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8 steps to creating a social media strategy
BEST PRACTICE
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YouTube – With nearly 70 percent of the online video market, YouTube is a great opportunity to get out
high-impact messages. Although YouTube first became known for funny home videos, it’s an effective
tool for business because visual messages are particularly engaging, with great potential for “going
viral.” YouTube videos can be emailed, embedded in Web sites, or added to documents.
Use these videos for product demos, brand marketing, Webinars, and training materials. If you have a
global business, consider providing videos in other languages as well. Tip: Place a lead link in your
YouTube videos to eliminate some of initial lead qualification steps of demoing a product or service.
That way, your prospect already knows about your business before you ever talk to them. Now that’s one
qualified lead.
To learn how salesforce.com uses YouTube, visit this link
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LinkedIn – Use LinkedIn to tap into the professional networks of your customers. As a business, you
can also create a group that individuals can join to participate in discussions and to connect with other
customers. And because LinkedIn is a professional networking tool, it’s a great place to post job listings
and corporate news, launch beta products, and promote events to your most interested users.
8 steps to a social media strategy
The tools discussed in the previous section are just that; they’re not a strategy. To be successful, it’s vital to
have a plan. Here are the steps to take to make sure social media fits your business and your business plan:
1. Create a community manager role – The community manager will serve as your point person for all
social media and collaboration activities, including evangelizing your product or business. This
person will also serve as your company’s official voice on social media sites and be tasked with
staying on top of new capabilities and tools.
2. Create a social media steering committee – In addition to the community manager, define other
stakeholders in your social media strategy to create a cross-functional steering committee that
includes public relations, product management, customer support, and marketing. This committee
should drive your social media initiatives.
3. Define objectives – What do you hope to achieve with your social media campaign? Each tool offers
different benefits. For example, if your objective is to reduce case volume for your support team,
consider extending your self-service offers by using Twitter and the knowledge and answers
capabilities of Salesforce. Other objectives might include increasing qualified leads or building
customer loyalty or awareness. Define very specific objectives and then choose the tools that can help
get you there.
4. Decide on success metrics – The true impact of social media can be hard to measure. Social media
tends to be word of mouth or “viral,” which is challenging to measure quantitatively. However, many
social media sites offer fairly robust analytics. For example, YouTube lets you track video views by
number and geographic region. And counting the amount of activity on your Twitter feeds or
Facebook posts gives you a good idea how those programs perform. As part of your plan, decide what
metrics are important, set your goals, and determine how to track results.
5. Set up social media guidelines – In most cases, you want to encourage many employees to
participate in your social media campaigns. Be sure to establish guidelines that specify the “do’s and
don’ts” of participating in online communities. Information shared through social media sites is
public. Before employees start interacting with customers and prospects, be sure everyone knows that
financial statements and private information are off limits for your community sites.
6. Create easy-to-remember URLs – To encourage customers and prospects to participate in your
communities, make it easy to access your links. With most social media tools, you can select a
personalized URL. When setting up your Facebook or Twitter accounts, make sure the URLs are a
natural extension of your businesses Web site and that they’ll work in emails and marketing collateral.
For example, Salesforce users and customers can access our Facebook page with the URL
www.salesforce.com/facebook
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