A few weeks ago I gave a short presentation to a networking group in Orlando called Coffee Club. I want to share my outline with you here as well.
10 Essential Steps to Developing Your Social Media Strategy
- Understand communication channels change – Landmark changes include the print press, telephone, television, and radio. Web communication channels are a microcosm of the broad changes.
- Set a goal – If you don’t know what you want to do, don’t start doing it.
- Know your audience – Where are they online? How do they like to receive communications? Be prepared to go where they are.
- Know your communication style Where do you excel? If your audience prefers communication in a style you aren’t well equipped, then outsource it.
- Learn what tools do what – All social media sites are tools; knowing how these tools work and when to use them is crucial. Similar to knowing when to use a rubber mallet vs a sledge hammer – they are both hammers, but they work differently for different purposes.
- Decide personal vs. professional – Make your decisions about what you want to share and what not to share. It’s okay to mix private and personal lives online, but do it appropriately.
- Be ready to listen and respond – There are way too many tools to not be listening to what is being said to you, about you, your competitors, and your niche. Pay attention and interact appropriately.
- Graph your social graph – This steps helps me to flowchart my web properties so I can see the big picture of how they are all interconnected.
- Have a hub – It’s best to have one website to serve as the got0 place. All profiles should be linked and/or syndicated onto the hub. This makes things less complicated, especially for marketing.
- Consolidate SM accounts – You don’t have to have an account for everything. Focus on one per niche to get started.
- Aggregate into a lifestream – Because our social media profiles are so scattered, it’s great to have one place to pull it all together into a lifestream.
