Creating a Social Media Strategy

Social media are a vital resource for promoting your events in the 21st Century.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Wikipedia provide endless opportunities to connect, one-to-one, with thousands - even millions - of raving fans of your sport.  As you think about how to leverage this mind-boggling new resource, though, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.  So when you’re creating your social media strategy, follow a simple step-by-step plan.

Step 1: Set your goals. Clearly state your goals and constantly check them against your marketing intentions and your concrete results.  Write goals down and be specific.  Don’t have too many goals but focus on what is important and keep an eye toward diversity.  It is always better to have a few goals and meet them than to go after pie in the sky.  Your goals might include, for example, reconnecting with a certain percentage of your previous event competitors, increasing your network size and generating a certain amount of new content every day/week/month.  Whatever your specific goals, remember that your plan is going to take time and don’t have unrealistic expectations.  Rome wasn’t built in a blah, blah...

Step 2: Know your market. Try to understand the online habits and preferences of your event competitors, spectators and sponsors.  Get to know their “social technographic profiles.”  Do the research.  Talk to people, surf the net.  Use the Social Technographic Profile worksheet found at: www.compete-at.com/  [ADD REST OF URL, David].  Identify the demographics of your target group(s) and then identify the social media they’re most likely using and how they’re using them.

Step 3: Pick your weapons. Choose the online tools that best match your goals and targets.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket but, rather, have a mix of technologies and sites.  The idea is to diversify, not duplicate.  You’ll probably want to use a strategic mix of Social Network Sites (SNS), Forums and Blogs.  Pick a general SNS like Facebook and then a couple of sport-/event-specific forums and blogs.  This strategy gives you a mix of coverage to optimize results.

When using the SNS, accept invitations and build up your friends lists.  Use the Status Updates to your full advantage.  Post often, but not to the point of annoyance.  Create fan pages.  Join Groups and contribute to discussions, but also start your own Groups.

On the forums, become active.  Post often and, more importantly, supply answers and insightful comments.  Keep these insights positive and helpful, not negative or self-serving.  Consider making a donation to the site (usually less than $50).  This shows your support of the community and instantly raises your standing.  Lastly, consider advertising on the site.  This can be a very cost-effective platform.

As for blogs, know that starting your own blog is a major commitment and growth can be slow.  In most cases you are better off finding blogs that your target audience is already following and see if you can get involved.  Consider contacting the blogger.  Most bloggers are always looking for content and ideas, so help them out.  Give them exclusives.  Let them know what you are doing that is unique.  Feed them press releases, news items.  Make them feel special.

Step 4: Build or borrow? After working the first three steps, you’ll come to a point where you really need to decide whether you want to build your own (forum, SNS, blog…) or leverage an existing site.  In most cases it will be more efficient to find a blog, SNS or forum that already covers your target audience and use it to meet your goals.  If there’s really nothing out there for you, or if you see a great opportunity to be a pioneer, then you might want to build your own.  But remember, growth can be a slow process.

Step 5: Think long-term. As with any marketing or branding effort, this is a long-term strategy.  Give it time to develop.  Social media is like a bank in which you make deposits one penny at a time.  So to buy that shiny new bicycle (or other reward) you’ll have to stick with your strategy over the long haul.  The good news is that as your “principal” grows, it generates interest, increasing the total value over time.

Step 6: Look for ways to leverage technology. Because you want to cover several different social media, look for tools that will help you reduce your effort.  Work smarter, not harder.  There are innumerable tools and solutions available to help you streamline your workload.  For example, Ping.fm allows you to simultaneously post to Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter and other accounts.  Tweetlater allows you to queue up “tweets” (Twitter posts) and automatically post them on a staggered schedule.  Those are just a couple of examples.  Remember, too, that you don’t have to create all of your content.  You can “borrow” content from other sites, as long as you give them credit and post links to the source.  And finally:

Step 7: Remember the 4 Cs. Whatever web tools you choose, create your posts, uploads and site improvements with the following criteria in mind:
1.    Content – Does this post (content, upload, feature, etc.) add value to the target community?
2.    Context – How does this post relate to the “world” of the target community?
3.    Connection – How does this post build connections between you and the target community?
4.    Community – How does this post help to build a sense of connection among members of the target community?
Following this seven-step plan will help you navigate the vast, but rewarding ocean of social media and get the best return on your marketing investment.

For more information on social media and event planning for non-profits, visit my blog.