A lot has changed in this new environment called social media (or "Web 2.0"). But a lot hasn't.
While these tools might be "one-click easy" to employ, just as with your other marketing efforts, there's an extensive amount of work involved in planning, launching and maintaining your social media presence and programs.
And the level of upfront work directly affects (and effects) the outcome.
On that note, here is a list of questions, organized by category, that can serve as a nifty checklist for companies when approaching this space. You'll likely need to add some of your own questions but these will serve as a comprehensive starting point... so let's get started:
I. Goal-Setting and Goal Measurement
- What are our goals in social media? What, specifically, are we looking to achieve through our use of these tools? Are we using these media to build relationships, to provide a new customer service channel, to generate new business leads, to query our markets for product improvements and ideas, to position our brands in a specific sector... or to meet another goal?
- Which set of metrics (quantitative and qualitative) will we use to measure how well we're meeting our goals?
II. Analysis
- Which social media tools and programs are our competitors employing? What is their content focused upon, and what subject areas are they covering? How can we differentiate from their social media offering, content and brand personality so that we offer our audiences *unique* value?
- What gaps in our current marketing programs can social media help us to fill? Do we need more customer outreach, do we need to encourage more brand advocacy, do we need to better involve our market in decision making, do we lack brand awareness or do we have other gaps that we need to fill in our marketing?
- Do our company's professionals truly understand and have a firm grasp of the trends, implications, nuances, best practices and tools of this space?
- Which set of keywords do we need to integrate in our content (through posts, post titles, etc.) that will optimize our site (SEO) with search engines? Which words and phrases are inherent to our profession--and which words do our prospects and customers use when searching for information on our offering?
III. Strategy
- Which of the many tools available to us (e.g. blogs, twitter, online videos, wikis, etc.) should we be using?
- Do the tools we've identified from the above question support our strategy and do they support the comfort levels of our markets?
(Note: some audiences are very comfortable reading blogs but not using Facebook or Twitter, others are very savvy in downloading podcasts but aren't comfortable uploading content to a Wiki, it depends upon your market's comfort level.)
- How can we make our brand more “human" through our messaging and outreach?
(Note: your markets don't want to read billboards and ads, they want more authenticity through personal engagement and genuine responses, not "corp speak".)
- Which executives (personalities) from our company will represent our brand on these tools--and what tone and style do we want to exude?
- What content focus, that we possess subject matter expertise within, will provide value to our audience while differentiating us from competitors? To that end, how will our content benefit our audience--will it inform, entertain, solve problems, provide a forum for networking or offer another type of benefit?
- How will our social media program provide its own set of value--value that is distinct from but complementary to our brands--for our audiences? How can users gain value from our social media initiatives so that they're encouraged to discuss, recommend and purchase our brands?
IV. Promotion
- How will we promote our social media programs—both to current customers and prospective audiences?
(Note: you should not only have a plan in place for creating and maintaining your social media programs, but also for promoting them.)
- How do our competitors promote their social media programs? What can we learn from their successes (and mistakes)?
- What is our ongoing SEO plan and maintenance to ensure our social media program continues to be optimized for search engines?
V. Feedback
- How can we include a function—apart from reader comments, tweets, etc.—where our audience can offer us feedback to improve our products and services?
(Note: make sure to clearly invite ideas, recommendations and feedback for improvements, new features or new offerings. I recommend that this is not only done through posts but also as a clearly labeled area or forum within your site and/or blogs.)
- How can we identify and/ invite our audience to take part in our Customer Advisory Board or private online community?
(Note: Apart from your social media programs, it's highly beneficial to institute a board of customers that will give you ongoing feedback on your brands and future offerings--and through your social media programs you can identify prospective members for this board).
VI. Resources
- What resources are we placing against our ongoing content efforts to ensure creation of new and timely content updates?
- What resources are we placing against responding to reader comments and inquiries?
(Note: you want to be as timely as possible in responding to these.)
- Just as you've clearly set goals (see above section on goals), you'll also want to pinpoint: Who/Whom will be tasked with assessing and disseminating results so that we're consistently tracking how well/poorly our programs are performing?
VII. Processes
- What is our content schedule (e.g. daily, weekly, biweekly) to ensure our program remains fresh and timely?
- While our tools will monitor the Web 24/7, what is our process for responding, if necessary, during off-hours (nights/weekends)?
- How will we implement processes for monitoring buzz and whom will be tasked with overseeing these practices?
- What processes are we implementing to analyze buzz and feedback and disseminate it to the appropriate individuals?
(Note: depending upon the company, feedback may want to be viewed by more than the marketing department--this can be very helpful to customer service, sales, R&D and management).
- While I hope you’ll never find yourself in a PR crisis--and the way that you react to a crisis is case-specific--you'll want to discuss a process for alerting marketing and management in the case one does arise. Both the (1) nature of your response and the (2) timing of reaching out to your markets are nothing short of critical in your success for overcoming a crisis.
- What are our company’s specific policies on using and communicating through social media?
(Note: You’ll want to have a discussion with your management and legal department before implementing your programs where you clearly set policies and guidelines--as then everyone is on the same page and your program doesn’t start and then, potentially stop).
VIII. Monitoring
- Which monitoring tools are we using for listening to buzz on our brands, markets and competitors?
- To ensure we're monitoring for all buzz and important feedback, have we identified all the appropriate keywords and URLs to include in our automated queries?
(Note: some keywords, like company and brand names as well as competitive ones, are obvious to monitor for, but there are likely key phrases that you’ll want to include as well--so be comprehensive in what you'll want to track so that you don't miss out on any helpful feedback and insights.)
IX. Tracking & Optimization
- Just as with other media and marketing programs, once you’ve created your social media presence and launched your set of programs, you'll find there are areas that need to be optimized. This requires you to regularly ask the "Where do we need to optimize/improve?" question and assess based on several areas of data (both quantitative and qualitative). It also necessitates that you set processes within your department to regularly review the results and areas of potential improvement.
Whew! That covered a lot of ground. And that only covers the questions, not the answers... but that's the work you'll need to do yourself. Enjoy these new media and all the opportunities they have to offer, but do your upfront work so as to soar, instead of stumble.
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