Campaigns**
**by Heather Pidgeon**
If youre not already tapping into social media, you should, as the
channel offers brands tremendous opportunities to foster community and
engagement. But many marketers jump into social media efforts with
little more than a cool idea. This is a mistake. Not only could it
pose serious implications for a brand, but it could also obliterate
the value you sought to derive from social media in the first place.
To effectively leverage social media, you first need to devise a plan.
Here are five tips to help you get started.
*Develop your vision.* Get creative and develop a vision of what your
brand looks like in social media. For example, will your brand be
personified, or will it have a catchy tagline? Will the user get
special deals or coupons if they connect with you in this space? What
is the message you wish to have transcend the brand? During this
process, be sure to think through the different sites you are
interested in using, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and
define how you envision your brand acting within these sites. Give
thought to what you might tweet about, the discussions you might
create, how to best use Facebook notes, or what to include on your
YouTube channel. When the skys the limit—as it is in social
media—it is essential to take the time to first create this vision.
*Understand your goals.* Outline what you are trying to achieve with
social media and be specific about your goals. And note that jumping
into the fray just because your competitors are doing so is not a
valid reason. Instead, perhaps you want to leverage social media to
interact with your customers, or drive sales, or simply to reinforce
your branding efforts in alternative channels. Whatever the case, you
first need to have clarity on what you are hoping to achieve so you
can put together an effective strategy to get the job done.
*Identify your success metrics.* Decide how you will gauge the
success of your social media efforts and the specific metrics you will
use. For example, if the goal of your campaign is to create awareness
for a contest that you are running, its important to measure contest
and brand impressions, numbers of fans or followers, video views and
interaction with the site. In addition to identifying your success
metrics, be sure to have analytics in place so that you can track
on-the-page site interactions and monetary value.
*Define how you will communicate value.* Identify the value you are
offering your audience and how you will communicate it. In doing so,
be sure to make the connection between cool and valuable. Why? Because
while creative content generates initial interest, the communication
of value will keep the discussion with your audience going longer.
Regardless of the means you choose—maybe its a contest, or an
exclusive coupon for fans or followers—be sure to give your audience
a reason to stay connected. Not only will it facilitate engagement,
but it will also boost the longevity of your social media effort.
*Integrate your efforts.* From the outset, you should plan to
integrate your social media efforts with the rest of your marketing
initiatives as it can produce a symbiotic effect. For example, by
integrating social media with your offline programs, you can create
buzz for the launch of a new commercial, or solicit feedback about
your latest magazine feature. Likewise, by integrating social media
with search, you can leverage SEO tactics to help your social content
rank in the search engines, build a PPC campaign to capture the demand
created by you or your competitors and leverage optimized press
releases to promote your efforts.
*Identify sufficient resources.* Give thought to the effort and
resources necessary to launch your social media initiatives and keep
them going. Remember, just showing up in social media wont suffice.
Instead, you need to continually update your presence on a daily
basis. For example, you cant just create a Facebook fan page and walk
away from it. You need to invest the time necessary to leverage it as
a creative means to interact with your audience and expand the
conversation. As you develop your social media plan, make it a
priority to identify who will be responsible to update and outline
communications with your constituents. Otherwise, your social media
vision will get stonewalled.
Social media is a growing channel that offers brand marketers
creative ways to interact with their audience and keep the
conversation going, but getting started requires more than a cool
idea. To derive the most value from it, you first need a plan, and
these tips should help you get started.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Heather Pidgeon
<http://searchengineland.com/author/heather-pidgeon/>
is a Client Services Director at iProspect, responsible for
strategic development and overall execution of campaigns as well as
client satisfaction. She directly manages three Client Services
Managers whose teams are responsible for the execution of all aspects
of client campaigns, including organic search, pay per click
advertising, paid inclusion programs, and online display campaigns.
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