There’s so much talk about social media that it seems more than likely that you will succeed. All you need to do is enter…wrong.
In fact, that is so wrong that more brutal language is needed.
If you enter into social media without a plan, you will fail. Period.
All the hours you spent will be wasted, you will receive no traffic bump, there will be no engagement, no one will care and you will learn nothing.
You wouldn’t jump into a raging river without knowing how to swim, don’t create a Twitter account without knowing how to use it.
Every social media tool comes with a barrier to entry. Forget the fact they’re free to use.
The barriers? Knowledge. Understanding.
Do you own your brand?
You need to have control of your identity all over the Web. It’s always better to have the name and not use it – you will kick yourself if a tiny shop in Wagga Wagga takes your name. Anything besides owning it will confuse people (look at Fling.com compared to flingchocolate.com).
Know what you want to know
Do you have a view on what success in social media will be? No, then stay away. If you don’t know then you’re not ready to start yet.
Before you jump in, define success. Is it:
- Building conversation around a particular product?
- Better overall brand awareness?
- More traffic?
- Blog subscribers? Increased leads?
- New knowledge about your customers?
So, that’s done. Now all you need to do is figure out how you’re going to measure success...is it blog comments, conversions, links, Twitter talk, better brand recognition? Don’t know? Again, I’d stop right now. If you can’t measure whether or not you’re meeting your goals, then you’re going to fail before you even start.
Do you know who you want to be?
Do you know what story you are going to tell you consumers? Will they want to be associated with your story?
Creat your own identity, what you believe in, what are you known for and what you want to be known for? This also helps with working through how you’ll talk to people, what your tone will be, how far you’ll go, and what you are (or are not) comfortable doing and sharing.
Don’t waste your time building the wrong community
You wouldn’t waste media on a marketplace that doesn’t fit your plan, and social media is the same.
You want to plan your social media so that it’s as concentrated and as powerful as it can be, not wasting your time in communities where either no one is talking or they’re simply not interested in your message – look for who your customer is, and where they are.
Put a face on your customer. Who are they and what are they interested in?
If you don’t know, don’t panic. Do some research – go and investigate the sites themselves. Is there enough conversation to warrant engagement? Head to Facebook and see if there are any Fan pages dedicated to your company or industry. Go to Yahoo Answers and see if people are asking or answering questions.
If your community is Internet-literate, they’re talking somewhere.
Once you find the communities, study them. Identify the users, the specific levels of engagement, their view on brands, how they communicate, the type of content that is passed around, etc. You should become an expert so you’re not burning your bridges before you even start. Every community operates differently, online and offline.
Create Rules for Engagement
What are you going to do when someone calls you a liar? How will you react when they tell the world that your company is deceitful?
You won’t be able to create an exit strategy for every possible situation, but do get some ground rules down…here’s something put together that works as a start. This is originally from the US Air Force.
Listen
Listen to what’s happening, what it means, what the problems are, what’s making consumers happy.
Is it working?
You wouldn’t set and forget an SEO campaign (at least I hope not), and you can’t dive into social media and then never look back either. You’re going to have to take a look at your on-site and off-site metrics to determine whether or not your social media efforts have been successful, and if not, what you can do to fix them.
Give it some time, at least 3-6 months before you really start trying to decide if things are working for you. If you start evaluating any earlier than that all you’ll have to go on is your number of Twitter followers or Facebook fans…not what you want to be looking at. Look at rankings, traffic and links, engagement with your content, sales.
