Post written by Kelsey DeMarais, marketing & communications manager for Waukesha County Business Alliance.
Social media has overtaken our lives. And although I am continually amazed at the new ways in which we can connect and the new developments that take place daily, weekly, etc. I remain hesitant – like every one else – on some areas. That aside, I came away from Wendy Soucie’s presentation at Alliance Breakfast Club last week a little more excited and a little less hesitant.
Her presentation was an advanced take on social media, titled “Strategic Social Media Planning.” She overwhelmed us with tools, sites and suggestions on how to take our social media to the next level. Throughout and after her presentation, I started asking myself questions like “What are our goals with social media?” and “How do we define success?” and “What does engaging in social media mean for our whole team?” These questions along with many others force us to dig a little deeper than just “What is social media and how do I use it?” I realized that being the marketing/creative person on my team I need to be asking and answering more questions about social media and how it relates to our marketing plan. Because it definitely does relate!
One main take away is that tools like our website, Twitter, and LinkedIn need to best represent our organization and they need to work for us. It’s the simple concept of branding. What is the best way to accomplish this? Have a plan and follow it. It is easy to start using these tools, but the key part is that we can and should develop strategies on how they will serve our marketing purposes. Ask yourself: Who is my audience? Why do they use social media? Who are my competitors? What are they doing? What is my optimal objective by utilizing Twitter or LinkedIn? How can all team members, from human resources to sales, from the front office to the back warehouse, best advance our organization’s purpose through the utilization of these tools? With marketing, research is the best place to start, which will propel you into creating a plan that works for you.
Honestly, this is an area where we need some work. In the coming months we hope to: create goals and objectives with each of our social media outlets (already started, right Carolyn!?); tie-in our social media outlets into our marketing plan; and build an editorial calendar, which will allow us to delve into specific topics and determine our focus.
You heard it first here. And this is your challenge: keep us accountable!
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To view Wendy Soucie’s presentation from Alliance Breakfast Club last Thursday, visit http://www.slideshare.net/wsoucie.
