PixelMEDIA Inc.

The landscape

With the enormous surge in popularity of Social Media and all the buzzwords and technologies surrounding it, we are seeing a “fog of business” going on right now as far as how to implement a successful social media plan that complements existing goals. So I thought breaking down the “why” and “how” would be helpful.

The takeaway

Plan – Listen – Engage – Track – Refine

1. Create a vision
2. Start with metrics
3. Research your audience
4. Develop a strategy
5. Phase your rollout
6. Listen and learn
7. Engage with purpose
8. Stay connected
9. Track your progress
10. Keep experimenting

Why is social media so important?

There is phenomenal growth taking place within the social sphere as is evident in this Nielsen study. A nearly 300% increase in the use of social networking sites over the last year alone is astounding. Your customers are out there using these sites every day for longer and longer periods of time. There clearly is a cultural shift going on and customers have come to expect more from the companies they deal with (and buy from). Choice is king and empowerment rules. Quality service is not an option, it’s mandatory.

Also, check your competitors on the social networks. You might be surprised to see how many of them are out there harnessing all that viral power.

The Process

Develop a strategy

So what are you going to do? More importantly why are you going to do it? What are the top three business objectives you are trying to accomplish? What is unique about your company? What is your value proposition? Do you have specific metrics in place?

Having clear understanding (vision) and a tangible strategy (written down) as to how your business is going to achieve its goals is critical to your success. Next is the prioritization of these goals. Finally, phasing these priorities (stepping the process) creates a manageable environment and increases the probability of success. This also allows staff to coalesce on messaging and tasks at hand.

Research your audience

While most corporations know a good bit about their existing customers through the traditional interactions with them (via live, website, phone, email, etc.), many are unfamiliar as to where else customers speak about their brand or what they have to say about the products and services they offer. If possible, ask your current customers through surveys, phone, site polls, and collect for future use.

Next, go out to the existing social networks (here is an excellent Social Media Map to find them) and just cruise around. Look for niche sites in your vertical as well. Search them and look for terms related to your business, your company name, etc. and note the experts in the communities related to your products and services. Make a map customized to your business for future reference.

Listen to your communities

Once you have researched and prioritized where you will put your efforts, it’s time to listen. There is now an exceptional amount of technology that allows you to “monitor your brand”. I think of this as listening to and taking care of your users’ needs. Think “people” and do right by them. The array of solutions—or “listening tools”—ranges from Radian6 for enterprises to free tools such as Google Alerts and Twitter Advanced Search with a wide assortment of options in between. Start with the free ones to get an idea of what’s out there and come to the listening table with a concept of what you are trying to accomplish (e.g., help frustrated customers, reach out to prospects looking for a solution, etc.). Otherwise, the amount of information coming back at you will be overwhelming.

Phase it

As far as what tools and applications to use, your customers should be the ones telling you where and what you should be doing. In some instances, just using Twitter may be a great first step for client support (CoTweet and TweetDeck are great options), but maybe your audience is clamoring for a closed forum for deep conversations on highly specialized topics. That’s where the research and listening comes in, thus driving your planned phases and the next level of requirements.

Breaking out your new social solution is critical to the eventual outcome. There is an internal team ramp-up of knowledge on social media and how the tools physically work. The key is to think long-term, but with attainable shorter phases.

Engage your customers

Once you feel comfortable with the tools, and protocols that go with them, start to engage with the communities. Ask and answer questions. Be helpful. Don’t try to take over and get too preachy or “sales-y.” Just be supportive. This inspires trust (See Chris Brogan) and makes customers more likely to want to interact with you and—perhaps—become an evangelist for your company.

Now this is the hard part – sustainability. Stay engaged. Once you start to make inroads you have to let your communities know that you’re not going to abandon them. Don’t leave it all up to one individual. Recruit other staff to support areas in which they are subject matter experts. Create a schedule if you need to. Send meeting requests (really!) and make people accountable in your organization to fulfill their duties and your customers’ needs. This doesn’t need to be a chore. You may be surprised at the level of internal support you receive if you allow others to “take the helm”.

Measure the impact

If you don’t know what’s going on, how will you know if you’re meeting or beating your metrics? Utilize analytics to track your goals. Use the metrics or benchmarks already in place as your reality check. Use the real world responses and conversations to guide you on tone, manner, and client satisfaction. Many of the monitoring tools used for listening also have capabilities to look at sentiment, trends, etc.

Keep learning

I did (and still do). It’s been very helpful adding on this social layer to help support our clients’ business needs. Start with checking out some of the excellent blogs from writers like Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin. Mike Volpe also has blogs on inbound marketing, crucial to a successful social push.

Conclusion

Ultimately, social media, and the various sites and apps that make it up, represent another channel to satisfy your customers and an opportunity to reach your business objectives.

Take the leap, your clients will love you for it!

Thoughts?

It’s all a learning process and I would love to hear your thoughts on above. What’s your take?

(Twitter) http://twitter.com/pixelmedia_inc

(Vimeo) http://vimeo.com/channels/letstalk

(Facebook) http://bit.ly/PixelMEDIA-Facebook

Tags: Business Process, Project Management, Social media