The Big Picture Blog » Tools Change. The Need for a Plan Remains Crucial.

Tools Change. The Need for a Plan Remains Crucial.

Posted on Mar 7, 2011 by Valerie Touchstone

The following article, written by Russell Working and posted on Ragan Headlines, explains why, even with newer tools, organizations still need a plan of action. The need for understanding your audience, having a reason and defined goals for any action; having an understanding of implications and pitfalls, along with a way to determine success; evaluating how to integrate a new tool into the overall strategy, using the core message in a new tool and more are key elements in maximizing action items that are taking time and money to execute.

And yes – this concept applies to businesses of every size. In fact, I would argue a plan could be even more critical to smaller businesses with limited time and money to allocate towards marketing efforts of any kind. So, take the time to evaluate what you are doing, where you are spending your money and your time, who your audience is, what your message is – and determine what tools are the best choice for your business. Then, take the time to put a plan in place. The article below gives good pointers regarding how to maximize the social media part of your plan.

Read Article:

“There may be no magic formula for social media success. But there are tactics you and your organization can employ to build a winning social media team, says online marketing expert C.C. Chapman.

Speaking at Ragan’s Social Media for PR & Corporate Communicators conference in Las Vegas, Chapman—who has worked with clients such as HBO, Warner Bros., and the Coca-Cola Company—outlined how to build a social media team.

“What works for one business is not going to work necessarily for another business,” Chapman said. “How you actually execute them is going to be different depending on what you do.”

It takes hard work to win online, he warned. But here are some techniques for doing so.

1. Figure out why you’re in social media and how you’ll measure success.

Chapman says when consulting with a company, one of the first thing he does is discuss why they are going to be on Twitter and other social media and how they will measure success. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Sales? Donations?

“We’ve all had that moment where [a boss says]: ‘We need a blog.’ ‘Why?” ‘Because BusinessWeek says we need to,’” he said.

2. Listen in with Google Alerts, Twitter searches and other tools.

Pay attention to what’s being said about your brand using free tools like Google Alerts and Twitter searches, as well as paid services like Radian6.
If you don’t have a Google Alert, Chapman told his audience, stop listening and set one up now. Monitor more than just your brand name. For example, if you work for Coke, search related terms like “soda,” too.

“Right now, people are talking about you on Twitter or Facebook or on their blogs or wherever,” he said. “If any of you in this room does not have a Google Alert set up for your product, your service or your company, you are failing.”

3. Don’t fob off social media on the intern.

Social media staff need to have the business knowhow to have online conversations. They will be interacting with the public and representing your organization—sometimes even to vendors and CEOs.

“So many people go, ‘Oh, social media,’” Chapman said. “‘Let’s give it to Janey. She’s straight out of college. She must know this stuff.’ That’s dangerous.”

4. Bring in someone who can crunch numbers.

“Somebody on your team has got to be good with numbers,” Chapman said. “They’ve got to crunch things like the Web stats, and how many views and followers and Facebook likes and all that stuff, because that’s the stuff you’re going to need.”

5. Use good writers.

When it comes right down to it, social media usually means writing—no matter what platform you using. “You have to be able to communicate,” he said.

6. Get company support.

Those supervising the social media team have to understand that everyone is figuring things out as they go and that the team needs support from the boss.

“Don’t be a drill sergeant,” Chapman said. “Be a cruise director.”

7. Lose the stuffy organizational voice.

Sure, tone can vary widely within an organization. A press release is different from a tweet. Still, “If you’re replying to a comment or if you’re interacting with someone, just talk,” he said.

Once a critic posted a Youtube video calling out Coca-Cola’s VP of global marketing by name, and saying, “Why are you doing this?”

The typical corporate response would have been to come up with a script that was approved by legal. But Chapman told the executive, “You have kids. …. You play soccer. I know you have a video camera. Sit down at your desk. Just talk to this guy.”

He astonished his critic with a video saying, “Hey, Chris. Here’s the answer to your questions.”

8. Integrate, don’t segregate

Don’t place the social media team under IT. Integrate them into your organization—and that means keeping them in the loop.

“If someone’s out there actively using Twitter and Facebook for you and they’re getting questions on a regular basis,” Chapman said, “they’ve got to be able to answer as quickly as possible.”

9. Empower your team to make decisions.

Once Chapman tweeted about problems with a washer, and the company contacted him. Trouble is, the employee couldn’t help.

“She actually got me on the phone, and she said: ‘I’ve got to be honest with you. I have no power. I can’t fix this,’” he said.

10. Budget appropriately.

The biggest expense is employee time. Yet too often people think, hey, it’s free, it won’t cost us anything.

11. Let fans talk about you in their own way.

Customers, clients and the public have to be allowed to speak their own language. Chapman once worked with a major retailer popular among college students—who like “to drop F-bombs.” The company kept deleting such language from its Facebook page—even when people were praising the product.

“Every so often some kid would say, ‘Why did you delete my comment? I love you guys,’” he said.

12. Stoke the campfire.

You have to keep feeding social media. Drop a viral video, and it burns up quickly. “If you have people start hanging out with you, talk to them on a regular basis,” Chapman said.

13. Don’t @spam people.

A lot of people are new at this, Chapman says, but they need to learn not to drop an @ message to multitudes of well-known strangers just to plug a product. “Fight the urge to spam people,” he said. “It’s not a good thing. We all hate it.”

14. Have fun.

“If you’re not having fun,” Chapman said, “what’s the point of it?” "

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