six steps to a social media strategy

Six Steps to a Social Media

Strategy

aka “What does a social media strategy look like?”

Neicole M. CrepeauOnline Strategist Website, mobile & social media design specialists

We constantly hear the term social media strategy.

But what does one look like?

Example: Table of ContentsExecutive SummaryGoals, Strategy, and Success Criteria

Detailed Criteria and Interim MeasuresSuggested measurement processes

Tactical Plan Phase 1 TasksPhase 2 TasksPhase 3 Tasks…

Tools and ProcessesGetting Your Facebook Vanity URLCreating your BadgesDay to Day Social Media WorkPosting/TweetingGeneral Monitoring, Measuring, and Reporting

Daily Measurement TasksWeekly Measurement TasksMonthly Measurement TasksQuarterly Measurement Tasks

Social Network GuidelinesDemographic DataContent Recommendations

Example: Section

The strategy is a living document—built to change.

You can plan, you can shape the environment, but you can’t control

the outcome.

To start,assess your current status.

Even if you aren’t doing social media, yet:

Where are your customers? Where are you?

What’s being said?

Step 1:Define Your Goals

Your goals arebusiness goals.

What do you hope to achieve using social

media?

Define up to fourdiscrete goals. For example:

• Drive new registrations

• Get partners to regularly provide end-user technical content

• Get users to provide customer support to one another

Make your goals:

Business-focusedAction-oriented

MeasurableSuccinct

If you can’t get a goal to one,

action-oriented line,

it’s too fuzzy or not granular enough.

Step 2:Define Success Criteria

Success criteria are a critical

component.

They validate goals & drive decisions

about measures, tools, and processes.

Success criteria should:

•Define a timeframe• Be measurable• Include specific values• Support a single goal

Examples:

• Six months post-launch of the social strategy, 10% of our new registrations can be traced back to the social channels we are working in.

• One year after launch, partners are posting an average of twelve articles a month on the wiki.

• One year after launch, the articles posted on the wiki receive an average three star (out of four) rating from customers.

Step 3:Create a High-Level Strategy

This is the part consultants get paid for.

Why?

It’s not easy to do…and requires specific knowledge and skills.

Knowledge about social media and the various

social networks.

Marketing skills.

An understanding of your business.

Out of the box, creative thinking.

List five to ten bullets.

Action-oriented.

Create enough bullets to cover the goal from beginning to end.

Example strategy for the goal Drive new event registrations:

• Gain social followers from existing online customers• Provide valuable, timely event information through social channels• Provide financial incentives to social users who register for events• Provide incentives for existing customers to promote us online/share info

from us with friends/followers• Make it easy for new leads to connect socially• Participate in communities/subgroups where target customers are • Provide social places for existing and potential customers to discuss

events/shows • Promote awareness among target customers of the event info available

through our social channels

Step 4:Create the Tactical Plan

Now, merge your strategies into one, uber-strategy

delete any duplicate items

Order the strategylogicallyand chronologically.

Break the strategy into phases

Example strategy phases:

Connect online

Cross-promote

Provide info & incentives

Enable and encourage sharing

Example strategy for a phase:

• Gain social followers from existing online customers• Provide valuable, timely event information through social channels• Provide financial incentives to social users who register for events• Provide incentives for existing customers to promote us online/share

info from us with friends/followers

Connect online

For each bulletgo deep

create a to-do list.

List every task required to implement that piece

of the strategy.

What do you need to dofirst?

What do you need

to do next?

Need more information? Get it.

Need to make decisions? Make them.

Or at least plan for

making them.

Be specific.Be detailed.

Capture everything.

As you create the tactical plan,

hone your strategy.

Change it as needed.

Click here to see guidelines for building the tactical plan

Step 5:Define Interim Measures

The hardest part is done.

But there’s still more work.

Look at your success criteria

and your tactical plan

How will you know if you’re on track?

For each goal,

create interim measuresadd measures for tactics,

too.

Interim measures should:

Be specific

Have a timeframe

Click here to see guidelines for interim measures

Example interim measures:• Low-cost method: On a weekly basis, measure @’s mentioning our account and of

other mentions, plus the number of new followers gained that week. Monthly, look for trends to find correlations between the number of mentions and follower gain. After three months, use the data to estimate the acquisition rate through existing followers.

• High-cost method: On a weekly basis, track @’s and mentions by existing followers of our account, including the date they occurred. On a daily basis, track new followers of our account, including the date the become followers and who they are following at that time. Monthly, compile a list of the new followers who were following one of our existing followers upon acquisition, and where the existing follower mentioned us within two days of the new follower joining. Count this a follower acquisition via an existing follower. (Using this method, we could also do a deeper analysis to determine which of our followers is most influential in helping to acquire new followers.)

Step 6:List Tools & Processes

What do you needin order to execute your

strategy?

Tools and processes.

Review your success criteria and interim measures.

What tools will you need to do these

measurements?

Review your tactical plan.

What tools will you need to implement it?What processes?

Create a requirements document for your tools,

Research tools.Pick them.

Create a list of

DailyWeeklyMonthlyQuarterly

measurement tasks

Ta da!

Seem like a lot of work?

It is.

Want help?

Contact us.

We’re Coherent Interactive.

We do social media strategies.

http://www.coherentia.com