We recently launched a website detailing our emerging media and social networking strategy, a process we call FILTER. FILTER is an acronym including Facilitate, Identify, Listen, Target, Engage and Review. Each element is instrumental in developing a strategy to meet a company’s objective in targeting their audience through emerging and social media.
With all the talk surrounding Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the various other social networking and emerging media websites, businesses are looking for new ways to reach their audiences online. We created FILTER to assist these businesses in strategically integrating their marketing into this area and to help them better understand the available tools.
At the core of FILTER is something you’ve heard before. In fact, Jacque wrote a blog post about it back in January. I’ll reiterate a point she wrote near the beginning of that post: First and foremost, the customer should always be on your mind.
A staggering number of social tools are at your fingertips. Which will you choose? I’m here to say that you may not be ready. There are three core phases in the social media process, and most organizations skip the first, allow the second to fizzle, and forget about the third. For some, these three may seem like common sense, but they’re often pushed aside in the hype surrounding emerging social tools.
1. Strategize
Think about your customer: Who are they? What motivates them? What are their values? What will they respond to positively? What will engage them? Before jumping head over heels into social media, you need a plan – a strategy. You need goals and objectives, and you need the metrics to determine if your goals and objectives are being met.
2. Execute
Once you have a solid strategy in place, now you can determine how to implement it. Does it involve Facebook and Twitter? Maybe it instead centers around Yelp or even YouTube. Implementation and execution can be as complex as the strategy. Having a Facebook page doesn’t mean you’re automatically popular in your customer’s demographic. It takes persistence and follow-through.
3. Evaluate
In the first phase, goals and objectives should have been created. Now the metrics you put in place to monitor them are put to work. Have you been successful, or not? If so, what’s next? If not, what can you change in terms of execution to be successful? Regular monitoring and analysis of your metrics can help you reach your goals. There are some really great tools available to help you with this work.
The emerging media landscape is just that: emerging. It’s continually evolving and morphing into something different than it was yesterday. Have a solid strategy in place to target your audience, and consistently follow-through in the implementation of your plan. It’s important to continually review the metrics you set in place to determine strategy success as you enter emerging and social media marketing. A process like FILTER and the regular upkeep of the three core elements noted above can help your organization be successful in this space.