I regret that I have had to pull down the last post, due to some silly bird thinking I have stole her content. Please!
This was not true. Have I come across her page before? Possibly. I read mountains of blogs, ALL THE TIME. Do I bookmark everything I read? No. Although I probably should. Did I copy her post? NO. Did I offer her a link to her website? (which is rather good). Yes – 2 in fact! Did I offer to publish her content on my pages? Yes. One can try.
This is by no means admitting defeat. If you write good content, it will get read. You may not remember where you have read it, just as if someone tells you to read a good book, can you always remember who told you to read it? Unfortunately, sometimes people don’t get credited for their original content which is a grave shame. This is something I ALWAYS try to do when writing my blog and if this time, it has escaped me, then shame on me.
Writing about planning a social media strategy, I explained to said angry blogger, is generic. There are obvious things to get in place to make it possible. I bet I could find 1000s of blogs on exactly the same tip. Fact.
I will reiterate what I have just finished, in my last social media plan for a client…
A Social Media Marketing Plan Everyone needs one. Fact. The whole point of having one, is that you don’t spend all your time on Facebook, Twitter… and end up wasting your precious time. Furthermore, you end up with negative results. #tobeavoided
Firstly you need to a proper plan of action, think about how much time you can dedicate to being on Facebook, Twitter and the like and stick to it. Otherwise, and as I have mentioned before in many of my blogs to date – you will find your time withering away.
Decide what core channels you will use, or write a plan for each. Remembering that they all have different guises. The Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter communities ARE different. Research this for yourself so you are down with the kids. You’ll soon get a feel for each site when you delve in. The etiquette, the do’s and don’ts etc.
Discover what others are doing online, as mentioned in my previous blog “What can you learn from your competitors”. The nosier you can be, the better! It will help when you enter into dialogue. Use keywords and directories such as WeFollow or LinkedIn Groups. Set up a Google Alert and look at trends, well used hashtags and daily news.
Next comes the all important question, ‘What you’re going to post on each social media account and how often?”
This is easy if you have a schedule of PR or events but if you aren’t ‘selling’ anything as such, you need to work out what angle you wish to take your ‘brand voice’ and how you will put over your brand to the general online public. I have written a book, “One Giant Leap into Social Media Marketing” which gives you plenty of content ideas that will last you years and hopefully spark off a bit of creative thinking on your part to start really using your social media channels in an exciting way.
If you gave some thought to all the possible situations that could happen on your social media account, for example, complaints, judgements, rants etc. Just like the one I had to deal with today – its good to know how you will respond.
I reacted by pulling my blog down and re-writing. I’m not precious!!! (I might add, that I re-wrote content that I have published before for Online PR UK. Is one copywriting oneself here?! or merely presenting the same content in a different way?)
If I counted the amount of times I have seen content similar to mine, I would have a very long list.
It just proves to us all that we should be more original.
I digress, the bottom line when writing you plan, is to have a set of policies or guidelines in place. Imagine you were going to hand over your social media content to someone else. If you gave them a set of guidelines on how to run your social media marketing, what would those guidelines say?
Write those guidelines down!
OK – not everything goes to plan right?! Believe me, eventually something will happen that isn’t written in your plan! THIS IS FINE!!! Adapting your plan along the way is great management and shows you are keeping it real!
I just did.