Social Media and Web 2.0
You are probably here because somebody told you that your company has to use social media, or you feel like you are missing out on something big. Or even better, you've been reading just about anything and seeing the successes some companies are having with social media and want to know how to have the same success using Twitter-Wiki-LinkedIn-Widget (aka new media term of the week) for your company.
Simply put, people are now in control of the messages they consume, when they consume them, and what format they want to receive them in. Some people never watch commercials and some txt instead of email. If you want to reach them, you don't change their behavior, you change yours.
The bad news is that the technology and its uses are ever-changing, but the good news is that it doesn't matter. The way we approach social media planning is to start with a tried-and-true methodology based on proven communication practices.
Step 1:Assess
We kick-off with either a Web 2.0 101 and/or an Assessment Workshop. If you don't need a primer on the buzzwords, we'll just cut to the chase. The Assessment Workshop is an interview-style brainstorm session that lasts about two hours and includes a series of questions aimed at getting to what assets you have that are of value to your target audiences. To prepare us for this workshop, we request a preview of your current marketing plan, or any variation that would give us insight into your goals, audiences, messages, and current activities. If you are really starting from scratch, we recommend preceding this with our Goal Workshop that helps you identify and prioritize these very important foundation items.
Step 2: Systematically Evaluate
We take this information and evaluate tactics based on a number of criteria:
- What type of content is being provided and what channels are receptive to that type?
- What audience demographics are targeted and where are they going online?
- What kind of commitment is required to keep the content fresh and is the SME naturally incentivized to be a champion?
- What is the expected value of the channel and does that align with the effort expended?
- What calls-to-action are desired, and what metrics are available to evaluate a perceived ROI?
- What are the current tools within a given channel, both appealing to general and niche audiences? And how does their current adoption and participation rate compare with expected future growth or decline?
- What opportunities are there for cross-promotion that will leverage each touchpoint?
Step 3: Write the Plan
We develop a strategic plan that dovetails with existing efforts, identifying areas where your in-house resources can be maximized and where outsourcing the implementation may be needed.
Step 4: Implement
Implementation varies for each client. As much as possible, we believe that providing a toolkit of guidelines and cross-promotional ideas/templates, along with training, is the best way to ensure social media outreach becomes a way of conducting business. However, knowing that not every client has in-house resources just waiting for new work, we also can implement various levels of tactics from account setup, to monitoring and SME action alerts, to brand account promotion, to anything else you can think of. What we won't do is ghost write for a subject matter expert, and will be happy to tell you why if you don't already know.
Step 0: Moving Forward
If you still aren't sure if social media is right for you, give us a call (301-204-9494; ask forJess) and setup a casual meeting with us. We'd be happy to chat over coffee to give you a quick idea of whether it is something worth considering.
