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H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Steps
to Integrate
Social Media
into Your
Marketing Plan
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into
Your Marketing Plan
The H Agency
www.theHagency.com
In this H-Paper, we examine this social media landscape with an eye on how to make it
work for you by initiating social conversations and coordinating your social media message
with your traditional media messages appearing in print, radio, television, and especially
on your Web site. We suggest 8 steps you can take to effectively integrate your message
across media, and guide it along its way. In the process, you can coordinate your product
and service message and broaden its reach to new audiences, build your brand and learn
more about the public perception of your company along the way.
To learn how, read more.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
The object of this H-Paper is to give you the basic information you need to join the social media
conversation and, by following our step-by-step guidelines, make those conversations work in
your favor to build customer relationships and grow your business. By using traditional media to
create a foundation message about your brand and then extending this message into online social
media venues, you can help guide and balance your brand message as it extends into the social
community.
The message that lives on, and on…
In May 2005, Business Week online magazine published the story, “Blogs Will Change Your
Business.” Even though the article predated the splash of other social media venues like Twitter,
Facebook and MySpace, that original story is still being read, downloaded and linked to by
thousands of people each month. Business Week Editor Steve Baker said that if the article had
been published in print, it would’ve gone into the recycling bin years ago. But because it was
online, something strange happened. The more that people read and linked to the story, the
higher the article rose in search engine rankings under the topic of “blogs.”
As more people read and referred the article, its popularity snowballed. Last year, Business Week
updated the article with new information about new emerging social media and the impact on
today’s businesses. To continue to keep the story up to date, they’re now soliciting new facts and
figures from their readers through their Web site, blogspotting.com. This one article, now more
than 6 years old, continues to live and grow in relevance.
The “strange thing” that happened to this Business Week article to give it such a long and
vital life is the reason for this H-Paper. It’s this potential for broad reach and longevity of a
message that differentiates social media from traditional media, and it’s why every marketing
communications professional needs to consider how to integrate social media into their traditional
marketing communications mix. Social media represents an evolution in communications and an
opportunity to build relationships unlike anything before.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
2
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
By using social media to broaden the distribution of your business communications, you are taking your
message to where people can be reached more easily to connect. The strategic use of social media
venues can help you and your business:
• Connect with customers and prospects in ways that traditional
advertising and public relations cannot
• Deepen customer relationships
• Develop and personalize your brand voice, and
it’s simply too important an opportunity to ignore. As a professional communicator and marketer,
you can’t afford to stand by quietly while others are shaping your brand reputation. By integrating
traditional advertising and communications messages into social media venues, you can guide your
message instead of controlling it. Make it work for you instead of waiting for something negative to
come up in some social media conversation to which you will need to react. Take the step and join the
conversation. Or, more precisely, take 8 steps to integrate social media into your traditional marketing
and communications plan. Here’s how:
Step 1. Understand the differences and similarities between
social media and traditional media.
Social media reaches out to the world via the Internet where those, who might be interested in what
you have to say or sell, are spending more of their time reading about companies, products and
services just like yours. And it allows you to comment on news and events that others publish – it lets
you explain to readers how these events may affect your industry, and your products and services.
And it only takes minutes to publish your message, instead of days, weeks or months like other more
traditional print or broadcast media.
Traditional media is a monologue. Social media is a dialogue, a conversation. And when you enter the
conversation, the ground rules dictate that you have to be willing to receive the responses of others.
The biggest difference between social media and traditional media, and the thing that makes many
corporate executives uncomfortable, is that social media messages can’t be strictly controlled. But they
can be “guided.”
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
3
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
We’ve all heard stories like a scandalous e-mail from a company executive that makes it onto a social
media venue. Other people link to it and share with their friends, and in minutes, it becomes breaking
national news. However, positive ideas can travel just as fast. Your customers and potential customers
are online every day looking for and commenting about news, ideas, and products and services. And if
your company isn’t taking part in the social media conversation, you can be sure your competitors are
there, searching through blogs and articles for new ideas and insights that could improve their business.
They’re placing their ads on sites where your customers visit, and they’re looking for ways to leverage
your social media silence to their advantage.
Give up control, gain new opportunities – Control of your marketing message today is an illusion.
Even if you’re not using social media, your customers are, and messages that they publish about your
company can be just as beneficial as anything you might publish yourself. You may not be able to control
what others say in the social media conversation, but you can provide a balanced perspective of events
and control your part of the conversation, and that’s your greatest opportunity.
Managing online criticism – One quality of social media is its openness and transparency. Criticism
can be an opportunity, depending on how you handle it. Here’s how:
• If you’re wrong, apologize, then make it right – Every company makes mistakes or falls short at
times. Apologize for any inconvenience that’s been caused and then publicly make it right.
• Listen carefully to suggestions, then act – Some of the best ideas for product and service
innovations have come from customers. If your customers are commenting about something you
can and should change, take their feedback seriously and do something about it. You’ll create
even more loyal customers as a result.
Step 2. Focus on your communication needs,
not the technology.
Make message your focus – Getting started in social media is not just about being up to date on the
latest technology or being on the newest social networking site. It’s about message and reach. Your
primary goal in using social media is to improve communications with your audience, and to reach
them where they’re spending time. Look at ways to communicate more efficiently and how to repurpose
existing content to reach new audiences.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
4
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Before you enter the social media conversation, have a plan with specific objectives for what you want to
say and why readers may be interested in reading and responding.
Step 3. Prepare for the conversation.
Learn what’s being said about you – Find out where the existing conversations about your company,
its products and services are taking place and what is being said. Use online listening devices such as
Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Radian6 and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations
about your company and any mentions that appear online by using specific key words related to your
company name, products and services.
Talk to people within your organization who interact with customers by phone or e-mail.
Determine the content of their conversations. Is it positive, negative or neutral? Note the “social aspect”
of these conversations. What are the questions, concerns, comments and impressions that people
have? Is there something being talked about that would be useful or interesting to other customers or
prospects?
Read your own Web site – It may seem obvious, but look at your existing connection to the Internet
– your company Web site. Examine how you’re currently using text, audio, images and video on your
site. Collect a snapshot of the one-way conversations you’re already having with your customers and
the content of your communications. Look for pages that are updated frequently or that might benefit
from adding a way to accept feedback or two-way communication. Can your messages be adapted and
coordinated to answer or address customer questions and concerns?
Summarize your research – Compile all your results from this research in a social media report that you
can present to your company’s decision makers. Show them the contents of conversations happening
about your company and evaluate for them the potential impact that social media can have to influence
these conversations in a positive direction.
Step 4. Where and how do you start?
Have a goal – With your research in hand, determine what communications objectives are being met
by the different messages posted on your site. Ideally, each should fit into your overall communications
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
5
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
and marketing plan. Integration is your goal. If your current messages don’t have clear objectives, maybe
they need to change. Your Web site is a powerful communications tool. Before you start a two-way
conversation that incorporates your Web site content, you want to understand the qualities of this tool,
the content that you’ve posted there and learn to utilize it more effectively.
Choose tools to support the message – Using your basic research and your communications
objectives as a guide, consider the types of social media tools that might help meet the objectives of the
messages you plan to publish. Look at ways to extend the message from a standard online press release
or news story into multiple social media venues. How about that video of a product manager speaking at
a conference seminar, or the photographs of your corporate involvement in a charitable event? These are
all materials that could be easily translated into social media venues.
Go for strategic visibility – Evaluate and choose the social media venues that allow you to contribute
most effectively to the conversations about your company. You don’t have to be everywhere, just list
the broad spectrum of available tools and consider how each might serve your company’s needs. For
example, if you have a video of one of your managers giving a presentation at an industry conference
on your Web site, you may consider posting it on YouTube to make it available to a wider audience. You
could also include excerpts of the presentation in a blog entry and provide a link to the full video.
Define your selection process – Don’t just rely on the tools with which you are most familiar. Document
your reasons for choosing a specific tool. Possibly, you already know what tools will work best to get
your message out but, for the benefit of a client or company executive not familiar with the social media
landscape, you want to explain your rationale. It’s much more valid to say, “From my research, I believe
YouTube would be the best choice for a video-sharing tool, because it offers a free posting and key-word
search capability, and has a large and involved community of viewers.”
Assign responsibility – Identify who will be responsible for managing social media use. Decide who will
generate the content, who will monitor it, and how these new activities will fit into the current workload.
Social media publishing takes time. Postings should be thoroughly thought through, proofed and edited
before publishing. Responses should also be measured and planned. Never publish anything that you
wouldn’t want thousands of people to read.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
6
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Whose social media is it anyway? According to Brian Solis, a recognized leader in social media, the
question of who owns the responsibility for handling social media publishing within a company is an
ongoing battle. “Ownership begins within the team where social media championship is concentrated.
At the moment, a land grab is in full effect with marketing taking the lead as the area responsible for the
creation and management of social media plans.” He says research shows that currently only 52% of
marketers are approaching social media with a plan.
Coordinate messages – Consider how your social media messages will overlap or reinforce your
other media messages. You remain in control of creating the strategy for your message and releasing
the official version. This gives customers and prospects a perspective on which to base their opinions
– and include in their conversations. A Twitter post you make might send a reader to a positive news
article or blog entry about your company, a new product or service innovation, or a release about your
presentation at an important industry conference. Always consider the relevance of your conversations;
stay focused on your communication goals, objectives, and the value of providing balance and facts as
part of a conversation.
Step 5. Set clear guidelines for social media use
Social media rules are no different than rules for all other forms of professional communication, in which
employees are directed to use sound judgment and common sense because their personal comments
reflect on their employer. There is a big difference in speaking ‘on behalf of your company’ (as an official
spokesperson) or ‘about’ your company, its products or business partners. Publish these guidelines and
make sure your employees understand and follow them.
A few items to include:
• Social media principles
• Ground rules for participating in online communications
• Rules for personal online activities
• Rules for professional online activities
• Company code of conduct
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
7
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Step 6. Join in the conversation
Once you’ve done your homework, designated responsibility for the work, and have decided which social
media tools are most appropriate for your messages, create an official presence in the social networks
you plan to use. Here are some ideas to help you start:
Comment on a conversation – An easy way to enter the conversation is to comment on an existing
conversation. Study other postings concerning your industry or your areas of expertise. When it is
appropriate, and when you can add something of relevance and value, comment on the subject. Watch
and gauge reader reaction and response.
Start a new conversation – There are several ways to start a conversation depending on which social
media venue you’re using. On Facebook, you can simply ask a question or make a comment about
a subject and see if others respond. Using LinkedIn, you join industry-related groups and then ask a
question or make a statement and solicit readers’ comments. If you can simplify your comment into 140
characters or less, you might consider Twitter as a means to send out a teaser statement that will attract
readers to a longer story you post elsewhere.
Creating a blog gives you much more control over the content you publish. You can define the topic,
review comments before they are posted, and also post video and audio files. There’s a lot of flexibility,
however, you’ll need to make your audience aware that your blog exists by linking to other sites with
similar interests, or sending e-mails to alert potential readers of your published posts.
A blog gives you an increased presence on major search engines (so people can find your business Web
site easier too), and enables you to build a regular audience if you provide regular information that is
useful and relevant to your readers’ needs. A blog requires a long-term commitment of thought and time.
It requires long-term planning to integrate it into your existing Web site, but it can be rewarding in shaping
the direction and content of conversations.
Micro-blog (like Twitter or Tumblr) could help you gather information and build an audience prior to an
industry conference presentation, and would allow you to continue the conversation and field additional
questions or comments after it is over.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Or, you may want to consider using a presentation-sharing media site (like Scribd or Skype) to host a
real-time online Webinar using PowerPoint or a video presentation to a select audience of invited guests.
Step 7. Make Metrics your Mantra
By the numbers – Adding social media to your overall communications plan will take time and
resources. For every activity, find a good reason to do it and a way to measure its effectiveness for your
plan. Document all activity from conversations and the general overall responses and outcomes. Review
any activity for the number of mentions you receive from other sites. Document all major content points,
and specifically what was done or said about areas of customer concerns and complaints. Tally both
positive and negative comments, overall traffic and reach, as well as the size of the social “connections”
you make (friends, followers, fans, etc.). Then, provide your management team with a regular summary
of the effects of your presence and participation in sites. If you can’t think of a way to evaluate your
activities, then consider eliminating it from your plan.
Step 8. Get closer to your customers
There is a variety of benefits for using social media as part of your overall communications plan. By
listening to and observing the responses and opinions of customers, you can discover their pain points,
capture ideas for improvement, promote innovation, gain inspiration, learn, and develop empathy for your
customers’ points of view.
Here are some examples of the benefits realized
by other companies:
Make friends and influence customers – Jim Farley, Group VP of Marketing at Ford, reportedly moved
25% of his 2009 marketing budget out of traditional media and into digital marketing and social media.
As an explanation, Farley said, “People don’t trust big companies; they trust their friends.” Using social
media, Farley revealed his personal love of cars and emphasized the steps Ford was taking to improve
quality in its cars. He freely offered something of value to readers – useful information, insights and ways
to help them save time or money, or make better buying decisions. In the process, Ford is making new
friends. And friends are future customers.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
9
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Transparency builds trust – In 2006, Sun Microsystem’s Jonathan Schwartz became the first fortune
500 CEO to launch his own blog. He used his blog posts as a way to humanize a highly technical
industry; he gave it a personal and friendly voice. His blog received an average of 400,000 hits a month
in the first six months. More important than the numbers was Schwartz’s openness and honest response
to comments, questions and suggestions. This helped transform the company’s perception among its
customers. Transparency and openness that starts at the top can influence an entire company and build
customer trust.
Generate innovative ideas – In 2008, Starbucks’ original CEO returned to the helm of the company to
help the struggling global corporate giant return to their roots as a friendly local coffeehouse. One of his
goals was to re-ignite emotional attachment with its customers. Last year, Starbucks launched a blog site
called “My Starbucks Idea.” They asked customers to “join the discussion and share their ideas about
how the company could improve.” The most popular suggestions are highlighted, reviewed and acted on.
Starbucks then created an “Ideas in Action” blog that gives updates to users on the status of changes
that their customers suggested.
Become known as an innovator – William Baker, professor of marketing at San Diego State University,
surveyed 1,600 corporate executives on their companies’ use of social media. He found that firms that
rely heavily on external social networks scored 24 percent higher on a measure of radical innovation than
companies that don’t. Listening and interacting with customers through social media can be an effective
communications strategy that leads to other innovations. Transparency, openness and responsiveness
are all good for the corporate brand and the bottom line, especially when that openness leads to greater
customer trust, development of new solutions and service improvements.
Take a position as a thought leader – One of the most popular healthcare blogs is “Running a
Hospital,” written by the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Paul Levy. In it, he address the issues
he deals with each day as a hospital CEO, shares his thoughts about hospitals, medicine and healthcare
issues, and puts current news into perspective. Not only does the blog humanize the process of running
a large hospital, it gives real human examples of the activities and decisions that executives make to heal
lives.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
10
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Start with a Strategy Map
The attached one-page “Social Media Strategy Map” is designed to help you assess where you are in the social
media integration process and gives you a road map to achieve your goals.
There are three phases to the process:
1. Social Media Strategy: • Developing strategy, objectives and goals
• Aligning social media tactics with traditional tactics
• Assessing upstart investment
• Assessing social media readiness
• Profiling target audiences
• Developing the plan
2. Social Media Delivery:
• Integrating with existing traditional and online strategies
• Finalizing budgeting and timelines
• Determining organizational requirements
• Building and configuring tools
• Identify and gather content
• Test product
• Building internal awareness and train organization
• Develop internal and external policies and guidelines
3. Social Media Management:
• Monitor and measure social media activity
• Revisit business strategy and assess success
• Partner with experts
• Educate decision makers
• Plan next phase rollout
All of us working in marketing and communications need to be more effective, more measurement-minded and
more innovative in developing solutions for the coming year and beyond. The best marketing minds agree that
the market place is changing. Where there’s change, there is always opportunity - engage and benefit from this
new and emerging media.
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
11
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
Social Media Strategy Map
Learn & Evolve
Social Media Management
Execution
Social Media Delivery
Integration
Manage the Social
Media strategy and
create a plan for growth
Social Media
Measurement
Implementation Plan
Prioritize Social Media
initiatives and projects
and carry out the plan
Target Audience
Insights
Integrate with existing
traditional and online
strategies
Learn/explore latest
social media tools and
continually evolve
Develop a phase-byphase plan for social
media
Determine social media
use behaviors of target
audiences
36. Analyze and learn
from success of the
initiative
23. Select tools
31. Evaluate performance
32. Re-align to core
business processes
33. Revisit business
strategy & assess
success
34. Evaluate ROI
35. Adjust strategy to
reflect findings
39. Further develop
long-term strategy
38. Educate and update
decision makers and
develop social media
success stories
37. Develop programs for
training social media
team
30. Execute daily/weekly/
monthly monitor
system
29. D
evelop monitoring
and reporting system
28. R
etain & attract high
performance team
27. Partner with experts
26. T
est tools and deliver
25. Identify and gather
relative content
24. B
uild or configure tools
21. B
uild awareness and
educate organization
20. Implement
organizational
structure to manage
social media
initiatives
19. Finalize budgets
18. D
evelop internal &
external policies and
guidelines
17. Integrate with existing
online marketing
tactics
16. A
lign with existing
traditional marketing
tactics
7. R
esearch industryspecific cases and
thought leadership
15. Create timeline
14. D
evelop a road map
13. D
etermine staff,
functional,
organizational
requirements
12. A
lign
communications
systems and
processes with social
media initiatives
11. D
evelop systems to
develop, implement
and maintain social
media tools
Social Media Strategy
Strategy, Objectives
& Goals
Assess social media
contribution to business
strategy & goals
1. C
reate awareness &
understanding of social
media – challenges,
risks, opportunities
2. A
ssess organizational
readiness
9. R
esearch target
audience use of social
media
8. D
evelop
segmentation/
characteristics of
target audience
and tactics
4. Identify current social
media tools in use
10. Identify relevant
communities &
conversations
3. A
ssess social media
readiness
5. D
evelop a business
case for utilizing social
media
6. A
ssess upstart
investment
requirements
22. D
evelop timelines and
deadlines
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
12
H-Paper: 8 Steps to Integrate Social Media into Your Marketing Plan
T ANK YOU
The H Agency is an award-winning strategic marketing and creative agency founded in
1990 by president and creative director Winnie Hart. The company has grown from a local
New Orleans design firm into a regional strategic marketing and creative agency that
develops marketing programs and brand strategies. In our 20 years of service to clients, we
have been recognized with more than 120 top industry awards for excellence in marketing,
communications and design.
We are not an advertising agency and we’re not a design firm. We are a hybrid. We bring
the best of both into one. 50% strategic + 50% creative = 100% effective.
We’re asked all the time what the “H” in The H Agency stands for. Most assume that the
H stands for “Hart,” the last name of our founder, Winnie. Still, H stands for more than
just a last name. It stands for the systematic approach, uncompromising principles and
unparalleled energy we bring to our work. It also stands for the values that make us unique
— hybrid thinking, healthcare and wellness, heart and helpful.
For more information about how to integrate your social media strategy into your traditional
media plan, contact The H Agency, 504-522-6300.
The H Agency
www.theHagency.com
09-10
The H Agency www.theHagency.com
© 1990-2010 The H Agency, Inc. All Rights Reserved.