Page 367 - Social Media Marketing

technology—including by employees when outside the workplace—can be a trouble- 345
some mix, to say the least. Customer Support is as well a great potential partner in
your social technology planning process. ■ ╇ G et S tarted : P lan a S ocial A pplication

Workflow is an important factor in your implementation, so look for intel-
ligence tools (for example, social media listening and analytics platforms) that offer
robust workflow support. Refer back to the flowchart (see Chapter 1, “Social Media
and Customer Engagement”) developed by the U.S. Air Force for systematizing your
response efforts. In particular, consider who will actually respond, and create estimates
for the amount of time a response to a tweet or blog post will require and then build
this into your cost and effort plan for the upcoming period. Attention to details like
this will pay huge dividends as you ramp up collaborative social media programs.

Social Web Presence

With your business objectives and audience(s) defined, and a thought-through plan for
how you’ll manage conversations directly involving customers and stakeholders—for
example, responding to tweets, managing and participating in comments on your blog,
or keeping a Facebook business page updated—you can complete a basic specification
for the kinds of activities you’d like to engage in.

Listening is always a great starting point (See Chapter 6, “Social Analytics,
Metrics, and Measurement” and Chapter 7), especially for inputs to your planning
process. You can estimate the workload associated with your response efforts by study-
ing what is being said about your brand, product, or service in current social channels.
Add to this your basic outreach channels—a business presence on Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, or Linked In—and then ask the bigger question: Given your business objec-
tives, audience, and current social media programs, what needs to happen to move
customers and stakeholders to higher levels of engagement, and what is it that you spe-
cifically want to accomplish as a result?

The higher forms of engagement—content creation and collaboration—are
essential elements of contemporary marketing. Business objectives relating to the devel-
opment of brand ambassadors and advocates, enhancing the value proposition of your
product or service, inspiring and guiding innovation, and the improvement of brand
image are parts of this planning process. Comcast used Twitter not only to address its
critics’ negative posts with regards to the firm’s perceived lack of visible care for its cus-
tomers, but also to call attention to its own positive adoption of social technology and
improved response capability in a public forum so that (offsetting) credit would rightly
flow to the brand as it worked to reestablish itself in the eyes of its customers.

Initiate Your Plan

There are some surprisingly easy-to-use tools that can help you get started build-
ing beyond social media marketing and head deeper into the realization of a socially