Do not be a social media gunslinger or you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Even worse, you may find out that you have eroded years of brand building by one simple mistake. It is easy to see the up-side of jumping on the Social Media Marketing (SMM) wagon, but do not fool yourself. You can easily get bush-whacked if you do not take time to learn what makes social media tick, develop a strategically based marketing plan and pilot test a couple of programs first. Set your sight on hitting the social media bulls-eye the first time and you can gain a competitive edge over your competition.
Avoid Misfiring: Being a social media gun slinger might not kill a brand, but there are no doubts you can seriously injure your reputation if you do not do it the right way. There are many examples of well know companies who have ventured out too quickly to find the Promised Land and they got lost. Dell, Habitat, Motorola and even Microsoft have had their misfires that have been posted about more times than I would like to count.
On the flip-side: There are now many more social media marketing success stories that have proven their worth in creating positive brand awareness, driving website traffic and increasing sales. Even Dell has managed to turn things around and they now have a very positive track record in driving sales through there Twitter site @DellOutlet. Coke and General Motors all have been quite successful in building a positive and loyal following using social media channels.
Plan to be Successful: While social media marketing is very popular right now, a critical point to understand is that it should be viewed as just another communications channel, a marketing tactic, like all the tactics that have come before. What made companies successful with traditional channels is the same thing that will make them successful with social media. Hitting the bulls-eye requires good strategic planning, knowing your target audience and developing the right marketing road map to know where you want to go.
7 Easy Steps: Before deciding on the social media path that best fits your business model, you need to do your homework first. This should always start with gaining a deeper understanding of your customers' needs, wants, issues, passions, concerns, communities in which they participate in, and so on. Here is an easy step-by-step process to follow:
People: Understand your customers' needs (target audience), where they like to congregate and what tools/social sites they participate in
Objectives: Determine what you need to accomplish, what the time frame is and how you will measure success
Strategies: Select the programs, activities and channels that best fit your objectives, fit your budget and creates the right touch points with your customers
Technology: Evaluate what type of online technology, tools and Web 2.0 delivery formats that will most efficiently and effectively drive results
Processes: Establish a corporate policy, educate employees and develop a formalized feed-back process to provide voice of the customer data to departments involved in product selection/development, delivery and customer support
Measurement: Put in place an end-to-end tracking system/digital dashboard to monitor, manage and measure program effectiveness. When possible, take time to test programs first to better understand community interest and acceptance levels before launching large scale implementations
Refinement: Monitor your online reputation closely and have assigned personnel responsible for each major social media initiative. Follow a closed-loop process, analyze metrics regularly and fine tune tactics as needed
Know Your Competition: As part of your strategic planning process you may want to conduct an analysis and compare yourself against your competitors. Benchmarking your activities and comparing your position against your competitors can give you insight on how to:
Do things better than your competition when head-to-head in the same social media space, or
Select a social media channel where you can dominate the space, build a community and not have to compete with your main competition
Having a good understanding of the competitive landscape can allow you to pursue unique and creative ways to out flank others in your industry. Make this a part of your social media planning process.
Be a Sharp Shooter: Do not be a social media gunslinger, but be a sharp shooter. There is too much risk that you will not hit the mark if you do not take time to plan. Develop your approach carefully using a systematic process just like you would with more traditional marketing and communications programs. It is the best way to ensure you hit the social media bulls-eye.
Jim W Arnold is a results-oriented marketing professional who has held leadership roles with IBM, EDS, Sabre/Travelocity and other notable companies. He is a forward-thinking strategist who has a passion for testing innovative ideas, developing new go-to-market strategies and leveraging the latest Web 2.0 marketing technologies to drive increased levels of business value. He recently co-founded MetricsBoard, a new Web 3.0 performance benchmarking company that is crowd-verified and crowd-generated.
Metricsboard.com provides FREE automated benchmark assessments covering a broad range of business topics. The benchmarks take less than 10 minutes online to complete. In return, you receive a full results report with free comparison data on best practices, a maturity rating against your competition (peer group) and strategic recommendations. There is a benchmark for Web 2.0 Marketing, B2B Sales and IT Infrastructure - with more subjects to come. Your privacy is protected and you will not receive any sales follow-up calls.
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