I see it all the time. A marketing head says we need to be engaging in social media. Next thing you know they have a Facebook and Twitter page up and running and the company is satisfied that they are now “engaged” in social media. A couple months down the road the company wonders what went wrong and calls in a Social Media expert. What is the first thing the Social Media expert will say every time? You didn’t have a social media strategy. A SM strategy ensures that the messaging is engaging your target market and creating a two-way conversation. By creating a comprehensive strategy you are establishing the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of a Social Media action plan.

I recently “dugg” this article about Social Media Strategy and I think the title says it all: “A Social Media Campaign Without a Strategy is Like Nipples on a Man (and other useless things)” In this article the author, Jax, writes about the kinds of things a strategist considers when creating a social media strategy. “With every new client a strategist is charged with the task of determining the demographic, identifying what they want to know/learn etc. Finding out what they’re talking about online. Where do they spend their money? What do they get from the site when they visit? Do they share information they’ve found with others? What are the competition doing and are they successfully engaging clients?”

What are some other important things to consider when creating a Social Media Strategy? Here is my brief list of things to consider when creating a strategy.

Situation analysis
Target Market Definition
Competitive Analysis
SWOT analysis

Social Media Marketing Objectives
Qualitative
Quantitative

Social Media Marketing Mix
Identity
Conversations
Sharing
Platforms

Communications Plan
Messaging
Potential Topics
Integration

Timeline and Execution
Content development and Posting
Blogger engagement
Monitoring and responding

“So, if you work at, or own a company that has assigned a staff member to “do” social media take a moment and find out how engaged your online community is. Are they commenting on your posts? Are they suggesting interesting articles? Are they re-tweeting, re-posting, re-marking to what you’re putting out there? If not then you may want to start thinking about bringing in a strategist that can help you on your way to significantly more engagement.” – Jax

Does your company have a SM strategy? How effective has it been?