Social media marketing strategy

Workbook and template checklists

Authors: Dan Bosomworth, Dave Chaffey and Rhian Harris

Social media marketing strategy

©
© Smart
Smart Insights
Insights (Marketing
Part of the Social Media Marketing Toolkit
(Marketing Intelligence)
Intelligence) Limited.
Limited. Please
Please go
go to
to www.smartinsights.com
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to feedback
feedback or
or access
access our
our other
other guides.
guides.
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Social media marketing strategy

Workbook and template checklists

Set goals
Create strategy
Contents

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
About this workbook............................................................................... 4
Why use this workbook? .......................................................................................................4
Topics covered on this checklist?..........................................................................................4

Content and
How and when to use this checklist?.....................................................................................4
Related advice from Smart Insights:......................................................................................4
Tell-us-what you think!...........................................................................................................4

Introduction: About this guide............................................................... 5

What are the main social platforms?......................................................................................5

Social media
strategy
Step 1: Set goals for social media......................................................... 7
Define vision..........................................................................................................................7
Strategic goals for social media defined................................................................................7
social media platforms
Set goals for different activities..............................................................................................7 Approaches for the

Define tactical goals...............................................................................................................9

Social media capability review template..............................................................................10
Select your KPIs to manage social media........................................................................... 11

Step 2: Create your social media strategy.......................................... 12

Social media
optimisation

Getting the balance right – control, engagement or sales .................................................. 12

Define core activities to be managed...................................................................................12
Get the right KPIs to measure effectiveness in place.......................................................... 12
Social media strategy management template (page 1)........................................................14
Social media strategy management template (page 2)........................................................15

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Step 3: Social listening and online reputation management............ 18
Appropriate listening and reputation management tools selected.......................................18
Define approach for responding to brand mentions.............................................................19
Define or refine social media governance policy.................................................................19
Define relevant influencers..................................................................................................19
Deliver customer service through social channels...............................................................19

Set goals
Use customer concerns and feedback to inform marketing ................................................19

Step 4: Define content and engagement strategy.............................. 20

Create strategy
Step 5: Define social media communications strategy..................... 21

Step 6: Define approaches for the core social media platforms...... 22

Introduction..........................................................................................................................22

reputation management engagement strategy

Select the social media platforms to prioritise on................................................................22

Social listening and

Define a method for managing content across social media platforms...............................22
Facebook strategy...............................................................................................................22
Twitter strategy.....................................................................................................................22
LinkedIn strategy..................................................................................................................23
Google Plus strategy............................................................................................................23
Own community strategy.....................................................................................................23

Content and
Step 7: Social media optimisation (SMO)............................................ 25

Social media
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 About this workbook
Social media marketing is so new that most are still trying to work out the best approach for
their company. This workbook and the checklists will help you create a strategy and review
the practical actions to make best use of social media marketing.

Set goals
Why use this workbook?
þþ Create a strategy to prioritise your social media marketing activities to support business
aims

Create strategy
þþ Define measures and KPIs to help manage your social media marketing
þþ Review the best tools to analyse and manage your social media marketing

Topics covered on this checklist?

reputation management engagement strategy

This workbook covers these topics:

Social listening and

þþ Using social media marketing to impact across business activities - there’s more to it than
Facebook!
þþ Setting goals for social media marketing
þþ The best tools to use for social media marketing

Content and
How and when to use this checklist?
þþ When developing a new social media strategy
þþ Reviewing existing social media activity to take your “social media to the next level” using
Social media optimisation

Social media
Related advice from Smart Insights:

strategy
þþ 7 Step Guide to Social Media Marketing Strategy (Ebook and online training course) - this
document acts a summary for these documents which give more detailed advice
þþ Video screencast to finding influencers
social media platforms
Approaches for the
þþ Video screencast on tracking social media through Google Analytics

Tell-us-what you think!

Dave Chaffey and team have developed these checklists based on working with many
types of companies and in training. But improvements are always possible, so please email:
support@smartinsights.com with your ideas on improving this guide or new guides to help
your work. Thanks!
Social media
optimisation

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 Introduction
About this guide
Social media marketing has ‘virtually’ exploded over the last few years with both well-known
brands and smaller businesses truly realising the potential reach and engagement

Set goals
opportunity.
As with all opportunities though, if there’s no strategy and/or it’s unmanaged your social
media marketing won’t be as effective as it could be and can even be damaging. This guide
is aimed at helping you develop a strategic approach towards your social media marketing.

Create strategy
What are the main social platforms?
In practice, social media are amongst the most popular sites on the Internet1 along with
search engines. To help you develop a strategy for social media, we’ve identified these key
types of social media platforms, each of which need managing in our social media marketing

reputation management engagement strategy

radar.

Social listening and

Social media Content and
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

We created our Radar so it can be used to discuss with colleagues or agencies which sites
warrant or deserve most attention in the different categories. Sites which are agreed to be
more important which warrant more resource should be positioned towards the centre. You
can see we have included social commerce* and niche communities* in other categories. It’s

1
http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/

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 important to start with the business goals when creating a strategy, but it’s still useful to start
by rating your capability in these areas against their importance out of ten:
Capability Importance Type of social networking
1. Social networks – the core social platforms in most
countries where people interact through social networks
are Facebook and Instagram for consumer audiences,

Set goals
LinkedIn for business audiences, Google Plus and Twitter
for both.
2. Social publishing and news – nearly all newspapers
and magazines, whether broad or niche, now have an
online presence with the option to participate through

Create strategy
comments on articles, blogs or communities.
3. Social commenting in blogs – a company blog can
form the hub of your social media strategy and you can
look at tapping into others’ blogs whether company or
personal or through blog outreach.

reputation management engagement strategy

4. Social niche communities - these are communities

Social listening and

and forums independent of the main networks, although
these do support sub-groups. You can create your own
community this way.
5. Social customer service - sites like GetSatisfaction
as well as companies’ own customer support forums
are increasingly important for responding to customer
complaints.

Content and
6. Social knowledge – these are reference social
networks like Yahoo! Answers, Quora and similar plus
Wikipedia. They show how any business can engage
their audience by solving their problems and subtly
showing how products have helped others.
7. Social bookmarking – the bookmarking sites like

Social media
strategy
Delicious which are relatively unimportant in the UK
except if you are engaging technical audiences.
8. Social streaming - rich and streaming media sites
including photos (Pinterest), video and podcasting.
9. Social search - search engines are becoming more social media platforms
Approaches for the
social with the ability to tag, comment on results and vote
them up or down based on quality.
10. Social commerce - we’ve left this one until last,
because it’s mainly relevant for the retail sector. It
involves reviews and ratings on products and sharing of
coupons on deals.
9. Social search - search engines are becoming more
Social media
optimisation

social with the ability to tag, comment on results and vote

them up or down based on quality.
10. Social commerce - we’ve left this one until last,
because it’s mainly relevant for the retail sector. It
involves reviews and ratings on products and sharing of
coupons on deals.

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 Step 1
Set goals for social media
It’s all too easy to go straight to getting your social media profiles up and running without
thinking of what you want to achieve. Don’t be tempted to rush straight until you have set or

Set goals
reviewed your goals, or you’ll find it difficult to measure any success that has been created 1
for your brand.
rr Q. We have defined goals for social media?

Define vision

Create strategy
rr Q. What’s the purpose of our social media campaign?

Strategic goals for social media defined

rr Q. Strategic goals set for social media marketing and CRM?

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
Set goals for different activities
rr Q. Goals for different marketing activities defined?

Set sell goals

rr Q. Goals set for online and offline sales?

Content and
Write down how your social media channels will influence sales and purchase intent by
generating leads and sales which are activated both online and offline.

Social media
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the

Set speak goals

rr Q. Goals set for communications?
Write down your goals including these 5 key areas:
þþ 1. Encouraging ongoing engagement (this should come before company messages so
that the “sell-inform-entertain” balance is right.
Social media
optimisation

þþ 2. Communicating brand perception and key brand messages

þþ 3. Communicate updates about new products and offers
þþ 4. Encouraging dialogue to find out more about products.
þþ 5. Reputation monitoring and management

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 Set goals
1

Set serve goals

Create strategy
rr Q. Goals set for customer service?
Write down how social media will be used to deliver customer service goals
þþ To provide information to resolve customer service issues
þþ To identify discussed customer issues and resolve them

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
þþ To encourage web self-service including collaborative self-service

Social media Content and

Set save goals

strategy
rr Q. Goals set for cost-savings?
Cost-savings are a less relevant part of the 5Ss since managing social media has
incremental costs for which budget will need to be found from elsewhere. But it’s as well that
this issue of budget reallocation is reconsidered here. social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 Set Sizzle goals
rr Q. Goals set for brand building?
These are closely related to the speak goals, they explain how to add-value to customers
through social media.

Set goals
1

Create strategy
reputation management engagement strategy
Define tactical goals

Social listening and

rr Q. Have we defined tactical goals?
The next template is designed to help you prioritise your goals. It can be used for small or
larger businesses.

Table for prioritising your social media marketing goals

Content and
Goal 5S category Rank or score
1 Improve leads through increased reach Sell
2 Improve sales through increased reach Sell
3 Improve sales through conversion increase Sell
4 Improve sales through customer communications Sell
5 Engage customers in dialogue Speak

Social media
strategy
6 Communicate product and offer information Speak
7 Gain customer feedback from dialogue Speak
8 Encourage customer advocacy Speak
9 Collaborate with influencers and partners (E-PR) Speak
social media platforms
Approaches for the
10 Encourage multichannel actions Speak
11 Encourage web self-service Service
12 Identify and resolve problems Serve
13 Reduce costs Save
14 Change brand perception Sizzle
15 Add value to customer through improved brand Sizzle
experience
Social media
optimisation

16 Manage reputation Sizzle

Next up, we have a template which will give you a more in-depth review of your capabilities.
It’s more suitable for larger organisations. It’s designed for benchmarking social media
capabilities across the 5S and for management of social media (in the first column).

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 10
Social media capability review template
Capability level Management Sell Speak Serve Sizzle
No content hub or editorial
Goals: No specific goals calendar
Limited service support Replicates existing brand
Measurement: Limited
1 Experimentation Uses existing offers Broadcast messaging similar - broadcast approach to

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Resource: None specific Limited reputation monitor
to other channels messaging
Buy-in: Limited
No network advertising
Goals: Volume only Basic content hub and editorial
Measurement: calendar Reputation management
Incentives to encourage
Tool-specific engagement Ad-hoc - specific requests tools reviewed
2 Initial management Developing dialogue Social
Resource: Defined answered Communicating social
Specific channel offers sharing encouraged
responsibility channel value
Buy-in: Recognition Test advertising
Defined content hub and
Goals: Optimisation content strategy
Cross-channel integration
goals Social governance policy
of offers Influencer outreach Integration Specific support
Measurement: in place
3 Integrated of community resource. Surveys of
Dashboards Social-selling (if relevant)
performance Developing new forms of
Resource: Defined roles E.G............................... Social recommendations
brand value
Buy-in: Sponsorship Facebook commerce (transactional)
Continuous advertising
Goals: Optimisation
goals Offline channel Proactive outreach to
Social media optimisation Reputation proactive -
Measurement: optimisation customers needing
Command centre? Content offer and frequency outreach
4 Optimising Social merchandising support
Resource: Resource for optimisation Creating new brand

Social Media Marketing Strategy Workbook, updated 17th July 2017

optimisation Social loyalty Continuous research of
Advertising optimisation experience
Buy-in: Committed to programmes (if relevant) needs and want
optimisation
Goals: Impacting New platforms evaluated
business goals and implemented rapidly.
5 Integrated and Atomisation and Crowsdsourced new Agile response to new
Measurement: Integrated Example: mobile
optimised Syndication product ideas obtained channels
Resource: Dynamic AB and multivariate
Buy-in: Core capability testing

Source: Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group1 (with permission: Creative Commons)

1
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/12/13/framework-the-social-media-roi-pyramid/

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optimisation social media platforms strategy reputation management engagement strategy

Social media Approaches for the Social media Social listening and Content and Create strategy Set goals
 Select your KPIs to manage social media
rr Q. KPIs set to manage social media?

Set goals
1

Create strategy
reputation management engagement strategy
Social listening and
Social media Content and
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 Step 2
Create your social media strategy

Getting the balance right – control, engagement or sales

Set goals
rr Q. Scope of social media strategy defined?

Define core activities to be managed

rr Q. Key social media marketing activities defined?

Create strategy
Get the right KPIs to measure effectiveness in place 2

rr Q. KPIs defined
For setting KPIs and objectives, we think the Altimeter framework is hard to beat at helping

reputation management engagement strategy

define the important types of objectives:

Social listening and

Social media Content and
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the

Source: Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group41 (with permission: Creative Commons)

You can see that there are 3 levels of KPIs:

rr Business-level KPIs?
Social media
optimisation

Include hard metrics such as return on investment (ROI) and revenue contribution,
whereas softer measures include brand reputation and customer satisfaction (CSAT)
developed through interaction.
rr Stakeholder-level metrics?
Relate to business benefits, e.g. word of mouth recommendation or customer insight.

1
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/12/13/framework-the-social-media-roi-pyramid/

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 rr Operational-level KPIs?
Include the scale of interaction such as size of community and level of participation to
create and share content.
rr Reach and influence KPIs?
yy Share of Voice (n, %) – Number of people discussing brand and category keywords in
social media.

Set goals
yy Sentiment (discussion polarity, %) – How many are speaking positively about a brand.
rr Engagement KPIs
yy Network size and growth – The obvious one – The numbers of fans or followers of the
main social networks.

Create strategy
yy Social sharing – Degree to which content is shared through the network – Retweets on
2
Twitter, Likes on Facebook, Pins on Pinterest, etc.
yy Percentage engagement – Through user-generated content on site.
The next templates show how you can link the objectives you set under the headings of the

reputation management engagement strategy

5S with strategies to achieve these.

Social listening and

There are two example strategy templates and then two blank templates for you to print and
complete.

Social media Content and

strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 14
Business Goals
!
1 Improve leads through
increased reach (Sell)
2 Improve sales through
increased reach (Sell)
3 Improve sales through
conversion increase (Sell)
4 Improve sales through
n, % of leads by social channel
customer communications (Sell)
5 Engage customers (Speak)
Social Media Marketing Strategy Workbook, updated 17th July 2017
6 Communicate product and
offer information (Speak)
7 Gain customer feedback from
dialogue (Speak)
8 Encourage customer
advocacy
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optimisation
Social media
Social media strategy management template (page 1)
Specific objectives:
SMART KPIs
n, %, quality of leads by social
channel
n, % of leads by social channel
Conversion rate to lead
and sale by social channel
n, quality of interactions on
social presence
n product and service alerts
n, % interactions by channel
Amplification and network
growth
RTs, Shares
social media platforms strategy
Approaches for the Social media
Strategy:
Initiatives needed
Lead/engagement strategy
Social media optimisation
(SMO)
Social network advertising
Social sales strategy
Social media optimisation
(SMO)
Social network advertising
Social media optimisation
(SMO)
Social commerce
(transactional sites)
Ecommunications strategy
Customer preference research
Customer preference research
Social media optimisation
(SMO)
Ecommunications strategy
Create customer feedback
programme and panel
Develop links to other customer
loyalty programmes
reputation management engagement strategy
Social listening and
Tactics: Tools to help:
Do what? Software & services?
Develop lead generation
content and offers Network advertising platforms
Facebook info page lead Social sharing tools
campaigns
Differential channel offers
Encourage amplification of Network advertising platforms
content through sharing Social sharing tools
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn Ads
Integrate testimonials
Social commerce platforms
Implement reviews and ratings
Reviews and ratings tools
(if applicable)
Create/improve content hub Content hub platforms
Editorial calendar E-communications platforms
Communications encouraging
dialogue
Cross-channel social
Social sharing widgets
engagement
Enewsletter recruitment to
social
Create/improve content hub Content hub platforms
Editorial calendar E-communications platforms
Regular surveys about
See
communications and products
http://bit.ly/smartfeedback
and services
Customer advocacy offers Loyalty management tools
2
Content and Create strategy Set goals
 15
Social media strategy management template (page 2)
Business Goals Specific objectives: Strategy: Tactics: Tools to help:
SMART KPIs Initiatives needed Do what? Software & services?

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n, quality of influencers reached Segment and target influencers Influencer identification
9 Collaborate with influencers Influencer identification
Share of voice Resource and process for See
and partners (E-PR) E-PR initiatives
Sentiment polarity outreach programme http://bit.ly/smartlistening

10 Encourage multichannel Offline communications

n, offline influence Multichannel integration Coupon tracking tools
actions Channel incentives

Management of social service

n, % web self-service Create, resource and manage
11 Encourage web self-service channels Web self-service tools
Service quality levels social service channels
Define service levels

12 Identify and resolve % negative product mentions Social customer service Social listening / reputation
Customer service outreach
problems % fix completion strategy management teams

Define responsibilities for

managing social media
Cost of managing social media
13 Reduce costs Management of staff usage Collaboarative internal tools
against returns Staff usage policy
Social governance policy

Social Media Marketing Strategy Workbook, updated 17th July 2017

Net promoter score and
14 Change brand perception Brand personality strategy Transform brand personality Campaign development
advocacy rating

15 Add value to customer

Net promoter score and
through improved brand Competitor benchmarking Campaign integration Campaign development
advocacy rating
experience

Sentiment polarity against See

16 Manage reputation Social governance policy Mention response management
share-of-voice http://bit.ly/smartlistening

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optimisation social media platforms strategy reputation management engagement strategy

Social media Approaches for the Social media Social listening and Content and Create strategy Set goals
 16
Social media strategy management template (page 1)
Business Goals Specific objectives: Strategy: Tactics: Tools to help:
SMART KPIs Initiatives needed Do what? Software & services?

!
Improve leads
through increased
reach (Sell)

2 Improve sales
through increased
reach (Sell)

3 Improve sales
through conversion
increase (Sell)
4 Improve sales
through customer
communications
(Sell)

5 Engage customers
(Speak)

Social Media Marketing Strategy Workbook, updated 17th July 2017

6 Communicate
product and offer
information (Speak)

7 Gain customer
feedback from
dialogue (Speak)

8 Encourage
customer advocacy

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optimisation social media platforms strategy reputation management engagement strategy

Social media Approaches for the Social media Social listening and Content and Create strategy Set goals
 17
Social media strategy management template (page 2)
Business Goals Specific objectives: Strategy: Tactics: Tools to help:
SMART KPIs Initiatives needed Do what? Software & services?

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9 Collaborate with
influencers and
partners (E-PR)

10 Encourage
multichannel actions

11 Encourage web
self-service

12 Identify and
resolve problems

13 Reduce costs

Social Media Marketing Strategy Workbook, updated 17th July 2017

14 Change brand
perception

15 Add value to
customer through
improved brand
experience

16 Manage
reputation

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optimisation social media platforms strategy reputation management engagement strategy

Social media Approaches for the Social media Social listening and Content and Create strategy Set goals
 Step 3
Social listening and online reputation management
rr Q. Are we monitoring and responding to conversations about our brand?

Set goals
In this step we cover how to put in place the people, process and tools needed for effective
listening. They are introduced in this table, so you can see how you score now before we go
through the details.
Social listening activity We don’t do We plan to We are
this do this doing this?

Create strategy
Score 0 Score 1 Score 2
Q1. The need for structured, resourced social
listening is agreed?
Q2. We have someone responsible for
social listening?

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
Q3. Defined keyword groups for market, brand
and products exist?
3
Q4. Effective social listening tools are in place?
Q5. Reporting and KPIs are in place for
conversation volume, share and sentiment?
Q6. We have a social governance policy
defining how to evaluate and respond to

Content and
negative
and positive mentions?
Q7. Customer concerns are identified through
social listening tools and responded to
accordingly?
Q8. Potential influencers and partners are

Social media
strategy
identified through listening tools and acted-on?
If you mostly score 2s, with some 1s, you have a good approach in place already. If not, there
is room for improvement in how you use people, process and tools to listen and respond to
online conversations. Read on to discover how to define these.
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media keyword analysis
rr Q. Which keywords should I listen out for?
rr Q. Which type of KPIs should I use?

Appropriate listening and reputation management tools selected

Social media
optimisation

rr Q. We have reviewed and selected the best reputation management tool for our needs?

Considerations
Ask yourself:
rr Who is the owner of the listening process?
rr What is the process for reviewing and responding

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 rr Use the support teams where possible to help speed up initial configurations
rr Be clear on what you are monitoring & why?

Define approach for responding to brand mentions

rr Q. Approach for responding to brand messages defined?

Set goals
Define or refine social media governance policy
rr Q. Social media governance policies defined?

Define relevant influencers

Create strategy
rr Q.Have you defined the top influencers in your market?

Deliver customer service through social channels

rr Q. Approach for delivering customer service reviewed?

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
Use customer concerns and feedback to inform marketing 3
rr Q. Feedback loop to use customer insight to inform future marketing?

Social media Content and

strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 Step 4
Define content and engagement strategy
rr Q. Do we have a content strategy to engage our audiences?

Set goals
You may well know the analogy of social media as bonfire? A good level of conversation in
a community won’t happen organically in most cases. The conversation needs to be led and
content is the what feeds the fire. In Step 5 we will review what’s needed to communicate the
content you feature. But in this step we focus on the content marketing needed to engage
your audience.

Create strategy
An approach to manage the creation of content for engagement needs a content marketing
strategy. These are the questions to ask about your content marketing strategy.
Social listening activity We don’t do We plan to We are
this do this doing this?
Score 0 Score 1 Score 2

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
Q1. We know the goals we want to achieve
through our content?
Q2. Business case for creating content
established?
Q3. KPIs and tracking for reviewing content
effectiveness in place?
Q4. Requirements of content for main audience

Content and
types (personas) defined?
4
Q5. Categories of content needed to engage
audience defined?
As before, if you mostly score 2s, with some 1s, you have a good approach in place already.
If not, there is room for improvement in how you use people, process and tools to listen and
respond to online conversations. Read on to discover how to define these.

Social media
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 Step 5
Define social media communications strategy
rr Q. Social media communications strategy defined

Set goals
Once your content marketing needs or rather those of your audience are sorted, then you
can turn to how these are communicated.
Social listening activity We don’t do We plan to We are
this do this doing this?
Score 0 Score 1 Score 2

Create strategy
Q1. E-communications strategy defined
including...
Q2. Content value: types and formats defined?
Q3. Regular content update frequency defined
(including syndication of content to offsite)?

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
Q4. Editorial calendar used to manage content
formally including integration between media?
Q5. Content hub platform to manage publication
and syndication of content selected?
Q6. Defined internal resource to create and
manage content and discussions in place?
Q7. Options for external sourcing of content

Content and
reviewed?
Q8. Content syndication to other platforms
managed?
Q9. Outreach to other sites managed?
Q10. Communication through advertising, PR
and email marketing of social media/community

Social media
strategy
proposition of content proposition to existing 5
customers and prospects?

social media platforms

Approaches for the
Social media
optimisation

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 Step 6
Define approaches for the core social media
platforms

Set goals
Introduction
In this step you should review the relevance of each of the main social platforms and define a
communications and engagement strategy for how you can best use them.
The secret to success for making effective use of each social media platform is to work out

Create strategy
which common approaches you can use and which approaches need to be unique for the
platform.
Each social media platform can serve a different purpose for the individual, business or
organisation. You will find that they attract different users and offer different features to
engage them. The tone of voice used and interactions are quite different too, so a “one-size

reputation management engagement strategy

Social listening and
fits all” communication strategy for each platform is definitely not the way forward. But you
can and should use common tools to communicate through each of these platforms.
You will also find, that they naturally differ in their importance to your business, so the first
question to answer is which are the priorities now?

Select the social media platforms to prioritise on

Content and
rr Q. Social media platforms to prioritise on defined?
Follow-up questions, to help answer this question are:

Which social platforms are delivering the most now?

rr Q. Analytics used to deliver reach, value and engagement delivered by different
platforms?

Social media
strategy
Social platforms audience profiled?
rr Q. Profile audience to review intersection with your target audience?

social media platforms

Customer-preferences for content and interactions on each channel? Approaches for the
rr Q. Customer research on social platforms and content preferences reviewed?
6

Define a method for managing content across social media

platforms
rr Q. Method for managing content across platforms defined?
Social media
optimisation

Facebook strategy
rr Q. Approach to get better results from Facebook marketing defined?

Twitter strategy
rr Q. Approach to get better results from Twitter marketing defined?

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 LinkedIn strategy
rr Q. Approach to get better results from LinkedIn marketing defined?

Google Plus strategy

rr Q. Approach to get better results from LinkedIn marketing defined?

Set goals
Own community strategy
rr Q. Relevance and approach to get better results from your own community platform
reviewed?
rr Q. Set social media goals that generate ROI?

Create strategy
How many leads you want, and in what timeframe?
What you consider a lead?
Examples of common criteria include:

reputation management engagement strategy

þþ Downloaded a free report

Social listening and

þþ Downloaded a coupon
þþ Subscribed to your newsletter
þþ Visited your website, or a certain page on
your website, a set number of times
þþ Sent in an enquiry

Content and
þþ Connected to you or your sales rep on
LinkedIn
How many sales you want, and in what
timeframe?
Repeat business you want to generate online
Desired cost-per-lead compared to other

Social media
channels

strategy
What other benefits you want to derive from your
campaign? Common examples include:
þþ Raising company’s profile
social media platforms
þþ Thought leadership Approaches for the

þþ Better customer service

6
þþ Public relations
þþ Connecting to influencers and referrers
What cost savings to you want to achieve
by handling some customer service and PR
Social media
optimisation

functions online?

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 rr Q. Tracking costs?
You can’t measure ROI without knowing your investment. Common expenses you must
account for include:
Header row
Staff: In-house, freelance and agency

Set goals
Staff training time
Upgrading social media accounts
Inbound marketing tools
Email marketing platform
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution

Create strategy
Paid analytics tools like Social Bakers, Simply
Measured, and certain functions in Twitonomy and
Hootsuite
Content creation: Video, webinar platform, graphics,
etc.

reputation management engagement strategy

Social media advertising and Pay-Per-Click

Social listening and

Search Engine Optimisation
Web design
Legal advice

rr Q. Tracking results?

Content and
Set up a reporting document to track results.
rr Q. Work out your ROI

Social media
strategy
social media platforms
Approaches for the

6
Social media
optimisation

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 Step 7
Social media optimisation (SMO)
rr Q. Our Social Media Optimisation (SMO) approach is effective?

Set goals
Once you have your content marketing up and running or when you’re creating a plan for
content marketing, we think it’s worth thinking carefully about SMO.
rr Q. Social media communications strategy defined
Once your content marketing needs or rather those of your audience are sorted, then you
can turn to how these are optimised. The questions to consider about your SMO are based

Create strategy
on the 4 areas of our RACE framework.
Social media communication strategy We don’t do We plan to We are
this do this doing this?
Score 0 Score 1 Score 2

reputation management engagement strategy

Reach more:

Social listening and

rr Q. Increase amplification of message
through content quality
rr Q. Improve use of outreach to influencers
rr Q. Optimise use of advertising to promote
networks

Content and
Act more:
rr Q. Encourage more prospects to become
members of community on social network
rr Q. Improve ease of sharing on site through
integration of content
rr Q. Improve use of buttons for sharing

Social media
strategy
rr Q. Increase number of comments and other
interactions on content
Convert more:
rr Q. Signposts and promotions linking social social media platforms
media usage to sales Approaches for the

rr Q. Use of promotions, advertising and

retargeting to encourage sales
rr Q. Sales offer optimisation
rr Q. Use of cross-channel promotions to
encourage sale (e.g. coupons)
Social media
optimisation

Engage more:
7
rr Q. Encourage customer use of social media
using email integration or offline media?
rr Q. Improve integration of social media
channels and offline channels
rr Q. Improve use of social media for customer
care and customer feedback

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