7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy

Lots of clients are now interested (finally) in getting their Social Media house in order. Fortunately, there is a ton of information on Social Media available…unfortunately; I haven’t seen anything that tells a Marketer what to do about it.

After spending a year and a half on this topic and working with clients, here's a quick “To Do” list based on the best and worst practices observed. The first 3 deal with the current state, the remaining 4 are future looking. At this point you should have the first three steps in place.

Current State – get this done TODAY

1. Educate – up, down and all around. This space is moving so fast that getting senior executives up to speed on the tools is critical for getting the right focus on the right topic the right way (more on that to come). Senior executives like simple visuals that tell a quick and easy story. I'd also recommend putting together a cross functional "task force" to focus on Social Media. Blend a mix of heavy users and novices it can be very effective for helping educate the organization. For example, in the "Dot.com" days, Merck assembled a cross functional team to work on Web 1.0 for about a year. Team members then went back into their respective regions/divisions/LOBs to spread the gospel and implement learnings...like it...like it alot.
2. DO NO HARM – while it may take time for a company to get a clear understanding of the upside of Social Media, it may only be a matter of seconds to get a feel for the downside. One of the things that is fascinating, for better or worse, about social media is its speed and reach. A company HAS to clearly map out Risk and how to handle certain scenarios…which leads me to the next point.
3. Create standards/protocol/guidelines – after building a solid knowledge foundation of the tools and their functionality and mapping the risk, the organization is now ready to issue a set of guidelines for employees when it comes to using social media (see the IBM guidelines in my last post).

Future Vision – get this done by the end of the year

1. Decide on what you want Social Media to do – this IMO is the most important step that is being missed by most companies currently and the reason…see Step 1. Companies are experimenting (which I applaud) but based on my experience it has not been aligned against a clear objective/s. With budgets harder to get and/or retain you have to have clear vision as to what you are trying to impact/accomplish/achieve (see the video on the “Six Sweetspots”).
   
2. Map the Value – Another thing to remember about Social Media is that there really isn’t anything truly new. The tools just do something that already exists but faster, better or cheaper. In an article in Time magazine featuring Twitter, you’ll learn that Twitter’s 140 character limit was based on the first question asked on most phone conversations (What are you doing?). So think about those things that most impact your business – customer satisfaction and loyalty, new product innovation, etc. and find a role for these tools that either augments current efforts and/or may fill a gap (because of cost, reach, etc.).
   
3. Align against key Metrics – many companies are struggling with this one. They say that can’t fund experimentation because they can’t, or don’t know, how to measure the value or ROI. That’s right…because many of the tools, tactics, etc. aren’t measurable on their own. Again back to my point above…they do something better, faster or cheaper, so align them against the metrics already in place. For example, let’s say you’d like to do a customer survey and the goal is to get 200 completed surveys. Use Twitter to announce the survey and watch how fast you get to 200…it will knock off days, believe me. The goal is # of completed surveys, Twitter accelerated the process (and probably saved you some money on incentives)…that’s the value.
   
4. BUY, DO NOT BUILD – unfortunately many companies who have funds to invest have wasted them on building their own branded sites/tools, internal capabilities, etc. Here’s the thing, Web 2.0 as I’ve mentioned before is about “Consumers Selling to Consumers.” Get it…not “Companies Selling to Consumers”...we have plenty of that happening already.
   
   When companies overly commercialize and/or control Social Media tools they fail (e.g. no audience, interaction, etc.). That’s what makes this space so tricky…you (companies) aren’t in control…but you love trying to have it…can’t help yourself and that’s when things fail.

For example, it's better to video a customer testimonial on buying insurance and hang it in a site like eHow than to invest in a production studio and shooting a “How to buy life insurance” video for their channel. Plus, this space is moving so fast that you will probably invest in something that will have a shelf life of less than 12 months…remember when MySpace used to be hot. BTW - it's dying because Ruppert has moved it into the lower right hand corner of the quadrant above.

The upside of the downturn is that you have to be frugal and that may turn out to be a really good thing. Get smart now, then act.