Social Media

Marketing

Starter Kit

mydisruption.com

@MyDisruption

Social media is like teen sex.

Everybody wants to do it.

Nobody knows how. When

it’s finally done, there is

surprise it’s not better. – (as tweeted by) Avinash Kaushik, Google

Here’s the dirty little secret that most people

in the social media world aren’t telling you –

like every other marketing channel, it takes

strategy and effort. Just being there is not a

win. Those who succeed create value,

engage in meaningful conversations,

demonstrate consistency, talk with (not at)

customers and colleagues, and permeate

authenticity every step of the way.

In the following pages, you’ll hopefully find

some useful tips, inspiring thoughts and

experience a few “Hmm…never thought of

that before” moments. What you won’t find is

a review of individual social media channels

or down-and-dirty industry-specific strategies

(that’s for Volume II). This guide is meant to

help you lay the foundation for launching your

social media presence.

Now let’s get after it…

A marketing person should

always ask one key question

when beginning to develop a

social media strategy: how much

chaos can this organization

handle?

– Gary Stein, VP Strategy, ISOBAR

Questions to ask yourself before even opening your laptop…

What is my “social media voice” going

to be?

What are my competitors doing in this

space?

Do I have a content

creation and distribution

plan? Why would customers

engage with me online?

What is the value I

intend to provide?

What about measurement? How

will I analyze the success of my social

media efforts?

What do my existing customers / brand

advocates think about social media?

How separate do I want my personal opinions / attitudes and those of the brand to be?

Is there a difference?

What are my existing

marketing plans and

campaigns?

What is my ultimate

goal?

Should I create a social media communication plan to share with employees / outsourced

talent?

Are my current customers on social media

sites? Which ones?

Who is going to manage my social media presence?

How do I fuse my

online efforts with my

offline ones?

Am I going to use social media to attract new customers or connect with existing ones? Or

both?

Do I need to outsource any components?

How much time do I have to

commit to this?

Against which criteria will I choose the best social media channels?

But the MOST IMPORTANT question to ask is…..

WHY *HINT: The answer shouldn’t be:

“because everyone else is doing it!”

If you think you are in control,

you’re fooling yourself. As soon

as you start listening, you realize

you’re not in control. And letting

go will yield more and better

results.

– Charlene Li, author

A new version of your message has now been rebroadcast and awaits

your attention…

You

introduce

your

message

via Twitter

@Jane

responds

with a blog

post

@Bob

reacts to

@Jane’s

post on

Twitter

It is no longer your message…it

is ours. Your audience will test it,

personalize it, discuss it and, if

you do it right, pass it along.

Success lies in your comfort

level with this…

Be flexible and adaptable

Be open-minded and responsive

Be authentic, honest and true to

your brand

It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book

You build the framework in which your

message lives

Embrace the audience’s need to

choose / customize

Help them to create new stories

New marketing is about the

relationships, not the

medium. – Ben Grossman, founder of BiGMarK

Let’s say you’ve decided to invite a group

of close friends over for a dinner party and

it is now menu planning time. Chances are

you mentally begin to ask yourself key

questions:

Who are my guests and what are

their food tastes?

Are there any vegetarians? Any

allergies?

Is this a wine or beer crowd?

How much time do I have and what

level of energy am I willing to put

into cooking?

What types of foods fall in line with

my culinary strengths?

The process for choosing which social

media sandboxes to play in is quite similar.

It involves a healthy chunk of market

insight, a dash of self awareness and a

pinch of multi-tasking prowess.

YOUR SOCIAL

MEDIA

FOUNDATION

>

THE MEDIUM

You must

find your

brand voice

Establish a

content

creation

plan

Adapt this

foundation

to social

platforms

Multi-channel living

Flexible content distribution is king

Different social media sites do not exist

in silos

Learn to cross promote and build a

cohesive and complementary artillery

You author

an article on

a hot

industry topic

You upload

the article to

your blog

You tweet a

link to the

article

You create a

How To checklist

from the

article’s content

and upload to

Slideshare

You tweet

the

Slideshare

link

You produce a

3-minute video

on the topic and

post to your

website and

YouTube channel

You tweet

the link to

your video

You include

the article and

various links in

your Facebook

updates

Flexible Content Distribution Example

Marketing is no longer about

the stuff that you make, but

about the stories you tell.

- Seth Godin, sethgodin.typepad.com

Now that you’re here…

Why should anybody interact with you?!

Need to determine distribution vehicles (e.g. blog,

Twitter, YouTube)

Engage, engage, engage

Content Creation Starting

Points

What value can I offer?

Are there any information voids

in the market place that

match up with my skills?

What are my passion points?

If you make customers unhappy

in the physical world, they might

each tell 6 friends. If you make

customers unhappy on the

Internet, they can each tell 6,000

friends.

- Jeff Bezos, CEO at amazon.com

Engagement 101 Talking

To...

Talking

With…

•Making statements

•One-size-fits-all promotions

•Spamming with offers / sales

•Arguing negative reviews

•Consistently selling

•Automated robot tweets / posts

•Infrequent communication

•Asking questions

•Customizing pitches

•Setting up clear opt-ins & opt-outs

•Frequent feedback solicitation

•Providing free resources

•Rewarding influencers and advocates

•Offering exclusive deals to followers &

friends

There is no magic bullet to social media success. There is no instant influx of new customers that results from simply signing up for the newest social site. Like everything else, it takes work, strategy, flexibility and constant reinvention. We hope you’ve found some value in these pages. If nothing else, we wanted to stress the idea that your first step in the social media game should be, ironically, a quite anti-social process – sit back, contemplate the “Why?”, determine what your goals are, and game plan how you’re going to achieve them.

Then go out and make that sh*t happen.