Leverage Social Media with a Four-step Strategy

As we have written before, over the past 18 – 24 months marketers have become very interested in utilizing social media to promote their company’s products and services. However, in the race to develop and implement their social media programs, many marketers are not sure how it will fit in with other marketing communications initiatives.

Below are four key steps to consider when developing a social media program.

However, first let's clarify the term “social media”. From our perspective, “social media” is one aspect of the overall Web 2.0 evolution in which the internet turned from a source of static information and into a venue for interaction; where control of content moved from producer to the end-user. As a result, “social media” incorporates a number of applications:
• “Shared sites” such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube
• Blogs and whitepapers
• Webinars
• Mobile short codes
• Interactive FAQs for reviews and feedback
• Directories and listings
• Online press releases
All of these “free” (or “low cost”) venues provide an opportunity for companies to dialogue with consumers/end-users. Because there are so many different ways for companies to participate in social media, the need to develop a strategic plan is even more important.

With that understanding, here are four key steps to developing and implementing a social media program for your organization:

1. Focus on Your Target Audience

No different from any other medium, it is important to understand your target audience. Clearly, the use of social media will differ widely depending on whether you are in a B2C or B2B market; whether your target audience has regular and easy access to the internet; and where, when and how your audiences consume information.

For example, Twitter may be a great tool for certain B2C products or services (such as promoting special deals or sales), but may be marginal for a manufacturing company selling capital goods.

2. Determine Your Marketing Objectives

So far, social media has been cited as providing several mar-com benefits: raising awareness of a company’s brand; improving the search engine optimization rankings of a company’s website; or building a relationship with key audiences by engaging them in a dialogue where the consumer gets to know the company and the company gets to know the audience.

Understanding what you want to achieve with your social media program will go a long way in developing a plan that will make sense for your organization.

3. Pick Your Battle

The one major obstacle in developing and implementing a social media program is the significant time commitment it requires. A quick review of the various forms of social media listed above should help you understand how one can be come overwhelmed very quickly if you try to use all of the available tools.

Very simply, if you understand your target audiences and agree on what you hope to accomplish with your social media program, then it is really the matter of deciding which aspects of social media will work best for your organization. Keeping in mind the significant time commitment, only take on what your organization can reasonably handle. If you can’t provide fresh and relevant content on a regular basis, then trim back your plans. Walk before you run. Focus on doing fewer things well rather than doing a lot of things poorly.

4. Integrate Social Media with Your Other Off-line and On-line Communication Channels.

As a smart marketer, you know that you never want to rely on just one communication channel to achieve your objectives. So don’t start with social media. Based on the decisions you’ve made above, integrate social media into your marketing communications plan so that it supports and reinforces other media in your plan. For example, if you send out an email newsletter to your prospective customers, incorporate a simple means for your recipients to share the information with others, and provide a means for others (not on your list) to “join in”. Or, if you use mobile short codes with an outdoor media execution that drives respondents back to your website, provide an opportunity for them to tell you how they want to be communicated with or the topics that interest them. A sound integration process will allow you to leverage the power of social media to achieve your overall marketing communications goal.

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