Social Media Strategy

Align your SMO Efforts with your Business Objectives

Now that you've gotten the ardous, but critical, grunt work of online research out of the way, you can get down to the brass tacks of building effective SMO strategy - and turning that into broad programs and/or time- and goal-specific social media campaigns.

Or, if in the short term you need to launch SMO with a smaller scope, you can get down to the optimization of your digital assets, and the business of getting trained on the social media channels and tools that fit your market.

Plan it or Lose it

At PROsocialmedia, we cringe when we hear about what we call "seat-of-the-pants" social media marketing; we've taken in too many clients whose first run at social media failed because of poor planning and direction, a lack of strategy and/or insufficient research conducted.

"Plan, Plan, Plan" is our mantra - from the moment we begin trolling the Internet for you, to the follow-up we conduct with key web influencers after a successful virtual event for your product launch.

For example, in our Blog Training service, we teach you how to set an editorial calendar for at least the next busines quarter - laying down the content for twice-a-week blog posts. That still leaves room for the 'spontaneous mental outbursts" the bloggers in your organization may periodically feel - while allowing everyone the comfort that structured guidance affords. No more panic attacks the night before your next blog post is due!

The Fundamentals of Successful SMO Strategy

• Develop an SMO strategy consistently aligned with your business objectives and your target market(s).
• Establish profiles (only) in the social media channels appropriate to those target demographics.
• Learn how to use the social media channels - properly, effectively, following the "rules of the road".
• Learn how to optimize your social media efforts for the search engines.
• Align your SMO strategy with your:
  • Public Relations / Media Relations / Investor Relations strategies
  • Any offline marketing initiatives
  • Email marketing
• Build an outreach program so your well thought-out strategy gets noticed; identify key "web influencers" and develop relationships with them.
• Formally review your social media programs - objectives and achievements - at least quarterly.
• Allocate adequate resources (staff time, especially) to the social media programs, including training and ongoing maintenance of your social media channels.

Establish Corporate Policies on Social Media

We cannot overstate the value of your organization setting clearly delineated - and thoroughly distributed - policies on the use of social media by your employees, such as:

• If employees can blog, or participate in other social media using identification of their employer, you need to state the conditions under which they may do so - specifically - as well as what they can NOT write about (e.g. financial matters, ongoing law suits).
• If employees may not blog or participate in other social media using identification of their employer, you need to ensure this decision is widely distributed so that all employees are certain to read it:
  • Make it a permanent listing in the company intranet
  • Include the social media restriction in the orientation materials for new hires.

Great social media strategy is really no different than any strategy that gets results; it all boils down to:

• Research, planning
• Integration throughout the organization
• Maintenance and monitoring
• Regular adjustments
• Clear communications