The 5 Core Principles Of Any Social Media Plan

by John Rogers on Oct 04, 2010 Follow @JohninOrlando

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Regardless of who I talk to about Social Media, one question that keeps coming up is that “this all sounds great, but where do I begin?”

Or from the slightly more developed Social Media practitioner comes the question: “How do I know I’m doing all the right stuff?”

Both are simple and valid questions. Wherever you are in the execution of your social efforts, I think it’s important to take a step back and examine how you’re measuring up to some basic principals and goals you may (or may not) have laid out when launching your Facebook page, Twitter account, blog, etc.

Plan, What Plan?

If you didn’t lay out an official Social Media Plan before diving into using social tools for your business, you’re not alone. A recent report from Digital Brand Expressions indicates that up to 50% of companies are diving in to social media without a plan.

Regardless of what industry/market/segment you’re in, there are some basic principles that will help you identify key strategies for engaging with your customers in the social space. The list below isn’t meant to be an end all be all, but rather my personal take on key elements that I think are essential to any social media plan.

1. Find the Right People

As with everything else your business does, your employees are the key differentiator between you and the next guy. Before launching any social media plan, I think it’s important to identify who’s going to be managing these efforts.

Don’t try to outsource execution as these team members are the heart & soul of your brand’s voice. By first identifying the right people to lead these efforts, they can help drive key decisions moving forward.

Check out Olivier Blanchard’s (The Brand Builder) post on the different roles required for a successful Social Media Plan: Best Practices for Social Media: The basics of program planning

2. Listen First

No one likes the annoying guy from work that talks about himself all day long; don’t be that guy. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of tools to monitor what’s being said about your company or brand.

This can be as simple as setting up Google Alerts for keywords related to your brand/company or even using search.twitter.com (or searching from the site/various twitter apps.)

Both of these methods are can become quite tedious, so I recommend outsourcing some of this to a social media monitoring company. More on that in a minute.

3. Engage Early & Often

There’s a reason Brian Solis recently published his book entitled Engage! It’s the bread and butter of any successful social media effort. And it takes dedicated, passionate people to achieve engagement with any community. If you’re going to simply push out one way messaging, there’s plenty of traditional media channels for that…take your pick.

4. Measure Everything

Unlike people, I think this is an area that you should certainly look to outsource (unless you’re a whiz with tracking, analyzing, and reporting on every online conversation about your brand.)

I’m a big fan of Radian 6 myself, but Jeremiah Owyang (Web Strategy) shares a snapshot of the larger social monitoring industry: Brand Monitoring, Social Analytics, Social Insights

5. Learn & Adjust

While traditional brand communication models might have delivered similar results year in and year out, social tactics involve conversations with real people. Dialogue changes everything. You must be willing to learn and adjust your tactics based on your community.

Of course, it never hurts to have a plan in place at the beginning of the fiscal year but I’d include a big asterisk on the front when sharing with leadership: *Subject to change!

Your Turn

What do you think? Are there basic principles that guide social media efforts at your company? If so, I’d love to hear what key elements you have found essential to your success. Leave a comment below and let us know.

Post Author

John Rogers

Digital Marketer at Disney Parks, music junkie, tech evangelist, quasi-geek, Florida Gators fan who loves to travel. Views expressed here are mine alone and don't reflect those of my boss, Mr. Mouse.... View Full Profile →

http://twitter.com/kstaxman Frank Woodman Jr

Thanks for a very insightful article. It’s always smart to back off and develop a general game plan before you jump head long into anything. And you’ve given us all a good start regarding social media planning. I think that often people forget the “social” part of social media. Its people and how you communicate and interact with them that determine what your final success will be and you’ve certainly addressed that well in your list.

The only other thing I think I would add is to be sure and chart how all your social media pieces link together. Without a good flow chart to keep track of things often you become lost and can’t keep up with what are the constantly moving and changing relations between all the sites, services, blogs, etc and they end up becoming one giant spider web of confusion. And doing this has also made it so much easier for me to understand when adding anything else where it needs to fit in the whole scheme of things.

So I chart everything thing I can think of on a flow chart such as:

What URL, user name, and password belongs to each site (of course RoboForm helps with that too)
What services I use with that site (like using HootSuite and tweetdeck with Twitter)
If and how a site or blog is updated. (Through a service, by direct entry, by automation or by a third party)
When and in what order do I want posts and entries to be done. (Blog, tweet about blog entry, post blot to FaceBook, tweet about FaceBook entry)
And last but not least how are the various email lists, newsletters, and other customer relation things handled for each site, blog, or service I have.

All of this makes understanding the connection between the various parts that make up my social media environment so much easier. And even more important this information makes it possible for me to obtain maximum ROI for my time spent. I don’t find myself always looking for some piece of information it’s all right there in the chart!
http://www.infinit-o.com Infinit Outsourcing

I have to agree. As an outsourcing company into social media, we’ve learned that it’s more beneficial for a company to focus on its marketing and engagement efforts rather than worry about every single comment (which could number in the thousands especially for big brands). For companies, as well as marketing agencies, its excellent to know what individual people are saying (good and bad), but bottom line is, when they have to launch a campaign, they need to know if its working or not, while they are managing the campaign itself so they can adjust if need be. And while all the suggestions above sound easy to do, believe me, its not, and when you get down to it, you’re going to need some help.
http://flavors.me/40deuce 40deuce

Great piece John!
I find it both shocking and not surprising at the same time that only 50% of companies enter social media with no real plan. I think that what you’ve put together here is a great place for companies to start with their social media planning.
One other thing I would add to your list though is making sure that your social media efforts fit and coordinate with your non-social media efforts. Many companies just get into social media just to be there, but they forget that they already have marketing/PR/etc messages going in other mediums. It is important to make sure that your social media messages go hand in hand with your companies overall messages. It makes a companies overall efforts seem more cohesive and together.

Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos (http://sysomos.com)
http://flavors.me/40deuce 40deuce

Great piece John!
I find it both shocking and not surprising at the same time that only 50% of companies enter social media with no real plan. I think that what you’ve put together here is a great place for companies to start with their social media planning.
One other thing I would add to your list though is making sure that your social media efforts fit and coordinate with your non-social media efforts. Many companies just get into social media just to be there, but they forget that they already have marketing/PR/etc messages going in other mediums. It is important to make sure that your social media messages go hand in hand with your companies overall messages. It makes a companies overall efforts seem more cohesive and together.

Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos (http://sysomos.com)
hibiscus jaune

Any knows where I can find a sample?
hibiscus jaune

Any knows where I can find a sample?
http://htto://socialfresh.com sofresh

A sample of whay Jaune? We have plenty of examples on the site. It depends
on what you are looking for.
Teresa Basich

Measure everything! Yep, agreed. :) I’d add that brands need to use social media to be proactive as well as reactive; don’t just respond to folks who come to you, go seek people and conversations out and get involved. Make friends and fans, tell their stories, and let them tell yours.

Great post, John, and thank you for the Radian6 love!

Cheers,
Teresa

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Teresa Basich
Community Manager, Radian6
http://twitter.com/johninorlando John Rogers

Thanks for the compliment on the post! I like your point about mapping out some sort of flow chart to help manage multiple accounts/platforms. I think it’s about using the best tools in your arsenal to tell the most powerful story about your brand.

For some that means managing a blog, FB page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, forum site, et al. For others it could mean monitoring review sites. I’ve found there’s no one size fits all approach to social.

But for many, it can be overwhelming which is how mapping out an editorial calendar and game plan for sharing on multiple sites can be really helpful.
http://twitter.com/johninorlando John Rogers

Great point Sheldon! I think marketers should look at the entire marketing mix and the collective message/story they’re telling as a whole. Social can’t sit in a silo (as it is at many companies today.)

In fact, I’d love to see it integrated beyond Marketing/PR teams over the next year or two. For example, Sales/Services has traditionally been the experts when it comes to two way communication with customers. I’d love to see every department have a hand in social (even if they’re not publishing/managing.)
http://twitter.com/johninorlando John Rogers

Thanks Teresa! Great example of your team being proactive by commenting on my post. Radian6 certainly practices what they preach, and I dig it.
http://flavors.me/40deuce 40deuce

To be honest, I think that you are going to see a lot more of that in the next little while. There’s a lot of talk amongst the social media “experts” about it now, but like most things it will take companies a bit of time to figure out just how they can do it right in a way that works for them.

Social Fresh