A Practical Action Plan
Too much theory and not enough usable information? Our Social Media Marketing Action Plan is about action, not talk. Implement the step-by-step plan, take action and watch the results.
Elements of Social Media Marketing
Use some or all of these tools to build your personal SMM plan.
- Blogging - keeping a daily journal or log
- Shared media - share your videos, photos, audio clips, etc. with the world
- Social bookmarking - let other people find your stuff
- Communities - create and/or join a community of like-minded people
- Social and professional networking - get to know other people in your life and business
- Wiki - create a web site where your visitors and community can contribute ideas, edit web pages and create new content
SMM Action Plan: Blogging
Blogging is the cornerstone of a SMM plan. It's a chance for you to write about your business, your ideas, tips and tricks for users - it's a chance to amuse and inform your audience.
This isn't an opportunity for a sales pitch, but a chance to share your expertise with your audience. Your goal is to have regular readers/subscribers and pitching them every day becomes boring quickly. Give them some content - lists of tips and tricks are usually winners.
Make sure your users can comment on your blog postings. This provides valuable feedback, discussion and you ca get into the minds of your readers. You may moderate the comments if you like, but this may turn off potential commenters.
This isn't an opportunity for a sales pitch, but a chance to share your expertise with your audience. Your goal is to have regular readers/subscribers and pitching them every day becomes boring quickly. Give them some content - lists of tips and tricks are usually winners.
Make sure your users can comment on your blog postings. This provides valuable feedback, discussion and you ca get into the minds of your readers. You may moderate the comments if you like, but this may turn off potential commenters.
SMM Action Plan: Shared Media
Using services like YouTube, Flickr, iTunes and SlideShare to share videos, photos, podcasts (audio) and presentations is a great way to give your knowledge and expertise to the world. Follow the comments and ratings for feedback.
SMM Action Plan: Social Bookmarking
The big trick with blogging is getting your content out to people who want to read it. There are many traditional and non-traditional ways to do this, but the easiest way is to "bookmark", "publish" or "syndicate" your content.
There are several major site (and many niche sites) where you can do this. The biggest ones are:
- del.icio.us
- Digg.com
- StumbleUpon.com
- Google Bookmarks
- Technorati.com
- Reddit.com
Once you have accounts set up on these sites (all are free), you save each posting to these sites and tag each posting with a few words. This will help organize and categorize the post.
Other people are able to see and read your posting - this is the "social" aspect of social bookmarking. They can rate (or, on Digg.com, they can "Digg") your post - the most popular posts can get overwhelming traffic.
Bookmarking and tagging your blog posts, videos, etc. can create traffic to your site, and valuable subscriber to your blog.
Check out this great video from Common Craft:
There are several major site (and many niche sites) where you can do this. The biggest ones are:
- del.icio.us
- Digg.com
- StumbleUpon.com
- Google Bookmarks
- Technorati.com
- Reddit.com
Once you have accounts set up on these sites (all are free), you save each posting to these sites and tag each posting with a few words. This will help organize and categorize the post.
Other people are able to see and read your posting - this is the "social" aspect of social bookmarking. They can rate (or, on Digg.com, they can "Digg") your post - the most popular posts can get overwhelming traffic.
Bookmarking and tagging your blog posts, videos, etc. can create traffic to your site, and valuable subscriber to your blog.
Check out this great video from Common Craft:
Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Social Bookmarking in Plain English
A short explanation of the features and benefits of Social Bookmarking sites like Delicious.com. This video comes in an unbranded "presentation quality" version that can be licensed for use in the workplace. http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/bookmarking-plain-english
Runtime: 3:25
299186 views
10 Comments:
SMM Action Plan: Communities
Communities and community-building is nothing new on the web, but there are some neat developments in how communities are built that make the interaction between community-building much easier.
As an example, I will use a community that is built around people who use and create color palettes for a living, like graphic, web and interior designers.
COLOURlovers.com
As an example, I will use a community that is built around people who use and create color palettes for a living, like graphic, web and interior designers.
COLOURlovers.com
Elements of a social community
- All content is user-generated. This is a hallmark of a Social Media site. User-generated media, or crowdsourcing, is a model followed by many sites, including Digg.com, YouTube.com, Wikipedia.org and iStockPhoto.com.
- There are strong commenting, rating and bookmarking tools. The ability to engage with others on the site through commenting on palettes, making friends, rating people's palettes and colours, and bookmarking and saving colours is very easy, and heavily encouraged through a points system. This generates a high degree of contact between the community members.
- The site is based around people's profiles. The profile - a page about you - is a core feature of social sites. It provides an anchor in the site, and a place where people can learn about you (like the small talk of any cocktail party), and you can learn about others. Facebook.com is a profile site; other sites use profiles to create the community aspect.
- There is a strong and continual sense of branding on the site, but is not intrusive. Everybody on COLOURlovers.com is a "lover". All of the text, down to the 404 page, revolvers around this theme. If you want to leave the site, they'll understand because not all relationships work out, and they hope that we can still be friends. The consistency of this theme is incredible - rarely has this been executed so thoroughly and consistently.
- The blog establishes the site's expertise, and selected members of the community guest blog. The site has established itself as an expert in colour through sharp commentary in the blog, and selected experts within the community share their observations in the "official" blog.
- The crowd contributes heavily to social bookmarking. The blog posts get Digged frequently by the community, and occasionally show up on Digg's front page driving even more traffic to the site.
- COLOURlovers.com maintains and encourages a Facebook group. Using other social media sites to promote your site's community is a very basic SMM tactic.
- The site's founder is front and center in the community. And the site's not so big that you can't get a personal email from him. That's socialbility.
SMM Action Plan: Social and Professional Networking
Using social networks like MySpace and Facebook to spread your marketing message can be difficult, and several companies have failed dramatically at marketing on Facebook. The audiences on Facebook and MySpace are hyper-aware of marketing, and will band together to protest obvious attempts at traditional marketing.
Having said that, there are many success stories of Facebook marketing, so what does it take? Here are some things to consider and try:
1. Use your fans and evangelists to start a Facebook group. Facebook is all about getting people together (and they will get together for almost any reason), so ask these people to rally others around you.
2. If you have a corporate cause, use a Facebook group to rally people to your cause.
3. Start your company's official Facebook group (starting to see a pattern of how to use Facebook?). Use the group to post news, etc., to your users.
4. Are you holding an event? Facebook events...
Be sensitive to how you use social networks. People are not on SNs so they can be marketed to, and they are sensitive to marketing in this space.
Social networking is about making person-to-person contacts; something that standard marketing is not especially good at. However, if you use the idea of making the personal connection, and wanting to talk with a person and not at them, then using SNs can be advantageous.
Business networking at sites like LinkedIn is another story. These networks are designed for business-to-business networking, and building business contacts. The rules are different, and if you are looking for an introduction, LinkedIn works quite well.
Having said that, there are many success stories of Facebook marketing, so what does it take? Here are some things to consider and try:
1. Use your fans and evangelists to start a Facebook group. Facebook is all about getting people together (and they will get together for almost any reason), so ask these people to rally others around you.
2. If you have a corporate cause, use a Facebook group to rally people to your cause.
3. Start your company's official Facebook group (starting to see a pattern of how to use Facebook?). Use the group to post news, etc., to your users.
4. Are you holding an event? Facebook events...
Be sensitive to how you use social networks. People are not on SNs so they can be marketed to, and they are sensitive to marketing in this space.
Social networking is about making person-to-person contacts; something that standard marketing is not especially good at. However, if you use the idea of making the personal connection, and wanting to talk with a person and not at them, then using SNs can be advantageous.
Business networking at sites like LinkedIn is another story. These networks are designed for business-to-business networking, and building business contacts. The rules are different, and if you are looking for an introduction, LinkedIn works quite well.
SMM Action Plan: Wikis
Wikis are web sites that are editable by any user. A community or group can edit a wiki, updating and altering information as each sees fit. Wikis are very good for group projects where you need to tap into the "wisdom of the crowd".
The biggest and most famous wiki is Wikipedia, the online, crowd sourced-and-maintained encyclopedia.
The biggest and most famous wiki is Wikipedia, the online, crowd sourced-and-maintained encyclopedia.
Wikis in Plain English
Wikis in Plain English
A short explanation of wikis and how they can be used to coordinate a group. This video comes in an unbranded "presentation quality" version that can be licensed for use in the workplace. http://www.commoncraft.com/store-item/video-wikis-plain-english
Runtime: 3:52
836722 views
10 Comments:
Summary
You can get started on several of these items right now. Set up your blog, write your script for your YouTube video - there are dozens of ways to get started with social media marketing.
If you feel that social media marketing is too complicated, you need more information or you just need some ideas, please feel free to contact me, I'd love to help.
You can also read my blog below for ideas, insights and observations on social media marketing.
If you feel that social media marketing is too complicated, you need more information or you just need some ideas, please feel free to contact me, I'd love to help.
You can also read my blog below for ideas, insights and observations on social media marketing.
Useful links
- Dave Walker Design
- Find out what I do, the services I can offer, and see projects I have worked on.
- Dave's Blog
- Ideas, observations and insights into design, the Web and social media.
- Social networking
- MySpace
- Social networking
- Business and professional networking
- WordPress Blogs
- Free blog accounts and free blogging software download
- TypePad
- Free blog accounts
- Blogger
- Free blogging accounts
- YouTube
- Video sharing
- Flickr
- Photo sharing
- SlideShare
- Presentation sharing
- del.icio.us
- Social bookmarking
- Technorati
- Social bookmarking
- Social bookmarking
- Digg
- Social bookmarking
- StumbleUpon
- Social bookmarking
DesignWalk: Dave Walker's blog
Design, the Web, Internet culture, social media, marketing and anything else that comes to mind.
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by DaveWalkerDesign
Dave Walker is a web designer, marketer and consultant based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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