Jasmine Sandler | Clickz
Many marketers launch their social media programs because they feel they need to and then scramble to understand both how they will make these work and how they will be managed. Most of them do this with no goal in mind and worse, no understanding of how social media marketing (SMM) works.
Many believe that social is the answer to customer acquisition and are short-sided in defining realistic results. Unfortunately this all results in lost time, lost customers, lost market share, and lost profitability.
Stop chasing your tail in social. Start your SMM planning right by following these five easy steps.
SMM Step 1: Create Your Executive Overview Business Plan
Spell out your business in a one-pager to realize why you need social:
- Your Business Mission and History
- Your Business or Revenue Model
- Descriptions of your Products & Services
- Details of Your Target Audience
- Review of Your Current Marketing Efforts
SMM Step 2: Define Your Specific Social Media Goals
It is impossible to reach and attain a goal without defining exact specifics. Too many business owners let social metrics define their goals, such as “More Twitter Followers”, “More Fans on Facebook”, “More YouTube Views.”
As marketers, we all know that it is really about engagement that counts. But, what engagement are we talking about? Positive engagement? Volume of commenting on a controversial piece of content?
You need to go a step beyond to define specific, actionable, and (most importantly) reasonable SMM goals. Here are some specific SMM goals you might use after completing your business review:
- Validate a new product or service using social as a research platform.
- Develop buzz and interest around a new product.
- Engage users in social to generate relevant and targeted traffic to your site.
- Gain market share by leading customer/client service through social.
- Generate registrations to branded events through social.
