Social Media Strategic Planning Process

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIC
PLANNING PROCESS
AN APPROVED COURSE OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA © 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Instructed By
Eric Mills, President
National Institute for Social Media
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Agenda
Time Topic
8:00a – 9:00a Registration
9:00a – 9:45a Social Media Audit
9:45a – 10:45a Strategic Goal Setting
10:45a – 11:00a Break
11:00a – 12:00p Social Media Platform Selection
12:00p – 1:00p Content Planning
1:00p – 2:00p Lunch
2:00p – 3:00p Reporting & Analysis

Learning Outcomes
Participants will complete this workshop will be better able to:
o Build brand awareness via social media
o Fit social media strategies into bigger organizational and
marketing strategies.
o Measure success of social media campaigns.
o Create a social media plan aligned with company goals.
o Determine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for activities.
o Evaluate social media tools for effectiveness.

o Four months ago XYZ Brand decided to
start using social media – Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn – expecting great
things to happen
o Today, your sales manager is
complaining that leads have not
increased, and no new likes are coming
in
o In addition, your customers are not
using social media to say positive
things, but negative things about the
products that they offer
Business Scenario

WHY DO
ORGANIZATIONS FAIL
TO FIND SUCCESS IN
SOCIAL MEDIA?

LIMITED OR
NO
STRATEGIC
PLANNING

A study called, ―The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of
Social Business Transformation‖ was recently released.
o 700 social media professionals and executives were surveyed and
asked about their social media strategy.
o Is social media strategy clearly aligned with strategic business
goals of an organization?
o Is the organization aligned to support and enable the execution of
that strategy?
Industry Report

88%
NOT confident that their
company has a social
media plan that looks
beyond the next year.

50%
DO NOT believe that
their executive leaders
are “informed, engaged
and aligned” with social
strategy.

67%
DID NOT feel that
metrics used to measure
the results of social
activities are connected
to business outcomes.

Social media
strategy is NOT
independent from
organizational
strategy.

There are core questions to be considered:
o What is your organization‘s mission and vision?
o What are your current organizational strategic objectives?
o How can social media best compliment those objectives?
Social v Business Objectives

Social Strategy Cycle
Conduct Audit of
Business / Analyze
Marketplace to Begin
Planning and Set
Objectives
Document Objectives
/ Smart Goals,
Strategic Statements
with KPI’s, Time
Frame, Expected ROI
Implement Strategy /
Campaigns
Community Manage /
Engage
Evaluation, ROI

1. Audit & Industry / Competitor Review
Gathering Information About Your Current Presence
What is the industry doing with social media?
What are your main competitors doing with social media?
2. Market Analysis
Social Listening, STP Analysis
3. Goals / Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)
Use social media to do what? (SMART Goals)
4. Platform(s)
Which platforms will be used and what will they be used for?
Elements of a Strategic Plan

1. Social Media Audit

Social Media Audit
o A social media audit is a systematic assessment, of an
organization‘s capacity for, or performance of, essential
communications practices.
o Provides a snapshot of where an organization currently
stands in terms of its social media capacity or
performance.
o Points to areas in which the organization can strengthen
its performance.

Grade Your Efforts
Source

Activity-based Metrics
- Number of ―Likes‖
- Number of Shares
- Posts per day
Result-based Metrics
- Web traffic via social
- New leads via social
- Lead conversion %
o Both of these have value, but the question is: Are
these results tied to a business metric, that drives
organizational goals?
o Give preference to result-oriented—rather than activity-
oriented—metrics.
Audit Measurables

o Sentiment analysis allows you to identify general
attitudes towards your brand (or a product).
o The goal of sentiment analysis is to assign a given
social media comment with a degree of association to
three basic categories: positive, negative or neutral.
Sentiment Analysis

o At this time, sentiment analysis is an imperfect science
Sentiment Example
Source: socialmention.com

Common Tools for Sentiment Analysis
o Social Mention
o Trackur
o Salesforce Marketing Cloud
o Google Alerts
o Hoosuite
o Many, many more…
Sentiment Analysis

o Could be a product or service review, blog post, etc.
about your product or service.
o If you provide compensation of any kind to the
reviewer they should disclose their relationship with
you for transparency reasons.
o Could also be a testimonial in platforms such as Yelp,
Google Places, Etc.
Unsolicited Feedback

o You can find a larger amount of information on your
competitors than you ever have before
o Public profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin in
addition to Website and Blogs
o Identify main competitors and measure their activities
in comparison to your own
Competitive Analysis

Klout www.klout.com
Social Mention www.socialmention.com
Social Bro www.socialbro.com
Hubspot www.hubspot.com
Twitter Grader http://tweet.grader.com/
Marketing Grader http://marketing.grader.com/
EdgeRank http://edgerankchecker.com/
Audit Tools

Learning Activity
o Together lets do a quick audit on one of the
companies we have represented here.

2. Market Analysis

Social Listening
o Monitoring social networks for information about yourself or
your business.
o Monitor social networks for information about your clients,
your competitors or your industry.
o Examples of listening platforms include:
 Social Mention
 Twitter Search
 Public Status Search
 Google Alerts

Segmenting
Targeting
Positioning
STP Analysis

Segmentation
o Your STP analysis begins with the process of market
segmentation.
o Market segmentation can be accomplished by creating
‗profiles‘ for each of your targeted market segments.
o Factors within these profiles may be Demographics,
Psychographics, Behavior-based, or Geographical.
o In the online space a new factor is emerging called
―Technographics‖

Targeting
Targeting is the process of creating a strategy that
best fits your market segments. There are three
major types of targeting strategies:
Undifferentiated
Concentrated
Multi-Segmented

Targeting
Undifferentiated Targeting
This approach views the market as
one group with no individual
segments, therefore using a single
marketing strategy.
This strategy may be useful for a
business or product with little
competition where you may not
need to tailor strategies for different
preferences.

Targeting
Concentrated Targeting
Your firm is focusing on a single
segment so you can concentrate
on understanding the needs and
wants of that particular market
intimately.
Small firms often benefit from this
strategy as focusing on one
segment enables them to
compete effectively against larger
firms.

Targeting
Multi-Segment Targeting
This approach is used if you
need to focus on two or more
well defined market segments
and want to develop different
strategies for them.
Multi segment targeting offers
many benefits but can be costly
as it involves greater input from
management, increased market
research and increased
promotional strategies.

Positioning
o Positioning is developing a product and brand image in the
minds of consumers.
o Improves a customer's perception about the experience
they will have if they choose to purchase your product or
service.
o Can influence the perceptions of your chosen customer
base through strategic promotional activities.

In 2006, Blendtec's Marketing Director George Wright
found CEO Tom Dickson and engineers testing their
blenders using wood boards and similar material.
A marketing legend was born.
Will It Blend?
A COURSE BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA © 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Watch the Video >>

o Initial investment was $100 for random supplies to
"blend― and release videos on YouTube
o Increased retail sales by 700 percent
o Blendtec's YouTube channel has over 525K
subscribers and 200 Million Views
o Generated TV coverage on top talk shows
o Now have contests to ask audience what to blend next
(i.e. the iPhone)
Will It Blend?
A COURSE BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA © 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Source

3. Goal Setting

3 Rules to Goal Setting
There are three major rules as you begin your journey
to becoming a more social organization:
o Set goals that motivate your team
o Set ―SMART‖ social goals
o Put goals into writing

o Consider mission / vision / business objectives
o Develop goals that are aligned with those objectives
o Use the template provided to ensure that the goal is going
to give you the best possible outcome
Goal Setting Process

S.M.A.R.T Goals
• Specific – clear & well defined
• Measurable – precise amounts & dates
• Attainable – realistic yet challenging
• Relevant – aligned to business goals
• Time-bound - deadlines

For example:
“We want to grow our friends & followers
on our social media platforms.”
Write Down a Goal

o In our goal of ―growing friends and followers on our social
media platforms‖ the level of specificity is not very high.
o Let‘s update our goal statement to make it more
specific…
on Facebook & Twitter.”
Is the Goal Specific?

o In our goal of ―growing friends and followers on Facebook
and Twitter.‖ we don‘t have a measurable to validate
whether the goal is complete.
measureable…
on Facebook & Twitter from 1000 to
1,000,000.”
Is the Goal Measurable?

and Twitter from 1000 to 1,000,000,‖ the ability for us to
get to one million friends & followers would be nearly
impossible in the short term.
attainable…
on Facebook & Twitter from 1000 to
10,000.”
Is the Goal Attainable?

and Twitter from 1000 to 10,000,‖ does this compliment
our current business objectives if our current business
objective is to get more sales leads?
relevant…
“We want to grow our sales leads from
friends & followers on Facebook &
Twitter from 100 to 1000.”
Is the Goal Relevant?

o In our goal of ―growing our sales leads from
friends/followers on Facebook & Twitter from 100 to 1000,‖
we have not assigned a date for the goal to be evaluated.
o Let‘s update our goal statement to make it time-based…
friends & followers on Facebook & Twitter
from 100 to 1000 by Dec. 31, 2013.”
Is the Goal Time-based?

on our social media platforms.”
OR
friends & followers on Facebook & Twitter
from 100 to 1000 by Dec. 31, 2013.”
Which Goal is Better?

Goal Prioritization

Video Case Study
Honda (OMAN)
Watch the Video >>

What was their goal?
What did they do well?
What could they improve?

BREAK TIME 

4. Platforms

Top Social Platforms
These are the 5 major social media sites in terms
of active usage, based on % of global internet
users.
o Facebook
o Google+
o YouTube
o Twitter
o Linkedin
Source

Blogs
o Generally a blog can be described as a website or
a part of a website.
o Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with
regular entries of commentary, descriptions of
events, or other material such as graphics or
video.
Examples:

Social Networks
o Focuses on building relationships among people
with similar interests and activities.
o Come in various forms, from the all-
encompassing, to specific topic-focused
communities.
Examples:

Social News
o Users submit news stories to a community-driven
board of other news stories that have been
submitted by fellow users
o Users rate and sort content according to interest-
level, or whether they find the topic particularly
relevant
Examples:

Microblogging
o Differs from traditional blogging because the
content is delivered in short bursts of
information.
o Generally, other users can interact on a real-time
basis with the person who has delivered the
content.
Example:

Social Bookmarking
o Allows users to share, organize, search
bookmarks of web resources.
o All of this content is then personalized to what
your likes and interests have been shown to
be.
Examples:

Social Q & A
o Users can submit questions that they have for
review by experts within a public space.
o Experts can answer questions from other users
in order to demonstrate their thought leadership
on a particular subject.
Examples:

Video Upload & Sharing
o Users can upload and comment on videos.
o Videos can then be shared on a variety of other
networks and social platforms.
Examples:

Photo Upload & Sharing
o Users can upload and comment on photos.
o Some photo-sharing sites offer a user license
agreement that allows bloggers and website
owners to use images.
Examples:

Professional Networks
o This type of social media site is a virtual Rolodex.
o Enables business professionals to recommend
one another, share information about industry-
related events, post resumes, and other features.
Examples:

Podcasting Communities
o Podcasting communities are social networks
that help connect podcasters, advertisers, and
listeners.
o Can also distribute programs, normally only
heard over the radio waves, online and host
them there so they can be tuned into at any
time.
Examples:

Presentation Sharing
o Sharing presentations online is becoming a very
popular way to set yourself apart from the crowd
in your field.
o There is also a lot of good content available on
presentation sites that bloggers can link to and
share with their readers.
Example:

Location-Based Communities
o Allows users to post their current location with
their friends, and also earn badges for their
support of those places.
o Companies can market directly to those
individuals who are at or near their location.
Example:

Content-Driven Communities
o Also known as ―Wikis.‖ This type of social
media is popping up everywhere, and you can
now even create your own (Ning).
Example:

Content Planning

Why is High Quality
Content Important to
Your Success in
Social Media?

Importance of Content
Increase Trust
In order to gain people‘s trust, you must provide valuable content. It
demonstrates to them that you know what you are doing.
Search Engine Results Are Content Driven
More than anything else, search engines are content driven and when they
crawl your page, they are reading your text – looking for quality, looking for
links to other relevant keywords.
Builds Lasting Relationships
Creating content that your prospects/clients/visitors will find helpful and
useful will help you to grow your relationship with them, and to nurture this
relationship over time.

o Social media allows us to listen more closely to customers,
and engage them directly rather than relying solely on high-
priced market research.
o Using social media, we can actively or passively listen in to
what customers are saying about us or our brands and
integrate that into our marketing plans.
Audience

Learn how your customers
think. Learn what their
perceptions of your brand
have been, and what you
want them to be.
Understand what they‘re
looking for and what you can
do to answer their needs -
leads to new service and
product opportunities!
The Ideal Customer
Thoughts
Sights Sounds
Internally
Wants Needs

o Original vs. Curated Content
Will the content been created
specifically for the campaign? Or
has it already been created?
o Branded vs. Common Interest
Will the Content be Driving
People‘s Interest in Your Brand?
Or Will it Reach a Deeper Level of
Interest?
Content Decisions

Content Development Template
7 Step Template to Help You Create Better Content
• STEP 1 // Select the Content Type
• STEP 2 // Select the Topic
• STEP 3 // Write a Title
• STEP 4 // Introduction
• STEP 5 // Key Point(s) of Emphasis
• STEP 6 // Body of Content
• STEP 7 // Call to Action

Types of Content
There are many types of content that can be created (or
combined) depending upon the goals, resources, training
and experience at the disposal of the content developer(s).
One or more of these types may be effective:
o Blog Article
o Case Study
o Testimonial
o White Paper
o E-Book
o Photo
o Infographic
o Video
o Webinar
o Slideshow
o Audio
o Drawing
o E-Newsletter

Writing Titles for Content
Does it grab a reader’s attention?
Best examples are how-to‘s, top ―X‖ lists, answering questions, solving
needs, trending topics, powerful words such as ―free‖ or ―secret‖, popular
figures or events, desirable products, etc.
Does it mirror the content of the post?
It is not a good practice to mislead the audience with the chosen title. It
may cause mistrust in your future posts.
Does it contain key words your customer is searching for?
Be sure to carefully research what key words you intend to utilize.
However, make sure that the title is not confusing to the reader by doing
so.

• Cookie Monster Stars in Sesame Street ‗Call Me
Maybe‘ Parody
- 3413 Shares
• NASA‘s Final Space Shuttle Mission: Where Are
They Now?
- 95 Shares
Which Title is More Effective?
Source: Mashable, Inc. (2012). [ONLINE] Available at: http://mashable.com

• Are You a Data Innovator? DARPA Wants You
- 290 Shares
• Higgs Boson: The Musical!
– 686 Shares

• Proposed Bill Squashes Tax-Free Online
Shopping
– 86 Shares
• 4 Ways to Make HR More Efficient
– 727 Shares

• Google+ Adds iPad Support in Latest App
Update
– 783 Shares
• Domino‘s Pizza Introduces Kindle Fire App
– 579 Shares

Now It’s Your Turn

You are the social media consultant working for
a local telecom company…
Create a title for a
positive written review
of their newest phone
The UNIVERSE X5

Introduction, Key Points, Body
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers:
o You need to create something useful
o You need to create something that‘s appealing
and easy to digest
o You need to make occasional offers

The Secret Ingredient to
Great Content for Business-
related Social Media…

CALL TO ACTION
When looking at any content
you have, ask yourself:
“What is the call to action here?”

LUNCH TIME 

Reporting & Analysis

There is no magic bullet
and no definitive set of
metrics for social media.
DISCLAIMER

Social Metrics Drive Results
Business Objectives
Business Metrics
Social Media
Objectives
Social Media
Metrics
Source

4 Simple Metrics to Track
Source
1. Conversation Rate
2. Amplification Rate
3. Applause Rate
4. Economic Value

1. Conversation Rate
Source
o # of Audience Comments (or Replies) Per Post
o You can measure this on every social channel
o To get a high conversation rate it requires a deep
understanding of who your audience is, and the value you
can add for them within the community.

2. Amplification Rate
Source
o You are limited by your own audience within the channels
you participate – this includes when you advertise.
o Amplification means that you are using the friends and
followers of your friends and followers to your advantage.
o The rate at which your followers take your content and
share it through their network.
Ex. # of Retweets Per Tweet, # of Shares Per Post, etc.

3. Applause Rate
Source
o You want to know what the audience likes and what they
don't. This allows for you to see what works.
o The numbers are available individually in most platforms.
(i.e. Facebook Insights)
Ex. # of Favorite Clicks Per Post (Twitter), # of Likes Per Post
(Facebook), # of +1s Per Post (Google+)

Determining the bottom line effect of social media.
o Think about the role social media plays in the
purchase process
o Focus on highest-potential markets
o Programs geared toward highest-value segments
o Set up quantifiable goals in Analytics platform
4. Economic Value

Social Analytics
Analytics
The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics.
o Users of website are tracked from both Referring sources,
and pathways through a website
o Landing pages, complete pages, can be assigned values.
o Analytics platforms show both direct and assisted social
media conversions.

Outside Learning
Please watch the “Fundamentals” Google Analytics
training videos.
Watch the Videos >>

o Traditional online leads
o Paid search, affiliates, banner ads, contact form
o All of these have a clear ‗Call-to-action‘
o Social media leads
o Not necessarily landing/contact pages
o Customer may still be considering purchase
o Lead nurturing is important to success
Online Lead Generation

Initial Engagements
o Individuals have clicked on your tweets, followed
you, become a fan on Facebook, liked your status
update or even commented on your blog.
o Interacted with you, but you don‘t have their contact
information because they haven‘t filled out one of
your lead forms yet.
Types of Online Leads

Assisted Conversions
o An individual has clicked or downloaded an e-book,
white paper, non-product webinar, or subscribed to a
newsletter or blog.
o Provided contact information in response to access
to a piece of content.
o When someone visits your site, leaves without
converting, but converts later during a subsequent
visit.

Last Interaction (Direct) Conversions
o Responded to a call-to-action via a post or ad to buy
your product or service
o Shows a clear indication that they have an interest in
purchasing your product or service.

Engagement
Assisted
Direct
Social Sales Funnel

o Hard and soft cost benefits
o Brand advocates help to market to others who may
be interested your product or service
o Public interactions on platforms such as Twitter may
help to reduce the need for personal service in future
situations
Operational Efficiencies

o Best Buy built their business on expert service and
knew their customers still needed it. With
o @twelpforce, an online army of thousands of tech
pros were standing ready on Twitter.
@Twelpforce

o As of January 2013, over 60K responses to
customer inquires have been provided to over 40K
followers.
o Trust your employees, but give them a mission,
structure and boundaries.
o Marketing that (on it‘s face), does not seem like
marketing.
Source
@Twelpforce

Cost Reduction in Service / Support
Total Cost of Customer Service
(People, Time, Technology)
----------------------------------------------
Total Issues Resolved
RESULT = COST PER ISSUE
o Figure out as closely as possible how many
customer issues were resolved via Social Media
Source
Operational Metrics

Advanced Reporting Tools
Find a dashboard that includes reporting and analytical tools
that measure results of your marketing campaigns.
Variety of Platform Integrations
Not everybody uses Facebook or LinkedIn as their social
media hub, there are those who enjoy the features of
Foursquare and Flickr
Example Dashboards:
http://www.truesocialmetrics.com/
http://www.socialbakers.com/
http://www.geckoboard.com/
http://simplymeasured.com/
Source
Reporting Dashboards

Thank you!
Questions?

About NISM
o The National Institute for Social Media is dedicated to social media
education and certification for professionals.
o We offer the worlds only standardized industry certification program
for the social media industry.
o We work with accredited colleges and universities, along with a
variety of educational organizations such as Social Media Club of
Bahrain to help us deliver our program on a global scale.

Social Media Strategic Planning Process

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