Week 4: Social Media Plans

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As the week 4 discussion leader, I moved from our lesson on social media strategy to developing a social media plan. In The New Rules of Marketing and PR (2015), Scott says millions of people use the web for conducting research on products and services, expressing their opinion, and joining various groups based on hobbies or their passion (p 55). If this is the case, in a sea of millions, how do we prepare to interact with the right customers?

You need a plan!

In defining social media, Scott (2015) says “social media differs from mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on, and add to social media content” (p. 56). Since social media isn’t a part of old-fashioned marketing tactics, it’s important to make sure one has a plan before diving right in.

1. What are your organization's goals?

It’s easy to define marketing goals as being so specific, like how many clicks on an ad or a number of unique visitors to a site. It’s important to not continue this trend and instead align your goals with your organization’s goals of generating revenue or new customers.

2. What are the buyer personas you should be targeting?

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Once your goals are defined, the next step is identifying who your buyer personas are. These should be detailed and can help determine how to target via different marketing channels. According to Scott (2015), an organization needs to learn as much as it can about their buyers by making sure they’re asking themselves the right questions (p. 166). Personas should be as in depth as they can be, acting as more of a background description rather than just information on their job.

3. Identify the best way to reach your personas

It’s important to understand the way your buyers speak and the phrases that they use. Scott (2015) recommends using interviews when identifying your personas (p. 166). This is helpful in all online marketing efforts and specifically for search engine marketing tactics in order to effectively reach your audience.

4. What content should you serve with the message you want buyers to believe?

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The next step in a marketing plan is defining what messages to send out to potential buyers with what you want them to believe about your organization. Scott (2015) says to ask, “What is each buyer persona really buying from you?” (p 175). A helpful tool in figuring out what content to serve and when is an editorial plan. Scott states “As you keep your publisher’s hat on, consider what other media your organization can publish on the web to reach the buyers you have identified" (Scott, 2015, p. 177). This could mean developing different pages on your website tailored to each persona, different whitepapers, or videos.

All of these initial steps can be tied into an overall marketing strategy planning template to bring everything together. In The New Rules of Marketing and PR (2015), Scott gives a template example that is helpful to use for those who don’t know where to start (p 180). 

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Questions for this week's discussion:

1. Scott (2015) mentions that successful online marketing efforts are successful because they start by identifying one or more buyer personas to target. Why do you think it’s so important to identify buyer personas?

2. What could you incorporate from Scott’s recommendations to help improve your organization’s social media plan?



References:

Scott, D. M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.