5 Steps for a Better Social Media Strategy
By Whitney Keyes

Everyone knows the benefits of social media tools: they’re free of cost, easy to use and powerful marketing communication tools, giving us the potential to instantly reach millions of people with our marketing messages. But how do we exploit all of this power and use these tools in the most effective ways? How can we ensure that our social media marketing advances our business goals? In order to be more successful in the end, we need to take a smart approach right from the start.While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all technique to social media, there is a proven process that can help you do your social media marketing in ways that propel you forward. The five key steps to this process are: strategy, story, strength, simplicity and speed. Using this process, you can turn any tweet or YouTube video into a valuable marketing asset that delivers results.

1. Strategy. This is about being more intentional with your social media and creating a plan for success. It’s easy to come up with a multitude of ideas for blogs and Pinterest posts, but if you don’t prioritize your activities, you’ll be spread too thin and risk paying too little attention to any one activity to be effective with any of them. Whether you’re a student or a CEO, take time to envision where you want to be down the road, and set clear, achievable goals using social media to help you get there.

2. Story. Social media tools were intended to create connections with other people. Instead of pushing out information, turn your approach around and share stories that resonate with the people you most want to reach. You can see great examples of storytelling on the Facebook page for The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Here’s one post made on December 9, 2012:

“Meet Mama Josephine, 28-year-old mother of three from Kalemy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She recently split from her husband and is struggling to take care of her children on her own. But despite the difficulties and the lack of money she finds time to volunteer as a local polio vaccinator. Browse this fantastic album from UNICEF Africato see a day in the life of Mama Josephine!”Just like Mama Josephine, we all have busy lives and our own personal problems. Recognizing those parallels, UNICEF uses this story as a powerful marketing message: after all, if Mama Josephine can take time to help others amidst her own problems, perhaps the reader could take time to help UNICEF through a donation? UNICEF makes no attempt at moral suasion here; it simply delivers an upbeat story, hoping that uplifted readers will take action. This simple story is far more effective than reams of data on poverty rates or how the organization’s budget dollars are spent, because the positive emotions it stimulates through this simple story and others like it compel us to action and are less vulnerable to debate or cynicism.

3. Strength. Easy as it may be to do, you’ll have a far better chance of producing results from your social media marketing activities if you collaborate with others. This goes beyond just re-tweeting or cross-linking to another blog. One of the best ways to strengthen your efforts is to extend your reach by teaming up with your customers (or your fans). You can also create alliances with individuals and organizations, even your competitors. A third technique is to reach out to the media and other opinion influencers who can help you amplify your stories.

For example, the American pop singer Lady Gaga doesn’t just use social media to talk about herself. She regularly promotes her fans she calls “little monsters,” posting photos of them and tweeting details about her support base—even when things go astray. Here’s a tweet from her November 16, 2012, feed:

By focusing on her fans, Lady Gaga extends her marketing reach by focusing and making them feel special.  In return, her little monsters tout how “special” they are by sharing Lady Gaga’s tweets of their photos, thereby doing some of Lady Gaga’s marketing for her. This translates into real world business returns as well since these fans are then more inclined to support higher ticket prices and purchase the singer’s concert products and other memorabilia.

4. Simplicity. Once you know what you want to do with social media marketing, it’s time to turn your ideas into action. But as simple as social media tools are to use, some people over complicate the process. I recently consulted with a small business owner who felt she needed to blog and post to Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter multiple times a day. I explained to her that even though Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., has a Twitter feed with over 40,000 followers, the company doesn’t tweet every day, so why should she? I suggested that she consider streamlining her efforts to just one post a week and integrate content as much as possible. Its important to reflect back to step #1, your strategy, to remember what you’re working toward. Then, create a simple action plan to clarify what needs to be communicated, by when and what social media tools to use.

5. Speed. The great thing about social media marketing is that your efforts produce results quickly. You can instantly tell if people liked your post or are following you. But quantitative numbers like these aren’t the end-all and be-all. When it comes to evaluating your efforts, true success is measured over the long run, in qualitative information and engaging interactions with customers, clients and fans. This doesn’t need to be time-intensive. Ranging from test pilot YouTube videos to Facebook polls, there are many things you can do to make sure your social media is effective.

From a crisis tweet campaign for the Red Cross during Hurricane Sandy to free coffee coupons for over 33 million Starbucks fans on Facebook, the potential for what social media tools can do continues to grow. Remember: strategy, story, strength, simplicity and speed. By applying these five steps to your activities, you can harness the power of social media to propel your social media marketing to the right results, both big and small.