Creating a Social Media Strategy December 9, 2009
How To Structure a Social Media Strategy
There are a lot of hot topics in social media marketing today. However these topics really all boil down to a single basic question. That question is “how should we make a plan for using social media to effectively market our business?” This isn’t an easy question to answer because new media marketing is still so new that there isn’t a simple equation for making it work. However, you can start by getting back to the basics and using traditional business plans and marketing plans to form the foundation of your social media strategy. From there it’s just a matter of tweaking your approach and monitoring your results, remaining flexible enough to adapt your strategy as time goes on.
Using a traditional business and marketing plan template to get an idea of what you want to do with your social media strategy is a good idea. Most business owners are familiar with the format of these plans so they are comfortable using them. Although not all of the components of these plans fit neatly in line with the use of social media, they serve as a great starting point to get you really thinking about what your goals are for your social media marketing. Getting this foundation down on paper gives you a really great start to creating a solid marketing strategy.
Once you have such a strategy then you can tweak it to adapt it to the changing world of social media today. Be honest with yourself about your own skills and abilities when it comes to social media. If you truly understand this stuff then you can play around with the basic plan on your own. If not then you may want to hire a new media consultant to give you some advice on how best to adapt a traditional marketing plan to the social media atmosphere. Return to the business plan again and again to remind yourself of your primarily social media marketing goals while you adapt the strategy.
As you begin to implement the strategy, monitor your results closely. Always focus on the goals that you initially set forth and how to measure those goals as you move forward in the world of social media. If the work that you’re doing in social media is ineffective after a few months, re-work your social media strategy to find a new modern method of meeting those same goals. Be flexible and be willing to get creative with new media to meet those goals and your strategy should be successful.
