Social Media Strategy- The Planning Stage

June 24, 2008 · Comments

As part of my Social Media 100 series, and because I believe it will have value to the space in general, I’m working through all the elements of a social media strategy. What comes first? Planning.

In coming up with the elements of a plan, I found a few surprises. One, I hadn’t considered having a “trial” phase or project as part of a strategy. Maybe there are elements that you’re not ready to roll up against your main brand. For those, you might want to trial them in a less direct way. Another surprise was that I hadn’t considered the training required for internal resources until I had a conversation with Cynthia Closkey.

What follows is simply the list of elements to consider when building a social media strategy for your organization. I’m submitting it to you for consideration, in the hopes that you’ll find it useful for your projects, and so that you can point out things I might have missed. Please note that every item below explodes out into all kinds of sub-categories and information. This is just the list view.

Social Media Strategy – Planning

  • Research – the internal social media evangelist looks at what might be possible (maybe by coming hear and reading my stuff as a starting point).
  • Trial or Full Plan – decide whether you want a trial phase, perhaps even not company branded (like doing an ice cream blog when you’re Target stores, without any Target branding, just to try out blogging as a culture.)
  • Goals – without a clear understanding of what your goals for the program are, these steps are worthless.
  • Target Audience – is this blog for customers, colleagues, coworkers, moms, who?
  • End State – once this project is running, what will be better within the company?
  • Resources-Internal – who gets the responsibility (fun?) of maintaining a community, creating content, being a good social media citizen?
  • Resources-External – do you hire consultants, advisors, analysts to help you launch? Do you outsource the entire platform, like American Express or Fast Search?
  • Integration Points with Existing Ops Structure – if this is a tiny offshoot of its own, it won’t live long. How do you tie what this person’s doing to the larger org?
  • Input from Team – Once you have your plan, do you shop it around internally? If so, help them own it. Give your ideas “handles,” so people can take the ideas and make them their own.
  • Reporting Structure – is the social media project’s keeper different than the creators’ boss? Where does the information gathered go? Who needs to know when something comes up?
  • Training – this turns out to be an important step. How will you handle it?
  • Legal (?) – the project should be blessed once at least by legal, but then do you make every step of the way a legal hurdle to jump? I lean towards no, but your culture might say differently.

Again, this is a list to stimulate thought. What does it have you thinking? Were there any surprises? Does it help you think more about your business interests in social media tools and methods? What have I missed?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , , , , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • I would also add that choosing the appropriate social media properties based on the type of content you will publish is crucial in the planning stage.

    What social media properties contain your target audience and which social media properties are useful for syndicating your messages and what is the proper social etiquette within those properties? ... In other words what is acceptable by the communities you may choose and which networks are worth the time?

    Training would be a huge factor here. Do you find someone experienced or do you train someone from the start? This person must understand the technologies (functions within specific social networks) while focusing on community relationships not promotions.

    Thanks for this planning list. It is very helpful.

    - Charles Heflin
  • I agree whole heartedly with considering a trial - 2 months, 6 months, etc. For those execs or clients who are skeptical, it doesn't seem as daunting when there's a date set for a go/no go on continuing, based on success. And also, what if (shudder at the thought) it's not working? It gives the project leader an appropriate time to *adjust* activities as needed without SM coming off as a failed experiment.

    In terms of what to add to the list Chris, you might consider adding /Measurement next to Goals. A goal may be "to increase downloads of a new app" or "sign up new subscribers/users/customers" - but a company might wish to get a bit more specific - "increase membership by 100 subscribers per month" in relation to sales or "be mentioned in relevant blog postings or comment sections on blogs with a Technorati authority of at least XX" in realtion to thought leadership. Then a CMO or VP of Corp Comm can tie SM his/her strategies directly to company/sales/exposure goals to maintain funding, and well moral support.
  • I think there are two points to consider (which is what I'm dealing with right now) although this might be more applicable to enterprise-level social media. That may be a different animal completely than what you are proposing here.

    (1) Which social media/Web 2.0 apps do you want to include as part of your strategy? Not all will be useful or desirable for your approach or client base.

    (2) Vetting the strategy with clients and getting their buy-in. Social media is either new or off-putting to many people, either because of lack of exposure or misconceptions about how it can be used (i.e, someone at the executive leadership level who may have only heard about kids using MySpace may not understand why it could be important to have something like a LinkedIn profile.)
  • I also think that when the target markets are determined, whether a single strategy will suffice or whether it is more logical to split the tasks, goals, milestones and resources. The programme you undertake for CEO's of publicly listed companies may be very different for small business owners, or retirees.

    And speaking of milestones (apologies for descending into somewhat cliched terminology), they need to be a fundamental part of the goal setting process.
  • I think that all starts and all ends with those 5 general items from Peter Drucker :
    Define Goals (why a social Media ? To do what ? what's the point ?)
    Organise work (who will provide, when, what is the process ?)
    Communicate and motivate (let them know!)
    Measure Performance (are you reaching your goals ?)
    Training (pass the message to others, that's the true victory)

    My blog on webmarketing management experience : http://www.managementetmoi.blogspot.com/
  • Chris, this is incredibly helpful to me in something I'm working on right now. Thank you for sharing this list! Perhaps mention budgeting in your Resources lines? Budgeting time for the internal resources, but also budgeting funds for external resources if needed.
  • Ack, sorry, hit submit too soon - just realized I needed to change the URL to my new blog instead of my old. Sorry for the double comment!
  • Further to what Dana Young is saying about "buy-in": Change management would be a critical step in my strategy. All the new technology and useful tools in world won't help if people don't understand what's in it for them. Whether it's the people who will administer the system or the external audience, building in training, communication and feedback loops are essential to the success of any strategy.

    Unfortunately for many organizations, change management is an after-thought, an extra expense for which they do not see the value. Multi-million dollar projects fail all the time because of this.

    Some important questions to ask:

    At what point in the process will I start to get buy-in of internal/external audiences?

    How am I going to ensure a closed feedback loop (in other words, who is going to be accountable for handling comments, concerns, questions in a TIMELY fashion?)

    How will I measure success?

    "Leading Change" by John P. Kotter is a great book on the subject of change management.
  • Hate to say it Chris but this is little more than Project Implementation 101 though I do feel you've missed a few real potential gotchas.
  • Thanks a bunch chris.. Im not that an expert to say anything against all the guru's who commented here..

    @Dennis Howlett Please do share what you think Chris has missed out.
  • Ann
    Thanks for the well-considered post. I have a few thoughts.

    Re: Target Audience -- In this social media world, this is difficult to control. I also think that you need to be ready to change/adapt your strategy if need be. For instance, we started out targeting our existing customers -- and then quickly realized that our most avid community participants were not our customers and were not, in fact, people that we had any connection with whatsoever.

    As to the rest, I think much depends on the corporate culture. Knowing the culture and how to work within it are key. In some cases, rather than following the planning stages as you've outlined, it may be better to "act first and then ask permission."
  • Hi Chris, great post as always.

    An essential part of the mix in determining a social media strategy is a competitive analysis. Part of strategy is understanding what else is out there--what you're up against.

    If your competitor has a social media presence, how does it present? Does it comprise a stand-alone social network, blogging or forums? Does it use open source or a custom solution? Does the competitor have a presence on Twitter, or popular social platforms such as MySpace or Facebook? If the competitor has a significant social media presence what is your value add or differentiator?
  • Chris - think this is a good outline for, say a traditional company looking to dip a toe in the water with a blog; in future posts would love to see more ideas for more advanced social media strategies. How and when to engage/comment on other blogs, how to best utilize FF and twitter, strategies for appropriate use of Digg, Stumble, etc (not to game them, but how to leverage), how to stimulate discussion/comments on the blog, etc.
  • I'd add one final step: Learn (or Keep Learning)! With things changing as quickly as they are, and the amount of in-the-trenches knowledge you can pick up, it's vital that a strategy includes wiggle room for adapting as you go. If you spend 6 months in a blogging trial period, you better be ready to adapt the strategy going forward!
  • To answer Dennis, it's definitely project management. Nothing new there. What's new is the guts. I'm writing out what the project parts are.

    I fully agree that we should add in measurements, that we should discuss WHICH tools. Definitely a good point to add to the mix. I've added both to my outline.

    @Josh - learning's a good point. I've added a perpetual learning.

    Still mulling the rest of it. You're great for your help. : )
  • I am in the research stages of Social Media and have begun my planning. Thank you for the great blog. It has helped me along the way. What are your thoughts on one person or multiple people handling the responsibilities of social media? I can see how both could be good ways to go about it. I would assume that most companies do not want to spend the money on a specialist, but may delegate the different tasks throughout their current employee? Does this help with protection from turnover? Can this help with accountability? Beyond that, does this help show the culture of the business to the consumers, which ultimately generates good results if the culture is interesting, i.e. New Belgium Brewery?
  • Chris, this is a great project planning list. The one thing I see missing is marketing. (i.e., now that it's implemented, how do you let people know about it?) Is it best to just let it happen virally (through links & comments on/to other blogs) or is it okay to send a note to customers, prospects, vendors, partners to let them know about it and encourage their participation? Thanks!
  • Is there a risk (even if it is a small one) that a "trial" blog could blow up and look like a company blogging secretively? (Like many companies have done with malicious intent in the past).

    For example if someone finds the "Ice Cream" blog by target, does some researching and finds out that it is in fact target; they could very well make it out to be a big scandal when in actuality it was simply practice?

    I suppose you could always have it an internal blog to start and publish it online after you have given it a go or not.

    What are your thoughts about blogging for internal reasons rather than external?
  • Chris, this is a great list.

    I'll add a few items.

    1- Politics, People and Power: bringing the social sphere at play in the enterprise modifies decision making on critical things like: new product definition, marketing strategy, measure of success ... and as any disruptive change, the one that master it the faster will individually get a competitive advantage.

    There is also a move from being valued from what I know towards being valued for being able to learn by interacting with the social eco system & who I know.

    How is it gonna work when you've got deeper connections to the influencers in your domain than your boss?

    Sound familiar to anyone having deployed knowledge management system in large enterprises...


    2- Intellectual property: might be a subset of your legal topic but this is key.

    I discussed with somebody responsible for a social media strategy at a large corporation and some interesting questions popped up like: who owns his facebook group, he or his company, what about the huge number of linkedin connections and facebook friends he made thru his job.

    Sales rep have sometimes contractual restrictions when moving to competitors. Are we gonna see the same with social media influencers ?

    3- Metrics. Cies should start measuring their level of interaction and their level of influence as a group to their target communities.
    Should probably start with evangelist and marketers.

    ex: how many "prescriptors" have joined the first circle of LinkedIn firend one of your team member ?

    Hope this help. Have a great day !
  • Loved the post. My question is if you are trying to build a community, how do go about doing that as a trial and not affect the intended brand you are trying to build? I can definitely see it as an option for those that are established, but if you aren't, doing a trial might be a challenge.

    Thanks for your insights.

    JP
    "Living the Dream...Baby!"
  • Chris - great post. Another key element for me in the planning process is listening, probably part of your research heading. Knowing what's already being said about you and your brand before launching any SM strategy is key to knowing where to start, what channels and tools are being used in your space, and whether your audience tends to be more passive or more participatory.

    Thanks, as always, for sharing your discoveries.

    Amber
  • Excellent checklist.

    I would add, from personal experience, not only research your niche, but research what program/platform will best suit your needs.

    If you are building a community, would you use Community Server, Joomla, or Droopal. Do you go PHP or .Net? If you just need a blog do you start with WordPress or build your own? What platform will best work with the available resources you have?
  • @John - to try and build a trial community might be tricky, but there are ways. Remember that trial in this case means mostly trying out the software, and how to manage a community.

    You might try it out by helping a local organization (like a church) start a community, and train up their people to run it. That way, you can learn about the tools, the philosophies, what comes up in the course of running a community, the amount of time it might take, and at the end, you'll be giving another organization a tool to keep up with their own flock.

    @DaveMurr - definitely. The small example you used shows that there are complexities abound in what tools you choose.
  • Training and support is really important - particularly if designed to build capacity. IN the nonprofit sector, many nonprofits have "strategic technology plans" http://tinyurl.com/3k9coo - and there was a rule called the 70/20/10 rule -- it went something like this spend your time and resources in this precentage..

    10% hardware
    20% software
    70% wetware

    Wetware? Yes, your brain - that includes training, support, planning, and evaluation.

    Even though there are many free social media tools, I think you can still apply this to social media strategy.
  • Macbeb
    "Please" to see that we almost have the same way to enter the subject

    Here's how we proceed when designing from scratch a new community with our clients:
    1. We call it "strategic base", and is sum-up in two very "simple" questions:
    - what should the service-community provide to your company ? = gimme basic prioritized objectives (e.g. traffic and money, loyalty, image, customers qualification...etc...)
    - what should the service-community provide to its final users ? = gimme basic feelings on how you'd like to enter the conversation (target, claim, miscellenaous features...)
    => based on these elements + market and usages evolutions, we formalized a concept recommendation
    2. Then we go very concrete through 5 interdependant workshops (where take place the elements you listed):
    - Recruitment
    - Product
    - Animation
    - Moderation
    - Technical
    - Business Plan
    => finalized with product scope (front & back) + illustrations + animation & moderation guidelines + business plan = all elements needed to take a decision
  • Great post, and some very thought-provoking notes here. Too often the only social media strategy a company or online entrepreneur has is to "fly by the seat of their pants." What a waste of a potentially powerful strategy :-)

    Thanks!
    Maria Reyes-McDavis
  • I feel, understanding the sales cycle of the client, is really crucial in the planning phase.

    Social Media is not just about visibility and branding, the ultimate business objective is lead generation in majority of the clients' cases. Hence a strong measurability and metric setup should be present.

    The approach should be flexible enough so as to be customized as per the clients needs and requirements.

    I would also like to know from the people commenting, as to how do they report to the client to make sense of their SMM implementation and really fulfill the business objectives.

    Best,
    Paritosh Sharma
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: