Smart insights social media marketing strategy

Social media marketing strategy

Workbook and template checklists

Dan Bosomworth and Dave Chaffey

Published: August 2011

Plan > Reach > Act > Convert > Engage

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy

Social listening and

reputation monitoring

Create strategy

© Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited. Please go to www.smartinsights.com to feedback or access our other guides.

Social media marketing seven steps

!

Social media marketing strategy

Workbook and template checklists

04 Introduction - Setting the scope of social media marketing

6 Step 1 Set business goals for your social media marketing

11 Step 2 Create your social media strategy

16 Step 3 Social listening and online reputation management

18 Step 4 Define content and engagement strategy

19 Step 5 Define social media communications strategy

20 Step 6 Define approaches for the core social media plat-forms

22 Step 7 Social media optimisation (SMO)

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!3

About this workbookSocial media marketing is so new that most are still trying to work out the best approach for their company. This workbook and the checklists will help you create a strategy and review the practical actions to make best use of social media marketing.

Why use this workbook? þ Create a strategy to prioritise your social media marketing activities to support business

aims þ Define measures and KPIs to help manage your digital marketing þ Review the best tools to analyse and manage your social media marketing

Topics covered on this checklist?This workbook covers these topics:

þ Using social media marketing to impact across business activities - there’s more to it than Facebook!

þ Setting goals for social media marketing þ The best tools to use for social media marketing

How and when to use this checklist? þ When developing a new social media strategy þ Reviewing existing social media activity to take your “social media to the next level” using

Social media optimisation

Related advice from Smart Insights: þ 7 Step Guide to Social Media Marketing Strategy (Ebook and online training course) - this

document acts a summary for these documents which give more detailed advice þ Video screencast to finding influencers þ Video screencast on tracking social media through Google Analytics

Tell-us-what you think!Dave Chaffey and team have developed these checklists based on working with many types of companies and in training. But improvements are always possible, so please email: [email protected] with your ideas on improving this guide or new guides to help your work. Thanks!

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!4

Introduction Setting the scope of social media marketingSocial media marketing is still quite new, so it means different things to different people in your company and amongst your suppliers. So we suggest you start by scoping what’s in-volved for company.

We think the CIPR Social media panel scopes out social media well1:

Social media is the term commonly given to Internet and mobile-based channels and tools that allow users to interact with each other and share opinions and content. As the name im-plies, social media involves the building of communities or networks and encouraging partici-pation and engagement.

Their definition shows that the most important feature of these social media channels is that we encourage our prospects and customers to interact and create user generated content (UGC). Social media can be used as another broadcast-only channel, but that’s a mistake!

What are the main social platforms?In practice, social media are amongst the most popular sites on the Internet2 along with search engines. To help you set a scope for social media marketing, we’ve identified these key types of platforms or marketing activities in our Social Media Marketing Radar:

We created our Radar so it can be used to discuss with colleagues or agencies which sites warrant or deserve most attention in the different categories. Sites which are agreed to be more important which warrant more resource should be positioned towards the centre. You

1 http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/popular-resources/best-practice-guides/best-practice-guides2 http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/

http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/popular-resources/best-practice-guides/best-practice-guides

http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!5

can see we have included social commerce* and niche communities* in other categories. It’s important to start with the business goals when creating a strategy, but it’s still useful to start by rating your capability in these areas against their importance out of ten:

Capability Importance Type of social networking1. Social networks – the core social platforms in most countries where people interact through social networks are Facebook for consumer audiences, Linked In for business audiences, Google Plus and Twitter for both.2. Social publishing and news – nearly all newspapers and magazines, whether broad or niche, now have an online presence with the option to participate through comments on articles, blogs or communities. 3. Social commenting in blogs – a company blog can form the hub of your social media strategy and you can look at tapping into others blogs whether company or personal or through blog outreach.4. Social niche communities - these are communities and forums independent of the main networks, although these do support sub-groups. You can create your own community this way.5. Social customer service - sites like GetSatisfaction as well as companies own customer support forums are in-creasingly important for responding to customer complaints.6. Social knowledge – these are informational social net-works Yahoo! Answers and similar plus Wikipedia where you can engage an audience by solving their problems and subtly showing how your products have helped others7. Social bookmarking– these are the bookmarking sites like Delicious (www.delicious.com) which are relatively unimportant in the UK except if you are engaging technical audiences.8. Social streaming - Rich and streaming media social sites - photos, video and podcasting.9. Social search - Search engines are becoming more social with the ability to tag, comment on results and most recently, vote for them through Google +1.10. Social commerce - We’ve left this one until last, be-cause it’s mainly relevant for the retail sector. It involves reviews and ratings on products and sharing of coupons about details.

We haven’t identified mobile platforms or apps separately since all of these options will be available through Smartphones. However, proximity services like Foursquare and Gowalla *are worth specialist networks that should be considered and we’ve shown them in the social network section.

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!6

1

Step 1 Set business goals for your social media marketing

Set goals for social mediar Q. We have defined goals for social media?

Define visionr Q. Vision set for how social media and social CRM can contribute to the organisation?

Strategic goals for social media definedr Q. Strategic goals set for social media marketing and CRM?

Set goals for different activitiesr Q. Goals for different marketing activities defined?

Set sell goalsr Q. Goals set for online and offline sales?

Write down how your social media channels will influence sales and purchase intent by gen-erating leads and sales which are activated both online and offline.

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Set speak goalsr Q. Goals set for communications?

Write down your goals including these 5 key areas:

þ 1. Encouraging ongoing engagement (this should come before company messages so that the “sell-inform-entertain” balance is right.

þ 2. Communicating brand perception and key brand messages þ 3. Communicate updates about new products and offers þ 4. Encouraging dialogue to find out more about products. þ 5. Reputation monitoring and management

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!7

1

______________________________________________________________________

Set serve goalsr Q. Goals set for customer service?

Write down how social media will be used to deliver customer service goals

þ To provide information to resolve customer service issues þ To identify discussed customer issues and resolve them þ To encourage web self-service including collaborative self-service

______________________________________________________________________

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Set save goalsr Q. Goals set for cost-savings?

Cost-savings are a less relevant part of the 5Ss since managing social media has incremen-tal costs for which budget will need to be found from elsewhere. But it’s as well that this issue of budget reallocation is reconsidered here.

______________________________________________________________________

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Set Sizzle goalsr Q. Goals set for brand building?

These are closely related to the speak goals, they explain how to add-value to customers through social media.

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!8

1

______________________________________________________________________

Define tactical goalsr Q. Have we defined tactical goals?

The next template is designed to help you prioritise your goals. It can be used for small or larger businesses.

Table for prioritising your social media marketing goals

Goal 5S category Rank or score

1 Improve leads through increased reach Sell

2 Improve sales through increased reach Sell

3 Improve sales through conversion increase Sell

4 Improve sales through customer communications Sell

5 Engage customers in dialogue Speak

6 Communicate product and offer information Speak

7 Gain customer feedback from dialogue Speak

8 Encourage customer advocacy Speak

9 Collaborate with influencers and partners (E-PR) Speak

10 Encourage multichannel actions Speak

11 Encourage web self-service Service

12 Identify and resolve problems Serve

13 Reduce costs Save

14 Change brand perception Sizzle

15 Add value to customer through improved brand experience Sizzle

16 Manage reputation Sizzle

Next up, we have a template which will give you a more in-depth review of your capabilities. It’s more suitable for larger organisations. It’s designed for benchmarking social media capa-

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!9

1

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!10

1

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!11

2

Step 2 Create your social media strategy

Getting the balance right – control, engagement or sales r Q. Scope of social media strategy defined?

Define core activities to be managedr Q. Key social media marketing activities defined?

Get the right KPIs to measure effectiveness in placer Q. KPIs defined

For setting KPIs and objectives, we think the Altimeter framework is hard to beat at helping define the important types of objectives:

Source: Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group4 (with permission: Creative Commons)

You can see that there are 3 levels of KPIs:

r Q. Business-level KPIs to measure contribution from social media?

r Q. Reach and influence KPIs to review reach, share-of-voice and sentiment?

r Q. Engagement KPIs to manage social media?

The next templates show how you can link the objectives you set under the headings of the 5S with strategies to achieve these.

There are two example strategy templates and then two blank templates for you to print and complete.

4 http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/12/13/framework-the-social-media-roi-pyramid/

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/12/13/framework-the-social-media-roi-pyramid/

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!12

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

-comm

unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



!13

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

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Set business goals

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Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

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-comm

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Step 3 Social listening and online reputation managementr Q. Are we monitoring and responding to conversations about our brand?

In this step we cover how to put in place the people, process and tools needed for effective listening. They are introduced in this table, so you can see how you score now before we go through the details.

Social listening activity We don’t do this

Score 0

We plan to do this

Score 1

We are do-ing this?

Score 2Q1. The need for structured, resourced social listening is agreed?Q2. We have someone responsible for social listening?Q3. Defined keyword groups for market, brand and products exist? Q4. Effective social listening tools are in place?Q5. Reporting and KPIs are in place for con-versation volume, share and sentiment?Q6. We have a social governance policy defin-ing how to evaluate and respond to negative and positive mentions?Q7. Customer concerns are identified through social listening tools and responded to accord-ingly? Q8. Potential influencers and partners are identified through listening tools and acted-on?

If you mostly score 2s, with some 1s, you have a good approach in place already. If not, there is room for improvement in how you use people, process and tools to listen and re-spond to online conversations. Read on to discover how to define these.

Social media keyword analysisr Q. Which keywords should I listen out for?

r Q. Which type of KPIs should I use?

Appropriate listening and reputation management tools selectedr Q. We have reviewed and selected the best reputation management tool for our needs?

ConsiderationsAsk yourself:

r Who is the owner of the listening process?

r What is the process for reviewing and responding

r Use the support teams where possible to help speed up initial configurations

r Be clear on what you are monitoring & why?

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Define approach for responding to brand mentionsr Q. Approach for responding to brand messages defined?

Define or refine social media governance policyr Q. Social media governance policies defined?

Define relevant influencersr Q.Have you defined the top influencers in your market?

Deliver customer service through social channelsr Q. Approach for delivering customer service reviewed?

Use customer concerns and feedback to inform marketing r Q. Feedback loop to use customer insight to inform future marketing?

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Step 4 Define content and engagement strategyr Q. Do we have a content strategy to engage our audiences?

You may well know the analogy of social media as bonfire? A good level of conversation in a community won’t happen organically in most cases. The conversation needs to be led and content is the what feeds the fire. In Step 5 we will review what’s needed to communicate the content you feature. But in this step we focus on the content marketing needed to engage your audience.

An approach to manage the creation of content for engagement needs a content marketing strategy. These are the questions to ask about your content marketing strategy.

Content media strategy We don’t do this

Score 0

We plan to do this

Score 1

We are do-ing this?

Score 2Q1. We know the goals we want to achieve through our content?Q2. Business case for creating content estab-lished?Q3. KPIs and tracking for reviewing content effectiveness in place?Q4. Requirements of content for main audi-ence types (personas) defined?Q5. Categories of content needed to engage audience defined?

As before, if you mostly score 2s, with some 1s, you have a good approach in place already. If not, there is room for improvement in how you use people, process and tools to listen and respond to online conversations. Read on to discover how to define these.

Set business goals

Practical advice

for core platforms

Social m

edia optim

isationE

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unications strategy

Content and

engagement strategy



Create strategy



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Step 5 Define social media communications strategyr Q. Social media communications strategy defined

Once your content marketing needs or rather those of your audience are sorted, then you can turn to how these are communicated.

Social media communication strategy We don’t do this

Score 0

We plan to do this

Score 1

We are do-ing this?

Score 2Q1. E-communications strategy defined includ-ing...Q2. Content value: types and formats defined?Q3. Regular content update frequency defined (including syndication of content to offsite)?Q4. Editorial calendar used to manage content formally including integration between media?Q5. Content hub platform to manage publica-tion and syndication of content selected?Q6. Defined internal resource to create and manage content and discussions in place?Q7. Options for external sourcing of content reviewed?Q8. Content syndication to other platforms managed?Q9. Outreach to other sites managed?Q10. Communication through advertising, PR and email marketing of social media/communi-ty proposition of content proposition to existing customers and prospects?

Set business goals

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for core platforms

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Step 6 Define approaches for the core social media platforms

IntroductionIn this step you should review the relevance of each of the main social platforms and define a communications and engagement strategy for how you can best use them.

The secret to success for making effective use of each social media platform is to work out which common approaches you can use and which approaches need to be unique for the platform.

Each social media platform can serve a different purpose for the individual, business or or-ganisation. You will find that they attract different users and offer different features to engage them. The tone of voice used and interactions are quite different too, so a “one-size fits all” communication strategy for each platform is definitely not the way forward. But you can and should use common tools to communicate through each of these platforms.

You will also find, that they naturally differ in their importance to your business, so the first question to answer is which are the priorities now?

Select the social media platforms to prioritise onr Q. Social media platforms to prioritise on defined?

Follow-up questions, to help answer this question are:

Which social platforms are delivering the most now r Q. Analytics used to deliver reach, value and engagement delivered by different platforms?

Social platforms audience profiled?r Q. Profile audience to review intersection with your target audience?

Customer-preferences for content and interactions on each channel?r Q. Customer research on social platforms and content preferences reviewed?

Define a method for managing content across social media plat-formsr Q. Method for managing content across platforms defined?

Facebook strategyr Q. Approach to get better results from Facebook marketing defined?

Twitter strategyr Q. Approach to get better results from Twitter marketing defined?

LinkedIn strategyr Q. Approach to get better results from LinkedIn marketing defined?

Google Plus strategyr Q. Approach to get better results from LinkedIn marketing defined?

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Practical advice

for core platforms

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Own community strategyr Q. Relevance and approach to get better results from your own community platform re-viewed?

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Step 7 Social media optimisation (SMO)r Q. Our Social Media Optimisation (SMO) approach is effective?

Once you have your content marketing up and running or when you’re creating a plan for content marketing, we think it’s worth thinking carefully about SMO.

r Q. Social media communications strategy defined

Once your content marketing needs or rather those of your audience are sorted, then you can turn to how these are optimised. The questions to consider about your SMO are based on the 4 areas of our RACE framework.

Social media communication strategy We don’t do this

Score 0

We plan to do this

Score 1

We are do-ing this?

Score 2Reach more:

r Q. Increase amplification of message through content quality

r Q. Improve use of outreach to influencers

r Q. Optimise use of advertising to promote networks

Act more:

r Q. Encourage more prospects to become members of community on social network

r Q. Improve ease of sharing on site through integration of content

r Q. Improve use of buttons for sharing

r Q. Increase number of comments and other interactions on content

Convert more: r Q. Signposts and promotions linking social

media usage to sales

r Q. Use of promotions, advertising and retargeting to encourage sales

r Q. Sales offer optimisation

r Q. Use of cross-channel promotions to encourage sale (e.g. coupons)

Documents

Smart insights social media marketing strategy