Your 2010 social media plan… Pull up a chair…
If you have been reading the news, blogs, heck, even tea leaves, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that a lot of people seem to be excited by social media. While there is hype, I want to urge you to focus on one message that is absolutely true.
If you are not listening on social channels you’re missing out.
If you follow my blog, you know I recently gave some advice, advice that I will expand upon in upcoming posts, advice about the need to listen to your customers. This post is intended to provide you with a roadmap of sorts, something to guide you and your company in your efforts to dip your toes in the social waters. The goals below are targeted for any company with more than 20 employees, up to about 500 employees, that have customers engaging on social networks. If you do not fall into this target group, I would still give this a read as you can scale back to fit your needs. Pull up a chair and let’s chat.
Before we begin (Added 11/7/2009)
Your 2010 Social Goals
First off, you have just agreed to pay me a lot of money to come in as an independent consultant and help you “get social”. Please send all checks to whatever college my daughter selects in the Spring, I’ll give you the address soon. Here is your mission for 2010, become an active listener and a valuable member of the social community. Here is how we will measure your success at the end of the year:
- A clearly articulated strategy and goals for investing scarce resources on these activities (addition from Barry Dalton).
- You’ll hire someone by the middle of January to make this all happen. Read my thoughts on what you should be looking for in this candidate.
- Here is a look at their first thirty days on the job.
- You will have a Twitter Account for your business and for each of your executives by February. As a business you will have at least 2000 followers and each executive will have at least 500 followers. Read more here.
- You will have a blog setup and be averaging no less than 1 blog post a week by Q4 of 2010.
- You will have a Facebook Fan page setup by Q2 and have at least 500 fans by the end of the year.
- You will have a YouTube account and have a minimum of 10 videos posted.
- You will have a SlideShare and myBrainshark account with a minimum of 20 presentations uploaded by the end of the year.
- You will have identified at least 5 external brand advocates defined.
- You will be listening on social channels for data about your company, your executives and staff, your competition, your marketplace.
- You will have clear guidelines for when to respond and how to respond, to the discussions taking place on social channels.
- You will have established social media usage guidelines for your business by the end of Q3 so that all employees have a clear picture of how they can engage on social media.
At this point you may be tuning out, but hold on a second. You have just spent a lot of money to get my advice, the least you can do is hear me out a little bit longer… Hey, time is money… Over the next few post we will work through the above goals, how to approach each, how to be successful.
Is this helpful? Am I missing anything obvious?
John
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November 9, 2009
Hi John,
Thanks for your article. Good food for folks to consider.
You provide a reasonable check list for companies to use to consider their social media channels, but I’m in Mitch’s camp that execs need to start by first considering their objectives and strategies. And to quote one of his common phrases, “one size will won’t fit all.”
Many companies haven’t invested much if any effort in investigating the social landscape relative to their own prospects and customers so just jumping in is a strategy that could lose as well as win (even if the loss is lack of ROI and not a branding issue).
I would advise companies to start with the landscape understanding, then map out their corporate objectives and strategy for social business — of which social media initiatives would be a part. And yes, the ROI is going to have to be there before they jump in. Or at the least, execs are going to have to understand the longer-term value of social business if the ROI is low value in the near-term.
As an additional observation relative to SMB and B2B companies, a lot of the activities on your list may prove of little or no value. The complete check list may make sense for larger companies but will likely stretch smaller ones to thin.
Additionally, I’m not sure how much an SMB/B2B is going to gain from a Facebook page or YouTube video because I’m not sure they’ll have the resources to expend on promoting and differentiating themselves enough in those channels. Not that they couldn’t but the question will be is that the best way to spend their marketing or other resources?
Having said all that, though, I do agree 2010 is a great time for companies to undertake initiatives on social business design, of which social media channels can and should play a part.
How quickly companies move from the design phase into implementation will be a question mark determined by their resource availability and competition with other corporate initiatives.
Kathy Herrmann
November 7, 2009
Great feedback, Kathy. My general thoughts:
- If a company has moved past the skepticism phase about social media then you’re right, take time to invest in your strategy and some of the goals I have suggested may be able to be skipped. However, many companies are just trying to work things out and this solutoin enables them to explore various social solutions, begin to engage with customers, and start moving the ball forward. All, really important steps.
- This plan is for companies of 20 or more people and I believe could easily be accomplished with the one hire that I refer to. If a company of this size cannot afford this one hire the goals will need to be scaled back.
- Youtube is a good point as it’s the one social network I hesitated on includin. The value of Youtube is clear but the overhead of getting started may be scary for some businesses. However, the truth is a company could produce video of suffiicent quality with a Flip video and some standard video editing tools that are generally low cost (or free) for Windows or the Mac.
Kathy, as always, I really respect and appreciate your opinions. Thanks for stopping by.
John
John Moore
November 7, 2009
John – Just getting around to reading this, apologies, it has been a busy week. I am struggling with this post for a couple key reasons. The core of which is one of your rallying cries – People, Process, Technology. Yet, the first 5 bullet points are tech, tech and more tech. Before anyone should even consider a Social Media plan, they need an actual plan. Then they need a marketing plan. What is the message, what channels are better than others – choose top two, and evolve based on goals and objectives.
Industry – what industry are you thinking about when you wrote this, might help me to alter for my Industry.
Company size – Same as Industry, might help me to alter as necessary, Location, Customer Demographics all need to play a role in the plan, then execute.
I have spoken with 5 businesses in the past couple weeks – only one of them is mature enough from any number of angles to attempt this approach. They would likely end up with a hodge podge (that is the technical description) of accounts, that would become stale very quickly.
Listening – Listening to what? If people say something, what should the company do with the data? Take, notes, yes and store the data – where to store it? Better put that in place first. This is the most crucial step, in my opinion.
Guidelines – How can you have guidelines if you are not yet sure what people are saying? So, Listening leads to data, data to information and information to insight, now we can create guidelines. This may sound long in the tooth, but I am thinking of days and weeks not months here. Companies (all sizes) can and should begin to engage quickly after listening, but not before some internal discussions of how to do it.
Mitch
Mitch Lieberman
November 7, 2009
Excellent comments Mitch and you are right, my rallying cries are now, and will always be in the order of People, Process, Technology. However, social media, not CRM per se, is something people are truly struggling with in terms of understanding relevance and of understanding value add. The 2010 plan that I am putting forth, and will continue writing about,has one primary goal. That goal, simply put, is to get people into an active listening mode.
You, as someone who is a respected thought leader (sincerely mean that Mitch) understand the value of social media already, you do not need to be convinced of it. This means that much of my 2010 plan which is about dipping your toes into the social media waters, is a waste of your time. I feel that businesses need to invest a year understanding the social landscape, truly understanding it. The plan is about getting them listening, finding their voice, and starting to engage.
As I’ve noted in other comments, the 2011 plan will be more focused on ROI, more focused on goal setting specific to your business, your industry, and yes, about the People, the Processes, and the Technlogy last.
Your feedback is appreciated Mitch. It points out that I need to do a better job setting the stage and I will include some more clarification in today’s post.
John
John Moore
November 7, 2009
Transform the numbers in people and real attention. Everybody can follow 500 accounts on Twitter or get 2000 followers. However not everybody manages to get the attention of his audience. Some goes for YouTube, uploading a video on YouTube is not doing something with social media, it is just uploading a video. How will you get people to invest some of their valuable time in watching your videos (or slides).
Social media isn’t about numbers and a social media plan shouldn’t be about numbers. I agree it makes thing easier to measure, however it doesn’t say anything about value. Try to transform the numbers in things such as: retweets by industry leaders, X times favorited by target audience Y etc etc.
Transform the numbers into people and attention. One blog post a week is easy, one blog post per week that adds value is a bit harder and one blog post per week that get references on at least 10 blogs of industry leaders might even be harder.
Rick Mans
November 7, 2009
Rick, of course you are right tha the #s do not entirely matter. The ultimate goal is engagement, reduced call levels, higher quality leads, etc., etc… I will attempt to make that clear as I continue to flesh out this plan, as I will continue to do later today with the next post in this series.
Another point that is important is that you are right, it’s not that difficult to get 1000 or 2000 followers on twitter. However, the process of actually self-selecting that follower list (which is achievable), and the process of getting executives engaged on the various social networks, is the ultimate goal of setting these numbers. In so doing the company will be ready for rich ROI in 2011. However, I won’t start writing that plan until next year.
John
John Moore
November 7, 2009
John- Let’s make sure this company doesn’t suck and that it definitely has leadership and sponsorship this will make it much more enjoyable. Also let’s define what they are looking for out of this work ( brand protection- sales- new product development- better employees- oh hell they need to listen first to get it. Let’s make sure they know what they are listening for and help them understand the value of it- give this company the heart to be bold…Your timeline is reasonable-they committed to a year right? John- make sure that check from this company will cover your daughter’s entire education because you will miss her whole first year working your hennie off to make sure there is the Golden ROI .. Will follow closely great idea… Steve
Steven Moore
November 6, 2009
Excellent comments Steven. My only point, for now, is I have intentionally left out ROI. Will address tomorrow in my next post when I talk about hiring that employee I mentioned.
Stay tuned and keep me on the straight and narrow with your comments. I know I will leave a lot out and appreciate eveyone weighing in.
John
John Moore
November 7, 2009
great 2010 sm plan article, this is the basic key, now convincing people they need to do it and not be afraid…is key. the next phase is showing folks how to manage the posts, their contacts and lists.
Jen Turner
November 6, 2009
Thanks Jen, you are dead on. I will continue to flesh this out through the rest of the year in hopes that others will benefit and be able to use some of the information, stats to make that case.
Thanks for stopping in, thecoments are always appreciated.
John
John Moore
November 6, 2009
I would add:
1. Take advantage of Twitter lists and be sure to follow all your customers (and competitors)
2. Monitor the sentiment of your brand, corporate spokespersons, etc., setting a benchmark now and checking progress every month. See how you compare with your competition when it comes to negative and positive comments
Courtney Wiley Taylor
November 5, 2009
I agree Courtney, these are critical additions as we get to the execution phases of my upcoming posts. Identifying the right followers, the right followers to respond to and how, all are critical. Plenty more to come as we finish out 2009.
Thanks or stopping by and adding value to the conversation. It is always appreciated.
John
John Moore
November 5, 2009
Agree w/ Barry. I think this is a great list, provided a company already has answered the question of which business goals they hope to achieve through use of social media.
Ann All
November 5, 2009
Ann, I agree with you and Barry. My goal with this, and with the follow-up posts that will come this, is to provide a roadmap. It will not be perfect after I write it but as a community I am confident we can make it usable. Thanks for joining the conversation as I always appreciate your insights.
John
John Moore
November 5, 2009
Talk about timing, John. Guess what we’ve just received.
Simon G
November 5, 2009
Perfect, glad my timing was right on.
John Moore
November 5, 2009
[...] original here: Your 2010 social media plan… Pull up a chair… « Random Thoughts of … By admin | category: cto | tags: 2010-social, boston-based, cto, media-plan, moore, [...]
Your 2010 social media plan… Pull up a chair… « Random Thoughts of … CXO ceo cfo cto coo cio
November 5, 2009
Good list John. And I like the fact that you prefaced this with a target company size.
One addition:
A clearly articulated strategy and goals for investing scarce resources on these activities
For larger companies, there are a few more like a defined organizational model for engaging (hub and spoke or some other flavor). I’m sure you’ll be covering that in future posts. Thanks.
Barry Dalton
November 5, 2009
Great additions Barry. I hope to, with the help of people like you, flesh this out so that people can use this as a solid roadmap. I am going add your suggestion to the post so that people don’t miss it.
Thanks Barry.
John
John Moore
November 5, 2009
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by JohnFMoore: Your 2010 #Social Media Plan… Pull up a chair: http://bit.ly/21sakL #social #crm #cmo #marketing #ssc…
uberVU - social comments
November 5, 2009
Most of this is applicable for those of us who are interested in serious social network participation as well. Having clearly defined guidelines and commitments is essential.
Thank you.
Roy Atkinson
November 5, 2009
Thanks Roy. I agree. Some of these goals will actually be my personal goals as well. Youtube, watch out.
John
John Moore
November 5, 2009