21
2011
Every Social Media Strategy should start with “Why”
An article by eCommerce Coach
Just because setting up a Facebook Fanpage is free does not mean that you should headlessly jump into Social Media without any plan!
As with every business or activity, you need to have a plan and a strategy.
Let’s just start with Facebook, right?
People often approach me and telling me that they “need to get something going in this Social thing”. The first question I’m going to ask any of my clients in reply is “Why”.
Many people are buffled by this question because they expected something else. Something like “yeah, sure. Let’s go!”. But let’s face it: If you do not know where you want to be at the end of, say, 6 months, how would you possibly be successful?
Your Social Media Strategy should always start with asking yourself “Why”.
And there are many “Whys” to be considered. I’ve developed a checklist with questions to start with. This checklist is changing almost every week or so because different people with different goals need a different checklist. But I’ll try to keep it as complete as possible so you can pick the questions that are relevant to you and your business.
Create your Social Media Strategy around these questions
What are your goals for your website?
What are your goals for your Facebook Fanpage?
What are your goals for your Twitter Account?
What are your resources (time)?
What are your resources (personnel)?
Are your existing customers already active in the Social Web?
If so, where do we find them?
What do customers expect from your website?
What do customers expect from your Facebook Fanpage?
What do customers expect from your Twitter Timeline?
What is your contribution to the user?
What is the contribution of Social Media to your own business and workflows?
Who are your competitors?
What are they doing in Social Media?
What could you do better / different?
What is you Social Media USP?
You see, there are a lot of questions that pop up in my mind when thinking about a Social Media Strategy. All these questions – and more – need to be answered by the business owner. Normally I give hints or my 2 cents. But at the end of the day it’s the business owner who – should – know his business best.
Social Media Strategy – The Answers
Usually there are 2 different kinds of answers to these questions:
1) Quantity
2) Quality
Let’s take the first question “What are your goals for your website”.
A typical Quality Answer to this would be: Awareness.
People should get to know my business better. They should think of my website when a certain keyword pops up in their mind.
A Quantity Answer to this question would be: 1,000 visitors each month.
So keep this in mind: To every question there are – in most cases – 2 kinds of answers. Do yourself a favor and answer the questions as thoroughly as possible.
SMART Goals in Social Media
You’ve probably heard of it: Goals should always be SMART.
S = SPECIFIC
M = MEASURABLE
A = ACCEPTED / ATTAINABLE
R = REALISTIC
T = TIMELY
Your goals should always meet those criteria.
Let’s take again our Quantity Goal. We want to have 1,000 visitors per month on our website. We need to specify this a little bit more:
1) 1,000 visitors per month
2) 1,000 visitors per month within 6 months
3) 1,000 visitors per month coming from search engines
Is it measurable? Yes, by using Google Analytics or any other analytics software you can measure the visits of your website.
Is it attainable, realistic, timely? If so, then you’ve got a very good goal!
Do you get the idea?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment if you wish to do so. 
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