Social Media Strategy: 6 Areas of Focus for 2010
Doyle Slayton | Dec 13, 2009 | Comments 7
The last few months have been all about thinking… thinking about ways to keep getting better! Normally I write things down from the beginning, but this year for some reason, I delayed putting things on paper. As the new year approaches, I won’t delay any longer.
I’ve put together a rough draft and thought it would be a good idea to share my strategic plan with you! I think we can help each other in two ways.
First – Your opinion matters, and I know you have some ideas for ways I can make your SalesBlogcast experience even better! Tell me what you like most and suggest ideas for improvement.
Second – The other reason for sharing my plan is to spark a few ideas that will help you build new strategies going into the new year!
There are six key areas where I will focus my attention in 2010…
- SalesBlogcast.com
- Posterous
- Job Board
SalesBlogcast.com
Focus: Sales and Leadership strategies for top producers
Goal: Exceed 25,000 email subscribers by year end
Actions:
- High Quality Content
a. Post a minimum of 2 to 3 articles per week
b. Find a minimum of 2 to 3 guest articles per month to promote other people’s great ideas - Instead of sending 2 emails per week through the blog, transition to sending email subscribers only one email per week. (Include new articles, posts, and job listings from SalesBlogcast, Posterous, and Job Board)
- RSS Subscribers will continue receiving updates every time there is a new post
- Get invited to speak at 1 to 2 conferences, events, podcasts, etc. per month
Posterous
Focus: Share all topics of interest, including business, sales, leadership, technology, social media, news, sports, etc.
Goal: Generate a minimum of 2,000 daily page views by year end
Actions:
- Write a minimum of 3-5 Posts per day
- Integrate with SalesBlogcast blog
- Help other people by promoting their stuff, telling their stories, and sharing their ideas
Job Board
Focus: Sales, Marketing, Advertising, and related jobs
Goal: Help people find jobs!
Actions:
- Upgrade to a product that will allow for a more professional look. The service must also provide tools to improve my ability to interact with visitors.
- Provide job seekers with the ability to post their resume.
- Give recruiters and hiring managers resume search capabilities.
LinkedIn
Focus: Build the LinkedIn Sales and Leadership Community
Goal: Exceed 50,000 group members by year end
Actions:
- Begin sending SalesBlogcast.com Group members one broadcast message per week. This will replace the second email I was sending through the blog. (Include new articles, posts, and job listings from SalesBlogcast, Posterous, and Job Board)
- Revisit the value of moderating the group discussions forum. Is it worth the time and effort? (LinkedIn has yet to provide group managers with any moderation tools)
- Visit other sales groups to reconsider the use of sub groups. My initial impression was that sub groups were of little value.
Other LinkedIn Must Do’s -
- Get back to participating in the LinkedIn Q&A forums
- Post at least one question per week
- Answer questions where I can add value
Twitter
Focus: Share as much value added content as possible
Goal: Exceed 100,000 followers by year end
Actions:
- Daily participation and interaction
- Promote other people’s stuff more than I promote my stuff
Facebook
Focus: I need to figure out ways to make better use of Facebook. I just launched a fan page, but I’m not sure if that’s more valuable than simply having a regular profile page. I also have a group page, but have not focused nearly as much on building the community that we’ve built on LinkedIn. Although I’ve not yet discovered ways to produce results from on this platform, I just have a feeling that it has great potential.
Goals and Actions: TBD
So that’s the plan so far!
What suggestions do you have that will make my plan better?
What’s in your strategic plan for 2010?
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Filed Under: Blog • Fun-n-Stuff • Leadership • Reader Questions • Sales • SalesTaxi
the most important strategy for you…let’s say…before 1., is integrate each of these together, includign Twitter, so they all work for eachother…example, all your posts from LinkedIn should auto share with facebook and twitter…or, using facebook connect to drive your members from Linked In to your facebook fan page, etc… Best of luck to you.
This is GREAT Doyle!
I think posting your goals and objectives is simply another way of showing your focus on helping other people, awesome!
One small suggestion is to include a baseline. Using your Linked In goal for example, “Goal: 50,000 group members…” where are you now or at the start of 2010 and set-updates (monthly, quarterly or whatever.) Also, I question the simple numbers (volume of people). This may be a waste of time, what might be cool (and I am not sure how you would track this) is number of referrals. if you had a contest for existing members to refer a non-member that might be something! Or a retention / returning / posting member etc.
I think you apply that logic to all your goals since they seem to be #’s of followers not what you are the members / followers take away. (No worries, if nothing changes what you are doing is still AWESOME! I see A LOT of stuff out there and ALWAYS end up back here!
Happy holidays & Happy New Year here is to forgetting 2009 and a VERY prosperous 2010!
Hank
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Doyle,
Fantastic Post!
Timing is great. We are just beginning to integrate social media into our marketing. Your plan and the added advice of the group has given me some fresh ideas to refining our own goals for 2010.
Keep it coming….I truly value your willingness to share your experience with us.
Happy Holidays to All !!
Stephanie
Great post Doyle,
Thanks for sharing!
Facebook pages could be a bit tricky since we usually buy BIG success stories from B2C “products” (Starbucks, Redbull, Volvo, Ikea, etc) and we tend to forget about our line of business before launching a facebook page. The important thing here is to set the right expectation according to the type of business, product and/or service we have ion order to best benchmark the experience. The target market is also relevant.
For your type of service (sales/leadership advise and consultancy) you can expect a few hundred fans if you already have a nice community built already through your blog and Twitter account. Most of your followers will certainly join your facebook page (I just did
In order to be successful on Facebook, your strategy must include sharing great photo/video content (e.g: from your seminars, webinars, video testimonials, etc) This is the only way that your Facebook brand ambassadors will feel it’s worth spreading the word on Facebook: because what you have is “engaging”. Currently you only have your page feeding from your blog which is good but not good enough for what the Facebook community expects in terms of fun, engaging content.
Have a look at your “insights”. Facebook analytics will provide you with a deeper insight about your community here. Facebook advertising is worth giving it a try.
Finally, there’re a few applications that will make your page look fantastic: include networkedblogs, you tube box and static FBML (create customized tabs and pages inside your FB page)
Hope that helps,
Merry Christmas Doyle.
Best
Fred
Affiliate Crunch…
Making money with this article is easier than I thought….
Great posting. Looking forward to seeing you write more about this subject.