What is Your Social Media Marketing Plan for 2010?

As the new year is rushing toward me I’m wrapping up my book “12 Step SEO” and trying to give it a good last chapter that concisely sums up its contents and sends the reader off to page rank glory.

However, today is NOT the day for writing the exciting conclusion to “12 Step SEO” but avoiding it by giving you a taste of my “The Social Media Strategy Kit”; the following summary was inspired by Greg Finn, Director of Internet Marketing for 10e20.

Spend Your Traditional Ad Budget on Customer Service

So many problems could be averted if companies would simply treat customers as they should. In today’s social realm, word of mouth travels far and above the typical physical conversation, and can truly influence users across the globe.  In the past, it was believed that a customer’s bed experience got transmitted to seven additional people.  With Twitter, FaceBook and the dozens of other social media outlets available, a customer’s bad experience can be transmitted almost instantly to hundreds and a certain percentage of those will re-transmit that bad experience to hundreds more!  If you supplement your products with excellent support and a pleasant experience, you will create advocates that will help, rather than hurt you.  Their positive experience can then be transmitted by the hundreds.

Create Social Media Strategies

The problem with most companies is that there is a lack of social media strategy.  They react; engaging in social media because they think they have to. Sit down and put together a list of goals then work to find a strategy that will work to accomplish them. Don’t just Tweet because you saw it on CNN, don’t make a Facebook page because your competitor did.  Come up with a list of goals and a strategy to achieve them.  If this process is challenging, hire a Social Media Marketing expert to create an internet marketing plan that include – or even focuses on – Social Media Marketing.

Create Social Media Policies

Policies should be set forth to ensure that workers are not breaking terms of use, acting inappropriately, providing inaccurate information or a handful of other possible dilemmas.  Anyone who is allowed to speak on behalf of the company should have extreme comprehension of social, how they work and the company strategy. When executed poorly, social media has the power to severely harm a brand.  Education is the fundamental tool to prevent these problems.

ORM is Not Just an Acronym: Make an Effort to Track Mentions

One of the toughest aspects of Social Media Marketing is tracking the conversations that are occurring on the net. There are a number of good tracking systems on the market, the trick is to test drive them and see what will work for you.  In addition to tracking mentions, tracking broad keywords and engaging customers who are looking for help can be a very profitable portion of your Social Media Marketing campaign. When looking for tools, those that allow the archiving and exportation of data is something that can be a big help.

Protect Your Brand

If you have a trademarked term, you can almost always stop name squatters from hijacking your brand name, but why wait for that to happen? So get out there and protect your brand.  Create company accounts using your brand name at all social media outlets you can find.  Better yet, use a service that will do so for you, automatically.   Transmutation Sciences uses one such service that allows us to claim usernames using our client’s brands on dozens of sites with ease.

“Vestis Virum Reddit” Clothes Make the Man – Always Look Your Best

Use your social media profiles as extensions of your brand and of your website. Take the time to make custom backgrounds for Twitter or create rich Facebook tabs that support your current marketing initiatives. Just because your profile isn’t on your site, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend money trying to make it look good.

Promote Your Social Profiles

Creating a social profile is not the be-all, end-all solution to your social media efforts.  You have to promote those social profiles, too.  And, slapping a social media badge in your footer is simply not enough. Analyze options on how you can leverage real estate on your site to accomplish your social goals.  If you are going to incorporate social media into your marketing plans then display your badges proudly, where visitors can see them; develop promotions whose call to action wraps around your social profile.  Integrating your social media connections throughout all of your marketing communications is very important.

One of the hardest things to justify in Internet marketing is spending money without sending visitors to your website. Much like investing in design and development for social profiles, you should be securing budget for advertising on social media sites as well.

Give People a Reason to Join In

“If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work in social media, or online, in general. You need to give users a reason to follow you and become a fan. Whether it is sweepstakes, breaking news, giveaways, sales or company updates, you should offer users something beneficial in exchange for their loyalty.

Reward Loyal Fans with Exclusive Offers

By offering fans items that are exclusive to the social audience, you can “demonstrate value” and make them feel good about following you. Not only would they get an exclusive deal/song/download/game, they also get the feeling that they are getting a special connection that not everyone has. Take a look at my article about visitor rewards “If Yer Gonna Fish – Use Bait.”

Explore More Outlets

While Twitter and Facebook are making the biggest splash on the social media scene, there are hundreds more social sites out there – many of which can help you achieve company goals. Look into other social media outlets that you may not be currently engaged in; some may be a better fit than others.  Take time to really review the site to see if its users, its focus, are appropriate for your brand.

Do NOT Neglect Your Main Site

While all of the above points speak mainly of tactics that work off of your site, one of the biggest things to remember is that you can be social on your site.  Elements such as blogs and forums were the original social media, so be certain to maintain and cultivate them and create good content that will perform well in social media. At the end of the day, your site is your ultimate sales tool, so take care of it!

Your may want your web programmer try to bring social media into your website with Facebook Connect or Digg or Twitter’s API to harness the benefits of these sites on your own.

We should not underestimate the power of social media; its strength in building a wider audience, driving traffic, and, most importantly, creating a strong connection to your brand and influencing acceptance of your brand across a large group of people.  We also can not stress enough the importance of developing your social media plan, implementing that plan, and maintaining that plan as early as possible in your website’s life.