This document provides guidance on developing an effective social media strategy for businesses. It recommends determining goals and objectives, researching relevant social media platforms and target audiences, creating a list of industry contacts and content sources, joining online conversations to build relationships, strengthening relationships through offline interactions, measuring results against goals, and continually analyzing and improving efforts based on what works best. The overall message is that a social media strategy requires a long-term commitment to building relationships, not just short-term marketing tactics, and should be integrated with a company's overall marketing plan.

1. Social Media Strategy
Presented by: @AliSABKAR
Founder & President, Social Media Club Bahrain

2. According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Report
done via socialmediaexaminer.com, 70% of marketers
plan to increase their use of social media channels
including blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
As more companies integrate social media into their
marketing and communications plans, emphasis needs
to be on creating a social media strategy. Without a
strategy, you’ll undoubtedly be sucked into asocial
media time sink.
So how exactly do you develop this strategy?

3. Do you work for a large company?
Before you develop your strategy, make sure your upper-
management team believes in social media and that the
first goal is not to sell, sell, sell. In other words, if your
business is jumping into social media because “everyone
else is doing it” or because you want to sell product rather
than to build relationships, please step away from social
media.
Social media is a long-term commitment and not a
marketing gimmick.
If you’re having a tough time convincing your team that
social media needs to be integrated into your marketing
plan, then counter any concerns with these responses to
common social media objections.

4. It’s important for the organization to understand that
testing and experimentation are keys to success.
This comes naturally to an organization whose culture
embraces being proactive and open.
The reason why all businesses need to have a social
media strategy is because it prevents any
misunderstandings and emphasizes why social media is
relevant to your business’ overall goals.

5. Social Media
Does Not Work For Business…
Without The Practical Knowledge,
Technology, Tools
And Know-How.
“David Bullock, Co-Author - Barack2.0”

6. #1: Determine Your Goals and Objectives
Determine who owns social media. Whether it’s
marketing, PR, or communications is irrelevant. In a
perfect social media world for businesses, social media
instills a collaborative approach and breaks down silos.
What’s important is to understand your social media
goals and objectives and how they tie into your overall
company goals.
Keep it Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Realistic/Relevant, and Timely (aka be SMART!).

7. #2: Research, Research, and Research Some More
Step two of creating an effective social media strategy is
research. Develop a list of social media sites where you
can potentially engage with people. The list will most
likely start off with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a few
select blogs and forums.
Check out each of the social media sites on your list and
do additional research to determine relevancy by
searching for your brand name, your competitors, and
your target keywords. Listen to what’s out there, identify,
and understand your target audience.

8. #3: Create a Digital Rolodex of Contacts and Content
When social media is done correctly, relationships will
build naturally.
Begin making connections by following the conversation.
You can do this by subscribing to blogs in your industry
and by making a list of influencers who are relevant to
your business.
This becomes handy when it’s time to provide content on
your social networks.

9. #4: Join the Conversation to Develop Relationships
Now it’s time to start making use of all the research
you’ve done. You can start joining the conversation by
posting comments on blogs and forums, answering
questions on Yahoo! and LinkedIn, joining groups related
to your industry and joining Twitter chats.
Begin developing relationships by following and friending
influencers and those in your industry. Don’t just look
for people with thousands of followers; you’ll be
surprised by the value that someone with only a couple
of hundred followers provides.

10. #5: Strengthen Relationships
It’s easy to hide behind your avatar or profile picture,
but face-to-face is incredibly powerful.
I think more people are now realizing how underrated
the in-person interaction really is because of how far
social media has come, allowing so many people to
“hide”.
Attend offline events related to your industry—not only
to strengthen your knowledge base but also to network
and strengthen relationships with those you might have
conversed with via social media but never met in
person. A popular offline event is known as a tweetup.

11. #6: Measure Results
You have goals and objectives, right? This means you
should be able to measure your success. Remember, what
you measure will tie into the goals and objectives of your
social media strategy.
Improve brand presence across social channels — The
measurement goal here is an increase in the number of
followers on Twitter, number of fans on Facebook, number
of comments, number of times your brand is mentioned in
blogs and forums and so on.
Develop relationships for future partnership opportunities
— This goal is to keep track of those with whom you’ve
connected.

12. Increase positive sentiment about your brand — The
goal here is to convert the number of positive mentions
while taking note of negative mentions. Has the ratio of
positive to negative comments improved? With the good
comes the bad in social media. Get used to it!
Increase traffic to your website — Keep track of visitors
to your website who come from each of your social
media sites. If you’re promoting an event using social
media, consider using a unique code to track the
campaign.
Measuring social media is a never-ending debate. What
metrics do you use to measure social media? What
objective are you measuring those metrics for?

13. #7: Analyze, Adapt, and Improve
Your social media strategy doesn’t end with
measurement; it goes beyond that. You need to analyze
your social media campaigns, adapt any new findings into
your current processes, and improve your efforts.
Testing and experimentation will perfect your social
media efforts. As you dive deeper into the never-ending
pool of social media, you’ll quickly understand what
works and what doesn’t.
More specifically, you’ll develop favorite tools to use,
realize that there are certain days and times where it
doesn’t pay to be active in social media, and come to the
conclusion that you still have lots to learn.

14. Your Brand
Engagement Brand Loyalty
Brand Personality Product Insights
Customer Service Service Feedback
Your Target
Social Media Strategy
EARNS
ONLINE and OFFLINE Coverage

15. Social Media for Business
When making purchase decisions,
would you trust a friend, or an advert.?
socialmediaclub.org

16. What should I pay attention to?
Fans: The size, reach, and growth of fans on your
page
Engagement: Fans interacting, engaging with your
content, sharing, people talking about
Community: Managing community, response rate,
key influencers, who your core fans are
Competition: See all of this in context to
what others are doing

17. What to do ?

Have a mix of content and include
Diverse Content photos, videos along with your
status updates and links

Pay attention to your most
Engaging Content engaging content and replicate
Call to Action
 Don’t be afraid to ask your
fans to like or to take action

Simple, Clear Less is more, keep messages
Messages simple, concise and clear
More and more people ignore One-way-communication

18. Social Media Marketing must be approached very
different than traditional marketing.
You are not selling your business; you are creating
relationships through communities. If people feel
you are part of their community, they will support
you and recommend you to their friends.
It is truly word-of-mouth marketing at its best.

19. Social Media Marketing
With first-rate internet marketing and clever social media
your brand can become a global phenomenon. Understand
the tools, use them effectively and be smart. Be a leader and
get the success you deserve.
socialmediaclub.org

20. The Social Media Principles
Be Human: Don’t Just Be Human, Be Yourself
Be Aware: Don’t Just Be Aware, Be Smart
Be Honest: Don’t Just Be Honest, Have Integrity
Be Respectful: Don’t Just Be Respectful, Live by the Golden
Rule
Be a Participant: Don’t Just Be a Participant, Contribute
Value
Be Open: Don’t Just Be Open, Be an Agent of Change
Be Courageous: Don’t Just Be Courageous,
Be Willing to Fail

21. Social media strategies will vary for each business and
for each industry. However, one thing is clear: social
media needs to have “all hands on deck” in order to be
successfully integrated into your company’s goals and
objectives.
In general, I view social media as a strategy, not a tactic.
Considering the social media platforms like blogs, Twitter,
Facebook, etc., as tactics that tie into the social media
strategy. In other words, outline your social media
strategy and support your strategy with tactics. Without
a carefully thought-out plan, you’ll eventually be
overwhelmed with social media and even worse, get
burnt out by it

22. Social Media
Social Media is tearing down the walls that keep
us apart and changing the rules that have kept us
from being human inside our companies.
Success in this next era, the network age, the social
age, the knowledge age requires you to change
your everything: Attitude, Perspective, Philosophy,
Understanding, & Skillset.
Chris Heuer,
Chairman & Co-Founder – Social Media Club

23. THANK YOU!
@AliSABKAR