Social Media Strategy for

ARAMBARA
By

Skills Integrated

Social Media Overview

The social web Web 2.0 has given rise to a new way of marketing: people are engaged in conversations online and, as predicted by the Cluetrain Manifesto - markets have become conversations. The most trusted form of advertising today is a recommendation from another person just like me. Tapping into these conversations shows where your audience is spending time online and what subjects and issues are of interest to them. Based on todays ever-changing marketplace, companies can no longer just issue information to the media in hopes that they share our clients stories with the public.

To reach your publics successfully you need to start telling your stories directly, and do it in a way that sparks conversations.

#1. Listen to the Online Conversation

Tap into the online conversations to find out: who is talking about you what they are saying is it positive or negative where are the conversations taking place what communities talk about you what are your competitors doing in social media whats the buzz about them what content resonates with your audience are there subjects of interest you could provide content for what social sites have the most conversation who are the fire-starters you need to connect with who are the influencers in these blogs or communities where are the opportunities and threats

#1. Listen to the Online Conversation.contd

Once we have this information we will know where to start and what social sites we should be concentrating on.

#2. Establish Share of Voice

There are millions of conversations online every day. When you tap into the ones about your industry, what share of voice do you have? Share of Voice is defined as the percentage of the mentions that are about your brand/company/organization in the particular niche or market youre active in. Do people use a generic description of what you do, or do they talk about your services specifically? Are the comments positive or negative? What is the ratio of positive/negative? Are your key messages appearing in these conversations? If not, what content is trending? How are your competitors faring in these conversations? The context of your content in a competitive set shows how your brand stacks up against competitors online.

#2. Establish Share of Voice.contd

Markets are Conversations Share of voice leads to market share. Establishing and tracking share of voice used to be a advertising metric, but since the most trusted form of advertising is now conversations, its become an important one for social media. A gain in Share of Voice is an important measurement for social media programs.

#3. Find Relevant Communities

Every day another social network or social media site seems to pop up. There are now literally thousands of places online where conversations are taking place. How can we effectively divide up our time and resources so that we participate in the places that make sense for our business? Part of our research listening to whats being said online has to include who is talking about you and where the conversations are taking place. Its no longer about how many people did we reach, its have we reached the right people who want to engage and communicate with us?

#4. Identify Influencers

What is influence? It can be defined as "implicit or explicit effect of one thing (or person) on another." What influences people online has changed dramatically in the last few years. The idea that the person with the most followers or subscribers has the biggest influence is no longer valid. Today, influence is about accuracy and trust. You want to reach the bloggers and social networkers who have influence those who can cause others to take action, change their perception and/or their behavior. And they might not be the A-list bloggers or power users in a network. It is someone that other people trust and listen to. They're the ones who send a flood of traffic to your blog or your website, because when they link to you or recommend your product, their followers take action.

#5. Develop a Content Strategy

Success in social media depends on the quality of your content. Its about engaging people and the key to engagement is good content. In social media people are creating, reading, saving, tagging and sharing content. If you dont produce the kind of content they value, it wont get republished or shared. How do you know what kind of content to create? Listen and observe. In the past we had to rely on agencies to have a bright idea. But when you really listen to your audience content opportunities easily spring to mind. Telling your story online in the right place to the right people gets results. But you need a well-thought out content strategy based on solid research to get those results.

#6. Pick Tools

Theres a wide array of social media tools to choose from and the task can be confusing. But if we have all your data analyzed, and our content strategy in place, its easy to pick the right tools for the campaign. Our research will tell us where to start. If the majority of the conversation about ARAMBARA is on Twitter, we will need a custom designed Twitter account. We need to create a branded YouTube Channel up right away since ARAMBARA is a video programme.

#7. Create And Deliver The Content

Once we have a content strategy based on solid research, bright ideas will naturally flow about what to create and how to deliver this content. Experimenting with a Facebook page and a Twitter feed isnt enough. We have to create supporting content - an interactive website, interesting articles, images and videos. You want online influencers to write about you and send you traffic? Give them excellent content. Good content not only sparks conversations it also build links. People will share the content and theyll link to it from fan page posts and tweets. This can raise our search visibility and drive lots of traffic to our content.

#8. Engage And Facilitate The Conversation

Its not enough to push out content. Social media is not just another marketing channel we can use to reach your target audience. The biggest mistake companies and brands make is to use social media as a way to sell a product. Content should be created with a view to inspiring and participating in conversations. Social media is about a two-way flow of conversation. People are no longer willing to be passive bystanders they want to take an active part of the conversation. Customer engagement can get us through the toughest of times its both a customer acquisition and retention strategy. Word of mouth has long been the holy grail of marketing. Peer reviews, opinions and comments are now the number one influencer prior to purchase or decision online. Not only do we want them engaged with you, we want them talking positively about you to each other. Facilitating these conversations should be our ultimate goal.

#9. Measure Results

If we can't measure it, we can't manage it. Its that simple. We need to know where you are when we start, what needs to be achieved and as we move along the path you have to have tools to measure your progress. That way we can see if we are on track and adapt fast if things go awry. Our measurement has to be based on business objectives and those objectives have to be set as measurable goals. Just setting up attributes to track on a dashboard is not enough.

#10. Set Goals/Timeline

Goal Reach 10,000 facebook fan page likes by May 16, 2012. Timeline Listen to online conversation April 11-13, 2012 Establish a share of voice April 13-20, 2012 Find relevant communities/identify influencers April 13-20, 2012 Develop content strategy April 18-23, 2012 Pick tools April 15-19, 2012 Deliver content/Engage and facilitate conversation April 13-May 16