As more companies integrate social media into their marketing and communications plans, emphasis needs to be on creating a social media strategy.  Without a strategy, you’ll undoubtedly be sucked into a social media time sink.

So how exactly do you develop this strategy?

It’s easy.  Here’s a practical approach to developing a social media strategy for your business.

The Prerequisite

Do you work for a large company? Before you develop your strategy, make sure your upper-management team believes in social media and that the first goal is not to sell, sell, sell.  In other words, if your business is jumping into social media because “everyone else is doing it” or because you want to sell product rather than to build relationships, please step away from social media.  Social media is a long-term commitment and not a marketing gimmick.

If you’re having a tough time convincing your team that social media needs to be integrated into your marketing plan, then counter any concerns with these responses to common social media objections.

It’s important for the organization to understand that testing and experimentation are keys to success.  This comes naturally to an organization whose culture embraces being proactive and open.  The reason why all businesses need to have a social media strategy is because it prevents any misunderstandings and emphasizes why social media is relevant to your business’ overall goals.

Now let's develop your social media business strategy, shall we?

Here are seven key points to consider…

#1: Determine Your Goals and Objectives

Determine who owns social media.  Whether it’s marketing, PR, or communications is irrelevant.  In a perfect social media world for businesses, social media instills a collaborative approach and breaks down silos.

What’s important is to understand your social media goals and objectives and how they tie into your overall company goals.

Keep it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Timely (aka be SMART!).

#2: Research, Research, and Research Some More

Rather than jumping into the social media pool with both feet, do the equivalent of the “splash-water-on-self” maneuver so you know what to expect.  Step two of creating an effective social media strategy is research.

• Develop a list of social media sites where you can potentially engage with people.  The list will most likely start off with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a few select blogs and forums.
• Check out each of the social media sites on your list and do additional research to determine relevancy by searching for your brand name, your competitors, and your target keywords.  Listen to what’s out there, identify, and understand your target audience.

#3: Create a Digital Rolodex of Contacts and Content

When social media is done correctly, relationships will build naturally.  Begin making connections by following the conversation.  You can do this by subscribing to blogs in your industry and by making a list of influencers who are relevant to your business.

This becomes handy when it’s time to provide content on your social networks.  Read Emily Proctor’s article in which she provides some excellent pointers on a social media content strategy.

#4: Join the Conversation to Develop Relationships

Now it’s time to start making use of all the research you’ve done.  You can start joining the conversation by posting comments on blogs and forums, answering questions on Yahoo! and LinkedIn, joining groups related to your industry and joining Twitter chats.

Begin developing relationships by following and friending influencers and those in your industry.  Don’t just look for people with thousands of followers; you’ll be surprised by the value that someone with only a couple of hundred followers provides.  Here’s an article on how to network on Twitter.

#5: Strengthen Relationships

It’s easy to hide behind your avatar or profile picture, but face-to-face is incredibly powerful.  I think more people are now realizing how underrated the in-person interaction really is because of how far social media has come, allowing so many people to “hide.”

Attend offline events related to your industry—not only to strengthen your knowledge base but also to network and strengthen relationships with those you might have conversed with via social media but never met in person.  A popular offline event is known as a tweetup.

#6: Measure Results

You have goals and objectives, right?  That means you should be able to measure  your success.

Remember, what you measure will tie into the goals and objectives of your social media strategy.

Let’s take the four commonly used objectives:

• Improve brand presence across social channels—The measurement goal here is an increase in the number of followers on Twitter, number of fans on Facebook, number of comments, number of times your brand is mentioned in blogs and forums and so on.
• Increase positive sentiment about your brand—The goal here is to convert the number of positive mentions while taking note of negative mentions.  Has the ratio of positive to negative comments improved?  With the good comes the bad in social media. Get used to it!
• Develop relationships for future partnership opportunities—This goal is to keep track of those with whom you’ve connected.  For example, if you met a potential speaker for your webinar, include that person into your digital Rolodex.  If a vendor contacts you through your blog, capture that lead and take note.
• Increase traffic to your website—Keep track of visitors to your website who come from each of your social media sites.  If you’re promoting an event using social media, consider using a unique code to track the campaign.

Measuring social media is a never-ending debate.  What metrics do you use to measure social media?  What objective are you measuring those metrics for?

When it comes to measuring social media, it takes a multitude of metrics as well as trending reports to get a sense of what to improve.

#7: Analyze, Adapt, and Improve

Your social media strategy doesn’t end with measurement; it goes beyond that.  You need to analyze your social media campaigns, adapt any new findings into your current processes, and improve your efforts.

Testing and experimentation will perfect your social media efforts.

As you dive deeper into the never-ending pool of social media, you’ll quickly understand what works and what doesn’t.

More specifically, you’ll develop favorite tools to use, realize that there are certain days and times where it doesn’t pay to be active in social media, and come to the conclusion that you still have lots to learn.  It’s a wonderful new world and I hope many of you are as thrilled to be part of it as I am.

Conclusion

Social media strategies will vary for each business and for each industry.  However, one thing is clear: social media needs to have “all hands on deck” in order to be successfully integrated into your company’s goals and objectives.

In general, I view social media as a strategy, not a tactic. I consider the social media platforms like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as tactics that tie into the social media strategy.  In other words, outline your social media strategy and support your strategy with tactics.  Without a carefully thought-out plan, you’ll eventually be overwhelmed with social media and even worse, get burnt out by it.  Use this guide as a stepping-stone to your social media success.  Cheers!

What are your thoughts about strategy versus tactics? Do you have any tips from your own experience developing a social media plan?  Please share your thoughts in the comments box below.

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Is your Facebook page dull and uninviting?  Maybe you’ve seen those really attractive Facebook pages and wondered, “How’d they do that?”

Given Facebook’s powerhouse status for marketers, isn’t it time you upgraded your Facebook page?

How can you help your brand stand out from the competition and increase the relevancy of your Facebook page?

The answer: Static FBML.  This article will share what you need to know to conduct a Facebook page makeover.

What Is Static FBML?

FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language, which is a subset of HTML.

Static FBML is a Facebook application that allows Facebook page administrators to create custom tabs on their Facebook pages. This application is only available for Facebook pages, not for personal profiles or Facebook groups.

Adding Static FBML to Your Facebook Page

You can add Static FBML in four easy steps.

#1:  Make sure you are an administrator of the Facebook page so you have the ability to edit.

#2:  Go to the Static FBML application.

#3:  Click “Add to my Page.”

#4:  A window will appear that contains a list of the Facebook pages for which you are an administrator. Click “Add to Page” to add the application.

Static FBML is now added to your page.

Before you add content to your FBML tab, you should have an idea the image or video size you need so these components fit in the space provided.

Setting Up Static FBML as a Tab

To set up your FBML tab, click on “Edit Page” under your Facebook page logo/avatar located on your wall.

Scroll down to the “Applications” section and locate the FBML app and click “Application Settings” (see below). Make sure that the “Tab” setting is “added”. You now have an FBML tab.

To the left of application settings you will see an “Edit” option on your FBML.  This is where you will ultimately paste your HTML code.  You can also add a “box title.”  The box title becomes the name of your tab.

Please note that your FBML box must be coded for a maximum width suitable for a tab. The maximum width for an FBML tab is 520 pixels.

Adding Content to Your Static FBML Tab

Now it’s time to edit and add content. To begin, click on “Edit Page” located under your Facebook page logo. Scroll down to the “Applications” section and locate the FBML app, but this time click “Edit.” The FBML tab will be empty.

This is the area where you can name the FBML tab and add HTML code. Please note that FBML does not work with all HTML code.  For example, JavaScript does not work.  You’ll need to experiment.

If you scroll down to the bottom, you can add additional FBML tabs.

The maximum number of FBML tabs you can have is 10.

Now let’s spice up your Facebook page. I’ll go over the two most popular enhancements using Static FBML – adding a clickable image and embedding a YouTube video.

How to Add a Clickable Image in Static FBML

When adding an image in the FBML box, I’ve found that the best place to host images is Photobucket. Using Flickr or Facebook photos caused issues for me. If it works for you, stick with it. The maximum width for an image in the FBML tab is 520px.

There is no maximum height, but think of it as a landing page by keeping the scrolling to a minimum. Ask yourself: do you want users to scroll down to get the message or do you want to get the main point across once they’ve landed on your page?

Upload your image to your Photobucket account. Copy the direct URL to the image you intend to use in your FBML box. Next, you want to use this code:

<a href=”http://xxxxx” mce_href=”http://xxxxx” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://yyyyy” mce_src=”http://yyyyy” width=”##px” height=”##px” border=”0″ alt=” “></a>

Replace the xxxxx with the target URL. Replace the yyyyy with the direct link to your uploaded Photobucket image. Replace the ## with your width and height in pixels.

How to Embed a YouTube Video in Static FBML

As with images, I would recommend a maximum width of 520px for a tab. After uploading your video, you want to use this code:

<fb:swf swfbgcolor=”000000” imgstyle=”border-width:##px; border-color:white;” swfsrc=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xxxxx” imgsrc=”http://img.youtube.com/vi/xxxxx/2.jpg” width=”520″ height=”400″ />

Replace the xxxxx with your YouTube’s video ID. In both examples below, “MqqKPWhY4es” is my YouTube ID.

Example 1: In this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqKPWhY4es, all the characters after the “=” are the YouTube ID.

Example 2: If your YouTube link looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqKPWhY4es&feature=player_embedded, all the characters after the “=” and before the “&feature” will be the YouTube ID.

You can change the values of “swfbgcolor” and “imgstyle” to your preferences. The “imgsrc” is a bit trickier because it is a preview image. When a user clicks on the preview image, it turns into the video. To see a real-life example, you can go to the Marketwire page (see below screen shot). In order to change the preview image, you can replace the URL to a direct link to one of your Photobucket images (or any other source).

Make sure you open and close all tags and quotes.

Example of a clickable image with an embedded video

How to Set the FBML Box as the Default Landing Tab

The option of setting your FBML tab as the default landing tab, rather than the wall, is one of the most relevant enhancements you can make to your Facebook page. This is where adding Google Analytics to your Facebook page helps tremendously with tracking.

In order to set your FBML tab as your default landing page, go to “Edit Page” under your Facebook page logo and scroll down to “Wall Settings.” You’ll notice a section called “Default Landing Page for Everyone Else.” Visitors who are not fans of your page will see your newly created FBML tab. Visitors who are fans will land on your wall.

That’s it!

Static FBML a Must-Have for Facebook Pages

The ability to enhance your page as a marketing vehicle by driving traffic to your website and engaging even more with your audience should warrant consideration. Many administrators shy away from Static FBML because they’re intimidated with coding.

My suggestion: review this post, research a bit more on Google and try it out. In the words of Ben Stiller from the movie Starsky & Hutch, Do it! Do it! Do it!.

I hope this tutorial has given you some insight on how to implement Static FBML to your Facebook page.

What are your thoughts on Static FBML? Is there a reason why you haven’t added it yet?  Comment below and let’s get this discussion going!

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