SEARCH SEARCH tel. +44 (0)203 031 2902 CHALLENGE US MY FAVOURITES ACCOUNT LOG OUT HOME ABOUT IDEAS LIBRARY IDEAS BY INSTITUTIONS Home Ideas Library Socially Aware, Media Savvy: Social Media Strategy 10.13007/111 Ideas for Leaders #111 Socially Aware, Media Savvy: Social Media Strategy Key Concept Social media offers both great opportunities, and also challenges, to businesses. For those that embrace social media – by adopting the right strategy – risks can be averted and rewards unlocked. Using a simple framework to create an effective strategy for social media can enable your company to enjoy its benefits. Idea Summary Companies can no longer control their communications with their customers. Social media tools have enabled information to be generated from within the marketplace by consumers themselves. This shift of power presents significant challenges for companies that fail to come to terms with it. But for those that do embrace social media, the rewards can be great. Different methods of collaboration and innovation are becoming ever more prevalent and companies are increasingly realizing the commercial gains that can be achieved through these new business models. A comprehensive six-stage framework will enable businesses to plan, run and improve their use of social media as part of their marketing strategy. This simple, but effective, framework covers most situations and can be deployed in most companies, whether operating in the business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) space. The six stages are: 1. Plan: Identify what you want to achieve and how you should approach social media 2. Monitor: Listen to the social media conversations taking place about your business and brand (using monitoring tools such as Google alerts) to gain insight into your customers’ perceptions 3. Engage: Establish your company’s presence in the social media world (using blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc), because if you don’t start the social media conversations then someone else will 4. Manage: Use social media to build and manage relationships that support the objectives of your business strategy. Use blogs, Facebook activity and responses to others, for example, to make announcements, resolve customer issues, launch new products, run campaigns, request ideas or feedback and recruit staff 5. Measure: Understand the impact of your social media strategy and continually adapt it to improve outcomes 6. Integrate: Tie your social media activities in with your other online and offline activities. Remember, social media is just another channel in the marketing mix. Business Application For most companies, embarking on a social media strategy can enable them to create a customer-centred environment, using technology to accelerate real-time interactions. But the successful implementation of a social media strategy will depend on you, as a business leader: Authors Clark, Moira Bryan, Andrew Shapiro, Melanie Institutions Henley Business School Source The Henley Centre for Customer Management Idea conceived 2011 Idea posted March 2013 DOI number Subject Strategy Marketing Social Media