Building a Social Marketing Plan

The great minds at Great Minds Interactive have written a terrific blog post on how any kind of organization out there can build a solid social marketing plan. I’d suggest reading it first, then coming back to see my comments on it. So go already. It’s worth it.

Back? Good. In my mind, their plan is a lot like establishing a regular marketing plan — espeically the “defining market objective” and “selecting target market” points. They also integrate a lot of social media-specific ideas into their plan and helpful hints, especially these points: “Pay attention to your customers — don’t just sell,” “Give to get, but mostly give,” and “Remember to give help generously.” After all, social media was founded by individuals on those ideas, so organizations should follow them, too.

About the only thing I’d add, though, is that your organization’s overall marketing plan should somehow integrate into your social media campaign as well. You can definitely get creative with social media, but you’ve got to have it all come under one overarching marketing message. Otherwise, you’ve got the equivalent of two brands out there, which only ends up diluting both “brands.”

All in all, though, a really good post. I highly recommend it.

(tip o’ the hat to @mothergeek)