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Implementing a Social Media Strategy Step-By-

Step [DIAGRAM]

Social Media Strategy step-by-step


A. Objectives. Define your goals, have a clear vision where you want to go and how you’ll
get there.
B. Analysis. Know your limits, take into account what can help and what can hurt your
company, have a plan B, even a plan C. Make a plan, a plan for success and of course, a
plan for failure.
C. Rethink step A and B, shake it and see what happens, have some time to mature the
ideas and concepts. Are you willing to continue? nice, go ahead!
D. This is what I call the philosophical stage. Same as strategy planning: let you feelings
go, paint what you want to represent, define your identity and image – vision – , set up a
sense of purpose – mission. Every platform, tool or action taken should have is own
identity, features and goals. On the contrary, we’ll be talking about only a mainstream
platform. However, all platforms have to be aligned into one workflow.
E. Once you have defined the key elements of your strategy – from analysis (competition,
external factors and inside-out approach…) and brand identity – put ahead in every
platform, and visible, what makes you unique.
F. Time to get serious. Brainstorm all the ideas and take what you’re sure you can carry
on with the highest levels of accuracy: campaigns, tactics, contributions, team,
partnerships, tools, platforms, APPs…everything counts.
G. Do some research about the audience you want to achieve/represent (likes, habits,
needs, profile…), competition, limitations, brand identity, market, platforms,
singularities…once you get it, structure all the information and resources, so you can
draw a map for your strategy. Study also how you plan to tangle platforms and people,
because no need to mention that at this point you know that you “want” to segment
communities in social platforms
H. Integrate and implement this map in your business model strategy. That is to say, find
key facts that can help you to create a consistent social media structure. This is
structure is built as it follows:
1. Once you get the platforms, assemble them
2. Build the social media profiles, don’t forget to fill in every criterion
3. Don’t publish it yet, make a draft – draw it if you want first, so management and to
board can see and approve it
4. Optimize the profiles: use tools, APPs, resources and tips for giving the profiles a
competitive advantage. If is like every other, why should I buy from you?
5. Link profiles: You post and it goes to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…You know what it
means right?
6. Set up your blog – at the end is what truly matters – (WordPress rocks) theme, plugins,
CSS and ready to roll on
7. How will perform your blog in the social media ecosystem you’ve built? strategy-tactics
effect.
I. Set up a trial period for all the platforms before you the launching and see how it works.
You can test it inside your company, with colleagues or even with loyal customers. Get
feedback, correct, polish and improve it as much as you can.
J. How are you going to market your social media strategy? If you don’t say what you are
doing, how will the audience know about you?
K. In order to do step “J” allocate resources: people, calendar, tools, actions and of course
budget – this will help you to get better results – Note: It’s really important that you
allocate resources not just in short-term, but mid/long-term too.
L. Launching campaign. Do whatever it takes: guerrilla, offline, beta for your customers,
offers, discounts, events, website, publicity, PR. Best results are achieved when you cross
offline with online media.
M. Use optimization tools as: Posterous, Postling, TweetDeck, Tagthe, bit.ly,
Workflowy, Storify, Curated.by, DropBox,MailChimp, Google
Wave, Del.ici.ous, Docs, Reader, Evernote…- these are some I’m using now – it will
help you to simplify the process and manage better your time.
N. As long as your strategy is on the field and deal with it. Consider – seriously consider –
track, monitor and measure everything what you do on the Social Web. Identify how you
can best meet your goals (step “A”) by assigning ROI measures. I strongly recommend
that you tailor them depending on your goals.
O. Short-term. Don’t worry too much for it. Ensure that all fit in, your community is
growing, therefore interactions happening around. People is talking about your brand, get
feedback, creating traffic to your blog/website, some conversions
Q. Mid-term. Have it mind. Engagement, loyalty, brand reach, sentiment, sales, effort vs
reward, opinion leaders
P. Long-term. What truly matters. Have you reached step “A”? If not, try different
Note: Notice how I haven’t set up a timeline for the time periods. Your mileage can vary:
it can go from 3-6 months to 3 years. It depends your product/service and your goals, of
course.
R. Time to earn $$$. Beautiful, isn’t it?

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