Pre-development Stage
Before you begin with developing the
strategy, taken an inventory of your current situation. List the current platforms on which you have
a social media, or any online presence.
Note how many likes and comments you have received in the previous month
on content that you’ve posted, include the number of followers, and note the
engagement statistics (reported by some platforms, but not all). Then write one or two sentences which
characterize the activity on this account over the past month.
The next step is to make a quick
survey of your competitors. This
exercise is useful not only to make you aware of what other businesses are
doing, but also to inspire ideas in your own content development that can be
useful in defining your social media strategy.
In assessing your competitors’ presence, note which social media sites
they use, how frequently they post, what type of content they post, and as a
final thought exercise, write a one or two-sentence characterization of their
strategy, based on your own speculation as to what what you think their
strategy may be and how you would describe it.
The third pre-development step is to
describe your customer profile. This
description can include, where relevant, factors such as income level, family
situation, typical interests which bring them to your business, and reasons
they need your product or service. If
there is any factual or statistical data you have upon which to base the
profile, include that in the description.
While as business owners we may welcome customers from any walk of life,
as long as they pay us money, the main point of this exercise is to create a
mental picture of the customer, something to use as a framework and basis to
develop different types of content. When
we think of content development as being merely about the product or service of
the business, we are greatly limited in the potential to reach out to our
customers and connect with them. On the
other hand, when we focus our mind on who are customers are, the type of people
they are and the things they like to do, we can develop a much broader
potential portfolio of content, one which enables online blogs and postings to
have a deeper impact from the customer’s perspective.
Case Study: On many occasions, prior to our first meeting
with a prospective client, we ask them to pull together the information
described above (although when it comes to customer research, we usually have a
good sense of the industry and what kind of content businesses are
posting). Having this information ready
makes the first client conversation much more meaningful and efficient, and
helps us to better target first round campaigns, and to develop a cohesive
message or theme which can be reinforced in other areas of the business and
through other, ongoing marketing efforts.
Strategy Development
The Commander’s Intent
In the army, offensive campaigns
begin with the Commander’s Intent, which is a brief statement of the objective
in battle, such as “To take out the city’s main bridge.” Having this statement in place ensure that
during battle, when unexpected scenarios play out and things go wrong, the
soldiers on the ground know what the main objective is, so that their
improvisation, if it needs to occur, can still be done with the main goal in
mind. So also it is with the social
media campaign, having a statement of the commander’s (or business owner’s)
intent.
The Social Media Mission & Vision Statements
Based on the statement of intent,
the Mission and Vision statements can easily follow. What we’re looking for here is not a Fortune
500 corporate-level company vision statement, but rather, some brief notes on
what you want to achieve out of the marketing campaign. There is no need to write the words in gold
and hang them above the office entrance (you can do that if you want, and that
would be helpful to galvanizing your employees’ efforts), but rather, a
starting point for imagining a future state to carry the business and, in this
case, its marketing efforts. You may
modify the statement over time.
A vision statement differs from a
Mission statement in its focus. Whereas
a vision statement is a state of being to which a business aspires (near future
or possibly more distant future), the Mission statement describes in high-level
actions how you intend to achieve the vision.
Some companies supplement these with
a values statement, which is a description of the values which drive the vision
and its implementation. Since we are
focusing on a practical and actionable social media strategy here, the values
with which those are achieved would include basic, honest and ethical business
practices, something we assume among our clients.
The best way to advise on the
development of the guiding statements is to demonstrate the outcome with some
examples:
– Statement of Intent: To attract customers and increase revenue
– Vision – Example 1: To be identified by customers as a leading
expert in the service we provide, and to be the go-to service provider which
comes first to mind when they are ready to buy.
– Vision – Example 2: To offer products and services which are the
best in the industry, fostering a reputation of excellence among followers
through social media content.
– Mission – Example: We will achieve this vision through
relentless customer service as seen through active responsiveness to inquiries
and comments on social media, which will be borne of high quality content that is
informative, entertaining, and thought-provoking in nature.
Many variations can be developed of
these statements, all of which speak to the goals of the business and the
ensuing content that is published for the world to see.
With these statements in writing, we
have the foundation for the development of not only the content that will be
published, whether it is in the form of memes, blogs, stories, photos, videos
or other, but also the ways in which this content can be communicated.
While statements such as these are
by nature abstract, they can have a profound impact on the development of the
marketing plan, and on the implementation of the details along the way. As most entrepreneurs and business owners
will attest, success is often made or broken on even the tiniest of
details. That is why having a firm
picture in mind of the intended result, expressed through the vision and
mission statements, is so important to the social media marketing strategy, and
particularly important as a primary reference for those in your organization who
are carrying out the plan, or to the external consultant that is supporting the
process and content development.
Implementation Plan
The core of the social media
strategy is in the implementation. As a
strategic analysis, the purpose at this stage is not to go into the detailed
action plan or long run project planning, but to identify the ways and means of
implementation, including resources that will be dedicated to achieving the
plan. The following are the main
categories of activity that should be described in the social media marketing
strategy:
– Social media accounts: Which platforms will be prioritized? The answer to this question is based on a few
factors: the determination of the social
media audience and its relevance to your business (does the crowd fit your
profile?), the potential on this platform to continue growing the network, and
your level of comfort in using this platform.
– Frequency and timing of
posting: How often will you post? For every business, there is an appropriate
balance of posting frequency. Too much
posting over meaningless content will lose attention from your customers,
however if there is a commitment to develop content that is diverse, engaging
and relevant to the customer profile, reaching the point of saturation would be
almost impossible. On the other hand,
too little content (only 2-3x per week) risks insufficient exposure of the
business to generate any meaningful results.
Content Savants recomments a starting point of daily content publishing,
as long as that content is diverse, and only a fraction of the content should
promote the business directly. With
respect to timing, a detailed schedule should be developed to determine which
social media accounts will publish content at pre-determined times of day, to
help optimize visibility among the targeted customer profile. Determining the best time of day may require
some testing in the early days of the campaign.
– Content development process: How will you develop content? Is there a person in-house who can design and
develop memes, who can write blogs and tweets, and who can be responsible for
posting the content on a daily or frequent basis? Will you appoint an external creative agency
for development of the content? This
service is at the heart of what we offer at Content Savants.
– Define the engagement funnel: At the start of a social media marketing
campaign,
– Engagement & Reaction
Tracking: How will you track success of
the marketing campaign? Who will oversee
results? Here is where you can list the
metrics to be tracked (depending on the social media platform) and the
aspiration for growth of those metrics over time. As your social meadia presence grows, you
will also have the opportunity to reply to comments. Timeliness of the reply is critical to
achieving conversion to actual sales.
Who will be in charge of this activity?
Will you employ any SMM management tools to aid in this process?
– Analyze and Optimize: There should be a continual effort to improve
and enhance the strategy, not only with respect to the type of content that is
posted, but also the overall objectives and success of the marketing
campaign. A part of the social media
strategy will be trial and error. In
other words, there is no established formula for businesses to follow,
therefore a system must be put in place to enable analysis of results, and to
direct a response to the results. You
may call upon an external consultant for assistance in interpreting the results
of the campaign, and in developing a plan of action to respond to customer
comments or to modify messages according to success, market trends, changes in
the business situation, or other driving factors.
– Risk management: Every strategy should include a section on
risk management and mitigation. Not
every scenario can be predicted, but among those that are considered, a pattern
of responsiveness will emerge, with an individual appointed to lead a response
to any risks which might come to fruition.
Refinement of the strategic plan
As part of the campaign itself,
refinement and optimization of social media activity will be important to its
continued success over time. The social
media strategy itself should be regularly reviewed. As a business grows, the potential
opportunities for marketing and customer engagement also grow. With a larger audience and more resources
available, after the low-hanging fruit is captured, different approaches may
prove more effective in reaching new audiences and in gaining responses from
silent customers.
Another key opportunity that will
become increasingly critical as your business grows is that of integrating your
social media marketing with other channels.
This point speaks to more than just ensuring there is a consistent
message across channels, but to the ways in which activity in one channel can
complement others. For example,
inclusion of a QR Code in print media advertising can direct potential
customers to a social media account or organization website. Timing of a live streaming presentation can
initiate social media campaigns, which can be used to promote product
announcements on a live streaming service.
The combination of possibilities is endless.
The most important part, however, of
any social media strategy is the part that reads, “do it.” Every day without a posting or blog is a day
lost forever, and with it, an opportunity to connect with customers. The sooner the campaign begins, the sooner
you and your business start climing the ladder of success.