Social Media Marketing Strategy How-to Guide

Social Media Marketing Strategy

There's a lot of buzz about social media these days. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (among others) are all the rage (or seem to be). But what exactly is social media and is it right for your business? How will it help you achieve your goals and add to the bottom line? We'll explore the steps involved in mapping out your strategy to make the most of social media for your business.

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What is social media anyway?

This is the million dollar question. If you search on the term "social media" you'll get 149 million results. The bottom line is this: social media is a lot of things, most of which are offered by the "big" social media players like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But there are millions of smaller "social media" opportunities that may make more sense for your business. Think of social media as a virtual "cocktail party" or "meeting room" where users can interact with each other and share information. That information might be serious business, or it might be more frivolous and personal. It may be private between just a few friends, or completely public and available to the world.

Know this: Just like at a party or large industry conference, you can't control what people talk about, who they talk about, when they talk about it. How Social Media Influences the Purchase Decision Process

You can (and should) listen and learn
- There are some great tools and methods (many of them free) to help you. They may not be talking about you, your business or product/services at all. That's both a problem and an opportunity.
- How to Measure Brand Buzz explains how to do this.

TIP: To gather feedback from customers, this software application you can add to your website or blog, UserVoice.com allows your customers to submit, discuss, and vote on feedback for your product or organization.

TIP: you might want to set up a social network within your business to practice social networking internally. CubeTree is a free tool that will allow your employees to collaborate on wikis, create polls, monitor status updates and collaborate and comment on social documents. There's a minimal fee per month if you want to store documents. They are selling to large global corporations but small businesses can use the free tools.

You can contribute to the conversation
- Thinking through how you'll do that is part of developing your social media strategy.

Curb negative word-of-mouth
- How to Handle Negative Comments Made Online (on your blog, Facebook business page or Twitter)

Questions to consider before you start down the social media path

Do you have the basic fundamental block and tackle marketing programs in place? If not, then read no further and click over to our article on Small Business Marketing. This will teach you everything you need to know to have a basic marketing program in place. Things like capturing customer email addresses and developing an effective email Newsletter among your existing customers will generally have a much greater ROI than a social media program. And it can help spark social media conversations.

Know this: A social media strategy will not work well if you don't have a website and other basic marketing programs in place. Think of social media as adding on to your house ... but not a critical room. Social media is like adding a library, or a media center, perhaps. If you don't have the house, with the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc., then the addition of a library is moot. So it goes with social media. While there is a lot of buzz and hype around this new social media frontier, it doesn't replace good old fashioned marketing basics.

Why do you want to engage in a social media strategy? This is a really important question, and the answer shouldn't be "Because everyone else is doing it." Take some time to "lurk" (meaning watch but don't participate) and see what your competitors (or at least others in your industry) are doing with social media. Read articles about successful social media marketing programs and think about whether that might work for your business.
Do your customers and prospects participate in social media? If they do, which outlets? You can buy expensive reports that measure participation by segment, but there are a number of free things you should do first.
- Is your competition involved in social media? Find their Facebook page and become a fan. Follow them on Twitter. See what they're doing on LinkedIn. See what types of conversations are happening and if they are of business value.
- Understand the outlets. Arguably the largest social media outlets with relevance for business are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Think of them as that virtual gathering. Twitter might be the person you met at the coffee shop where you exchanged cards and then stayed in touch; Facebook is a cocktail party where all of your friends are invited; and LinkedIn is the formal business dinner where you order expensive wine, don your suit and heels, network and talk about trends and the bottom line. Some companies benefit from participating in all three, others that are more B-to-B focused may benefit only from LinkedIn.
- Go with your gut. If you're targeting young adults, then it's highly likely your audience is engaged in social media to at least some extent. Looking for baby boomers? Some do engage but only at a basic level, and most do not participate at all.
- Online Behavior of Different Market Segments can help you better understand how different market segments use the web and participate in social media.
- Remember to think if social media can help your prospects at different stages of their research-purchase process. How to Help People at Different Stages of the Purchase Process gives tips on this for all types of marketing.
- What about helping your existing customers at different stages of their life cycle? Social media can work extremely well as "reminder" advertising (it's free and very credible) and to create brand buzz and brand love. Customer Life Cycle explains more.
Do you have thick skin? The reality of the social media world is that we as businesses can no longer control what's being said about us. This is true whether you engage in social media or not, but if you proactively put your business in the social media spotlight, you will receive negative comments and feedback for sure. This can actually be to your advantage if you're prepared and proactive in monitoring what's being said and responding appropriately.
- Handling Negative Comments on Blogs, Facebook and Twitter
Are you willing to invest the time every day and every week? If social media is like "virtual gatherings", you need to "drop in" consistently, listen and contribute in a meaningful way just like you would at any industry or local business meeting. That takes time to do in person and online. There are just more opportunities to engage online. Will you check and contribute to Twitter a half hour every day? Will you do the same for your Facebook business page? Will you invest an hour a week or more on LinkedIn to join and contribute to relevant groups? Will you keep this commitment when your business gets busy? Throughout the year?

Know this: social media is "free marketing" but not really if you consider the amount of time it requires. You want to evaluate the ROT (return on time) for your involvement in social media vs. other networking activities or other marketing programs.

Next page - Tips for developing a social media strategy

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