Md Consulting

Interesting reading in Social Media Explore. Here-below, my take-away

Properly preparing a social media strategy, including goals and measurement, will ensure you get the most out of your program.

Taking a simple four-step approach to prepare for the launch of a successful social media program can ensure that you’re set up to interact in social media venues before you get started. This process includes:

• Step1 : Identifying your goals

Just a few examples of your social media program’s goals are reaching new customers, capturing leads, increasing sales, and establishing your brand so as to build loyalty.

Each goal will help you to choose which social media platforms and audiences are the best fit for your efforts, and will allow you to set realistic and measurable metrics for the program.

 If your company is trying a social media program for the first time and you have limited resources, starting with one or two key goals, measuring the effectiveness of your efforts, and then increasing your commitment once the initial program is established will be a more measured and more successful approach.

• Step2 : Finding your audience

Each social channel has different types of audiences, and each one is used in different ways for different purposes.

If you’re looking to build a group of brand supporters, Facebook could be the best choice.

If you’re looking to reach potential customers who have never heard of you, or to become a thought leader in a particular industry, Twitter might be the better option.

If you’re hoping to use social media for something like recruiting, a combination of Twitter and LinkedIn could be your best bet. 

• Step3 : Setting your key performance indicators

Start by looking at some of the things that can be measured on each platform:

• Blog traffic
• Twitter followers
• Retweets of your content
• Interactions on Twitter
• LinkedIn group members
• Blog comments
• Independent shares of your content
• Trackbacks to your blog

While there are a lot of metrics that can be measured, remember that this is a benchmark. You’ll need to customize your goals and measurement tools depending on what you want to get out of your social media program. 

• Step4 : Scheduling and resource management

 This stage is about setting timelines and determining how you’re going to staff and support your ongoing social media program.

 Source : http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy-in-four-steps/