If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times. Developing a content strategy and plan is extremely critical for a successful social media strategy.
You can’t invite folks to dinner without offering them a meal.
And why does everything come back to food, anyway? or shoes - oh yeah, that’s another post.
Back to the topic at-hand. Developing a focused and valuable content strategy requires us to think through a few high-level things first, then apply that to our social media activities.
Here is what I recommend:
Get your smart, innovative creative thinkers in the room. Ask the following questions (can be about a program, product, or around organizational goals):
What are our goals - in one year, what is the story we want to tell?
This is where you clearly articulate the outcome, based on what you want to be saying when you have successfully accomplished it. Then you work backwards from there.
About your core audience(s), ask yourselves the following questions:
- What are their pain points - needs?
- What do they find valuable?
- Who are they and where are they already gathering online?
- How many are current members or participants in any way?
- How many know who we are as an organization?
- What are the possibilities for future engagement/interactions (membership, content creation, speaking, interviews, etc)?
- Beyond the default ‘networking’ answer, what do we have (or what can be created) that would be really valuable to them: Experiences, Content, Knowledge
- What is the best way for us to brainstorm activities, events, content to address the answers to these?
- How do we use the web and social platforms to engage and/or disseminate where appropriate?
Now that you have gathered an arsenal of knowledge, you can build your strategy. Here is what I suggest:
- Develop an content grid/calendar that identifies topics, events/activities & content on a month-by-month basis
- Brainstorm content tactics & identify resources for each
- consider existing content that can be re-purposed
- opportunities for new content creation: interviews for podcasts, guest articles and blog posts, white papers, toolkits, etc.
With this information, you can build your social media strategy and easily identify ways to disseminate, communicate, and engage using both traditional and new (social) media.
Make sense? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for this superb example of “begin with the end in mind.” When we clearly articulate the desired outcome, we can accurately measure the impact to the organization. Equally important is the hard work of identifying our “ideal customer” for each campaign. Who are we trying to reach? What do we have to offer them? How will we know we are sucessful? (e.g. they subscribe to a blog, comment on an article, purchase a product, etc.) This model can be easily adapted for all sorts of communication challenges. Thanks again!