If your organization has begun incorporating social media into its marketing plan you need to hunker down and get organized. Social media marketing success revolves around creating an effective and well-planned strategy. Merely posting the occasional blog or sporadically updating your Facebook account will neither develop a strong online presence for your brand, or connect with prospects. The initial time investment will be larger than one might expect, but that investment will produce results if you stick to it.
Here are some tips to help define a game plan, keep you organized and ensure your social media efforts produce the results you want.
1. Pick Your Poison
The first step is to decide which social media platform(s) will work best for you… Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Blog? eNewsletter? You’ll need to figure out where your audience resides, which combination reaches the broadest base and how much time you can devote to social media marketing each week.
2. Content Is King
Finding enough content is always a challenge but remember, the point of social media as a marketing tool is to create a dynamic medium that can deliver YOUR UNIQUE SKILL SET to an interactive, engaged, audience. If you can’t deliver fresh, compelling content 3x per week, scale back your efforts to 1x per week. Make every effort count, don’t get caught up in counting all your efforts.
3. Organize It. Map It. Stick To It!
Just like your personal life, you’ll need to develop a social MEDIA calendar. It’s the only way to ensure you continue to provide reliable content that is valued by your audience.
A social media calendar is just what it seems, a spreadsheet that maps your social media strategy over the course of time. You can create your own spreadsheet or you can use some available online tools such as the Google docs-based social media calendar template.
A. Start by tracking industry events such as conferences, release dates, association or industry events etc. Define content and frequency around those important dates.
B. Create a schedule for your content… Tuesday for personal commentary, Wednesday for industry news, Thursday for best practices, etc.
C. Select your medium by day… Tuesday for Facebook and Twitter updates, Wednesday for eNewsletter releases, Thursday for blogs and Twitter, etc. Plan to use the same content topic per day per medium to re-enforce the message.
D. Define Your Content—But Be Flexible
Decide in advance which topics will be discussed on which days. Regularly annotate the calendar with interesting factoids, relevant links or photos, and keywords as you gather them, so when the time comes to write up each topic, you’ll have reference notes on the calendar itself. Taking the time to put together an editorial calendar every 6 weeks, and updating it on an ongoing basis, will save time in the long run and ensure you spread the content evenly over time.
Most importantly, be prepared to change your planned content calendar to accommodate breaking industry news, guest bloggers, etc.
E. Remember To Interact With Your Audience
Initiate polls, ask for commentary—create a forum for discussion. Often, your audience can provide better content than you can.
SOURCES:
• Communications Conversations by Arik Hanson
• Basics of the Social Media Editorial Calendar by Stephanie Schwab: Socialologist
• Social Media Examiner: 5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan, By Emily Soares Proctor
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What the Heck ARE “Algorithms” and “Analytics”
Associations have a unique role to play—and an inherent “leg-up”—in the burgeoning social media landscape. A built-in constituency and easily accessible demographic information provides trade organizations with a vast array of marketing statistics that a consumer-driven organization can only dream about.
Possessing the information, however, does nothing to serve your members more effectively or increase your value to them. It’s what you DO with the information and how you USE it that increases value.
This is where the value of algorithms and analytics become clear to association marketing professionals.
How Associations Can Benefit
An algorithm in today’s e-world, is any kind of search engine. Examples include Google/Yahoo, Amazon/Netflix/iTunes recommendations, social media filters, etc.
A proactive association intent on stepping ahead of the curve, can use algorithms to help them serve their membership on a number of fronts:
Like It Or Not—It’s Here To Stay
It is important to remember, young workers (aka. your potential members) have cut their teeth on e-media. The 30-something generation prefers to receive their news and information in an electronic format. Facebook and Twitter are simply part of their lexicon and are fully integrated into their lives. Marketing professionals who want—and need—to reach younger professionals MUST employ these tools. Facebook and Twitter refer a ton of traffic to host sites across the board. Once your membership is “friending” your site and tweeting your members, gathering information about their likes, dislikes and online activity is a valuable tool to ensure your organization remains relevant.
Where Do You Start?
To make better use of algorithms, analytics and the benefits of social media, you’ll need a webmaster who fully understands these concepts, and/or an on-staff employee charged with both managing your social media and maintaining your database. A first step that requires minimal investment would be a third-party vendor or consultant who can help determine your needs and design a blueprint for moving forward.
At LTD we provide a full-range of marketing services, including online marketing assistance. Call us if you have questions and we will be happy to sit down with you to discuss your online marketing needs.
For more information on these topics, suggested readings include:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=52634
http://searchenginewatch.com/2167961
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/Web-analytics
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/30/like.button.web.traffic.mashable/index.html?iref=NS1
Possessing the information, however, does nothing to serve your members more effectively or increase your value to them. It’s what you DO with the information and how you USE it that increases value.
This is where the value of algorithms and analytics become clear to association marketing professionals.
How Associations Can Benefit
An algorithm in today’s e-world, is any kind of search engine. Examples include Google/Yahoo, Amazon/Netflix/iTunes recommendations, social media filters, etc.
A proactive association intent on stepping ahead of the curve, can use algorithms to help them serve their membership on a number of fronts:
- Recommending trade show/annual meeting seminars
- Suggesting continuing education courses and useful publications to purchase
- Connecting members within same cities or when traveling
- Providing vendor and consultant information, links and databases
Like It Or Not—It’s Here To Stay
It is important to remember, young workers (aka. your potential members) have cut their teeth on e-media. The 30-something generation prefers to receive their news and information in an electronic format. Facebook and Twitter are simply part of their lexicon and are fully integrated into their lives. Marketing professionals who want—and need—to reach younger professionals MUST employ these tools. Facebook and Twitter refer a ton of traffic to host sites across the board. Once your membership is “friending” your site and tweeting your members, gathering information about their likes, dislikes and online activity is a valuable tool to ensure your organization remains relevant.
Where Do You Start?
To make better use of algorithms, analytics and the benefits of social media, you’ll need a webmaster who fully understands these concepts, and/or an on-staff employee charged with both managing your social media and maintaining your database. A first step that requires minimal investment would be a third-party vendor or consultant who can help determine your needs and design a blueprint for moving forward.
At LTD we provide a full-range of marketing services, including online marketing assistance. Call us if you have questions and we will be happy to sit down with you to discuss your online marketing needs.
For more information on these topics, suggested readings include:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=52634
http://searchenginewatch.com/2167961
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/Web-analytics
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/30/like.button.web.traffic.mashable/index.html?iref=NS1
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