inspires’ playlist with talks and presentations
last year?’ Other questions ask for information
about the brand and their ideas, an ‘advert
about the business and it’s management, such
archive’ and many more.
as ‘Is there a reason you’ve grown slowly?’ or
‘What is your most popular product?’
Approach 2: Brand Ambassadors
In their ‘innocent inspires’ videos, the brand
provide videos of a number of different
Approach 4: Links to their other social
networks
They have connected the channel
to their other social media channels,
making it easier for people to share
videos on their own social media sites.
This will increase their online visibility
as their videos will keep on giving long
after they have been uploaded.

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YOUTUBE BEST PRACTICES:

• Create a good title for each video

Keep it short but informative and think about keywords.

• Provide descriptions
Always provide a description and include a link to your website. This helps optimize your visibility to
potential consumers and Google.

• Tag your videos

Video tagging is crucial to help viewers locate your video through search.

• Annotation
YouTube lets you add interactive commentary to your videos. These annotations allow you to add
background info about your video, create stories with different endings, and/or link to other videos.
Use these to improve the viewer’s experience, but be sure to keep them short (5-7 seconds).

• Share your videos on other social media platforms

Be sure to have an integrated social media strategy.

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PINTEREST
Pinterest has revolutionized the way social your sector by pinning your own content
media users share information, and making and sharing pins from a carefully vetted
use of this social media network is a great way combination of sources in order to ensure
for food and beverage brands to offer their your brand is providing the most accurate and
consumers visually stimulating information useful information available.
about their products without aggressively
marketing themselves. The site is taking Secondly, you can expand your reach, and
the social media world by storm, and as its grow your consumer base. By using Group
customer base keeps growing exponentially, Boards and collaborating with popular pinners
companies are rushing to not only understand who have a large following you can expose
but also successfully utilize Pinterest. your brand and content to more people.
According to Business Insider, Pinterest
accounted for 23% of social media generated Thirdly, you can drive traffic to your site. In
e-commerce sales during the second quarter order to do this, you must first make your
of 2012, because of its 3 main benefits. content attractive to other Pinterest users
who will repin to their boards.
Firstly, companies can increase their brand
authority, which is especially useful for the However, companies in your industry are
smaller and less well-known companies. You failing to capitalize on the many benefits that
can position yourself as an authority in Pinterest has to offer. benefits that Pinterest
has to offer.

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 Here are the facts about Pinterest, and blog, Facebook and Twitter pages you can
information about how it will benefit your raise awareness about new content on all
brand: these social media platforms.

It has over 70 million users and 2.5 billion However, you should make sure your Pinterest
monthly page views - These numbers speak board isn’t too focused on self-promotion, as
for themselves; it is the fastest growing social it is not supposed to be used for aggressive
network and your organization can translate marketing; it is a forum for sharing, interaction
the huge volume of traffic that posts generate and discussion.
into leads and sales.
Be sure to set goals and a social media
You can create organic content and re-pin strategy for your Pinterst page. You might
or share content from other organizations wish to share visuals providing information
- This will allow you to give consumers a good about your organization and upcoming events,
idea of your organization’s vision, values and feature educational infographics and photos
influence. Furthermore, by re-pinning you which reveal your workplace culture or simply
can provide information about your industry promote the organizations other social media
without having to constantly create new networks. As with all social media sites, the
content, which will save you time and effort. more you use it the more comfortable and
skilled you will become, and by carefully
You can engage and interact with other monitoring the page you will be able to see
Pinterest users - Not only will you be able to what content is the most successful and make
positively influence your consumer, but the adjustments.
viral effect the site provides will give valuable
exposure to your brand, creating brand
awareness and generating leads. Want more inspiration? See Pinterest success
stories here:
The content is heavily visual - This will http://business.pinterest.com/success-
make your brand more attractive and stories/
memorable to consumers, as it is easier to
obtain and retain information through a
visually rich media.

How to set up your Pinterest page?

You can open a new account by email, or

with a Twitter or Facebook account. Once you
have set up your page, you can start pinning
or re-pinning images to your board and you
will have the option of sharing this content
with your Twitter and Facebook followers. By
adding a Pinterest button on your website,
and announcing your Pinterest page on your

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 Case Study

Whole Foods Market has a great Pinterest

page which you can use for inspiration.

Their page is well branded and provides a brief

description of who they are, what they do,
and where their products are available. Whole
Foods is clearly well aware of the visual impact
they can have on their clients which is why
they use their Pinterest to give information to
their consumers through images. The page
is interesting and relevant to their industry,
and it doesn’t overly market their products.
Instead it is used as a way to engage with their
consumers by providing useful dinner recipes,
healthy eating ideas with vegetables, tips
for gardening, interesting interiors etc. They
have pinboards which will appeal to many
different interests so they are more likely to
get repinned, which in turn will increase their
online visibility. They update their Pinterest
page regularly, and have already pinned
almost 3000 times, but this is how you create
a 150,000 strong online following.

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PINTEREST BEST PRACTICES:

• Use tags
This will make it more likely that your content will be re-pinned, which translates into increased
exposure for your brand.

• Pin at least once a day

As with all social media sites, using them often is the only way to really benefit from them.

• Don’t just pin your product photos

Pinning inspiring photos that align with your brand will provide varied, attractive content and
emphasize your brand’s message.

• Don’t stop after pinning

Remember to engage with your community by re-pinning or following interesting people who are
potential customers.

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 Drink Better Wines
THE POWER OF GOOGLE+ Wine Lovers
Beer Lovers

When brands are planning their social media You can also create your own community.
strategy, they often overlook Google+ which Creating a community is an especially good
means they are missing out on the important way for companies in your industry to utilize
benefits that Google+ has to offer. It has Google+, for example you could create a
already surpassed Twitter in its number of special community with original recipes
active users, and is fast becoming known involving your food or drink products to show
as the social network for companies and its versatility. Oreo serves as an excellent
professionals.8 One important feature of example, as they revived their generic cookie
Google+ which has attracted professional image to make it much more fun and modern,
users is the ‘Circles’ feature which allows simply by creating a picture which showed
companies to segment and target specific consumers that they could enjoy the Oreo
audiences with unique messages. For product as an ice-cream during the summer.
example, you could separate your prospects It made for a successful marketing strategy,
and current customers into different circles given their younger, more visually-orientated
which will give you more flexibility in terms of consumer base, plus they were able to target
how you contact people and approve posts. consumers who were more likely to buy
You can also access existing communities ice-cream than biscuits.
or circles on Google+ which already contain
people with shared interests. Here is a list of
some recommended communities for your There are endless benefits to creating
sector: a community where you engage with
customers, and encourage them to engage
Food Bloggers with each other and share their own ideas .
Food Bloggers Social Media Network
Food Lovers Guide
Cocktails

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 30

 Integrating your Google+ and YouTube
Channel
YouTube now allows you to use your Google+
profile to change the display name of your
YouTube channel from your username to your
real name. You can see the difference in the
examples below.

If you want your YouTube channel to match

the name on your Google+ personal profile,
then go to your YouTube channel’s settings
page and click on Link channel with Google+.

What if you don’t want to change your

YouTube channel display to your name? Then
check out these instructions to try linking your
Google+ page to your YouTube channel. This
will help you link your YouTube channel to
your brand vs. your personal profile.

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 31

 AdWords Integration:
GOOGLE+ BEST PRACTICES Google’s new AdWords feature, ‘Social
Extensions,’ is an integration of AdWords
and Pages which allows users to leverage
the +1’s on their posts into their AdWords
Below are some more advantages, courtesy campaigns. So if you are using AdWords and
of Pardot 9, which set it apart from other a Google user searches for your company,
social media channels, as well as tips and their search results will contain the relevant
best practices on how to capitalize on these ads as well as how many of their connections
benefits. have given a +1 to your content (i.e., 30 of
their friends recommend this company).
SEO: This can drastically improve ad performance
Google has completely integrated Google+ as so many people are influenced by
pages into their search algorithms. This recommendations. You will need to:
means that when a Google user searches for
something online, they will see a ‘personal Enable Social Extensions - Click the Ad
results’ section in their search results, Extensions tab in your account and select
containing content from Google+ networks Social Extensions from the drop down menu
that relate to their search. So if you are active and choose ‘new extension.’
on Google+ your page will contain more
relevant content for indexing into search Use social report segments - AdWords
results. reporting now offers a ‘+1 Annotation’
segmentation in its report to provide insight
Share content with your circles regularly into the impact of social media on ad
- You should create a schedule to make sure performance.
you are updating your Google+ page often.
The more content you share, the more likely Add +1 button to your content - The more
your page is to be viewed by prospects. social recommendations for your company
that can appear in search results, the more
Connect your Google+ with your other success your campaigns will have.
websites - By adding the +1 button to posts on
your blog or official website, you will improve
the search rank of your content on Google.
You should encourage other Google+ users to
share your posts, as the more +1’s you get the
more relevant your content is.

Vary your content - Google indexes various

content types differently, so incorporating
different media like articles, images and
videos will not only make your page more
appealing, but will also increase your reach.

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 32

MORE DIGIMIND EBOOKS

Your Guide to Social Media Success How to conduct competitor 10 Myths About Online
analysis Reputation
http://www.digimind.com/resources/ http://www.digimind.com/resources/ http://digimind.com/blog/
white-papers/your-guide-to-social- white-papers/how-to-conduct-a- social-media/myths-about-online-
media-success/ competitor-analysis/ reputation/

Read our latest analyses and articles on our blog: http://digimind.com/blog/

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 33

CONTRIBUTORS

Katerina Malinova
Katerina is a Community Manager in Digimind’s
Paris office. She manages social networks, designs
marketing materials and prepares marketing
strategies.

Diana Kilner
Diana is a member of the marketing team in
Digimind’s Paris office. She is an experienced
digital marketer and writes extensively on social
media.

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 34

ABOUT

Digimind
Digimind is a leading global social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company that
provides businesses with unrivaled insights into their true standing in the market. Digimind’s proven
intelligence technology has provided Fortune 500 brands around the world with critical information
for their business for more than 15 years. Profitable since its founding, Digimind has a 92 percent
customer retention rate and more than 100 employees across offices in North America, Europe, Asia,
and Africa. For more information, please visit Digimind at http://www.digimind.com

Digimind Services
Digimind’s experienced consultants and analysts form the backbone of our Services Team, which
helps our customers implement and succeed in their digital strategy. We provide a wide range of
services, from working with you to build your digital strategy to providing fully outsourced analysis
and reporting services.

This publication has been prepared for general guidance on matters of interest only, and does not constitute professional advice. You should not
act upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or
implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and, to the extent permitted by law,
Digimind does not accept or assume any liability, responsibility or duty of care for any consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to
act, in reliance on the information contained in this publication or for any decision based on it.

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 35

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

So you’ve set up your social media strategy. Now what? Now you’ve got to monitor, analyze, measure,
and engage with your audience. To succeed in today’s increasingly social and digital world, you need
to understand what your customers want and what they’re saying about you. You need to know the
competitive landscape, anticipate competitor moves, and engage with your audience. All of these
conversations are happening on social media, and you need a tool to help you make sense of it all.

Digimind Social is a next generation social media monitoring tool that allows you to:

Understand what your customers want

Measure the impact and ROI of digital marketing campaigns

Monitor and manage the reputation of your brand

Perform real-time, multi-faceted, multi-level analyses

Compare your brands and benchmark against competitors

Automatically generate customized reports in seconds

… and much, much more!

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 36

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CONTACT DIGIMIND
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+33 (0) 1 75 43 08 45
adam.nors@digimind.com
@adam_nors

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 38

REFERENCES

1 STELZNER, M. A. (2013, 5). Socialmediaexaminer.com. Viewed on 10 2, 2013, on2013

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING INDUSTRY REPORT : http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/
SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2013.pdf

2 Brenner, J. (2013, 8 5). Social Networking (full detail). Viewed on 9 5, 2013, onPew Internet: http://
pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx

3 Cohen, H. (2012, 9 2). How To Plan Your Blog. Viewed on 10 26, 2013, onhttp://heidicohen.com/:
http://heidicohen.com/infographic-how-to-plan-your-blog/

4 SMITH, C. (2013, 8 30). Twitter And Pinterest Account For Nearly Half Of Social Commerce Sales.
Viewed on 10 22, 2013, onBusiness Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/twitter-and-pinterest-
are-half-of-social-commerce-2013

5 Bullas, J. (2013, 6 21). 4 Awesome Types of Successful Twitter Contests. Viewed on 11 1, 2013, onhttp://
www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/06/21-awesome-social-media-facts-figures-and-statistics-for-2013/

6 Bullas, J. (2012, 5 14). 21 Awesome Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics for 2013. Viewed on 11 1,
2013, on http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/05/14/4-awesome-types-of-successful-twitter-contests/

7 Youtube Press, Statistics. (2013). Viewed on 10 10, 2013, onYoutube.com: http://www.youtube.com/yt/

press/statistics.html

8 Twitter Statistics. (2013, 7 5). Viewed on 10 15, 2013, onStatistic Brain: http://www.statisticbrain.com/
twitter-statistics/

9 Wesson, M. (2012, 4 18). Reasons B2B Can’t Ignore Google+. Viewed on 10 15, 2013, onSalesforce
Pardot: http://www.pardot.com/blog/3-reasons-b2b-ignore-google/

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA www.digimind.com 39