1. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 1 Monitor and Listen Explore and listen to what others say about your company and your competitors’ company. Develop a monitoring strategy to discover: issues discussed by customers and others that impact your brand opinions customers have about your company, products and competitors individuals who are or can serve as influencers in your market places where your customers post comments, e.g. social media platforms such as Facebook, chat rooms/forums, or blog comments

2. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 2 Establish Objective & Goals Set clear goals and objectives for what you want to achieve. Some social media objectives may include: developing relationships with your customer base and community establishing your company or brand as a credible source providing outbound company communications utilizing social media sites as a customer service platform repositioning your company

3. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 3 Limit your Social Media Platforms Select the more important social media platforms that benefit your company’s objectives. Not every social media website is for every company or product.

4. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 4 Develop Key Messages Develop clear communications that help your organization engage with your target audience in a meaningful way. Topics may include: company closures that may affect employment or the community how-to videos that relate to using your products important policy or legal information that affects the consumer links to relevant third-party content

5. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 5 Create Good, Useful Content Social media is considered a platform to “mingle” and share valuable stories (content) that benefit your target audience. Avoid direct sales pitches. Meaningful content may include: video podcasts micro-posts photos presentations infographics articles webinars PowerPoint slides

6. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 6 Assemble a Social Media Team Establishing key roles and responsibilities are essential for organizations regardless if a dedicated online marketing team exists or does not exist. Delegated responsibilities may include: uploading content managing videos responding to customer comments specified topics or issues monitoring each social media website and blog comments

7. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 7 Commit Time and Resources Commit the time and resources required to successfully manage a social media strategy. Items requiring commitment may include: developing a content schedule and editorial calendar, especially for blogging training staff responsible for the social media plan keeping your organization informed on your social media events daily or weekly meetings to discuss strategy and issues that may arise from comments deciding to keep your social media monitoring in-house or outsourcing it to an agency

8. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 8 Promote your Social Media Add your social media sites, i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., to your website as well as all of your offline marketing communications collateral. Suggested promotional vehicles may include: E-mail newsletters and broadcasts brochures television advertisements business cards flyers/print advertisements

9. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 9 Integrate Online with Offline Events Both offline and online marketing teams must coordinate with one another to ensure consistency across all marketing communication channels. Develop a strategy and plan for keeping the offline marketing communications team aware of all social media communications. The same holds true for the offline marketing team; keep the online social media team informed of all offline events and activities.

10. Developing a Social Media Process for your Business Alyn Stafford www.marketingcommunicationsblog.com 10 Measure your Success Observe and analyze your social media analytics. Check for spikes in your data: Is there a specific: post that generates more comments and traffic? time of day that traffic or comments increase? geographic area or areas that tend to respond more than others? Learn to analyze the data and make adjustments as necessary.