Social Media Marketing Guide - Step 1: Planning

This post is part one of four from our Social Media Guide, a companion post to our presentation "Self-evolving eCommerce: Using Consumer Generated Content for Fun and Profit" at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas.

Planning is the coach of a social media campaign. You must understand the field and generate a strategy for scoring.

1. Buy-in

• Brand advertisers have an easier time with this (way more viral campaigns for brands than retailers)

2. Generate ideas

• Keep a notebook (Google Notebook is useful, so is pen and paper)

3. Identify angle

• Humor: Jockey Stop Squirming
• Controversy: Dove Evolution campaign
• Contest: Target dormroom contest in Facebook
• Amazing: Ray-ban sunglasses
• Emotional: 1-800-Flowers mother's day
• Informative: Sephora makeup how-to's
• Timely: Ice.com - Mr. Cupid
• Ongoing: Blogs (Ecommerce Blogs of the Top Online Retailers)

4. Pick channel (blog, video, podcast, interactive)

• appropriate to budget
• appropriate to timeline
• appropriate to angle