Page 345 - Using MIS

Q5 How Do Organizations Develop an Effective SMIS? 313
Q5 How Do Organizations Develop

an Effective SMIS?

At this point in your reading you know what SMIS are, why they are important, and how they
generate revenue. Now you need to know how to develop an effective SMIS that is strategically
aligned with your organization’s goals. In Q2 you saw that SM can be used to benefit an orga-
nization, but how do you get to that point? We’re not talking about a recipe for turning your
organization into the next Facebook. Rather, the steps shown in Figure 8-7 walk you through the
process of developing a practical plan to effectively use existing social media platforms.
Many companies are still unsure how to use SM. They want to use it, but they’re unsure
how to facilitate their existing competitive strategy. Think back to Porter’s model for competitive
strategies from Chapter 3 (Figure 3-5). Organizations can focus their strategies on being the cost
leader or on differentiating their products from the competition. Organizations can then employ
the chosen strategy across an entire industry or focus on a particular segment within that indus-
try. Depending on an organization’s strategy, it will use different SM platforms in different ways.
Again, the key is premeditated alignment of the SMIS with the organization’s strategy.
Organizations know SM is popular and could be strategically beneficial. They hear about it
constantly in the news. It’s not entirely their fault if they want to jump on board. Social media
is a relatively new development with a dizzying array of companies, platforms, and services. It’s
constantly changing, too.
It’s important to understand the development process presented in Figure 8-7 because you
may be the “social media expert” at your future job. You may be called in to help develop the
organization’s SMIS. In order to be successful, take a few minutes to consider the steps in the
process.

Step 1: Define Your Goals

It may sound clichéd, but the first step in developing an SMIS is to clearly define what the orga-
nization wants to achieve with SM. As previously mentioned, your goals must be clear, deliber-
ate, and aligned with the organization’s competitive strategy. Without clearly defined goals, you
won’t know whether your SM effort was successful.

1. Define Your Goals

2. Identify Success Metrics

3. Identify Target Audience

4. Define Your Value

5. Make Personal Connections

Figure 8-7 6. Gather and Analyze Data
Social Media Plan Development