Basic Strategy for a Successful Social Media Program

There are plenty of sites out there that tell you what Social Media sites you should be on, how frequently you should be tweeting or “Facebooking ” and how you should go about conversations with your followers. Many of these sites forget the most basic idea behind any marketing scheme – creating a cohesive strategy that supports the rest of your communications efforts.

The elements discussed below are parts of my strategy template that I create for my clients (I can’t give it ALL away for free!).

What is Social Media really?
Social media is a broad term for web-based technologies that help transform and broadcast media “monologues” into “dialogues.” They offer an effective and timely way to communicate news, opinions and ideas to targeted audiences and large populations.

Social media is ever-changing as new technologies emerge. Currently they include blogs, wikis, podcasts, message boards, social book marking (digg, del.icio.us), social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), social media networks (Twitter, Google Buzz), location-based networks (foursquare) and content sharing websites (YouTube, Flickr). These sites connect users from a wide variety of technical and non-technical backgrounds. They are powerful tools that help companies deliver their message in a conversational, succinct manner.

The biggest thing to keep in mind when deciding what tools are right for organization is that it is a cultivation process that takes time and patience. It is very rare for something to go viral over night and yield thousands of followers in the first 2-3 months. Users of social media have to be convinced that what you are posting is something they care about or something they need before they will consume it.

The information outlined below are examples and ideas for how you can push your strategy forward.

1. Set program goals – “My social media plan will do XYZ below”
   • Build awareness around my products and services
   • Establish my company as a leader in X,Y and Z in the (community, online space, etc)
   • Engage my online community (followers, listeners, etc)
   • Increase SEO and traffic to my website
   • Help me grow my followers by 20% in 6 months
2. Establish strategic tactics to achieve your goals – “I will achieve my goals by doing the following”
   • Build social media following by posting informational, creative and rich content
   • Leverage as much already-produced content that is available (i.e. videos, images, posts)
   • Adding social media site links to any print or online advertising
3. Determine what tools will work best for your program
   • Consider SEO when choosing your tools. Keep in mind that sites like Twitter, StumbleUpon, YouTube and flickr provide a lot of free search engine optimization ability.
   • Learn where your prospective community is and engage them there.
4. Establish an implementation schedule
   • Decide what you can do immediately and what can wait. Sometimes you need to read your audience on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn before you venture outward. It’s okay to roll things out over time.
5. Build a follower strategy
   • You can use sites like Twellow, prospect through lists of other like-companies on Twitter, reach out to customers and prospects, and monitor hashtags for certain keywords of interest.
6. Monitor, Monitor, Monitor!
   • It’s so important to monitor the varous social media tools you choose for feedback from your customers, consumers, prospects and community. Check out my post on Social Media Listening for more details.

A few best practices tips:

• ALWAYS cross post – use all tools to get more reach!
• Always have a clear call to action or a clear message. Since it’s really succinct, getting your point across in as few words as possible is important.
• Post frequently when you have good content, especially on Twitter. The average life of a Tweet is 4 minutes.
• It’s not necessary to post on weekends unless something important is going on. It’s not discouraged, but if bandwidth is needed then it’s a good cut to make. You can always schedule posts for weekends too when no one is around to populate.
• Be conversational if people are talking to you – show them that you are not a robot and that you are an actual person.
• Establish weekly or monthly goals for growing followers.

Want to learn more? Contact me today!

Please feel free to leave comments about anything important that I may  have missed (while keeping in mind this is a basic outline :) )