When it comes to social media strategy, we've been busy creating lots of content over the past two years since we first published a compilation of our social media strategy framework. In conjunction with a half-day workshop I'm leading today at the 14th annual Marketing World sponsored by Frost and Sullivan (#FrostMAR).
As a resource for both the workshop participants and all the Brainzooming readers, this updated social media strategy framework contains seventy-one links to both Brainzooming content and other key resources to help maximize your brand's social networking impact, with a particular emphasis on its application to B2B brands.
If you'd like to talk more about how we can help you apply solid business strategy to your social media efforts, we'd be happy to help in applying our Brainzooming methodology to build a solid strategy and maximize the social networking impact of your investment. - Mike Brown
OVERVIEW
- Shaq, Twitteronia, and Social Media Strategy in 140 Characters - The fundamentals of social media shared in 140 characters.
- Forrester Social Technographics Profile Tool - The ongoing work from Forrester that provides a starting point for understanding social networking participation among specific audiences.
- The Network Is Your Customer – David Rogers on 5 Strategy Implications - New strategic opportunities businesses can capitalize on through addressing social networking.
- 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends - Fantastic overview of content marketing trends from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs (pdf).
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Blogging for Business – Answers to 4 Fantastic Social Media Questions - Addressing four fundamental questions apparently on everyone's mind relative to B2B social media.
STRATEGY
1. Integration
- 3 Crippling Disconnects in Social Media Strategy – A plea for a holistic, integrated perspective.
- There’s No Place like Home for the Holidays (or for a Successful Social Media Strategy) – Get your home page right first.
- 13 Warning Signs Your Organization Isn't Ready for Social Media - A checklist to determine how ready your organization is for a successful social presence.
- Social Media Mistakes You Shouldn't Be Making in Business-to-Business - Based on real-life examples, easy to correct mistakes business-to-business companies may be making.
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Social Media Strategy – The Tweetable Lunch with Alex Knapp of Forbes - A sampling of social media strategy insights from Forbes Magazine.
2. ROI
- “The 6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” - Free download of the Brainzooming overview of the situations and metrics important for a successful implementation strategy.
- “The Social Media Crash of 2011″ with Author Jamie Turner (@60SecondTweets) – Author Jamie Turner on the importance of measurement.
- The Old Spice Guy is Sexy & the Smartest Player in Super Bowl Advertising – By Jeannie Chan - A guest post providing the background and results behind one of the most prominent social media campaigns to date.
3. Guidelines
- The World’s Simplest Social Media Policy – A guest post on nateriggs.com offering a policy nearly any organization can use to get started right away.
- Social Media Policy – Whats and Whens Behind Your Guidelines – Situations your guidelines should address.
- Social Media Moments of Silence – 5 Areas to Monitor During Tragedies - Areas to help determine how your brand should respond during public tragedies and disasters.
- What Do You Do with Social Media Content During a Tragedy? There Is No One Answer - Potential strategic responses for handling public tragedies and disasters.
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Brand Strategy – 5 Reasons April Fools Prank Social Media Is a Joke - Be a stick in the mud if your brand presence doesn't include humor and don't run an April Fools social media prank.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
4. Listening
- Twitter Is a Waste? Your Social Networking Ladle Must Suck - Value comes from the right type of listening strategy.
- Social Media Monitoring Tools - A link to an infographic overview on free and paid monitoring tools.
- Slowing Twitter Down without a Fail Whale - The importance of social media listening tools to make sense of the conversations going on.
- @MallofAmerica Is All Over Social Media Listening – Yes, you can actively engage customers. Yes, you have to work at it. Yea, the Mall of America does it really well.
5. Building Relationships
- 26 Pieces of Advice for Dating and Social Media Success – Social networking starts with relationships, and there are clearly right and wrong ways to go about developing them.
- 16 Social Media Tactics for Building an Audience – Advice for taking a strategic approach to developing and interacting with an online audience.
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Content Marketing – Start Before You NEED Something to Happen - Don't until you need an action to happen to start with your social media content marketing.
- B2B Relationship Marketing – 5 Ways Facebook Helps B2B Relationships - Incorporating personal social media into a B2B business development setting.
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Social Networking, Personal Relationships & 7 Content Strategy Questions - Specific questions to ask in setting the strategy for how personally involved executive get in sharing B2B brand content.
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11 Reasons to Use Content Marketing to Educate Non-Customers - It's not just current customers who are your content marketing target.
- Blogging Strategy – Resuscitating a Near-Death Blog - If your brand has let its social media presence lag, here are 5 steps to resuscitate it.
6. Getting Noticed
- 10 Ways to Make Your Social Media Strategy Come Alive - Basic questions to look for opportunities to get greater notice for your social media content.
- The Zero Moment of Truth – 7 Key Steps - An overview of the work Google has done on search activity before the customer even talks to you.
- Social Media When You're Starting Out - From a talk for freelance businesses, these steps are applicable to any emerging effort.
- Search Engine Optimization Strategy – Getting Smart on the Essentials - SEO is a vital part of getting your content marketing implementation noticed.
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SEO and Keyword Research Tool Use – 3 Blog Traffic Growth Ideas - Tools to grow your presence through smarter use of keywords.
- Social vs. Search - An infographic covering the powerful double team of social and search.
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Social Media – 19 Content Strategy Ideas from a TV Network - Taking the social media content programming cue from TV network practices.
- New Media Expo #NMX – Social Business and Content Marketing RTs from Afar - Tips and ideas from social media pros on how to get more attention for your content.
INFRASTRUCTURE
7. Platforms
- Social Media Is Like: Finding Strategic Connections - Different ways to consider how the various platforms could fit into your marketing mix.
- 2013 CMO's Guide to the Social Media Landscape - A quick, annually updated graphic showing the advantages and disadvantages of the most prominent platforms.
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Social Media Strategy – 5 Questions Mall of America Can Answer. Can You? - Questions to identify stronger integration opportunities for your social media strategy.
- Social Media Lessons from Porsche – 11 Social Media Strategy Questions to Ask - More social media strategy questions to address stronger integration opportunities.
8. Time and Talent
- Collaborative Blogging – 7 Ways to Deliver Better Stories - The best stories come when the stories are coming from throughout your organization.
- Social Media Organizational Approaches - Altimeter Group research into various social media organizational structures.
- Social Media Productivity – 13 Tips to Maximize Your Time - Make all your content work as hard for you as possible in multiple venues.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – 9 Ways to Green Your Blog - Keeping older content fresh and relevant.
- Blogging Daily – 7 Keys to Keeping Your Blog Content Fresh - Simple steps to keep the content on a frequently updated blog healthy and robust.
- 15 Ideas to Make Your DIY Social Media More Successful - If you have few people and a lot to do on social media, these ideas will help maximize your effort.
- 20 Strategies for Making Your Solo Social Media Effort More Successful - 20 more ideas to get the greatest impact from an efficient implementation.
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Social Media Productivity – 7 Ways Business Blogging Gets Easier - Once you get started blogging, these tips help you make easier all (okay, most of) the time.
- Social Media Productivity – 19 Ideas for Spending Less Time Blogging - More ideas for limiting the time you or your social media team spend creating content.
9. Minimizing Risk
- Is Your Social Media Intern Ready for Corporate Tweeting – 7 Questions to Find Out - A quick quiz to make sure you have the right people behind your content marketing creation and sharing.
- Brand Kidnappings and Social Networking – 5 Ways to Prepare - The best way to avoid a social media-based customer service debacle is to prepare for one to happen.
- See Me, Feel Me, Criticize Me – A way to better self-assess your online presence.
SOCIAL BUSINESS
10. Content Marketing
- Creating Intriguing Social Media Content – 3 Fundamental Steps - It's not hard to create compelling content.
- Outside-In Blogging Strategy – Creating Robust Social Media Topics - Identifying compelling content is easier with an outside-in content marketing strategy.
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What to Blog About and How – Brainzooming Blogging Content Primer - The comprehensive Brainzooming primer on blogging and content marketing creation.
- What to Blog About? 187 Ideas and Topics for Blogs, All in One Place - If you can't find blogging topics on this list, well, you're never going to find a blog topic you like.
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Blog Topic Ideas – Social Media Content Strategy for a Large B2B Company - Content marketing topic ideas specifically oriented to a large B2B company and its opportunities.
- Social Media Content Ideation: Think – Know – Do - A tremendously efficient way to generate hundreds of content marketing ideas.
- 25 Creative Blog Post Ideas You Could Write Today - Nearly a month's worth of content marketing ideas in this one list. And you can repeat the list month after month.
- Content Marketing – Space It Out Over Time - Manage your content, your time, and the expectations you place on your audience.
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What to Tweet About – 37 Ideas for Better Content Marketing - Ideas that apply to Twitter or any other short status update social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, etc.
- Who Is Creating Social Media Content in Your Organization? - Depending on what you want from your content marketing, you may have to settle or enlist various people within your organization to participate.
11. Customer Engagement
- 6 Strategies to Avoid with Your Social Network – Ideas from #SMCKC – No reason to make it harder than it has to be for your audience to interact with your brand online.
- Are Your Service Recovery Efforts Broadcast Worthy? – BP had 16 live underwater cameras on its service recovery effort. How many might you have when trying to fix a screw-up?
- Southwest Airlines Social Media Strategy – Lessons for All Organizations - Video and highlights of an in-depth discussion on the social media strategy Southwest Airlines uses to put itself at the top of the list of companies that "get" it.
- Social Media and Influencer Marketing - Great take-aways from a panel of practitioners on engaging influencers in a meaningful way.
- Social Media and IRL Lessons from Chris Brogan - Getting your organization ready by tapping your customer service experts.
12. Innovation
- Brand Transparency in a Connected, Socially Networked World – Perspectives on online trends from Matt Anthony, the head of leading interactive agency, VML.
- Brooklyn Decker and Interactive Strategy from Esquire - A visually interesting use of QR codes and mobile to drive in-person customer engagement with a brand.
- Catalyzing Innovation Strategy with Social Networking – 10 More Ideas - Incorporate social networking as a way to spur innovation across your organization.
B2B Social Media Case Studies
- Five examples of B2B companies achieving success in social marketing
- 5 B2B Social Media Case Studies
- 10 B2B Social Media Case Studies and Examples
Regulated Industries
Other Group Topics
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If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today! This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”
