Moving into Your Digital Community
The Digital Condo Docs
By Bernie Borges
 If you have been putting off developing your 2009 social media marketing strategy, here is a guideline to follow. Start with these questions: Why do you think you need a social media strategy? What are your competitors doing in social media? What is your objective? What will the costs be? What are the staffing requirements? How will you measure results? What are the risks? What are the opportunities?
Why do you think you need a social media strategy?
While I am a believer that most businesses can benefit from a social media strategy, nonetheless this is a very healthy question to ask. A social media strategy serves one simple purpose: engaging in online conversations with your community so you can improve your ability to serve your customers and compete effectively.
In many cases the reason to start a social media strategy is because you owe it to your business to be actively listening to the conversations happening on the social web in blogs, social networks, podcasts, wikis, online videos, Twitter, etc. Participating in online communities allows you to keep in touch with people and happenings in your industry in very personal and social ways. Being absent from these conversations can be costly. Consider a social media strategy to leverage the benefits of access to online communities and their collective influence.
What are your competitors doing in social media?
The answer to this question will help you determine your objective. If your competitors have a popular blog, or you see them actively participating in groups on social networks, you should study this before you answer the next question.
What is your objective?
Objectives usually fall into one of these categories:
Be careful not to base you entire strategy on reaction to your competitor’s activities on the social web. But it is important to identify what you seek to accomplish. If your goals are all three, segment parts of your social media strategy according to the objective each is intended to achieve. For example, a blog could be a competitive differentiator and a video strategy could be a brand strategy.
What will the costs be?
Depending on the strategy the costs will vary. It’s always advisable to start by listening. Take 30 to 90 days to just find relevant communities and observe the conversations to see what you learn. Once you decide what actions to take the initial costs usually are not significant. In fact, many of the tools in social media are free to use. As your social media plans mature you may decide to license fee-based specialty marketing software to monitor your results. During the first year of most social media plans the biggest cost is the time to ramp it up.
What are the staffing requirements?
Hopefully your current staff is all you need. Social media marketing does require an affinity to write and to engage people online. If current staff isn’t suited, you may need to consider doing some shuffling around. You may find someone in the corner who flourishes in a social media role. Look for people with subject matter expertise, creativity and a willingness to engage in online dialogue without a sales attitude.
How will you measure results?
In time you can see more sales opportunities through improved brand awareness, competitive differentiation, improved customer service, and new strategic opportunities such as speaking engagements.
What are the risks?
There are several risks. If your approach is very sales-centric, you won’t succeed. You must identify a plan and stick to it long enough to give it time to blossom. You must have the right people working the plan. You must get engaged with online communities who are relevant to your business or you’ll risk wasting your time.
What are the opportunities?
The opportunities are many. If you do a good job of engaging relevant communities you can build a loyal base of fans that consume your content and act as your evangelists. Your contact with customers can become more intimate. You could accelerate product-centric activities such as new rollouts. New doors can open. Your brand image can improve greatly. You could stay well-informed of industry activities.
Let Your Content Go
The fundamental purpose of developing a social media marketing strategy is to benefit from the power of online communities. We have been taught over the years to protect our content, not letting our competitors see our content for fear of giving them insight into our strengths or our future plans. Other than truly proprietary content, forget that approach. To be blunt, that is old school. The new Marketing 2.0 approach is to let your content go!
A social media strategy committed to with resources and a content strategy can result in many new sales opportunities. The irony is that an effective social media strategy is not a sales strategy. It’s a marketing strategy based on building relationships and producing and sharing content. The content you produce will show up in search engines and many other social places on the web that will result in new sales opportunities.
About the Author
Bernie Borges is the founder and president of Find and Convert, an Internet Marketing firm specializing in search engine optimization and social media marketing strategies. Bernie is a frequent speaker, blogger and podcaster on these topics and is currently writing a book on social media marketing business strategies. Bernie can be reached at 727-234-0952 and bernie@findandconvert.com. Follow Bernie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay
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