Hundreds of millions of Americans are using social media (SM), and already some 70% of businesses have joined them there, using Facebook and other SM platforms to connect with their customers, and attract new ones. So the real question isn’t whether to take your business onto social media platforms—but how to do it quickly, effectively, on a budget, with smart goals, and a road map for success. 

Advanced Social Media Marketing: How to Lead, Launch, and Manage a Successful Social Media Program cuts through the hype and fluff about how social media is changing the world, and it gets down to what really matters: How you as a manager can best use SM to benefit your business. Written by a veteran online marketer and ecommerce professional, the book shares practical strategies and tactics to let you launch and scale a successful corporate social media program.  

Advanced Social Media Marketing: How to Lead, Launch, and Manage a Successful Social Media Program is for the manager who already knows something about social media and wants to roll up his or her sleeves and get down to business. In it, we simplify tasks that might otherwise be complicated—like adopting and tracking key performance metrics, developing online ad campaigns, or creating Facebook apps like games, giveaways and sweepstakes with the capacity to go viral. Businesses can harness the unique advantages of this new medium, but they need a practical, no-nonsense guide like this one. Otherwise they risk being ignored, wasting time and money or, even worse, damaging their own brand and seeing a well-intentioned online program blow up.   

The book is heavy on the how-to, case studies, campaign results and other statistics, and interviews with ecommerce managers at businesses large and small. It also includes the author’s own experiences at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Wine of the Month Club, and others. While this book will be accessible enough for someone implementing a social media program for the first time, it’s ambitious enough to benefit experienced SM hands who are looking for good ideas and techniques to push their online community to the next level of size, interactivity, and buzz.  

What you’ll learn

Businesspeople will learn:

• How to assess the size of the opportunity. Not the total social media universe (irrelevant), but the size and complexion of their market niches.
• Reasonable goals for brand awareness, leads, and sales—and how to measure them.
• Best practices for success on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Groupon, and other SM platforms.
• How much to invest in people and infrastructure based on goals. 
• How to write a social media business plan and execute program goals crisply.
• What the legal and PR risks are with a social media program—and how to avoid them  

Who this book is for

Advanced Social Media Marketing: How to Lead, Launch, and Manage a Successful Social Media Program is for entrepreneurs, managers, marketers, and other business leaders who want to get their companies up to speed in today’s social media landscape. This includes businesspeople rolling out new projects, products, events, or services that would benefit from word-of-mouth and other social media buzz. It's especially for those who have rolled out social media programs that have disappointed and who need to understand how to get the results they are seeking. Last, it's for people new to the topic who suddenly find themselves approving budgets, promotions, or initiatives for social media and need to know where to begin and what is at stake.

Table of Contents

1. The Business Case
2. Best Practices
3. The Platforms  
4. Advertising and Promotion
5. Facebook Advertising
6. Advertising on Twitter and Other Networks
7. Operations Management
8. Measuring Success                                     
9. Advanced Social Media Campaigns                                     
10. Power Up Your Platform
11. Bringing It All Together
12. Social Media Business Plan Example
13. Task Checklist: Launching A Social Media Program or Campaign