Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

Chapter 21. The Social Marketing Compass: Creating a Social Media Plan

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

—Unknown

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Depending on the drivers for engagement and the state of adoption in the Social Web, our first steps might require either the creation of a fresh social media plan or one based on the state of the existing program and the assessment of what is currently in motion, what's lacking, and what it should include. In both cases, our work in the Conversation Prism and Index must prove complete and irrefutable. It serves as the social map for planning and defining our approach.

Now we have one more step to undertake in order to draft a market-ready social media blueprint, one that is inclusive of all activity currently in effect now or in the developmental stages within your organization. For smaller companies, this process is straightforward. Nonetheless, we must conduct an audit that surveys the Social Web for any existing social profiles, objects, and accounts that are already in use or were created earlier and now remain dormant. This allows us to assemble the fragmented pieces that may exist and also assess the state of affairs, caliber of content, and relevance of accounts to evaluate and regroup. As a result, some accounts may remain, some may be reorganized, others may become inactive or erased altogether. These actions will be determined by the results of the Conversation Prism research.

For intelligence purposes, we should also review the activity ...