Social Media Strategy: READY-FIRE-AIM

60% of companies using social media have no plan. Shooting from the hip does not make sense. Your purpose should dictate strategy.

Companies are going about social strategy backwards, by first concentrating on the tools and technologies instead of focusing on what they want to achieve. My understanding of social media and how to use it was greatly expedited because my rifled focus on applying it for new business.

A survey conducted by marketing firm Digital Brand Expressions found that 78 percent of client companies responding to their survey said they use social media, but only 41 percent said they have a strategic plan in place to direct their social media efforts.

Other key findings from this survey that should be of interest:

  • Of the companies that have no plan in place, 88% agree that it is important.
  • Of those companies that work from some plan, 94% said that marketing activities are included in the plan.
  • 71% of those with a plan said their Marketing Department is the group with the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the firm’s social media presence.
  • Of the planners, 71% indicate they use social media for public relations communications while 55% said that they used social media for sales-related activities. A surprisingly small percentage (16%) say their HR team is using social media for recruiting, employee retention, training and development, etc. and 26% use it for customer service.
  • Social media efforts are being led primarily by Marketing (71%) and PR (29%) departments.
  • Even among those with a plan, few (29%) have written policies and communications protocols in place, leaving the organization exposed to problems arising out of employees communicating in ways that inadvertently hurt, rather than help, their company brands.

“It’s fairly well established that social media is a channel that businesses must participate in, leaving CEOs with the new challenge of planning and implementing brand aligned initiatives enterprise-wide,” said Veronica Fielding, president and CEO of Digital Brand Expressions.

Click on the link to download a PDF copy of: Corporate Social Media Report

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Social Media Marketing Continues to Grow: Great Way to Reach the Professional Tradesmen.

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So What’s Your Social Media Strategy to Reach Professional Tradesmen?

Everyone in the manufacturing sector is feeling the pressure from around them to get in on this social media phenomenon. So you open a LinkedIn account, set up Twitter and even get a Facebook page set up. Wow, that was easy, now all I have to do is to wait until somebody finds me. Unfortunately, this scenario is much truer than one would like to think. Social media is no different than any other marketing program you have. You have to have a strategy in place before you go and start implementing it. You need to determine why you’re on the social media scene before you implement the how. Here are some helpful hints:

  • What’s your point? Do you want to build awareness, build loyalty or generate new leads?
  • What’s your point of differentiation? You have to define a niche or specialty.
  • Do some research into how your target audience uses Social. You may find contractors use Facebook more to try to promote their local business or maybe it’s Twitter. Do you know?
  • How will you determine whether your social program will be successful? You need to determine expectations before starting a program.

Jason Baer wrote a great post recently, Develop a social media strategy in 7 steps, that you might find interesting reading.

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