Social Media Promotion

Social media promotion is something that is now starting to become more prevalent. So what does a social media promotion plan look like? Lee Oden wrote a very good post comparing direct marketing plans to social media promotion and showed the differences of each. Whereas with direct marketing you won't necessarily know your audience, there is an assumption that with social media promotion, you will already have some involvement with some form of social community. So here is what one could look like:

• Monitor discussion on social communities and networks for key conversations, keywords and topics
• Identify top concerns relevant to what the company is promoting and develop messaging for solution
• Identify influentials in the social communities, bloggers and authorities - ask them their opinion
• Identify media types most often used with topics and communities - text, video, image, podcast as well platforms for communication: blog posts, comments, microblogging, status updates, social network notes, social news and bookmarking and as possible, direct messaging and IM

• Create messaging specific to media type and platform as way of sharing information about the offer
• Create content destinations that explain the offer and that also offer the opportunity to interact, share opinions and comments - blog posts, video, event pages on social networks (like a landing page, but focused on being informative and encouraging discussion, not salesey)
• Reach out to influentials on a one to one basis, recognizing them for sharing their opinion, explaining the offer and your goals - ask them to join in in spreading the good word. Explain what’s in it for them and what’s in it for the community.
• Monitor the communications that result in the most signups and provide feedback on progress
• Offer influential bloggers a “free pass” to blog the event or a preview of what’s being offered
• Recognize participation and contribution to reaching goals
• Continue to engage interested participants and communities

You will see with a social media promotion plan you are focusing on what the audience wants, and recognising parcipitation, as well as actively encouraging it, really does increase the speed and breadth of the message you are sending out.