The big assumption here is that there is buy-in on the plan. Many businesses still don't understand social media and think it's just "blogging."
Chris Lynn
· 1 year ago
Hi Aaron:
I think this is a good primer. It's definitely important to listen and engage. There are a couple key steps missing, however.
1) You have to set goals before you can determine your strategy. Are you trying to increase awareness about your company or product? Trying to decrease calls to your customer service team? Trying to raise the positive sentiment around your brand? These are all different goals that require different strategies.
2) Define who you want to target. Is it moms? Maybe you want to reach male teen gamers? In the listening phase, find out where they hang out and what tools they use to communicate. Since both of these target audiences use social media differently, you'll be able to better choose what tools to use when developing your strategy.
3) Don't just choose to do video or a blog because you feel like everyone else has one. Choose the tools that best align with your goals and the technologies your target audience use.
4) Since you have goals, you'll be able to measure how well you met thos egoals. How many calls to customer service were deferred? Are people talking about your brand in a more positive light? If you have clearly defined goals, the ROI will be a lot easier to see.
Aaron Uhrmacher
· 1 year ago
Chris,
These are all great points to consider.
As with any corporate communications plan, you're absolutely right it's integral to have a specific objective and audience in mind before you begin, and that you ensure the tools you're using are also used by the group that you're trying to reach.
Thanks for adding these.
Licette
· 3 months ago
Excellent source of information. This is what we need to implement in our virtual Sales team around the world. Can someone provide tips on how to motivate internal teams to participate in the Virtual Community?
Adam Metz
· 1 year ago
It may also be beneficial here to download a copy of my FREE social web strategy eBook, "There Is No Secret Sauce."
Mike Wagner
· 1 year ago
I've been working for social media monitoring, analysis, and engagement company Visible Technologies in product marketing and in general I agree with everything you mentioned. I tend to group the strategy into three parts: Listen, Learn, Leverage, but the components you mentioned are all covered in one of the steps.
mark ivey
· 1 year ago
The most important step--which most companies skip--is preparation and a clear strategy. Many just want to jump in with a blog or video contest without doing the work up front to pave the way. Goals, objectives, audience identification, and the whole process of laying out a strategy-it's totally absent in most companies. The other mistake we see is companies trying to do blogs without lining up the right people. Try to identify people who will eat, live and breathe this stuff and know how to write a blog. Many corporate bloggers are still writing articles and dissertations--you need someone who understands the writing style and how to connect with your audience...
Along with the Prepare/engage lines - after determining your target market you need to find out where they are talking from social networks (Facebook, MySpace), sites/blogs to other communities in order to best engage them.
Sometimes in the past I've found the need to build brand new communities (usually a blog-based micro-site with a well-named URL that's SEO'd to gain a following). With the proliferation of social media this is often less of a need as chances are the conversation you want is already taking place or the mass audience of a major social network may have the greatest impact.
Simon Stapleton
· 1 year ago
This has big consequences for business! It could revolutionize the social fabric and power-base of an organization if left to develop by itself. It could result in the rise of informal unionism or quasi-socialism (which I am not saying is necessarily a bad thing).
RE: Finding People. "If you want to build a ship don't drum up the men [people] to garner wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast & endless sea". I'm wondering if this quote from St. Exupery has application here. In addition to finding the "right" people, how can we get CEO's, CFO's,managers & line workers in all departments to yearn for the benefits of improved relations inside & outside of the enterprise via SM, CEM & Web2.0/3.0? (Twitter Meryl333)
scorpfromhell
· 1 year ago
Superb primer, that's bang on! I would like to get your views on how B2B businesses can leverage social media?
Web2.0 Wonders
· 1 year ago
Great article! These 5 steps are important for developing a social media strategy, though it should be mentioned that engaging in social media is not a one time thing, but more so a long-term commitment. Just like in real-life relationships, you must dedicate the time and continue to devote attention to keep them alive...wouldn't you agree?
Ricardo Bueno
· 1 year ago
I think that part of the "Listening" and "Preparing" process includes you checking out what the competition is doing. Where are they performing well? How could they be performing better? Where/how DO YOU stand out above them? How can and will YOU be better?
You should not only know your profession inside and out, you should also know who you are competing against in your market. Of course when I say "check out" what the competition is doing, I mean doing in a respectable way, not in a sleazy "let's step over my neighbor kinda" of way.
Oliver Feakins
· 8 months ago
Great comment. How does online reputation management software come into play here as well. We use Online reporting to give us a better ideas of the positive or negative impact of the social media marketing campaign.
Dave Bain
· 3 months ago
This post is very informative. I would suggest that after conclusion an change strategy is implemented to allow for change due to measurement successes or failures. This way the theme can be more targeted allowing for a higher ROI on the strategy itself. www.surgeahead.ca
All Comments
Here's another post to help your users with Step 1: Listen:
Additional Social Media Tools for Step 1
Thanks for the post!
Jeff
I think this is a good primer. It's definitely important to listen and engage. There are a couple key steps missing, however.
1) You have to set goals before you can determine your strategy. Are you trying to increase awareness about your company or product? Trying to decrease calls to your customer service team? Trying to raise the positive sentiment around your brand? These are all different goals that require different strategies.
2) Define who you want to target. Is it moms? Maybe you want to reach male teen gamers? In the listening phase, find out where they hang out and what tools they use to communicate. Since both of these target audiences use social media differently, you'll be able to better choose what tools to use when developing your strategy.
3) Don't just choose to do video or a blog because you feel like everyone else has one. Choose the tools that best align with your goals and the technologies your target audience use.
4) Since you have goals, you'll be able to measure how well you met thos egoals. How many calls to customer service were deferred? Are people talking about your brand in a more positive light? If you have clearly defined goals, the ROI will be a lot easier to see.
These are all great points to consider.
As with any corporate communications plan, you're absolutely right it's integral to have a specific objective and audience in mind before you begin, and that you ensure the tools you're using are also used by the group that you're trying to reach.
Thanks for adding these.
http://joelbydesign.com/2008/06/using-the-web-for-customers/ Keep up the good work.
Sometimes in the past I've found the need to build brand new communities (usually a blog-based micro-site with a well-named URL that's SEO'd to gain a following). With the proliferation of social media this is often less of a need as chances are the conversation you want is already taking place or the mass audience of a major social network may have the greatest impact.
I write about these implications here:
http://www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress/2008/07...
(Twitter Meryl333)
You should not only know your profession inside and out, you should also know who you are competing against in your market. Of course when I say "check out" what the competition is doing, I mean doing in a respectable way, not in a sleazy "let's step over my neighbor kinda" of way.