Social Media Marketing: Plan

Company trying to make logic of social media and online marketing, it’s main to take a step back from all the “Twitter FaceBlogTubeIn” mania for a second and look at the nature of how these things are going to work for the overall business.

There are a lot of questions that need answers: ”Should we develop a plan first before engaging?”,”Should we experiment and develop a plan as we go?”, “Will it ever be OK to ask clients if they want to buy directly within common channels or will we always have to tiptoe about the subject?”

At this time are a few consideration to help answer those questions and establish the framework for a sustainable and doing well social media marketing program.

Social Media Plan: “An ounce of impediment is worth a strike of cure”. Having some idea of what measurable goals and business outcome you’re after is necessary for

planning resources and forecasting outcomes. This is true with any kind of marketing and is surely the case with social media.

I poll a number of business smarties on social media strategy vs. plans and while there was some distance between the approach Guy Kawasaki prefer and that of people like Chris Brogan, the consent was that developing an approach is necessary for planning, implementation, liability and measurement of achievement.

The creation of a social media plan is a mature opportunity for originality and certainly shouldn’t get in the way of getting ongoing. Gaining agreement about social plan within a corporation could easily create a bottleneck. A strategy that calls for experimentation with iterative improvement in the context of overall goals, approach, Stragety, viewers and an effort to measure success is more likely to be implement and gain support. 

Social Media Marketing strategy: The best mix of strategy needs to tie into the plan for reaching trade goals. Whether it’s “Better connect with our clients” to “Filling the top of the sales channel”, an understanding of viewers’ preference and behaviors will lead to the right strategic mix.

A lot of companies take the trail of least resistance and go for what I like to call, “The Social crowd” of Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube and LinkedIn without thinking through strategy. For example, one general question often I hear is, “Is a LinkedIn group a better use of time and resources or a Facebook Fan Page?”

What the marketer strength want to ask is, “Where do social network vs. blogging vs. micro content vs. media division fit in the perspective of our social media goals?” Then do the investigate and apply a listening program to discover which social networks, media sharing sites or blogging area the target viewers is present and participating in. That homework will answer the question about Facebook vs. LinkedIn and any other social area where clients spend time.

Social Media method: “Business who start with implementation is at risk”, is a great quote from Jeremiah Owyang in his recent post, “A practical Approach to Social Business“. There he lists a checklist of 8 steps that form a process for approaching social media. Fly into strategy can send a company in a very unproductive way. Working through a strategy, plans and developing method leads to efficiencies, scalability and social engagement that is true to the business goals.

We’ve published a social media checklist that can serve as a prompt for business to gather the information needed to make smarter resolution about how their organization can incorporate social media in their marketing and relations mix.

Method with social media marketing is important for a variety of reason ranging from quality assurance to liability. How can an organization level its social media efforts without some kind of method in place? Redundant method can often be automated by software. Process also outlive internal social media subject matter expert who move on to other opportunities.

As of an individual process point of view, take a look at Tac Anderson’s daily routine as a social media strategist, which he calls a “workout”. In addition to planned activities and strategy, there’s room for putting out fires or handing natural situations. In the end, a routine or procedure helps keep social media marketing strategy on track over time.

Social Trade: Social Media that Leads to Sales: Question - What’s the ROI of Social Media? Answer – What’s the ROI of cover a phone system in your organization? That phone systems help connections for a wide variety of reasons that are important to the working of the business from product/service inquiries to hiring new employees to customer service.

Social media in business logic are technology that help communications, sharing and connecting brands with clients. The most part, people buy from those they like and social media help build, keep and improve those relationships.

So how does social media power or result in sales? A useful post on Barn Raiser summarizes several studies that show exactly that. Click on the linkage to see the post (How Social Media Drives Sales Relationships). I’ll also review them here:

Face book - “The top reason people press the “Like” key on Face book is to have a sales connection with a brand - either to receive promotions & coupon (40%), get updates on upcoming sales (30%) and show their support for business (39%).” – Exact Target 2010.

Twitter - “For over 40% of the time people are on Twitter, we use it learning about products and services, listening to what others have to say and giving view. That explains why over 20% of the time we’re on Twitter, we’re prepared and willing to buy directly off Twitter.” – Edison Research 2010.

Social Networks – “For every hour we use on online, we use the most quantity of time on social network, roughly 15 minutes of every hour. Roughly half of the time (approx 6+ mins), we are seeking out products and services and looking to have a sales connection with brands.” Nielsen 2010.

As more brands include business offers in the social skill they provide for clients, those clients will become more and more comfortable with the notion of social trade. At the same time, more social features are being added to ecommerce websites. In the way that blogs and Twitter account are expected features of brand websites, so will social trade functionality.

Build a flexible plan that consider business goals and the people to engage will help marketers identify the best mix of strategy for their social media marketing plan. Developing process from a commercial and an individual position will help sustain, not stifle, social engagement activities in the long run. Start by building area and relationships. Listen, respond and create value.