I remember a time when I slogged through developing a marketing plan that looked rather like a grid. It had sections, objectives, columns for deadlines. It was parsed out into separate pieces – PR, branding, internal communications, client services, business development. Each piece, if you will, plugged in to the larger whole, but they were pieces nonetheless.
Many businesses are still planning this way, dividing their marketing efforts into “channels” and treating each vertically or horizontally, but rarely as a multi-faceted and intertwined approach. And this is critical to success in today’s marketing climate.
Consider Touchpoints
Social media, when done well, touches nearly every aspect of a business. In fact, I’d venture to say it’s more about the underpinnings of customer service than it is marketing or communications. First and foremost, it has to be used to create better customer experiences. That in turn paves the way for more clear, authentic, and customer-focused communications. It’s a cycle.
When planning: Go talk to the people that talk to your customers, directly, every day. Your sales team, your customer support team. Find out what issues and consistent messaging they’re hearing from your customers, and build your communications plan to address them. Directly.
There Is No End Date.
There’s some semantic debate and discussion around whether social media is an ongoing effort, or whether it can be part of a campaign. I think they can both exist (and see how the articulate Jason Baer explains that difference here). But in general, you have to consider social media as a tenet of business practice, not something you start and stop. It’s a philosophy, if you will. A commitment to creating content, communication, and interactions that keep your customers top of mind and encourage them to reach out to you and each other.
When planning: For each part of your marketing plan, ask yourself how that piece of outbound communication will create more inbound dialogue from your customers, either once or ongoing. Is your email campaign opening the door to people joining your online community? Are your press releases telling a story about customer experience and encouraging people to find you online? Stop thinking in terms of start and end dates, and rather how to keep the cycle of communication feeding itself, outbound to inbound and back again.
Efficient, Yes. Band-Aid, No.
I wish it didn’t happen, but I’ve heard several examples of companies saying “marketing is expensive, so we’ll just do social media instead.” Or worse, “We should really tack on some social media stuff to this campaign.” No, no, no.
Social media isn’t the same capital outlay as, say, direct mail. But the big surprise to most companies who learn to do it well is that it takes careful planning, dedication of significant time, and long term commitment. It’s not something you can just slap on the tail end of a marketing plan when the budget gets cut. Yes, the tools themselves are less expensive, but overall, social media requires a deeper investment.
When planning: Budget your time as well as your dollars. Things like blogging and Twitter are increasingly powerful business tools, but they’re time consuming too. Do an audit of all of your marketing efforts from the past year, and determine how much time you spent as well as how much money. Find the dogs, and get rid of them. Then plow those resources into expanding your horizons and integrating new social media endeavors into the plan. It’s not about finding more resources, it’s about better allocating the ones you have.
The best kind of marketing plans should be built on the backs of business goals, not pure communication goals. If you look at social media holistically instead of transactionally, your marketing planning will be more efficient, effective, and give you the flexibility to adapt along the way.
Amber, Good Morning, Great Post,
I think that one of the many benefits of integrating Social Media into your overall marketing plan is your point about “Touch Points” Within each of these touch points lie opportunities to engage with your customer. Create a favorable experience at each of these turns and your customer satisfaction will increase exponentially.
Thanks Amber. I really wish more people would get that social media is not just some ad campaign. You need to actively participate…every single day (no matter how much you hate it sometimes
). You wouldn’t have customer service not interact with customers when they make an inbound call? So why act surprised when they don’t appreciate you not responding to blog comments…
Too many small business owners do Marketing a-la-carte. I’ll have one those, 2 of these with some social media and a sprinkle of magic dust. Social media is certainly on the menu, but it must be used as a part of an overall strategy with the undertanding that it’s not free as you say.
Business owners must build a marketing strategy BEFORE choosing from the menu.
Thanks for your article that shows that social media are not some kind of easy and cheap outlet that can be used without any preparation. The worst is when someone tells you he is developing a viral video but without any strategy, just the upload on You Tube idea.
Good stuff, Amber. I would add just a couple of things:
1. Besides talking heavily to people in customer-facing roles, you can / should use social media to talk to customers directly and informally. (You’re not precluding that with anything you say here, but I think it’s important to emphasize the potential for many more people inside a company to have direct contact to customers.)
2. Don’t overlook the *internal* uses of social media, too. I know we’re talking on a marketing blog here but I’ve found that many people inside companies — the folks who may be helping you implement marketing, when the time comes — develop their initial comfort with social-media methods in “safe” environments, e.g. within the walls of the company.
Keep up the good work!
Tim, You bring up a really great point about internal social media. In my view, it’s going to be an absolutely critical component to the companies that do this well, and succeed wildly.
It’s always been important for your internal audience to buy into your brand at many levels (and it’s a focus that’s too often ignored). But social media is so very visible and rapid, and it’s going to be imperative that companies start by building their social presence from the inside out. Great topic, and a strong one to consider. Thanks.
Amber, thanks for the link and the kind words about my post.
Indeed, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It doesn’t matter what the constructs of your social media program are, who manages it, etc.
Because ultimately, social media IS NOT a program at all. It’s a belief system. It’s understanding that your customers want to have a relationship with your company that goes beyond the ATM card.
In a society where the headlines scream the opposite, consumers (me included) want to believe that the companies they buy from are inherently GOOD and TRUTHFUL.
Social media helps make that case in a way that’s incredibly powerful, and will only get more so.
Brilliant!
I was hooked by the title alone. Social media is simply a more efficient, more intimate version of communication.
It’s not a static page, it’s not a twitter account and it’s not separate.
Good point. There are so many talking about social media as the only marketing tool. But it needs to be incorporated into plans rather than replacing them!
Amber,
I follow you on twitter, but you have Mack Collier to thank for leading me to this post.
As a fellow social media blogger, http://www.jesseliebman.com, I can’t agree more with the fact that social media will not cure diseases or make you a fortune 500 company.
Social media truly is another advertising device that can be used to promote and interact with people you otherwise may not.