Social Media Planning - Integrating Social Media Strategies Across Marketing disciplines

Social Media (SM) is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful marketing tools in any business's arsenal. In fact, SM can be considered the foundation of any new online or offline business. Just as an article of clothing can represent a unique, individualized expression that is distinct from another brand, the same is true for any online/offline business. Just as a photograph can give rise to a collection of memories, so too can a collection of online content. In the same way that an original painting can be found in a variety of price ranges, the same can be said for any online or offline business. Therefore, having created a significant collection of content, it's time to create a strategy that will ensure the longevity of those collections and increase overall business value.

When planning your social media planning, it's important to consider not just the immediate goals that you want to meet, but long-term ones as well. In addition to the immediate goals, consider the future goals you want to meet as part of your strategy. For example, if you are creating a website to introduce a new product or service, you'll want to make sure your website is optimized to promote the launch. Similarly, if you're building a profile page for someone as a way to build a relationship or to receive feedback, you'll want to make sure that profile is accurately representing the person, and that it incorporates elements that will increase overall user experience.

When it comes to social media planning, there are two basic strategies that you can use: either you can choose a specific platform, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn, and work with that platform or you can leverage a specific blog post or video. The first strategy is easier to execute since you can easily identify which platform or blog post works for you. However, if you aren't familiar with the platform or blog posts, you may find yourself duplicating efforts and diverging from your original strategy. Ideally, you'd create two separate and distinct strategies so that the two marketing pieces could be executed together. However, if you are working with a company whose primary focus is on developing an online brand reputation, you may find that it is easiest to execute one strategy, then incorporate that strategy into the other.

The second strategy for implementing social media planning is to use social media to create content calendars. In short, the best way to effectively use social media planning is to use email marketing. Not only is email marketing a powerful way to engage your audience and build trust, but it also allows you to use the power of email to create content calendars that can be used to share information with your entire organization. The trick, however, is knowing how to create content calendars that will drive your business forward.

To make a social media plan that works, you need to identify your organization's goals and the actions that you will take to reach those goals. Social media planning should be organized around your company's goals, so that all efforts are aligned toward the same direction. Make sure you have a plan in place before you begin the process of engaging your audience, and once you have established goals, make sure to monitor progress. Tracking your progress can help you make any changes that are necessary to reach your goals.

The final strategy for implementing social media planning is to integrate all three aspects of your marketing goals. If you want to build brand recognition, you should definitely use Facebook and twitter; if you want to engage consumers, you should definitely use email marketing. However, your overall marketing goals should tie everything together and ensure that nothing is left out. For example, if you have goals to increase traffic to your website, you should include traffic on your email marketing list. If you want to engage consumers, include consumers on your email marketing list, and so forth.