5 Ideas For A Social Web Marketing And PR Strategy

1.  Identify audience

Identify who it is you are trying to influence.  Once you've defined them, start to gather data about them.  Your potential data sources include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Current website analytics
• Google search trends
• Data aggregation (apps like BlogPulse and Trackur)
• Data analysis (apps like Radian 6 and Techrigy)

After you've uncovered the data, what exactly do you do with it?

2.  Define objectives

What are your end goals from this audience?  What is it you want from them?  Just a few example objectives I've worked with include:

• Increase organic leads
• Build thought leadership
• Inspire publicity
• Increase organic search engine traffic

Of course, your objectives will vary depending on your business.  Social media marketing application is only limited by your creativity.

3.  Develop strategy

After audience is identified and your objective(s) are fleshed out, you are now ready to define a strategic approach.  This is driven by audience data + objective + industry insight + creativity.  All tactics implemented in the next steps should be driven by the strategy.  Consider common digital strategy development mistakes prior to finalizing this.

4.  Implement tools/tactics

Only at this point should you define tools/tactics.  As Matt Dickman stated previously – if you want better digital strategy, ban these 7 dirty words.  Most marketing and PR pros skip immediately to this step.  And while it makes sense to experiment with different tools/tactics, they should still roll to the strategic approach (which needs to be locked down first).

Activate SEO intersection

All social media activity should be mindful of search engine optimization.  5 basic tips to keep in mind include:

1. Create a social media keyword glossary of popular social terms, cross reference with your search keyword glossary.
2. Title/tag social content appropriately.
3. Conduct digital asset optimization on images, PDFs, and videos.
4. Leverage/repurpose content across channels.
5. Create linkbait/social media friendly content.

Of course feed your content into your social channels, but ultimately realize your community has greater power to do this than you.  Inspire a group to organically raise your brand's search equity naturally.

5.  Metrics/measurement

Measurement is key with a social web strategy, and defining the KPIs that matter to your brand is vital.

Some potential metrics to measure include:

• Number of subscribers
• Overall unique visitors
• Conversions/conversion sources
• Branded searches/non-branded searches
• Search engine traffic
• Visitor to subscriber conversion ratios
• Followings in outposts
• Referral traffic
• Quality and quantity of engagement across platforms

For much more details on measurements/KPIs, check out my post at Online Marketing Blog on web analytics reporting.

I snagged these ideas from futurebuzz. "The Future Buzz provides the latest insights, trends and strategies to help you build buzz." From futurebuzz by Adam Singer, "Architecting A Social Web Marketing And PR Strategy"