Creating a Social Media Strategy

Matt Dollinger - @mattdollinger

V.P. Integrated Solutions
Who the heck is this guy?
V.P of Integrated Solutions =

The guy who everyone comes to with

problems and expects a solution… yesterday.

Or

I create strategy from chaos in business.

Most importantly I am a member of the
community.
“FYI – I am NOT a guru, expert or social
media consultant.”
I am however a student, a contributor, and
most importantly a Lovecat...
What’s a Lovecat?

Share your:

Network

Knowledge

Compassion
We are now in a
“get by giving”
society.
This is not a presentation about why you
should use social media.
This is not a presentation about how to use
the tools in the online social space.

Google “Social Media Tools for (insert your

business here)” for free webinars/materials.
 This is a presentation that will help you
create a strategy for including Social Media
as part of your overall business strategy.

(and do it correctly… at least in my eyes )

A Short History of
Social Media in Business
Social Media 2007

What in the hell is social media?

Social Media 2008

Why do I need social media?

Social Media 2009
How can I use social media?
Social Media 2010

How do I incorporate all of this?

Strategy: A strategy is a plan of action
designed to achieve a particular goal.

Social Media: A group of Web-based

applications that allows the creation and
exchange of user-generated content
 How this fits into business

• Business Strategy: is creating operational

alignment between all functions and activities of
a business.
– Communications Strategy: is the alignment
between all the communications groups and their
activities in support of the business strategy by
communicating the various messages to the
customers, shareholders, employees, partners
and anyone else who is impacted by a company.
• Social Media strategy would be a subset of the
communications strategy supporting the
communications strategy in supporting the business
strategy.

Courtesy of VeryOfficialBlog.com
So essentially a “Social Media Strategy” is
communicating a message to a
predetermined audience that is reflective of
your business brand.
But honestly… it’s so much more than that.
Why do I need a Strategy?

We already have a Facebook Fan Page,

Twitter account and YouTube Page?
Why do I need a Strategy?

Your online reputation

if fragile and you are
incredibly vulnerable
Why do I need a Strategy?

Everyone has a voice

and an opinion… and
they will probably
share it with you.
Why do I need a Strategy?

Past customers will

be able – and often
times will – share their
experiences with
others online.
Why do I need a Strategy?

Your CEO, your

Marketing Director,
CFO, and everyone
else will hear and see
what is said about
you.
Why do I need a Strategy?

Your competitors are

watching and waiting
for something to use
against you.
 On that cheerful note…

The benefits of a
successful social
media strategy
outweigh the
potential downfalls.

Image Courtesy of Stratmark.com

 What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Brand management:  By using social media to

proactively find and build relationships with
customers; you may be able to turn them into fans to
help deflect any negative opinions that may arise. 
 

Courtesy of OpenForum.com
What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Brand awareness:  Social media presents an

incredible opportunity to generate brand awareness
among a targeted audience.
What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Relationships:  More than a broadcast tool, social

media offers a unique opportunity to network online,
build your business and create a genuine loyalty (and
engagement) with your consumer base.  
What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Innovation:  Social media can be a great learning

tool, as well.  By knowing where your customers are
talking about your products and services – or better
yet – giving them a place to do so on your own site,
you may find new areas for improvement or
innovation. 
What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Competitive Research: Besides the concern that

your competitors may already be using social media,
the upside is that by following what your competitors
are doing and saying, or what customers are saying
about them, you may find ways to differentiate your
brand and get better results
What can you hope to
accomplish through this?

• Search results: By extending your presence onto

other sites, especially those of high “quality”, you can
help elevate your ranking in search results and thus
increase exposure for your business.
How do we do this?

• Define your Goal

• Engage your Audience
• Understand Your Business
• Integrate into your Existing Marketing
• Recognize your Capacity
• Choose Appropriate Tools and Tactics
• Measure and Adapt
• Rinse and Repeat
1. Define your Goal
 1. Define your Goal

• Listening and Learning

• Build Relationships and Issues Awareness
• Improve Reputation
• Content Generation and Issues Awareness:
• Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic and Page
Rankings
• Taking Action

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal


Listening and Learning: You're monitoring what
stakeholders are saying about your organization,
your issue, or programs and using the information to
support your marketing goals. You're testing different
social media tactics and learning what works.

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal


Build Relationships and Issues Awareness: You’re
interacting with key audiences on the social media
channel in order to build awareness for your
organization's brand. You’re increasing your visibility
in the right areas and trying to stick in the minds of
others through active interaction on many different
levels.

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal


Improve Reputation: You want to improve how
others think about your organization or issue and are
responding directly to feedback through social media
channels.

You may also want to improve your organization's
reputation as an expert by being consistently involved
in discussions on topics or aggregating information
that are relevant to your organization.
Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal


Content Generation and Issues Awareness: You
encourage stakeholders to create content about your
organization or it's issues and share it with others and
encouraging fans to talk about your issues to others
(word of mouth).

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal

 Increased Relevant Visitor Traffic and Page

Rankings : You're using social media tactics to drive
traffic to your organization's web site or newsletter
sign up or improving search engine results or using
social media channels to spread your web site or
blog content.

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
 1. Define Your Goal


Taking Action: You're using social media tactics to
spur supporters to action or donate. Remember this
objective will take considerable more time and effort
to be successful.

Resources:
Jeremiah Owyang, 50 Ways to Use Social Media Listed by Objective
Dosh Dosh, Social Media Marketing Campaign Objectives and Audience
Defintion
2. Engage your Audience
2. Engage your Audience

• What can I learn from existing clients?

• Who must you reach to achieve your goal?
• What are their demographics?
• What are their “technographics”, and other important
characteristics ?
What are they doing online?
• What is their social activity online?
 The Social Technographics ™ Ladder
Creators make social content go.
They write blogs or upload video,
music, or text.
Critics respond to content from
others. They post reviews, comment
on blogs, participate in forums, and
edit wiki articles.
Collectors organize content for
themselves or others using RSS
feeds, tags, and voting sites.
Joiners connect in social networks
like MySpace and Facebook
Spectators consumer social content
including blogs, user-generated video,
podcasts, forums, or reviews
Inactives neither create nor
consumer social content of any kind
Publish a blog
Publish your own Web pages
Creators Upload video you created
Upload audio/music you created
Write articles or stories and post them
Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Critics
Comment on someone else’s blog
Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
Use RSS feeds
Collectors Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
“Vote” for Web sites online
Joiners
Maintain profile on a social networking site
Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Spectators Listen to podcasts
Read online forums
Read customer ratings/reviews
Inactives None of the above
Groups include people participating in at least
one of the activities monthly.
3. Understand your Business

The success of your efforts depends on an

accurate assessment of the environment within
which you operate.
• On Brand
• Reflective
• Authentic
• Representative
• Coordinated
(This creates a channel that guarantees uniform
messaging while still embracing creativity)
 4. Integration to Existing
Marketing Efforts

Resources:
www.ProBlogger.com
www.ChrisBrogan.com
 5. Recognize Capacity

• Who will implement your organization’s social

media strategy?
• Can you allocate a minimum of five hours per
week to your strategy once you've passed the
learning curve?
• Do you have the most efficient work flow and
tasks in place?
• Do you need any outside expertise?
• Will your content updates depend on any other
resource or person?
Resources:
Beth Kanter, 52 Ways To Streamline Your Social Media Use
6. Choose Tactics and Tools

• What tactics and tools best support your

objectives and match your targeted audience?
• What tactics and tools do you have the capacity
to implement?
• Revisit your goals and your audience
technographics to see which tools and tactics
are appropriate
 6. Tactics and Tools

– Listening: If you are new to social media, this should be

the objective for your first experiment with social media and
where you should focus your time.
– Participate: Once you know what the audience is saying,
the next step is to engage in a conversation with them.
– Promoting: You share the impact of your organization's
programs through blogging, podcasting, sharing photos on
Flickr, or YouTube or other video sharing site.
– Generate Buzz: When you share your message with
enthusiastic supporters, they in turn may choose to pass it
to others with a similar interest in your organization or
campaign.
– Community Building and Social Networking: If you want
to build an online community for knowledge or skill sharing,
using social network tools like Ning will help you get there
Resources:
www.WeAreMedia.org
6. Tactics and Tools

d i bi l i ty
t ion & Cre
eput a
ne R
ur O nli
Yo

Listening Participating Promoting Buzz Generation

 7. Measurement and
Adaption
• What is your original, measurable objective?
• What hard data points or metrics will you use to track
your objectives?
• How often will you track? Do you have the systems and
tools set up to track efficiently?
• How will you harvest insights from hard data and
qualitative data as the project unfolds?
• What questions will you ask to generate insights? Who
will participate?

It is important to look at trend movements and changes

over time, not just numbers.
Resources:
Rachel Happe, Collecting All Social Media Metrics
Neil Perkins, Blended Measurement
Beth Kanter, Using Metrics to Harvest Insights About Your Social Media Strategy
7. Measurement and
Adaption
Measure your Campaign

Analytics, metrics, comments, re-tweets, emails,

etc.
Hootsuite.com
Facebook Comments
TweetGrid.com
Blog or Website Comments
Plan Your Campaign
Test the Waters

• Pick a social media project that won’t take much

time and relates to goals
• Write down your successes
• Write down your challenges
• Ask or listen to the people you connect with about
what worked and what didn't
• Watch other nonprofits and copy and remix for
your next project.
• Listen, Learn, Adapt - Repeat
Thank you

Matthew Dollinger
V.P. of Integrated Solutions
773.354.9681
www.TheYouFactor.com

mattdollinger@atproperties.com