Earlier this summer I gave a presentation in Minneapolis at a ClickZ OMS event on building a social media roadmap with tips on blog marketing and using Twitter. It’s all very introductory if you work in the social media space, but if not, serves as a useful baseline for making a case for corporate social media participation.
Many companies are without confidence in how to use communication tools like blogs or Twitter and this presentation can serve as a good starting point for those tactics as well as for creating a social media strategy. There was good feedback at the event and I’ll do my best to turn it into a slidecast in the future.
I should mention for those that have a good feel for the basics of social media or SEO, TopRank has partnered with the Direct Marketing Association to offer a 2 day intensive workshop on social media strategy, tactics and SEO called “Social Media Smarts“. We focus on building a social media roadmap for participants as well as understanding various social media marketing tools and how SEO fits into the social media marketing mix. The next workshop is in New York, December 1 & 2 so be sure to check out the Social Media Smarts site and get signed up.
nice.. Thanks Lee
I love this post! This clarifies so well how to make a solid social media plan.
I have a question about a certain diagram. Slide 49 depicts the blog being the central hub of all social media efforts. I agree with that and can clearly see how that works.
How would that chart be modified for a news business? If your site is basically a continually updating blog (stories, columns, reviews, etc), how does that fit into the social media sphere? There is no one single blog to base it around, but a number of blogs and stories.
I would be very interested in understand how a good social media plan can revolve around a news publication. Do share.
Thanks Logan. In the scenario you describe, the news publication would be the center.
If a site is social media friendly, there’s no reason not to make it the center of a social media strategy, vs a blog. However, most web sites do not include social features and blogs do, which is why that diagram on slide 49 uses a blog.
Thanks for the quick and insightful reply. We try to make all our stories commentable (if that even counts as a word), as well as able to socialize it through social media.
This post will really help in our social media plan. Do you have any resources or advice for creating a good social media policy? If not I think that would be a good topic 😀
Thanks again.
Thanks for the insightful post, Lee.
I think that for every endeavor to succeed — in this case, a prominence in the social media community — a concrete plan should be established first, calling to mind one of The Art of War’s key points.
Keep those posts coming!
“Social media puts buyers, not marketers, in control.”
What a great way to summarize the importance of social media for brands. Now they can see how the public portrays their company, and are able to react to these opinions in real time.
Great post and intriguing slide Lee! Will you be giving any more presentations soon? Any plans on coming to the Seattle area?
Joel Gross
Great presentation. One of the issues that B2B firms struggle with is not necessarily ‘how to measure’ or ‘what ROI will I get’, but ‘who will manage all of this Social Media project stuff’. In your view, what is the best function within a corporation to manage the Social Media Marketing effort?
Hey Alex, if it’s a social media “marketing” effort vs PR, recruiting, or customer service, then it’s marketing that should manage it. I think you know where I’m going with this. The purpose of the effort should tie in to the department or group within the corporation that manages it.
Managing the effort is one thing of course, but being a community manager and interfacing with the community and social web at large is another. Many companies cannot justify adding a dedicated headcount for that, so an alternative would be to use software that does as much data collection/monitoring and analysis as possible and then share the responsibility of responding and interacting across multiple people.
Nice deck- thanks for sharing. Makes me want to get more of mine on slideshare. In the early phases of a new world, sharing helps rise the tide for all boats. Would love to be able to download it so I can excerpt a chart or two with credit, but can understand why you don’t want to make it super easy. 🙂
How that chart will revise by a news business? If your place is basically a successive improved network diary (story, special column, comment,etc.) ,How about entering healthy that of social media field? There is not an single network diary because of it around, but a lot of network diaries and stories.