Social media: Approach and action plan

Our solution and our service offering are built around the following lines:

1. A thorough needs analysis,
2. Guiding principles that dictate our tactical recommendations,
3. A "social" or "social platform" oriented content strategy
4. A sound choice of platforms,
5. A web 2.0 site to round out your presence on the social platforms,
6. A gradual rollout,
7. Effective monitoring and automated publishing tools, a source of intelligence and productivity
8. Targeted, relevant training workshops to give you the means, the tools and the independence you need to run your platforms,
9. A clear policy that frames the use of social platforms internally and externally,
10. Ongoing expert support after delivery.

A "social" content strategy

We will work closely with the organization’s communications team to build a content creation editorial strategy, supported by a consolidated annual communication plan that will be the main lever for the various social media initiatives.

Choosing the platforms

Choosing which social platforms to bring in is an important question. There is no "magic recipe". Building out the organization’s ecosystem through mapping the social web will give us tangible indicators on which platforms to favour. The candidate platforms are the fuel for the strategy defined beforehand.

That said, we find that the platforms best suited to a first-phase integration are generally these:

• Facebook and Twitter: meet the criteria for the general public;
• LinkedIn: speaks more to the institutional audience;
• YouTube: covers every audience.

Other platforms are worth considering:

• Google +: this could be a platform to bring in, but given how limited its coverage is, we would not make it a priority for a first implementation phase.
• Flickr/Instagram/Pinterest : we can only note the potential of this type of platform for certain audiences.

Growing your website to consolidate your presence on the social platforms

Having a "social" content strategy leads us to ask the following question:

What is the role of the organization’s website, and how will we tie this content to the site without harming its integrity?

One of the recommendations and possible answers is to enrich your website by creating a themed blog so it can host this new "social" content and act as a content syndication engine. That is the approach we chose for multiplemedia.

How does it work?

• Every piece of content published on social media is also published on the blog.
• We bring the blog into the automated publishing process on the same footing as the social platforms.
• The blog reflects the organization’s brand, is reachable from the home page and is fully integrated into the site.
• A pleasant user experience optimized for this type of communication.
• Sections are themed and follow those of the "social" content strategy.
• The blog is bilingual.

A gradual rollout

Bringing in social media and rolling out the associated strategies cannot be done overnight. A gradual approach is preferable for tangible, measurable results. In general we recommend a gradual rollout built around three phases:

Phase I. Develop the strategy and the presence on the platforms selected.

Phase II. Grow that presence while making sure the following points are covered:

• Bringing in new platforms;
• Bringing in the blog;
• The social platforms become an integral part of the communication and marketing plans;
• The practice and the team assigned to it mature.
• Performance dashboard.

Phase III. Enrich the platforms, improve the practices and build on the initiatives and campaigns by systematically bringing social media into the organization’s communication strategies.

A training plan

We recommend four (4) training workshops. Each one focuses on an important aspect of deploying, using or managing social media. Our goal is to prepare your teams to take charge of your platforms and so reduce your dependence on the service provider. These workshops cover the following themes:

• Workshop 1: Concepts and best practices:
• 1. The attitudes and skills to develop.
  2. Best practices guide.
• Workshop 2: User guide for the platforms selected:
• 1. How they work and what they can do.
  2. Use cases.
• Workshop 3: Community management guide:
• 1. Active listening and following conversations.
  2. Editorial planning and content creation.
  3. Managing conversations: answer, transfer or escalate.
• Workshop 4: Tools user guide:
• 1. Guide for using the monitoring tool selected.
  2. Guide for using the publishing tool selected.

Next: Social media for business: 4) Monitoring, management and measurement tools