I would like a tool that helps us develop a Social Media strategy as part of a client’s marketing mix.  For the most part all I hear in forums is “You need a strategy.”  And then the echo chamber begins. 

What concrete, practice process or heuristic do you use to help a client define a meaningful Social Media strategy?

i tend to break it down like this

strategy = bau (business as usual – updates, content, engagement)

campaign = projects (facebook ads, blogging focus, specifc platform targetting)

strategy – i think you should start an editorial calendar for content and have routines of checking your platforms (or responding on platform sent emails) within x amount of hours.

it might not be what others do, but i think it fits

@kevin A good book I read recently with concrete examples and numbers is No Bullshit Social Media by Jason Falls

As to some of your other questions, I think it’s hard to come up with a one size fits all approach for where clients should be since it depends not only on their size and business, but on their goals. 

Before developing a posting strategy or content calendar, I find it important to identify goals and desired outcomes from social media. 

Goal Questions: Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Provide customer service? Increase brand awareness? Generate leads? Inform your current customers? There are quite a few different things you can accomplish, these are just a few. 

Content: What type of content do you want to share? Photos, videos, blogs, contests, links. The type of content you want to share will help determine which networks you spend time on (e.g. Facebook & Google+ work best for photos / videos)

Outcomes: What do you want people to do once they consume your content? Some people might want website traffic. Others want them to sign up for a newsletter, purchase, comment, like, share. 

Once you know what you’re trying to get out of social media and you know the desired outcomes, you can figure out how and what to measure. 

@kevin It seems to me that we are presented with a profound question for a pertinent consideration. We are truly defining paradigms here. We must be both pragmatic and practical. In the one consideration we obtain utility. In the nonce we must question the ethicality, to an extent. If the end result is an increase in consensus prosperity, perhaps we have done a good thing. So, art or craft the question is; have we increased the facility of the people.

@deairby Yes, you can find the book on Amazon here

@kevin I think Social Media is similar to any type of strategy consulting–part art and part science. You can run the numbers and make analysis, but you can never predict the human side of the equation fully. In strategy consulting you can analyze the market and conduct surveys and size up the competition, but that doesn’t predict whether your new product will be a success. 

Similarly, social media isn’t all craft or art. I think that’s why the posts on strategy sometimes seem generic. If you’re trying to drive sales through social media, you can measure tangible elements like how much traffic comes to your website through social channels and whether the conversion rate is higher from social media sites vs. SEO or PPC. But you can’t measure the full impact of social media. You don’t know the effect that prolonged exposure to your brand online  has on sales. 

So many people are writing about “strategy” because many businesses enter social channels with no purpose at all. Many of the clients that I run into wander aimlessly on their social channels and then complain that it’s a waste of time. They think that just being there or having a Facebook page is enough to take advantage of the “free” media. 

@Lindsay You are of course right. 

Now, strategy consulting has some very well formed tools.  Available tools are, of course, a sign on a more mature discipline.  (Kurt Lewin gave us the concept of freezing and unfreezing organizational cultures. Doug MacGregor gave us Theory X and Theory Y.  We have SWOT Analysis, ect) 

Tools exist (or perhaps principles) for Social Media.  But they are few and not acknowledged much.

Our basic principle comes from Seth Godin.  He gave us Permission Marketing and the concept of Tribes.  (Of course, Seth was doing Social Media before Social Media existed.  I remember Seth from his brief stint at Yahoo — even then he realized the social nature of the internet would transform marketing forever.)

The other contributor here is Doc Searls and the crew who wrote the Cluetrain Manifesto back in 1999.  Social Media (as an embodiment of Cluetrain) should be about relationships, dialogue, building trust, and creating value together.

I find very disturbing how frequently corporate brands violate fundamental principles of Permission Marketing.  It is okay to turn Facebook into just another broadcast medium, and it is okay to call it Social Media Marketing.  I would like to hear someone make a case for it. 

Building a fan base so that a Google algorithm would push your webpage to number 1, 2 or 3 violates a basic principle of marketing in a relational environment, which is what Social Media is.  A great thought exercise would be to imagine a world without Google.  What would Social Media Marketing look like then?

All of this is to say that it is okay for the tools to be in formation.  I do not think it is okay to slide back and forth between Twitter and Facebook and claim we are Social Media Marketing professionals.

(Golly, I hope this is not a rant.  Please forgive me if this is rant.  I really am a pretty nice guy who just wants to loved.)

One would think that models and tools for Social Media Marketing would track with certain principles that have been proven by practice.  Social Media Marketing professionals should be able to say, “This is good.  This is not good.  This is why.”

This is what I am hoping to discover in dialogue here. 

@Cas Hi Cas, I visited your website.  Congratulations on hitting your 10,000 fan mark on Facebook.  A couple of quick questions:

1.  What practical impact has having 10,000 fans had on your business goals? 

2.  Have you developed a process for transforming a fan into something actionable?

Also, thanks for pointing us to customer service and service recovery goals as a meaningful Social Media application.  Current clients and lost clients are always our warmest leads. 

Quick story: I recently had a client whose business peaked at $50,000,000 in annual revenue.  Today the business does not exist and the owner is now saddled with $12,000,000 in personal debt guarantees. 

The fail points were customer service and service recovery issues.  The operation had mastered lead generation (using tradition media buys) and closing sales.  It never developed a meaningful (from the customer perspective) customer care process. 

I see other players in that industry making the same mistake.  I just picked up a client in that same industry.  He is willing to apply the lessons learned from a failed competitor.   Your spotlight on the customer service and service recovery is timely and I appreciate it.

@marketingletter

Angela, I’ve been reading through your materials since last week. It’s good stuff folks that will definitely give you some ideas.

@Dr. Angela  I appreciate the discipline and depth with which your think through the posts on your website. I am happy to endorse you as a genuine thought leader in this emerging industry.

I spoke to a business owner yesterday to hear his perspective on Social Media and Social Media consultants. 

This businessman launched his business in Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s.  His business is an a more traditional industry, but he has tracked the developed of the Internet and applied new technologies every step of the way.  He has close association with Googlers, and Facebookers, and Applers. 

I asked for his perspective on Social Media strategy.  His response: 

1.  Technology is a trap that threatens to absorb too much of a business leader’s time.

2.    There is a great need to provide a framework for business leaders so they do not loose themselves in a Social Media false promise.

3.  Many Small Business leaders fail to grow because many tend to shy away from investing in lead generation of any type (traditional marketing or SM).

This is consistent with sales dialogue I have prospects.  It comes down to: Social Media sounds great.  I don’t have time for it.  I don’t have the money to invest in marketing that does not have a very short ROI cycle.

A handy social media strategy tool would help address small business reticence.

I am thinking this may not be the right forum for a robust dialogue.  Anyone want to push forward on this issue?  Risk feeling stupid, awkward, and clumsy?

@kevin Thanks for your questions and for that story about your client. Very interesting that in this day and age people still don’t prioritise customer service.
1.  What practical impact has having 10,000 fans had on your business goals? 
Reaching 10,000 was a milestone for sure but the numbers aren’t actually that important to me. I don’t join in with tagging games and don’t post on other people’s pages for the sake of it to get my numbers up. So, I just want to clarify that from the start. 
Having a large fanbase is good in terms of attracting and keeping advertisers and sponsors. It provides “social proof” that you have something valuable to give but it definitely isn’t my goal to harvest “likers”. In terms of business strategy, my focus is on providing great content and promotional opportunities for work at home people, responding to posters on our wall and initiating fun, helpful networking activities on the page wall. All of these I do to create community, increase engagement and build relationships with followers. I have definitely had a ROI, particularly with newer “likers,” but it could be better and I’m working on that. I am more interested in people signing up to my email list than I am in them liking my page but one usually leads to the other IF you are responsive. 
Other than that, having a large fan base has meant I’ve had to take on admin help with the page and that has meant writing an admin policy to ensure a high standard of interaction and responsiveness.

2.  Have you developed a process for transforming a fan into something actionable?

Yes I have. : )

The page wall is set up to create the “know, like, trust” pathway that Mari Smith and Guy Kawasaki talk about.

For instance, new fans are offered a freebie download for “liking” the page and are reminded about our regular promotions and free services as well as the mailing list. 

I always try to welcome new fans and offer my assistance if they have questions, when they post on the page wall.

I regularly hold interactive activities on the page wall such as “workshop wednesdays.” 

These activities and the regular promotions we run throughout the year keep people engaged and build credibility which leads to ROI.

The thing is there is no trickery involved here. I actually genuinely care about helping people grow their businesses. Bottom line, that is what draws people in and makes them want to become a customer. As a result, my retention rate is really high.

@kerisilk I’d be happy to dialogue with you offline if you prefer.