Clients regularly ask us for help in creating a social media approach. "Twitter. Facebook. Blogs." "Where do I start?" We get that. And if we're honest, we have to admit that navigating the various social networks and trying to stay current can be a bit overwhelming.
Not to mention figuring out how to assess and measure the business value of your efforts while at the same time setting boundaries on time dedicating to tweeting, blogging and Facebook updates.
Too often we've seen a social media plan become little more than an inventory of required social media presence “points” detached from careful consideration of time or opportunity costs and candid assessment of the value to the organization.
Here are four keys to developing a manageable social media plan:
1. Assess what you hope to achieve and how you'll measure progress
- Goals
- Objectives by network
- Metrics & Conversion
2. Determine which networks are popular with your audiences (e.g., current, new, etc)
- Evaluate where your customers and stakeholders are today
- Try to make distinctions between priority networks and nice-to-haves
3. Match your message to the audience and network
- Look. Listen. Learn. (repeat)... participate in these networks like you get it
- Target message and activities to the culture of the network
4. Evaluate time commitment, level of resources and support.
- Track time for a week and monitor
- Who will blog? Draft tweets? Approve, etc?
- Consider a phased approach
If planned and managed wisely, social media can be an asset to PR, communications, marketing, customer support and business development rather than a time-consuming burden.
This barely scratches the surface on this important topic, so look for some follow-on posts on social media planning in coming months.
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