Social media for business is no longer a hot new trend, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to pay attention to it anymore. Whether you’re building a brand new strategy or looking to tweak something old, here are five things to consider when building a successful plan.
Know Your Audience: Identify your external audience and understand their motivations. Ask yourself questions like: Who do I want to reach and how do I want him/her to act as a result of engaging with my brand on social media? Which social channels are my audiences already on? What conversations are they currently having about my brand? Use the answers to inform all future steps in the planning process.
Choose Channels Wisely: Just because millions of people are on Pinterest and your boss/client thinks you should be too, that doesn’t mean it’s part of a smart strategy. Be honest with your team members – or even yourself! – about what you could accomplish on each network. If you can’t find a solid reason, leave that platform as something to play with off the clock.
Move from Measurement to Insights: Find opportunities to make your social data more than just numbers on a page, but real insights that will shape your business. Don’t just track total engagement. Instead, look at what kind of content gets the most engagement and how you can duplicate those results. These kinds of actionable findings will set you up for future success with every new report.
Anticipate Necessary Tools and Resources: From agency fees and billable hours to management system subscriptions, the social media tab can add up pretty quickly. Make a list of what you would want in a perfect dream world. Now pick the top three non-negotiable items to achieve your objectives. Press hard on these points, then add back in ideas if you have extra funds available.
Leave Room For Flexibility: It’s key to have an overarching social vision and goals to drive your activities. However, you should also build mini plans per quarter to allow room for modifications. You never know when you might need to switch out a campaign or amp up monitoring during a crisis. Not to mention, you can better adjust your tactics based on the insights you gather each month.
What are some of your top tips for building a social strategy? Share them in the comments section below.
This post was written by PPRA member Christine Guerrini. Christine is a marketing specialist for social media with ARAMARK’s Higher Education line of business. In this role, she is responsible for the support of training and analysis of national social media programs. Christine also has previous experience in public relations agency settings, working with a diverse client roster from Verizon Wireless and IBM’s ACM ICPC to the Salvation Army. Connect with Christine on Twitter (@CMGuerrini) or at http://www.linkedin.com/in/christineguerrini.
The Official Blog of PPRA 
Reblogged this on Zaqiendria Harris and commented:
As a marketing and PR student, I am currently doing a research project and this post has not only had to my findings but gives me some insight. Every day I am learning more and more of the connection between the marketing and public relations fields and I became excited to find out that marketers are engaging in strategies targeted at social media for brand marketing. I am finding more and more evidence supporting the inclination .
As a student in the PR field I found this article very helpful. One thing I agree with the most is to have room for flexibility. To me this is important because everything is constantly changing in terms of technology and the more the technology changes the more you have to be willing to change as well. If you are not willing then odds are your company will just fade away with the older technology. I feel that if you do not allow for flexibility it can only end badly!
Glad that you both found this blog so useful!