Many PR and advertising efforts are like unguided missiles. They fly all over the place, some land on target and most don’t. When you take the same effort online there are now many more parts to coordinate and the complexity multiplies.

Running a Social Media Marketing campaign is like a general marshalling all his resources and putting them in places they will be most effective. Lets look at some of the components that have to be coordinated for a successful SMM campaign.

• Social Sites like Facebook, Orkut – A softer more friendlier image has to be projected.
• Business Networking Sites like LinkedIn, Ryze – A more professional crisper image has to be maintained
• Company Blog – Interesting and relevant information has to be posted regularly.
• Company Newsletter – Preferably two versions, one corporate and one industry specific informative.
• RSS Feeds – Can flow from the blog and website. But have to be indexed.
• Articles / Whitepapers – Building credibility by giving out knowledge is the new mantra.
• Bulleting Board – Intelligent, helpful and selective participation in strategically chosen boards.
• Offline Phyical Events – Online must complement offline real world activity.

There is a very thin line between being Relevant and being Spam. Any of the above can be mishandled and backfire.  As always less is more and being careful in selecting the target sites and information is very very important.

Role of SMM Expert.

Ideally the person handling the SMM effort should be from the company itself but that rarely works out in the real world. Normally a firm such as ours would handle it on behalf of the client. But unlike regular Search Engine Optimization where the expert can work relatively independent of the client, SMM needs very close interaction. After all, the SMM expert is the company representative online. He/she has to respond to posts, interact with network members and answer relevant questions.

What should you be giving your SMM Expert?

• Atleast one high level liason person from your company.
• Access to various information resources within your company.
• Share latest news, updates, product developments, events, awards and certifications and maybe even some social information from the company grapewine.

Boundaries and Limits

Boundaries and limits must be set with the SMM expert before the campaign begins. The client must sit with the expert and explain the company culture, what is open for discussion and what is off limits. Any potential information that could get inadvertently exploited must be explained to the expert. An honest and frank discussion can save potential embarassment later eg. that the ceo wears a hair piece might NOT be something he would like people to know no matter how many are interested. Ask Donald Trump.

The Strategy

It is important to know the SMM is not a quick fix. It takes time and patient effort. Its about networking across many different sites and slowly building credibility, then familiarity and finally loyalty.

It is an iterative process of posting information, contacting people, sending out information, measuring success and then doing it all over again. Momentum slowly builds. A good article might draw people onto your Facebook page. A good facebook page might draw people to your site. A fraction of which might buy your product. Or the cycle could go the other way again with someone returning back to your site and buying your product.

Bottomline is more people know you and like you the more are the chances of them buying your products /services.

Cheers
Ron

Do visit us at http://www.miracleworx.com

Or check out our portfolio at http://www.miracleworx.com/portfolio.htm

Lets look at both, strategy and time.

Strategy: Picking the right strategy is the most important part of going online. Many times clients try to copy what another business is doing or try to copy their brick and mortar business wholesale online. Both strategies may or may not work, but most often they dont. Nothing beats a well thought out tailormade solution for going online.

What are the factors that dictate the strategy you choose?

• What parts of the business easily translate online and which ones should remain in the physical entity (which I shall call offline now). Trying to transfer all the elements of the business online rarely works.
• Is it going to help existing customers as well? Businesses so often are hunting for new customers that they forget that they might be able to give thier existing customers a better experience online as well.
• Is the online process straight forward or do you have to do handstands and convulted processes to try and fit the offline model to the online world. Sometimes a business simply has to invent new process for their websites seperate from their offline processes. It could also end up benefiting the business the otherway around.
• Can some of the online features eliminate some of the offline chores or processes. This works well for customer support and followup processing.
• And finally the mother of all points, is there really demand for your product online?

Time: Many products take a long time to catch up with demand online. Sometimes it take an evangilical belief in your website and tons of patience till you achive traffic justifying the time and cost of the website. Will it take 1 month, 2 months, 6 months or a year? Maybe more? Depends on your promotion budget, SEO, word of mouth and plain dumb luck.

Over time your website might or might not become a blockbuster but it can always become a handy complementary tool for your offline business .

Assessing Demand

Assessing demand for your product online can be a tricky devil. You might do research which indicates that the demand is great but after launch you might end up swatting flies.

Some ways to access online demand

• Google Adwords Sandbox: This is a handy tool to find out how many people are searching for the keywords related to your products and hence how many visitors you can expect once you start your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
• Ask your core customers: This in my view is one of the best ways. Your core customers who are loyal to you also match the profile of your ideal target prospects. If they feel going online for services is not a problem then chances are your core prospects might also feel the same. But if your core customers do shoot it down, don’t abandon the idea, they just might be behind the curve a bit and might join the bandwagon once you launch the site.
• Send out sample surveys: Get your hands on an email list of your industry and send out a sample survey (tagged with a small gift for taking the survey) and ask the relevant questions. You might be surprised by the response. Make sure you leave room in your survey to accept ideas and pain points.

All the research and surveys and planning and strategy cannot replace the real thing. Weigh the risks and costs, enter softly at first, test the waters and slowly build up your online services. Discard what does not work and retain and enhance which does.

Some common sense and a reality check will be more effective than the latest technologies or brilliant idea.

Cheers,
Ron