Social Media Process: Step 3

We've come to Step 3 in my Social Media Process. By now, we should have completed the Where Are You in Social Media worksheet from Step 1, addressed the numerous issues mentioned in Step 2, and have taken into account the different demographics and purposes of each social media platform from Step 2 (Side Note).

Step 3, we actually get to Create Our Presence. It seems like a significant way into the process before we are able to do this, but hopefully we understand why after reading through the previous steps. We are already leaps and bounds ahead of others because, according to a study done by Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent, 86% of All People Don't Know the Plan Comes First. Since we have invested the time in planning up front, we won't need to backtrack and start over like so many before us.

On to creating our presence. Depending on the time and resources we have allotted, we may want to start with creating just one presence, the one most dominantly reflected in our Where Are You in Social Media worksheet from Step 1. This allows us to create and tweak our social media routine before adding another platform.

When creating our account, if possible, it is important we have a centralized e-mail address or login credentials. This allows ease of separation between employee personal and work accounts.

Once the account is created, we must be diligent in making sure it is a consistent reflection of our organization.

• Make the logo and color scheme recognizable to our audience(s). 
• Use our logo, tagline, etc. to incorporate branding.
• Complete all information. For example, Facebook has an 'Info' tab. We need to have our address, hours, phone number, web site, and, if appropriate, our disclaimer posted.
• Ensure settings are where we want them to be so we are allowing the engagement and interactivity to meet the goals in our plan.

Once we have created our presence, ask a select group of people to connect with us and test features like posting text and photos, deleting posts, monitoring activity, etc. This is our opportunity to experiment before we get to full on engagement.


What organization features your favorite social media presence?


Connect with me at www.lbspeaksonline.com or at www.facebook.com/lbspeaksonline.