Developing a social media campaign can be a daunting process if you haven’t thought through how it connects with and to the rest of your business development tools and strategies. Luis Ramos, CEO of The Network, reminds us that creating a social media strategy is a complex exercise because “it includes not only looking inside the organization to establish appropriate practices, usage policies and content parameters, but it also includes looking outside the organization to determine the proper degree of engagement.”

1. What’s Your Objective?
Figuring out why you want to engage in social media is an important first step. Do you want to:

  • be more responsive to your customer?
  • increase awareness of your product or service?
  • incorporate your customer’s feedback to the development of new or existing products or services?
  • use the campaign to brand your organization?

There are many reasons to engage in social media. Remember your campaign must be measurable with objectives that can be accomplished in a reasonable timeline.

2. Who Will Manage Your Campaign?
Ramos suggests including in the strategy the position responsible for updating content as well as the update frequency. “Many organizations have grand plans of updating content on a regular basis only to quickly run out of topics, leaving content to become stale. As a best practice, a specific employee is typically assigned to create and manage the company’s social media pages, so he/she can respond to messages and questions within 24 hours.”

Depending on the size of your organization, the management of this campaign could take place in the marketing or communications department. These campaigns are generally huge undertakings as it is critical to keep your information fresh and current. Another option to consider is using external resources (i.e. consultants, agencies) for all or certain aspects of the strategy and internal resources for the rest. Regardless of who is managing your campaign, communication to organizational leadership is critical to share knowledge obtained from your followers and customers.

3. Teach Your Employees
How will your employees be involved in your organization’s campaign? There is likely to be a policy involved here in terms of whether or not your employees are allowed to engage in social media during work hours. But consider involving them into your campaign.

Christopher Barger, director of global social media at General Motors, Barger explains several things the company did to convey GM’s approach. “We posted a 45-minute ‘Social Media 101’ interactive training course on the intranet that gives employees the basics on how/why/where to engage in social media. Additionally, we developed a ‘201’ level ‘train-the-trainer’ course that introduces more complete tools and tips. Those who’ve taken this course are authorized to train others within their departments on the basics of social media. Finally, we have an internal blog, ‘Making Conversation,’ that focuses on sharing lessons we’re learning through social media outreach.”

It is important to realize that social media is just a part of the overall business development strategy. During 2010, more companies are expected to explore and engage in social media activities. While some might categorize using a social networking application as easy, that doesn’t mean developing a strategy is simple. Proper planning and execution is the key to integrating social media into your organization.

Share