7 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan

Posted by Michelle deHaaff on Jun 15, 2010 http://www.customerthink.com/blog/7_steps_for_creating_a_social_media_marketing_plan
“A blog isn’t a business plan.”

I recently saw that tweet on Twitter, and it really hit home for me the perils of using a new technology or communications tool and thinking that mastering its use or even the fact that you are using it is all you need to know and do for your business. Adding new tools to your marketing and communications toolkit is not a plan. There is nothing strategic about blogging, tweeting and updating your Facebook status if you don’t have a plan for not just using the tool but integrating it into your marketing mix. Right?

So how do you get started with a plan for social media? Social Media Marketing Plans (SMMPs) can be standalone documents but are more effective when a part of an overall marketing plan for your company. At a minimum, they should reference traditional public relations or marketing tools and tactics. Unfortunately, very few companies and organizations right now are thinking about the integration of social media marketing into what they’ve been doing marketing-wise. Instead, they tend to cage off social media marketing like a new wild animal in a zoo. It’s nice to look at and fascinating to watch, but it doesn’t quite fit into any of the cages with their other zoo animals.

When my company helps other companies with their Social Media Marketing planning, we take them back to some basic, foundational questions one might ask when coming up with an overall strategic plan, not just a social media one:

What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
How?
What?

as in…
What are you trying to achieve?
Why are you trying to do this?
Who are your trying to reach?
Where can you most effectively reach them?
How are you going to reach out to them?
What are you trying to get them to do?

We also remind companies that Social Media Marketing is not necessarily a direct sales tool but is effective at:

1.Building a brand;

2.Building brand loyalty;

3.Turning loyal customers into evangelists;

4.Leveraging word-of-mouth marketing;

5.Turbo-charging the feedback loop.

Here are seven steps you should go through (at least) to get to the heart of your Social Media Marketing Plan. This is merely a starting framework for how to think about building out your plan and how to get to the information that should be in your plan.

1.What are your marketing objectives? Make sure they are attainable and measurable.

2.Who is your audience? Know where they are online and where they are already engaged in related, relevant conversations.

3.What are your assets? Examine your social media and online assets to see what you can leverage for full social media engagement. (See assets diagram.)

4.What tactics will you use? Choose the tactics that incorporate the most logical tools for what you are trying to achieve and who you are trying to reach.

5.What are your big ideas? Come up with some creative ideas that are repeatable and scalable to attract attention and provide value.

6.How will you measure results? Establish benchmarks, monitor and be clear what you are tracking and how.

7. Re-examine over time. What works? What doesn’t? What can you build upon? What can you improve? What needs to be scrapped?

Remember as Jeffrey Hayzlett, fomer Kodak CMO said: Social media is not a campaign. It is a commitment. Your plan should cover both the immediate and short-term with an eye to the long term understanding that the technology changes daily. You may find that some of the tools you initially choose are gone by the time you get around to accessing them. Be flexible.

How is your Social Media Marketing planning coming along? What challenges are you encountering?

Kevin Brown
www.kbsinsight.blogspot.com