Planning Social Media - Yes, It's Possible!
I've been doing a lot of 2010 planning for my clients for whom we run their social media tools. My team and I have been coming up with some really creative ideas to make social media work for our clients in the coming year.
So I thought this would be a good topic for a blog post: planning for social media. What? Plan, you say? Who plans for Twitter or Facebook? I just write what's on my mind at the moment, right? Well, yes... sometimes. That's perfectly fine for individuals using these tools, but when considering running and promoting a business on social media, let's think a little further ahead, OK a LOT further ahead!
Just like any other marketing tool or campaign, you want to plan if you really want it to be successful, and now is the perfect time to plan for next year. So what do you need to think about?
1) Goals - Make sure you have goals in mind for what you'd like social media to accomplish for you and use that to guide your planning.
2) Your Brand - Do you have a social media brand? It might be your company brand or it might be a slightly different brand to better capture the attention of folks on social media. Many businesses don't play well on social media, as they just don't sound interesting to follow. For example, we've branded a cleaning company we work with on social media as Squeaky Clean, so they have the Squeaky Clean blog and they're Squeaky_Clean on Twitter. Maybe you need to change up your brand. Make it fun and interesting but still underscore your company's message.
3) What Did/Didn't Work This Year? Take a good hard look at what brought you good name recognition, media coverage, web site hits and even sales. If it didn't do any of those things and you put a good effort toward it, dump it! What worked well? Do more of that.
4) Think Big! Don't just think "What will I tweet next year?" (though that's not a bad idea either :)); think bigger. Work in 2-4 fun promotions, contests, parties and initiatives you can run throughout the year to increase your followers/readers/viewers/fans, expand awareness of your business, garner traditional media coverage, and generally keep your audience engaged, interested and excited about your brand.
5) Get down to the minutia - We also plan our clients' blog posts, Tweets and Facebook posts ahead of time. Of course, there's still plenty of room for real-time engagement, but we've thought out 80% of what will be posted to make sure its interesting, entertaining, informative and underscores the company's brand. For Twitter and Facebook, plan a week's worth of posts at a time. For blogs, put together a 3 month schedule of content (you can always add more timely news as it happens). For YouTube, plan what videos you'll produce and post throughout the next year and set deadlines for filming and editing. You don't have to be a production company, but use your Flip camera and Windows Movie Maker to get you started.
Do you plan for social media? Will you plan for 2010? What will you change, drop or add? Share with us your planning methods.
So I thought this would be a good topic for a blog post: planning for social media. What? Plan, you say? Who plans for Twitter or Facebook? I just write what's on my mind at the moment, right? Well, yes... sometimes. That's perfectly fine for individuals using these tools, but when considering running and promoting a business on social media, let's think a little further ahead, OK a LOT further ahead!
Just like any other marketing tool or campaign, you want to plan if you really want it to be successful, and now is the perfect time to plan for next year. So what do you need to think about?
1) Goals - Make sure you have goals in mind for what you'd like social media to accomplish for you and use that to guide your planning.
2) Your Brand - Do you have a social media brand? It might be your company brand or it might be a slightly different brand to better capture the attention of folks on social media. Many businesses don't play well on social media, as they just don't sound interesting to follow. For example, we've branded a cleaning company we work with on social media as Squeaky Clean, so they have the Squeaky Clean blog and they're Squeaky_Clean on Twitter. Maybe you need to change up your brand. Make it fun and interesting but still underscore your company's message.
3) What Did/Didn't Work This Year? Take a good hard look at what brought you good name recognition, media coverage, web site hits and even sales. If it didn't do any of those things and you put a good effort toward it, dump it! What worked well? Do more of that.
4) Think Big! Don't just think "What will I tweet next year?" (though that's not a bad idea either :)); think bigger. Work in 2-4 fun promotions, contests, parties and initiatives you can run throughout the year to increase your followers/readers/viewers/fans, expand awareness of your business, garner traditional media coverage, and generally keep your audience engaged, interested and excited about your brand.
5) Get down to the minutia - We also plan our clients' blog posts, Tweets and Facebook posts ahead of time. Of course, there's still plenty of room for real-time engagement, but we've thought out 80% of what will be posted to make sure its interesting, entertaining, informative and underscores the company's brand. For Twitter and Facebook, plan a week's worth of posts at a time. For blogs, put together a 3 month schedule of content (you can always add more timely news as it happens). For YouTube, plan what videos you'll produce and post throughout the next year and set deadlines for filming and editing. You don't have to be a production company, but use your Flip camera and Windows Movie Maker to get you started.
Do you plan for social media? Will you plan for 2010? What will you change, drop or add? Share with us your planning methods.
Comment
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Comment by Coach Jen on November 11, 2009 at 8:29pm -
Great info. to implement! I like the idea about 3 month scheduling for blog posts....it gives a clearer picture of where I want to take my ideas and what I want to focus on. Thank you for posting!
Jen Slayden
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Comment by Darcy L. Plunkett on November 11, 2009 at 11:06am -
Excellent tips, Lyn! Thanks for sharing. I look forward to connecting soon!
Darcy
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Comment by ECHOage on November 11, 2009 at 11:01am -
Thanks Lynn,
At ECHOage, we are always looking for ways to better our traffic and prescence on line. Those are great tips.
Roz
www.echoage.com
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Comment by Stefanie Mullen on November 11, 2009 at 10:18am -
Thanks for the great info. Its always great to get new ideas!
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Comment by Lyn Mettler on November 11, 2009 at 8:41am -
Thanks guys. Beth, I do think it's better to be interesting/edgy because that will certainly keep people coming back. I'd draw the line at offensive. Don't be offensive, but certainly share your opinion in your own unique voice and stir up debate. Social media is all about the right content and the more interesting, the better!
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Comment by Nikki Fadeyibi on November 11, 2009 at 8:37am -
Thanks for the post this is really helpful!
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Comment by itsangel on November 10, 2009 at 8:31pm -
I am in he process of reevaluating some of my clients Plans, it is a good idea to do this every few months to make sure everything is in sync. Thanks for the reminder, great blog some really good idea and thoughts.
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Comment by Beth Ann Bentley on November 10, 2009 at 8:14pm -
Thanks Lynn, I needed this little pep talk. What is your opinion on edgy content or speaking your mind...I got a comment recently that I am not speaking my mind like a use to; playing it safer trying not to offend anyone. but as a result, I am not being as interesting. Where is the line? Can you define it or do you have to feel it?
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