“Why strategy before tactics when it comes to social media?”…
…because the payoff of a strategic approach to social marketing is effectiveness. As this chart shows, marketers in the strategic phase of social marketing maturity are much more likely to report that their social media programs are “very effective” at achieving objectives than are their counterparts in the tactically-oriented trial phase.

Sergio Balegno
Research Director
MarketingSherpa

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The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy

Before you begin, commit to worrying about social media tools last, not first. Why? Because tools will change. They always do. There was a time when Netscape seemed invincible. Yahoo, too. Myspace also. If you fall in love with tools, you’ll constantly be changing directions, with no real plan to guide your way.

1. What’s Your Pitch?
The elevator pitch is dead. Can you describe what your company does in 120 characters or less?

2. What’s the Point?
What type of program is this? Awareness, Sales, or Loyalty? Pick one.

3. What’s Your Relationship with Your Audience?
What does your audience know about you today?

• Nothing
• Aware of you, but never acted
• Acted once
• Repeat actions/enthusiasts
• Advocates

Pick up to two of these segments to focus upon, but make sure they are adjacent on this scale. It’s too confusing to have a strategy that targets advocates AND people that have never heard of you. That would be two strategies, not one.

4. How Does Your Audience Use Social Media?
Using the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder, understand how your target audience (as defined by gender, age, and geography) uses social media. If your audience skews older, you may not want to engage in a lot of “make a video” contests, since that segment indexes low on the “Creator” scale.

You can play with the Social Technographics Ladder data right here:

5. What’s Your One Thing?
What’s the soul of your brand. What’s the one thing that defines you – and it’s not features and benefits. Volvo = Safety. Apple = Innovation. Disney = Magic. What’s on the other side of your = sign?

Note: This is not easy to figure out. You may need to engage in some brand anthropology, and have an agency help you find your one thing.

6. How Will You Be Human?
Social media is about people, not logos. How will you let down your guard? If you’re a small company, congratulations, this should be pretty easy. If you’re a big company, how can you act small again?

7. How Will You Measure Success?
Lots of ways to measure social media success, so make sure you determine your key metrics BEFORE you get started. I recommend picking three solid metrics to track. Appropriate metrics differ based on what your objective is for the program. See the slide deck for details.

Web Strategy Matrix: Social Marketing Approaches, Shotgun vs Laser

	Shotgun	Laser
Description	Hiring multiple agencies to conduct social campaigns	Building a deeper relationship with a core group of influencers
Similar to	Interactive Advertising, “Fishing”	Influencer Relations, ‘Friending”
Benefits	Efficient way to get started, identify hot spots to pursue.	Deeper relationships with core influencers who may spread word of mouth, and become brand evangelists.
Risks	Brand burnout on community, risk of appearing disingenuous	Spending more resources on a smaller few reduces chances of spread.
Costs	Inexpensive. In this case, it was 15k X 8 agenices, for a total of 120k.	Costly. Relationship marketing estimated 50-100k in agency costs. Loaning 100 economy cars at 15k each around 1.5 million.
Takeaway	Ideal for the company that doesn’t understand social marketing and is willing to test on their own customers.	Ideal for company that’s ready to invest time, people and money on relationships.