5 Signs that Your Social Media Program has No Plan

We’ve all seen it.

A brand or corporation decides to get into social media and is “gung ho” for a month or two. Then reality sets in. Social media takes time, focus, energy and, most of all, planning to maximize. We’ve all seen the abandoned Twitter feeds, stagnant blog sites and ancient Facebook pages that held so much promise only a few months ago.

The key to social-media success lies in careful planning as we have discussed (see 8 Steps to Strategic Social Media Integration). Here are five common signs of a lack of social-media planning:

1. A singular focus on selling
   If every post, Tweet and Facebook update reads like an ad, then you are trying too hard to leverage the new media to sell in the old way – “buy my product, please.”  Maybe if you’re selling pizza delivery this approach works…maybe (see Papa John’s Facebook page).
2. No measurable objectives
   There is so much to learn (and to gain) if we only take the time to measure. That means looking beyond followers and fans and taking advantage of the trackable nature of this medium.
3. Too many measurable objectives
   There’s so much to measure, it’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis and curl up into a fetal position. Instead, breathe deeply and drill down to the metrics that matter: Is your content being shared? Are visitors returning regularly? Do your posts or updates on a particular product have a measurable impact on sales?
4. Sporadic posts
   Regular content updates are important. They build the relationship, encourage repeat visits to your site and establish credibility. So… where is your editorial plan and content distribution calendar?
5. “Anybody there? Hellooooo?”
   If you are not responding then you have a problem. From DM to Facebook comments, this is a personal and interactive space. Social media is often compared to a party. If someone starts talking to you, don’t be the brand that smiles flatly and looks around the room. Respond in earnest and follow up.

What now?

There is no magical ointment to fix any of the above social media ailments. However, there is a process to making your foray into facebook, twitter, blogs and other arenas more cohesive, engaging and effective. We’ve touched on a few elements in that process in this post. What about you? What do you consider an essential part of planning for an effective social media program?

8 Steps to Strategic Social Media Integration

The first decision regarding brands and social-media is often the decision to proceed.  But where do you go next? How do you get started integrating social-media into your marketing mix?  In order to address this question, BrandMIND developed a 90-minute seminar entitled The Social Media Simulator.

In this session, attendees are introduced to a fictional company with a familiar business profile and marketing challenges  (e.g. limited resources, both B: C and B: B needs, regular product launches, etc).  After the audience gets familiar with the company we then conduct a step-by-step simulation in which a social media program is developed from the ground up.

While we can’t present the entire seminar in this forum, we have prepared an outline of the 8-step process for Strategic Social Media Integration for our readers.  Those steps, in order are:

1. Listen and educate internal stakeholders
   • Invest some time and energy in learning about social media.  Listen to the social web for sentiment about your company, and also learn from competitors and other categories.
2. Understand your audience and how they currently interact with social media
   • Using simple techniques and tools, learn which topics are important to your customers.  Find out how your customers are engaging with other companies.
3. Determine social marketing objectives
   • What do you hope to achieve with social media?  Are you interested in using it for customer service? To create a closed customer-feedback loop?  To provide product information?  To promote your products?  To build your brand?  Make sure that internal stakeholders agree on objectives and how to measure against them.
4. Set social media strategy and platforms
   • Develop a plan that identifies specific platforms and a strategy for each platform.  Select only those platforms to which you can commit time and energy.  Align audiences with appropriate platforms.
5. Determine support structure and resources
   • Set leadership responsibility and be sure to develop a cross-functional team.  It will be important to establish guidelines for employee engagement and identify how you will incorporate and distill feedback.  You may need to engage creative and/or technical resources for initial set-up and ongoing content creation and measurement.
6. Inventory existing content
   • Assess not only current marketing content that can be re-purposed for social media, but find the people in your company who are passionate and let them help you connect with customers.
7. Create and distribute new and re-purposed content
   • You will want to distribute content across platforms according to your plan, but don’t be afraid to continually explore new opportunities and platforms.  It is also important to drive interaction between existing online and offline marketing content and your new platforms. Determining a content schedule and editorial calendar are keys to success.
8. Measure and report
   • If your objectives for social media were to increase web traffic and online purchases, you need to be measuring against that objective.  Regular reporting and review are essential to leveraging an ongoing social media presence.  Understand which responses (i.e. views, posts, comments, etc) lead to the desired action.

We will be glad to share our approach in greater detail in a 1:1 setting. Just contact us at lsoper@brandmind.com to set a time to discuss.

Lori Soper is brandMIND’s Lead Marketing Strategist. With more than 20 years of corporate and agency experience, Lori’s strength is collaborating with clients to develop, execute and measure effective marketing programs. She can be reached at lsoper@brandmind.com 

Social Media ROI: Socialnomics

From Socialnomics author Erik Qualman. Interesting ROI examples. Nice follow-on to the original social media revolution video.

Check out Erik Qualman at twitter.com/equalman or here: http://socialnomics.net

Happy Holidays from BrandMIND

Just in time for Christmas –
It's the Holiday Homepage

To help make your holidays a little merrier, we've collected some helpful, and some
not so helpful, links – all neatly gift wrapped into one easy webpage.

Click to visit the Holiday Homepage.

http://bit.ly/8j9w9e

Whether you're looking for ways to keep the kids, nieces, nephews or grandkids busy, need to get last minute shopping done, or just want something goofy to get you in the  holiday spirit, you'll find a few quick links here
to get you started. Enjoy!

Wishing you all the best for Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year,
from your friends at

brandMIND

Is social media what you've always wanted? Yes... almost.

Embracing the brand/consumer conversation

Once upon a time, after a focus group one night, our client (a senior marketing VP at a leading package goods company) remarked,

“Customers really seem to like us more after they participate in these groups, wouldn’t it be great if we could get all our customers into a one on one session?”

That conversation took place more than 10 years ago when it was virtually impossible to have in-depth conversations with large numbers of customers or prospects in any sort of ongoing or meaningful manner.

Today, the story is different.

Brands are talking with more and more consumers at a deeper level than ever before. Social media platforms have made this possible. Whether augmenting a more traditional marketing effort or as a primary channel, social media venues are being leveraged increasingly by marketers seeking a stronger consumer connection.

What are the benefits of this deeper brand conversation?

• Brands are now getting first-person feedback in real-time. This “rapid customer input” is akin to conducting dozens of focus groups across the country at the same time. The insights and knowledge gained can impact everything from customer service policies to new product development.

• Consumers are getting a glimpse into a brand’s true personality. With every interaction no matter how small, greater dimension is being revealed about the brand and the company behind it.  Social media gives brands license to go beyond the headline and :30 spots to connect at a deeper level with its consumers.

• Brands are establishing greater credibility and deeper loyalty.  Just as direct contact with a brand representative during a focus group can increase likeability and preference so can direct communication via social media interaction. Dialogue benefits both parties and builds stronger, more lasting connections.

Plan. Plan. Plan.

Of course, being involved in hundreds or thousands of conversations with consumers can be overwhelming. But, with proper planning and purposeful integration across a brand’s public presence, the effort is well worth it.  This bears repeating-with proper planning.  

Too many brands have jumped into facebook and twitter without a plan. "We’ll just experiment and see what happens," they say.  Bad idea. Planning your objectives, monitoring strategy, disclosure policies, to name a few, are critical issues that need addressing ahead of time. Why? Because even though it isn’t as expensive as launching a new commercial, social media can ultimately have a huge impact on your brand. Whether that impact is positive or negative can be, surprisingly, more up to you than you might think.