7- Steps to a Well Thought Out Social Media Program
In one of my most recent posts I talked about listening to online conversations prior to putting together a social media strategy. Today, I’m going to take things a step further and discuss the steps for setting up your social media program.
As I mentioned before, I don’t suggest jumping into the social media world without a plan of action in place. Here are a few things to consider prior to diving in.
1. First you need to take the time to get online and listen to the chatter. Yes, people are talking about you, whether it good or bad. You need to get out there and find out what’s being said. I’d also suggest finding out what’s being said about your competition. You can look back at my Dec. 29th post, “Are You Listening to Your Customers?” for guidance on how to start listening.
2. Once you’ve had a chance to listen compile the information into a SWOT analysis. You need to find out if the chatter is in-line with your brand. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.
3. You’ll also need to identify the different audiences you’ll be speaking with. For example, a hotel might be interacting with leisure travelers, business travelers, and event planners.
4. Once you’ve narrowed down your different audiences its time to develop marketing goals for each group. Keep in mind the SWOT you’ve developed from the online chatter. Are there weaknesses you need to address? What opportunities were discover?
Here’s a simple example. Your online monitoring reports back that many business travelers are dissatisfied with the hotel down the street, they don’t offering WiFi and a business center. Your hotel has both. This opens the door to a new group of prospects and you know exactly what to say to get their attention.
5. Now it’s time to consideration which social media tools would be valuable in attaining your goals. Become familiar with each social media tool and its purpose.
For example, if your goal is to gain more business travelers then you might want to consider the business travelers social media site created by American Express, Business Travel Connexion. This site reaches 2,800 corporate business travel mangers. Yes, it’s a lower number of eyes than LinkedIn but you know your hitting the decision makers for business travel. As a bonus the site is free. Travel managers frequent the site for education purposes, industry news, for feedback from other travel managers, and to find new opportunities.
6. Strategy is the path to your goals. Define the strategy for reaching each audience within each social media tool.
If your goal is to book more overnight stays by business travelers then your strategy might be to get in front of travel managers and entice them with a free over night stay for one of their business traveler. On the Travel Connexion site you could have your hotel featured in the “Industry Spotlight” section of the homepage. When they click-through to find out more you can offer them the free night’s stay. You could require their information so you can e-mail them the coupon. Now you have their information so you can communicate with them regularly.
7. Tracking. Obviously this is a very important part of your social media program. Everything you do needs to have some type of tracking code so you can see how effective the tool has been in meeting your goals.
Once you have all of this in place your ready to start a well thought out Social Media program.