7 Steps to Developing a Social Media Strategy

“To thine own self be true”. ~ Polonius to Hamlet

To thine own self be true. Very profound words for a post about social media strategy and yet they are the foundation for developing any strategy that we may pursue regardless of marketing channel. The phrase is simple yet very difficult to achieve. When I consult with clients that state their interest in developing a social media strategy I always start with a simple set of questions. Like the phrase the questions are simple and difficult to answer, but it is essential that businesses answer them or any marketing efforts that they undertake are likely to be at best less effective than they could be and at worst a complete waste of money and potentially damaging to any branding that they’ve been able to achieve in the past.

In keeping with our good friend Polonius’ words I’ve grouped the 7 steps into 3 distinct categories: Know thyself; Know thy customer and Know thy plan.

Know thyself (Brand)

1. What differentiates your brand?
This is the essence of your brand. When people hear (Your Brand Name) what do you want those people to think? You should be able to distill it down to 1 word or at most a single VERY short phrase. Think: Mercedes = Quality, Nordstrom = Customer Service, Apple = Innovation.

2. What’s the message? The 30 second infomercial is dead. Think 140 characters or less.

Know thy Customer

3. How will you be authentic?
Let’s face it companies, no matter how big or small, are just soulless entities? How will you engage your audience to provide that human touch to your business?

4. What is your current relationship with your target audience?
• Nothing
• Aware of you – Not yet a customer
• Customer – Single action or very low frequency
• Repeat customer – Loves product/service, loyal customer
• Advocates – promotes product use to others

Select two or no more than three that are next to each other to achieve focus of the program or campaign. For example, it is too difficult and disjointed to try to message to those customers that are only aware and to those that are enthusiasts.

Know thy Plan

5. Where does your audience hang out in the online world? How do they use social media?
Marketing 101 – be where your audience is. It’s important to understand your audience’s behavior and disposition toward certain social media technologies and platforms. Do you have a retail establishment and is your target audience younger? If so, mobile platforms like foursquare, Gowalla and Twitter might see high usage among your target population. Are they stay at home moms with two toddlers? Video, facebook and blogging may hold their attention.

6. What is the purpose of this campaign? Why use social media? Why will this strategy be pursued?
• Awareness (brand recognition and recall)
• Lead generation
• Sales
• Loyalty (repeat sales and brand advocate)

7. How will you measure success?
What are the key success factors (KSF’s) or metrics that you are going to measure in order to know if your actions are working? Lead generation? Increase traffic to website? Increased revenue? Customer base is shifting from new to repeat customers?

There you go, simple, difficult and hopefully helpful.

Do you have any strategies that you use or have found helpful? Let’s discuss.

Credit where it’s due. I’m firm believer that there is truly nothing new under the sun. Every generation we repackage things of the past with our own twist on it. The seven steps that I outlined above are definitely not my original ideas. Sure I’ve put my own twist on them, but there are others that have gone before me that deserve the credit. So, thank you to Lisa Qualls, Jay Baer, Oliver Blanchard, Chris Brogan and many others for pushing this industry forward and having such a great impact on my thinking.