Step Two in Social Media Planning: The Match Game

This week, this blog will walk you through the five steps to developing a social media plan. Critical to the success of any campaign (social or traditional) is a well-articulated and researched plan. That is the focus of today’s and this week’s blog entries.

Step 1 is to accurately define your target market. boxlessmedia offered some quick tips and then shared some great content via Twitter (@BoxlessMedia) with other insights. Step 2 is to take that well-defined audience and match the audience segments up with the social media platforms that will best reach that group.

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Pew launched the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a study that explores the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The have released some great numbers on the usage of different social media platforms by different populations. Much of their findings can be found at http://pewinternet.org/. They have assembled a collection of stats defining the users of the most popular social media platforms.

Step two is the most intellectual and strategic step in this process. You really need to evaluate the different platforms, research their users and strengths and then match those platforms with your target audience.

This sounds pretty simple but can actually be a pretty complex project. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a company decides they need to be on a specific social network “because everyone else is.” That is a terrible answer. A company really needs to evaluate their target audience and customer base and then plot out a plan that will best match audience segments with social platforms.