Media Planning And Buying For An Effective Advertising Campaign

This article will explore the principles behind media planning. After all the research and strategizing has been carried out by a business the next stage they have to face is to start promoting what they are offering to their potential new customers.

Certainly the most important weapon in any company's bid to reach those new customers is a well-conceived advertising campaign. It is therefore essential that they spend time planning it.

When it comes to producing a well conceived media advertising planning strategy there are certain things that need to be looked at.

Today there are a number of different ways in which a business can get their message across to their customers. They could if they want use the television, newspapers, magazines as well as the radio.

Plus they may want to consider see what ways they can advertise their business on the internet. However which ever media advertising method they decide to do they will also need to be aware of their budget constraints.

In order to plan their advertising campaigns correctly there are 3 questions that any good media planner should be asking themselves.

1. What is the right mix of media to use for the campaign?

2. Which of any of the media available could offer them direct access to the customers that they are targeting?

3. How often should their advertisements be shown and when should they be shown.

Once they are able to provide answers to these questions then the media planners can start to look at the budget that they have and how to utilize it fully.

It is the job of the media planner who often works as part of an advertising agency or even for a specialty firm to device the right media planning strategy. The job of the media planner is to work closely with the people within the business in order to devise a plan and strategy that will bring that all important customer to the businesses door.

Unfortunately when it comes to devising the perfect media planning strategy for a business the best thing that any media planner can do is first learn about it. It is important that they spend time with their client learning as much as they can before they actually devise a strategy to bring the customers flocking to the company's door. Once the media planner has devised the plan which they feel will work best for the company they then pass on what they want to happen to a media buyer, which could be someone else or the same person.

Go to Media Planning [http://www.imediaplanning.com] for more about a media planner's role and how to plan, buy media placement and analyze post media buy results.

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The Beating Heart of an Effective Social Media Campaign

So you put a new business plan together for 2010. Whether your enterprise is big or small - and regardless of industry - you almost certainly discussed Social Media.

It's the most talked about and misunderstood business activity around. It's also one of the few business initiatives that companies are still spending on - for good reason. It can lower the cost of doing business and improve outcomes. A recent Web 2.0 survey by the legendary management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that two-thirds of respondents reported "measurable" benefits from the use of Web 2.0 technologies.

>> Lower communication and travel costs

>> More effective marketing

>> Higher customer satisfaction

Those Web 2.0 technologies include blogging, video, wikis and RSS feeds, among others.

Wait a minute, you might be saying at this point, where are the references to Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and YouTube? And what the devil are wikis and RSS feeds?

Don't even worry about wikis and RSS feeds at this stage of the game. It's blogging that we will concentrate on in this article, because blogging is the centerpiece of sensible Social Media campaigns.

It's all fine and well to have business accounts with Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn and MySpace, but what information do you feed to them? What can you really do with a 140-character Twitter message if you don't have a link that takes readers somewhere meaningful to them and profitable for you?

Granted, other Social Media sites give you plenty of space to tout your business, but who are you going to bet on? The first big Social Media site was MySpace. It is now in fast decline, losing members at a torrid pace. Twitter, YouTube and Facebook were hardly a mention a few years ago and are now Social Media's 800-pound gorillas. But what about a few years from now? Will they suffer the same fate as MySpace, as social networkers migrate on to swankier new sites?

That's very likely, which is why you don't want to make those sites the flagship of your Social Media outreach. If you build a major reservoir of content about your company on Facebook, how do you transfer all that data over to the hot, new, emerging Social Media site? That's a problem. That's a hassle. And we all try to minimize business problems and hassles.

Do this instead: Create a company blog integrated into your website, and use that as the centerpiece of your Social Media campaign. It has lots of advantages. As Patrick Schwerdtfeger points out in his excellent book Webify Your Business, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo favor blogs.

Here's why. Search engines hunt for three primary things when assessing the value of a website:

>> The quantity of unique, relevant content

>> The newness or freshness of that content

>> The link structure surrounding the website

Blogs cater to all three of these metrics. Bottom line: As you consistently add relevant content to your blog and, hence, your website, it will climb up the search-engine rankings. That means more people searching for information about your products, services or industry will find your website, blog and company.

Now that you're creating blog content, use the dozens of Social Media sites that exist to blast that content out to the world. Yes, that's right, I said dozens. Most people are familiar with the big five sites but have never heard of Social Media sites such as Yammer, Vox, Shout'em, LiveJournal, Jaiku, Plurk, Bebo and many others.

To give you some idea, I send my blog posts to more than 30 Social Media sites.

Right about now you're probably freaking at the thought of managing a constellation of Social Media sites. Set down the valium. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Registering for all these sites can eat up an entire day. But you can population those sites in one fell swoop by using a site like Ping.fm. Ping allows you to post and send a message one time through its interface - then Ping automatically posts your message on the dozens of Social Media sites where you've opened accounts.

And, yes, all of these sites are free.

So, for example, if you own a jewelry store you might write a blog article that explains how lay people can tell the difference between a diamond and a cubic zirconia. Because sites like Twitter and Shout'em restrict messages to 140 characters, you might compose a Social Media message that says: "A diamond is a woman's best friend and a CZ her worst enemy. Here's how to tell the difference http://tinyurl.com/yk4bv2t."

Peak the reader's interest with an enticing teaser, then give them the link to your blog article to learn what you have to teach. Your blog's URL is likely to eat up many of those precious 140 characters, so use TinyURL or Bit.ly and other similar sites to shrink it down to size. Ping automatically shortens your URL to economize on space.

Although using Ping or similar web services solves the issue of having to deal with too many Social Media sites on a one-by-one basis, the bigger issue is blogging. Many businesspeople find themselves at a loss for subject matter. If you run a frozen yogurt shop then, yeah, you're probably not going to find enough topics to write a year's worth of blog posts, let alone keep the blog running strong for the next five or 10 years.

Lesson one, blogging and Social Media are not for every business. If you cannot create oodles of content about your business, industry and related matters you won't be able to sustain let alone interest people in your blog.

Lesson two, you probably have more to write about than you think. Make your blog personal. Write about yourself. Write about your customers. Write about your employees. Remember, a blog posting can run from just a few paragraphs to thousands of words. Just make sure it's interesting, educational or engaging so readers subscribe and stick with your blog.

Lesson three, blogging and Social Media are long-term commitments. Don't even expect to start seeing results for at least six months, though a year is more realistic. Over the course of years the blog really starts to do some heavy lifting for your business because the content has been piling up and the search engines are directing people to your site with increased frequency. Then again, if you don't have the stamina or discipline to write two or three blog posts a week for the rest of your business career you better have the budget to pay someone to do the work for you.

No, it doesn't take a full-time person to blog and manage your Social Media sites. Yes, you could easily employ two full-time people if you worked all the available internet channels and best practices. You don't have to do it all to get results. Just do it and do it consistently.

There are a million things to know about blogging and its intersection with the Social Media world. That goes way beyond the scope of this article, which is why I recommend you get a copy of the aforementioned book Webify Your Business and follow blogging hotshots like Denise Wakeman, who has a free five-part video course on business blogging, and Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, whose articles include one titled Blogging Tips for Beginners. To learn lots about Social Media visit Mashable often and check out its guides to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

You'll be surprised how quickly expertise is assimilated and you're blogging and working the Social Media channels.

As Denise Wakeman is fond of saying, Blog on!

Mike Consol is president of MikeConsol.com, which provides business writing seminars, Web 2.0 strategies and media training. Consol spent 17 years with American City Business Journals, the nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business journals with 40 weekly newspapers across the United States.

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Creating an Effective Brand: How President Obama Used Social Media to Create a Brand

To create a modern brand a marketer must have a "conversation" among "friends ". Okay, now just how does a marketer create those "friendships" to have those "conversations" to create those strong, effective, brands? A case study in how to do this is the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008.

At the beginning of this article I want to state this misnomer. President Obama is a lightning rod. Some people love him and some people hate him, but even his biggest detractors have to admit that his social media strategy was a classic. Marketers should study this campaign because it is a tutorial on how modern products must be branded. I hope that the reader will focus on the marketing and not the politics.

Barack Obama is a classic case in how a brand can be created in a New Media Age. To win the American presidency a candidate must have a great deal of money and a great deal of name recognition---a brand. If a candidate does not have a brand, if voters do not know who you are, you are not going to be elected. If a marketer cannot distinguish their product in the market place, that product will not be bought. This is why modern marketers should study the Obama campaign. Before the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama had no money and was unknown. By contrast, Hillary Clinton was a well-known senator from a large state. During 2006-2007, it was a foregone conclusion that Hilary would win the Democratic nomination She and her husband had created a vast political network to draw from, and she a lot of money---she had a strong brand. Barack had no brand; even in his own household. When Barack broached a potential candidacy to Michelle, her response was, "This is the craziest thing you ever said to me. Nobody is going to beat Hilary this year...Get over it, kid". Barack and his team did have knowledge of social media and how to use it in a campaign. This knowledge was his biggest asset.

The campaign of 2008 is analogous to the modern market place. In times past, it was very hard, and very costly to create a new product and brand it. This is why social media is such an important element in modern marketing. A social media campaign allows a new product to be created and branded in the market place quickly, at very little cost. The modern market place is best explained by author Shiv Singh. There has been a change in the market place. No longer are consumers interested in engaging with large impersonal brands. Consumers do not trust brands any longer---they trust their friends. In a recent survey conducted by The Economist half the respondents stated that they don't trust big business. They trust the recommendations of their friends. Leveraging the recommendations of friends is the way to create brands. This is the reason why the use of social media is so critical to branding. Through social media, friends meet, conversations happen, and brands are created.

This means that if a product is going to be selected, the brand must become a "friend" to its consumer. This is what the Obama Campaign did and the way that he did this should be studied by marketers because it is a case study in how to create modern brands using social media. By combining social media that creates micro-targeting, force multipliers are created that are needed to create world-class brands.

The knowledge of the modern market place allowed Barack and his team to quickly develop a strong brand and overcome the Clinton campaign. At this point, I would like to clear up an error that I made in a previous article. Recently, I wrote an article entitled, "The Perfect Storm: Why Companies Should Adopt Social Media Marketing as the Center of Their Marketing". In this article, I identified David Plouffe, Mr. Obama's campaign manager as an original member of the Facebook management team. This was an error. The Obama staff member that I was thinking of was Chris Hughes, who served as the Obama Campaign Director of Online Organizing. Mr. Hughes had a great influence on the campaign social media strategy.

Let me summarize what the Obama campaign did to brand itself:

• They had a goal

• They created the scale to achieve this goal

• They made their platforms easy to find, and fun to use and navigate

• They channeled online enthusiasm into specific, targeted activities that furthered the campaigns goals

• Integrated online advocacy into every element of the campaign

The Obama campaign was not the first campaign to use social media. They were the first to co-ordinate social media with an entire campaign. They were the first to organize the use of social media. For social media to work, it has to be organized. John McCain and Howard Dean used the medium before Obama, but Obama and his staff was able to integrate and organize social media into every area of the campaign in a seamless way. Because of this Barak was able to create "conversations" that engaged. He created enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm his sight created was smart enthusiasm. He used social media sights in a way that targeted supporters and voters. This targeting allowed him to understand the important metrics that he needed to know in order to win his campaign. He was able to target and focus on his true supporters.

The strength of Obama's social media branding approach is that it was constructed to make and develop "friendships". This is important for marketers to realize. When you meet someone there is a veil between you and that person. As you get to know each other better, the veil comes down. As your relationship develops, trust develops, and deeper conversations begin. These conversations bring about deeper relationships on a human level. On a marketing level, these relationships become strong brands.

The Obama campaign knew that it had to engage people, but that engagement had to be based on trust. The Obama engaged people in what it called "the ladder". You engage one step at a time, build the relationship deeper, and each step is a higher level of commitment---a ladder. The steps of the ladder are based on the comfort level of the individual in relation to the campaign. A marketer would call these steps creating touch points.

The first touch point would be Personal. This is the point at which a marketer and customer first come into contact and "friend" one another on a platform like Facebook. In the Obama case, it was at this stage when people are getting to know one another. A person signs ups for messages and emails. The next touch point is Social. It is this touch point that people start making posts or comments to a friend's profile about your product. At this touch point, a friend explains to their friend why a product is a good thing. In the Obama campaign, these profiles integrated with their web site. At the Website, a supporter may create an account. In the marketing area, an organization would integrate with a Facebook or Twitter. At this point, a customer may feel comfortable enough with a brand to join a "group" or create a "group".

In the Obama campaign, the next stage would be to become an Advocate. To drive interest, pictures may be posted, blogs written, or a video may be created and posted to You Tube, for instance. There are analogies in the advocate stage for a marketer trying to converse about the product with a "friend" (a customer) and vice versa. It is in the advocate stage that a supporter might have now feel committed enough to Obama to host an event, ask friends to donate money, or to register to vote. In the Advocate stage, in a marketing situation, a person might talk to a friend and recommend a product, creating a brand.

The next stage is the Empowering stage. This stage is for serious supporters of Obama. Here a supporter gets heavily involved. The campaign tracked volunteers and could target its most reliable supporters.

These committed people could create social and fundraising groups on MyBO Web site. The Obama campaign could now organize their own networks of supporters that gave supporters access to the Obama database, from which they could pull phone numbers for doing phone banking from their living rooms. In reading this article, a marketer has to make an analogy with what the Obama campaign did to what each marketer can do with their own brand to increase engagement with their customers. Perhaps some organizations could offer discounts to their customers if they introduce their friends to the marketers and solidify the brand. Here a marketer can be flexible in their own situation to extend their brand.

The reason why social media platforms are so popular is that friends now have the means to share video, blogs, pictures, and posts with their friends. This is a god-send for marketers as they try to create and expand their brand. Ford Motor Company just did this in an effective campaign to introduce their new car, the Fiesta. Ford called this the Fiesta Project. In the same way that Ford extended brand awareness for the Fiesta, the Obama campaign provided source material for user-generated content. Here is where scale comes into play. The reason why Ford's and Obama's campaign was so effective was because they both had the scale for "friends" to "converse" to create the brand. This is why the planning stage is so important in creating a brand. As Napolean said, "Every army has a plan until the first shot is fired". A marketing campaign is chaotic. Things happen. A marketer has to be flexible. The reason Ford's and Obama 's social media campaign was so successful was because there was planning and enough scale was created to engage "friends".

In the case of the Obama campaign, its web site, MyBO contained videos, speeches, photos and how-to guides that gave people the raw materials they needed to create their own compelling content in support of Obama. In return, supporters created more than 400,000 pro-Obama videos and posted them to YouTube. They also wrote more than 400,000 blog posts on the MyBO Web site. A modern marketer has to engage their customers to create compelling content for the company that creates brand awareness. This is why social media is important in creating modern brands. A company is going to have a hard time in doing this, left to their own devices and more importantly, finances. In the case of Ford, Ford did not spend any money on their Fiesta launch. Fiesta had a great presence on social media sights, but the presence was created by private individuals. When the Fiesta was launched, 38% of the target market was aware of the car.

This is the reason why both the Obama and the Ford campaigns were so successful. According to Edelman's 2008 Trust Barometer, the most trusted source of information is consistently from a "person like yourself".

The next step in the later that created brand for the Obama campaign was the integration that took place between MyBO and the social media platforms. In the case of the Obama campaign, its website served as the hub for electoral activities, with spokes that reached to an array of platforms, all of which drove conversation back to the Web site in order to engage the people, empower the voices, raise the money and get the boots on the ground needed to win the election. This again is a scale issue that involves planning. A marketer must have a common source to integrate with social media because there are so many social media sites. If a brand is to engage with friends, the conversation must be fun, easy, and simple. This takes scale.

The Obama made the search for content easy. What good is great content if it can't be found? According to Google, 90% of searches are taken from the first page. The Obama campaign understood that you have to be on page 1 to be found. For this reason, it created simple Web sites with the URLs of popular search items to increase the likelihood that they would appear at the top of the search results.

The ease of navigation was an important issue in developing brand for the Obama campaign. In any campaign, something happens beyond the candidate's control. Sometimes these happening derail campaigns. In 2004, the "Swifties" derailed John Kerry's campaign because he did not have a means to control in the negative information flow. In March of 2008, with the nomination seemingly in the bag, the issue of Jeremiah Wright appeared. This issue was enough to sink most campaigns. Because of his branding and his presence on social media, Barack was able to offset this.

The opposition created videos criticizing Obama. The campaign replied by releasing videos that used the same tags so that its positive response could be found when people searched for the original. The campaign understood that most people on YouTube use "related videos" to find what to watch. By mimicking tags, people were more likely to find the Obama response alongside the original critique. The campaign understood that more than one-third of the public does not distinguish between organic search results and paid search ads. It aggressively purchased search ads to increase the likelihood that users would be driven to friendly information.

An important reason why the Jeremiah Wright issue did not destroy the Obama campaign is that Barack knew what people were thinking because his own interaction and presence on the different sights. To derail the controversy, Barack knew a major speech on race had to be given. In his speech, Barack knew exactly what had to be said to derail the controversy. Barack's social media strategy allowed him to communicate with the public in real time. He was able to turn a real negative, into an absolute positive.

There is no perfect product. Something will always go wrong with any brand. With a social media presence, a marketer can find out what people are thinking. A marketer can understand problems in their early stages. Social media allows a brand to communicate directly to customers and to control the situation when bad things happen.

The Obama campaign was able to brand successfully because the campaign understood the importance of mobile devices. The use of mobile devices is a critical element in a modern branding strategy. The Obama campaign realized that 90% of Americans are within 3 feet of their phones, 24 hours a day. People read 90% of their text messages, while ignoring their email. Mobil phones and text messaging allowed Barack to reach and converse with his supporters any time any place. A 2006 study by the New Voters Project found that text message reminders helped increase turnout by 4% at a cost of only $1.56 per vote, much less than the cost of a door to door canvas. The conventional get out the vote techniques cost approximately $20-$30 per vote. These metrics have great relevance to marketers as they seek to create a brand among their customers.

The Obama campaign was able to target important touch points with voters at a time when voters were making their voting decision. This has great relevance to modern branding. Because of the social media platforms, the Obama campaign was able to closely target voters. The Obama campaign was able to track the success of each email, text message and Web site visit, capitalizing on the analytics that are inherent in digital communications. Each ad and e-mail was created in multiple versions (different headers, buttons vs. links, video vs. audio vs. plain text) to test what worked and what did not. The campaign developed more than 7000 customized emails, tailored to individual prospects, and made real-time improvements to its outreach materials. Adjustments were made daily to improve performance. This targeting allowed much conversion from McCain to Obama during the campaign.

This is analogous to touch points for a marketer and it is critical to a branding campaign. A marketer has to know the precise time at which a buying decision is going to be made. To a marketer this is known as The Consumer Decision Journey. There is a proliferation of media and products and this requires marketers to find new ways to get their brands in the minds of their customers. Social media branding has created a more targeted customer. Social media has allowed a marketer to know precisely at one point the consumer buying decision is going to be made. In times past the consumer buying decision was (1) Consideration of the brand, (2) Evaluation of the brand (3)Buying the brand. Social media has created newer touch points. The consumer buying decision is now:

• Consider the brand

• Evaluate the brand

• Buy

• Enjoy

• Advocate the brand

• Bond with brand (a friendship is developed, conversation is made, and a brand is created.

Marketers should study the branding of the Obama campaign. A man who began with no brand, was quickly defined in the minds of the American public. He did the defining. During a speech, Barack said that "only in America can a "skinny, black kids, from Chicago, with a single parent become President". It can also be said that only in the New Media age can a brand be created almost overnight at very little cost.

Dean Hambleton


Deanhambleton.blogspot.com

http://www.deanhambleton.blogspot.com

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Effective Media Relations Tips- What To Do After The Media Interviews You!

Effective Media Relations Tips - What To Do After The Media Interviews You!

By Thomas Murrell MBA CSP, International Business Speaker

You've done all the hard work - prepared a media kit, engaged with a reporter and they've listened to your message and asked questions.

What now?

Well, effective media relations doesn't just stop once you have been interviewed.

There are many ways to leverage your media experiences to help build your brand, reputation and image management skills.

Here are five tips on what to do after the media has interviewed you.

1. Implement a Professional Media Monitoring Service

How will you know what media coverage you are getting if you don't monitor it?

Media monitoring collecting and evaluating all press featuring your company or industry. The media however can involve print press, radio, websites, TV and even blogs and it is wise to enlist a professional media monitoring service. These services use keywords to search all media outlets and email summaries immediately to the company with links to the full articles. Often media monitors can break down searches to specific geographical areas. These services provide a far more precise and detailed evaluation of your company's media with less chance of missing something that has been published.

2. Analyse Your Quotes

After the story has been run analyse which quotes the reporter has used. Often a one-hour interview may result in just one or two key quotes being selected by the journalist. This offers an insight on the way the media operates and what journalists look for in interviews.

The more you understand how the media works, the more you can customise your message to what they want and the greater the chance of success in your comments being used by the media.

3. Understand What Quotes or Sound Bite Elements Were Used

Pay particular attention to exactly which quotes were used and how effective they were at relaying your message. This offers a personal insight into your own media techniques and can identify areas that require further attention and training. For example: simple, direct quotes are often favoured by the media. If a lot of the article has been paraphrased perhaps your messages were too long or confusing or weren't articulated well.

By combining your understanding of the quotes used, identifying areas of weakness in the interview and examining the workings of the media you will have a greater understanding and chance of stronger media relations in future interviews.

4. If You Like Your Quotes Re-use Them

Good quotes are like diamonds. They are often formed under intense pressure. They are valuable, unique and when polished, cut and set can really make you shine. If you've made the diamond and had it set, why not show it off as many times as possible.

If your quotes communicate your message well, re-use them again and again. Not only are they effective in relaying more message but have been approved for use by the media, that is they identify with what the media views as a "good" quote. It is more important to communicate your message confidently, clearly and consistently than it is to be original.

5. Never Get Angry or Trash The Media

If you get interviewed but not quoted, resist the temptation of trashing the newspaper, magazine or reporter and getting angry. Instead, analyse the quotes that were used by others and try to improve your message delivery so they could have been better crafted and therefore more likely to be used.

The quickest way to improve your knowledge in this important and growing area is to learn more about how to craft messages that even the most cynical reporter will want to use.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries. You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom?s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com/

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Effective Media Relations - You Won't be Talking to the Media Without It!

The media's role is to package and spread news, current affairs and public interest information to the public. They have great power to shape and influence public opinion, to target and exploit audience reactions, emotions and opinions.

Setting up and maintaining good relationships with the media can be of enormous benefit. Effective media relations promote trust and balance between the media and an individual and their organisation.

Once you've proved yourself as a useful and dependable information source, you'll realise it can; help to get your story into a news cycle, and provide opportunities for the media to approach you for comment on appropriate stories which in turn helps a journalist add depth, by filling gaps or backing up information, to their story.

Effective media relations is about working with, rather than against, the media. That's not to say you can't have a robust relationship with the media. However, adopting this approach gives you better access to journalists when there is something to say in the media.

Being available for comment when asked is another essential ingredient in effective media relations. In a crisis, your well-established media relationship can also provide you with a stronger opportunity to get a fair hearing in response.

Consider for a moment reactive media relations - the only time you deal with the media is when things go wrong. The reactive situation puts pressure on outcomes and doesn't always allow for your messages to be delivered in a positive way. Obviously pressured reactive responses, or worst still, no response at all, can negatively influence public opinion of you and your organisation.

Media relations is also about; putting out regular media releases on appropriate issues that catch the eye, with short paragraphs written in newspaper style; actively providing comment on issues and or decisions; knowing what builds or makes a story; and knowing how to keep a story alive and when to let it go.

Using the media effectively can help you win public support. Public support is critical when trying to convince others, such as government or bureaucracy of the merit of a particular proposal or application.

Once you're comfortable talking to the media you should take a proactive approach to your media relations. The benefits are well worth it in the long run.

If you're not ready to manage your own media relations, but would like to work toward it, consider approaching a specialist in the field. They can provide advice or management as appropriate on media issues, help write media releases, distribute media releases, organise news conferences, facilitate one-on-one meetings with journalists, as well as deal with crisis and issues management.

Effective media relations can help you and your organisation develop a media profile. The benefit of a media profile becomes obvious when doors open wider for you within government, business and the community.

Mark Croxford advises clients from the government, private and corporate sectors on Government and Media Relations. He is a co-author of Talking to the Media. Talking to the Media teaches readers the skills and techniques they need to exploit the media’s strengths, limitations and demands. Don’t spend any money on media training until you’ve read Talking to the Media [http://www.talkingtothemedia.com]

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Tips on Writing an Effective Social Media Marketing Request For Proposal (RFP)

About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it's high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

Organizational history
Your business objectives
Your company's history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization's primary presence and any related campaigns
Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors
Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives
Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see
Explain the duration of the work - is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

3. Overview of Audiences and Stakeholders

List primary audiences for the company, i.e. demographics, psychographics, etc
List primary information needs of each audience group
Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:
Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor's process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it's important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required
Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals
An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date - usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount
We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don't interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact
Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)
On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX
Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX
Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor's approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

Company name and parent company name
Ownership structure
Years in operation
Mailing address (headquarters)
Other office location(s)
Primary phone
Fax number
Website and blog URL
Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)
Total number of employees
Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media
Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified
Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related
Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided
Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP
Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable
Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners
References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

List all social media and online marketing capabilities
Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?
Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media
Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?
Please list and provide links to primary social media communication channels for your company (i.e.company blog,Twitter account, Facebook group, blogs authored by principals, etc.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Please outline your social media strategy process
Which stakeholder groups do you typically include in a strategy engagement?
Describe the final deliverable of a strategy engagement
What is your approach to risk management in social media?
How do you incorporate existing applications, websites, microsites and newsletter programs into your overall social media strategy?
How do you ensure compliance with client legal requirements?
Please describe your approach to integrating across client marketing, customer service and corporate communications departments. Please provide an example of your work in this area
How do you approach adapting a traditional brand into a two-way dialogue?
Please provide a case study of your strategy work that resulted in a social media initiative and the business results achieved

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

What is your brand/reputation monitoring process (i.e. proprietary tools used, methodology, etc)?
What is your opinion on automated sentiment analysis?
What technology do you use to assist in online monitoring?
How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?
What volume of mentions has your organization handled in the past (e.g. 2,500 mentions per week)?
What is your quality assurance process to ensure that the large volumes of data gathered in the monitoring process are handled efficiently and representative of the overall online conversation?
Please detail your methodology for handling online crises
What services do you provide in support of online crisis management?
Please describe the structure of your crisis management team, including bios and relevant experience
How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
Please outline your general approach to sourcing and responding to comments
Please provide a case study detailing your work for the purposes of managing reputation or online crisis management, including outcomes and lessons learned
Please include a sample of your monitoring report format and/or a link to appropriate dashboards (specifics should be removed)

METRICS, MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

What methodology do you use for measuring the success of your social media programs for clients?
Please provide specific examples based on past work
Have you developed any proprietary metrics? How have you applied these for clients?
How have you defined Return on Investment (ROI) from a social media perspective in the past?
How do you take data points generated from various social media channels and measurement tools and combine to give an objective/comprehensive view?
What is your approach to server analytics and community analytics for program measurement?
Do you have the capability to measure cost per lead or cost per acquisition? Please provide an example of a project on which you have done so
What platforms are you unable to measure accurately, or able to provide only limited measurements from?
Please provide a sample of a measurement document or final report (specifics should be removed)
What percentage of the budget do you recommend be dedicated to metrics and measurement?

CLIENT EDUCATION & TRAINING

Do you offer social media training services for clients? If yes, what formats are they available in?
What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff is kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?
How do you recommend that clients keep up to date on the latest social media innovations and best practices?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS

What are your design, creative and community management capabilities?
What percentage of your staff is dedicated to building and deploying social media solutions versus management and consulting?
Please describe your experience with the following platforms and tactics:

- YouTube or similar video sharing sites

- Blogs, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Forums

- Content Management System (CMS)

- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

- E-mail Marketing

- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM)

- Facebook Pages, Apps, API integration

- Mobile application development

- Twitter

- News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)

- Virtual Worlds and Augmented reality

- Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) and other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)

- Social Media press releases(SMPRs)

- Crowdsourcing or Wikis

- Real world events organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)

- Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)

Please provide examples of social media channel development work completed within the last two years

COMMUNITY AND INFLUENCER OUTREACH (SOCIAL PR)

What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
How do you determine and define "influence?"
What is your outreach process for communicating with identified online influencers?
What tools and approaches do you use for Influencer Relationship Management? (Third-party, proprietary,etc.)
How have you integrated Influencer Outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?
How do you approach seeding conversations within stakeholder groups?
What is your exit strategy with influencers once the initiative is completed?
How do you ensure authenticity and transparency when conducting outreach on behalf of a client?
Please provide a case study of an online community outreach project

CLIENT SERVICES & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

How is a typical client engagement with your firm structured?
How do you structure your account teams?
Please outline your internal communication structure. If your account staff is separate from your project management staff, please detail how these teams work together
If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)
What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?
How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card
What change management practices does your agency employ?
What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?
What is the frequency of these reports?
What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

Greg Kihlstrom is the Chief Creative Officer at Carousel30 Interactive in Washington DC, an award-winning digital agency offering online advertising and marketing services as well as interactive design and development for social media, websites and mobile applications.

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