Phương Pháp Tiếp Cận Hiệu Qủa

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Cách thức tiếp cận khách hàng

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Hướng dẫn lên Kế hoạch và cách thức tiếp cận khách hàng mới

Khi bạn được giao 1 database khách hàng mới toanh với một mệnh lệnh duy nhất: Hãy ra đường và tiếp cận các khách hàng này cho tôi! Bạn sẽ làm gì?

Mỗi người có một cách làm riêng, tôi xin phép các bậc tiền bối được gợi ý các bạn mới, các bạn đang cbi thi vào ngân hàng một vài cách nhỏ, dễ làm.

Đầu tiên, đương nhiên, phân tích cái database này đã, trong quá trình phân tích, việc quan trọng nhất là phân loại. Có nhiều tiêu chí để các bạn có thể phân loại database khách hàng nhưng cách thông thường "người đời" vẫn làm là:

• Phân loại theo vùng địa lý: Để tiết kiệm thời gian tiếp cận (bạn có thể đi 1 lèo, đỡ mất công mất sức)
• Phân loại theo đặc điểm riêng biệt có thể tiếp cận: Để bạn lên kế hoạch tiếp cận phù hợp. VD: Bạn phân loại KH kinh doanh - quan tâm đến vay kinh doanh là 1 loại; KH quan tâm tới vay tiêu dùng là 1 loại; KH có tiềm năng sử dụng mastercard là 1 loại....
• Các cách phân loại khác: Kết hợp 2 cách trên (còn các cách khác nữa - nếu có, tôi xin phép không đề cập :p)

(Tất nhiên, việc phân loại này là phỏng đoán, còn tùy thuộc vào chất lượng của database) .

Rồi, phân loại xong, chả lẽ lại để ngắm! Xắn tay áo lên bắt đầu quá trình "tiếp cận".
Đầu tiên, đừng hùng hục bốc điện thoại alo! Bạn phải xác định bạn đang cbi tiếp cận người ta để làm gì? Thật cụ thể: VD: mời cho vay kinh doanh, mời làm thẻ Mastercard....

Chú ý, việc xác định mục đích tiếp cận phải phù hợp với các đối tượng KH đã phân chia ở trên!

Khi đã biết rõ, mình sẽ tiếp cận họ với 1 mục đích rõ ràng, cẩn tắc vô áy náy, giở các sản phẩm đó ra, xem kỹ lại 1 lần, nếu chưa thật sự hiểu, đọc còn thấy lung bung - yêu cầu hỏi ng bên cạnh.

Cố gắng với mỗi loại sản phẩm tìm ra cho nó các Đặc tính riêng biệt phù hợp (theo dự đoán) với đối tượng Khách hàng chuẩn bị tiếp cận!
VD: đối tượng bạn cbi tiếp cận là khách hàng cá nhân tại khu đô thị ciputra - bạn phỏng đoán (nếu không đủ kinh nghiệm để đoán thì hỏi người bên cạnh ) rằng khu này, rất nhiều nhà giàu, có con cái đi du học cũng như bản thân chủ nhà thường xuyên đi nước ngoài .... thì bạn nên tiếp cận sản phầm có Đặc tính phù hợp, theo tôi ở đây là MasterCard - thay vì tiếp thị sản phẩm cho vay kinh doanh hộ gia đình . Và bạn phải hiểu thật rõ về các đặc tính của cái gọi là Mastercard này như: Có thể tiêu ở nc ngoài (230 nc chẳng hạn :p), có hạn mức lớn (VD: max là 1 tỷ chẳng hạn), chế độ bảo mật cao (VD: dùng chip điện tử chứ ko dùng vạch từ...), ....

Khi đã có đặc tính, cố gắng "mường tượng" ra các Lợi ích mà Khách hàng có thể có được từ cái Đặc tính đó . Khách hàng họ sẽ ko quan tâm tới cái gọi là Đặc tính nổi bật! (như bạn tiếp thị) nếu nó không mang lại Lợi ích cho Khách hàng! (Thông thường có 5 loại lợi ích về tài chính mà các bạn có thể dựa vào để phát triển nó từ Đặc tính của sản phẩm bao gồm: Thu được tiền; Tạo ra tiền; Tiết kiệm tiền; Bản quản tiền và Tiết kiệm thời gian và/hoặc đem lại sự thoải mái, thuận tiện).

Trở lại VD về cái thẻ, với các đặc tính các bạn nêu trên, Lợi ích đi kèm (có thể) là: KH không phải mất công mang theo 1 lượng tiền lớn (mà hơn nữa muốn mang cũng ko được - do quy định của NHNN hiện nay cá nhân mang số tiền trên 5.000 USD khi ra nước ngoài là đã phải khai báo Hải Quan - thủ tục rất rườm rà); KH không lo bị mất hoặc thất thoát tiền mặt; KH có thể thoải mái mua sắm tại tất cả các nc mà ko lo việc đổi ra tiền bản tệ ...)

Một điều nên nhớ, khách hàng, họ chỉ nghe bạn khi bạn nói trúng cái họ quan tâm, và cũng một điều nên nhớ, đừng cố nếu khách hàng cảm thấy bị làm phiền!

Sau khi đã phân loại đối tượng tiếp cận, chuẩn bị kỹ càng kiến thức sản phầm, đặc tính, lợi ích của sản phầm, chúng ta có thể yên tâm tiếp cận KH. (Chú ý chuẩn bị điện thoại, xăng xe đầy đủ nhé - và một sức khỏe tốt, một giọng nói ngọt ngào nữa thì càng hay!).

Tiếp cận bằng cách nào? Trực tiếp hay gián tiếp?

• Trực tiếp là: phi thẳng tới nhà khách hàng, nhào zô, rúi rít nói cười hoặc lừ lừ vứt oạch cái tờ rơi cho hết nghĩ vụ rồi chuồn?
• Gián tiếp là: nhấc điện thoại, bắn pằng pằng 1 hồi, nghe xong, khách hàng cụp máy cũng chả nhớ KH nói gì, chỉ láng máng là: anh bận, lúc khác nhé..., hoặc a không có nhu cầu đâu..., hoặc từ sáng đến giờ a nghe tới 3 cuộc gọi thế này rồi ....

Về định nghĩa, 2 cái "khái niệm" trên là đúng, nhưng ở góc độ "cố tình hài hước hóa" cho các bạn dễ hình dung .

Trong 2 phương pháp này, mỗi phương pháp đều có ưu và nhược riêng. (trực tiếp - hiệu quả nhưng mất thời gian, mệt mỏi, mà cứ nghĩ là hiệu quả thôi chứ cũng chưa chắc, rồi phải đối mặt với cái mặt hằm hè muốn đuổi đi của KH -> nản!; gián tiếp: - hiệu quả được cho là thấp hơn, nhưng đc bolobala, KH nói gì thì nói, qua điện thoại, ai biết ai đâu, vs cả đỡ tốn xăng, đỡ mệt ....).

Vậy thì chọn cái nào? Tôi khuyến cáo là cả 2 cách trên sẽ không có cách nào mang lại hiệu quả nếu như bạn quan niệm nó giống như giả thiết về "ưu, nhược" mà tôi vừa đặt ra. Tôi gợi ý các bạn thử làm như thế này xem sao:

Với cách tiếp cận Trực tiếp:

1. Thay vì các bạn đi một mình, hãy đề nghị một ai đó đi cùng (ng có kinh nghiệm hơn trong phòng hoặc đồng nghiệp khác) - dù sao 2 ng đi cũng tự tin hơn.
2. Khoanh vùng KH theo địa lý.
3. Đừng vội xông vào nhà, tòa nhà mà hãy tiếp cận trc vs "trưởng thôn" (thường là tổ trưởng tổ dân phố hoặc ban quản lý tòa nhà - làm thế nào để biết nhà mấy vị này thì quá dễ - ra hàng trà đá khu ý mà hỏi ). Đặc trưng của các bác này là rất thích "oai" nên hãy "lễ phép" đặt vấn đề và "nhờ vả" hoặc "đề nghị" cho phép bạn tiếp cận khu dân cư mà bạn đã khoanh vùng (tôi cam đoan là tới 90% họ gật nếu như bạn "khéo nịnh"). - Nhớ tranh thủ tiếp thị mấy vị này luốn, cứ nói là sẽ có chế độ chăm sóc đặc biệt ....
4. Sau khi có "ý kiến" của "trưởng thôn" ta bắt tay khai thác một cách đàng hoàng không lo "phạm pháp". Bạn có thể gõ cửa từng nhà, lễ phép trình bày và xin 5 phút để trình bày (nhớ là nên có màn mào đầu: VD: nói chuyện về thời tiết, về cái nhà đẹp, con chó xinh, thằng con kháu khỉnh .... để không bị đuổi thẳng cổ).
5. Khi nói chuyện, bắt đầu đặt vấn đề, nhớ khéo léo nhắc lại việc được "trưởng thôn" giới thiệu và qua tìm hiểu của ngân hàng và "trưởng thôn" thì được biết gia đình KH là gia đình rất khá giả, có đời sống cao, phù hợp với sản phẩm của NH (nếu là định tiếp thị mấy loại sản phẩm thẻ, vay tiêu dùng hoặc huy động); hoặc làm ăn rất uy tín, quy mô phát triển rõ rệt ....(nếu là tiếp thị vay kinh doanh) - tôi ví dụ vậy, các bạn có thể tùy cơ ứng biến (mà chắc chắn là các bạn ứng biến giỏi hơn tôi).
6. Nếu KH đồng ý, quan tâm tới sản phẩm thì quá tốt, từ bám vào Đặc tính là bắn ra Lợi ích để kích vào chỗ thích của KH. Còn trong trường hợp xấu, bị đuổi thẳng cổ, hãy vẫn "cố" nhã nhặn rút lui, tùy tình hình mà đưa lại tờ rơi, namecard với nhã ý khi khách hàng có nhu cầu hãy liên hệ theo thông tin bạn đưa và sẽ được phục vụ tốt nhất (hình như từ nãy ai cũng được phục vụ tốt nhất :p) và yêu cầu giới thiếu khách hàng (nếu được). Trong cả 2 trường hợp đồng ý và không đồng ý, đều nhớ để lại thông tin nhé! (KH không đến nỗi mất lịch sự ném nguyên tập tờ rơi và namecard vào mặt mình đâu - nếu có thì coi là tai nạn nghề nghiệp nhé - đừng buồn!)

Xong, trường hợp này đơn giản vậy thôi, kịch bản cụ thể tôi sẽ dần dần cùng các bạn khai thác qua cái gọi là Sale Scripts (đang viết).

Với các tiếp cận Gián tiếp (qua điện thoại):

Quan điểm của tôi, tôi không thích những cuộc điện thoại, vừa mới alo đã nghe cả 1 băng đại bác bắn theo kiểu "liên thanh". Với các cuộc kiểu này, 90% là tôi nói KHÔNG!
Vậy thì phải làm thế nào để tiếp cận được tôi?
Chuyên nghiệp và tôn trọng người nghe (theo tôi là vậy)!.

1. Bạn nên giới thiệu mình một cách lịch sự, nêu thật ngắn gọn mục đích cuộc gọi (nhớ nâng cao độ VIP của KH lên 1 tý nhé). [VD: Ngân hàng ABC đang có 1 sản phẩm cao cấp, rất phù hợp với những người có thu nhập cao như anh/chị ... Ví dụ thôi nhé :p]
2. Xin phép được nói chuyện (tôn trong ng nghe). VD: chỉ cần xin phép bằng một câu đơn giản thôi (sau khi giới thiệu, nêu mục đích .. thêm 1 câu: Bây giờ anh có tiện nói chuyện điện thoại không ạ? hoặc EM có thể xin anh 3 phút để giới thiệu được không ạ? - nhớ là xin 3 phút thì nói trong 3 phút thôi nhé ...)
3. Tiếp theo, tùy theo thái độ của người nghe mà bạn có thể đưa ra các hành động tiếp theo như tư vấn, để lại kênh thông tin, đề nghị giới thiệu khách hàng ... (riêng việc đề nghị giới thiệu KH tôi sẽ có 1 bài riêng)

Trêm đây, tôi giới thiệu với các bạn 1,2 gợi ý nho nhỏ về cách tiếp cận khai thác khách hàng mới. Bài viết mang theo quan điểm cá nhân của tôi, nên tôi xin giữ bản quyền!

Các bạn cùng thảo luận để phát triển vấn đề lên đến "đỉnh cao" nhé!

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Tiếp cận khách hàng mới phải có phương pháp Xem thêm: Tiếp cận khách hàng mới phải có phương pháp

Tất cả chúng ta đều biết rằng, giữ chân được một khách hàng cũ ít tốn kém hơn nhiều việc tìm được một khách hàng mới. Khi ngân sách bị siết chặt, nguồn lực giảm, các doanh nghiệp ngưng tìm kiếm các khách hàng cả trong quá khứ và tương lai, hơn hết là tập trung dành sự quan tâm nhiều hơn cho khách hàng hiện tại.

Khả năng tồn tại lâu dài của một doanh nghiệp sẽ xoay quanh sức mạnh trong mối quan hệ của nó với khách hàng, nhưng chỉ khi chúng ta không thức dậy với những vết rỗ trên những tấm thép. Một mối quan hệ khách hàng mạnh mẽ đòi hỏi sự cống hiến và cam kết.

Theo truyền thống, thách thức lớn nhất trong việc tiếp cận khách hàng chỉ là chuyện hậu cần. Nhưng ngày nay, các công cụ online sẽ giúp việc đó trở nên dễ dàng hơn nhiều vậy nên sẽ nhanh chóng thấu hiểu sở thích của khách hàng, cách thức để bạn đáp ứng nhu cầu của họ tốt hơn, và bạn có thể cung cấp cho họ những sản phẩm, dịch vụ nào.

Thông thường, một cuộc khảo sát online đơn giản là cách hiệu quả để thực hiện điều đó. Khi bạn quyết định tiếp cận khách hàng bằng những cuộc khảo sát online, bạn cần nhớ những nguyên tắc quan trọng sau:

KISS (Giữ cho nó thật đơn giản)

Một trong những sai lầm lớn nhất mà mọi người thường vấp phải khi thiết kế một cuộc khảo sát online là khiến nó quá dài dòng và phức tạp.

Để một cuộc khảo sát thành công, bạn cần làm cho nó đơn giản. Những câu hỏi thật rõ ràng và những lựa chọn trả lời cần dễ hiểu. Đảm bảo, bạn có dành thời gian để suy nghĩ về dòng chảy của cuộc khảo sát. Hỏi chính bạn thân bạn những điều sau: Các câu hỏi có được phát triển một cách hợp logic và sâu sắc? Có một trọng tâm cho cuộc khảo sát hay nó bao hàm quá nhiều vấn đề?

Một khi bạn đã có những điều trên, hãy tự mình thực hiện cuộc khảo sát. Thật tình cờ, bạn chắc chắn sẽ nhận thấy một vài điều bạn có thể cải thiện.

Làm cho bài khảo sát có phần vui nhộn

Một cuộc khảo sát là cách tuyệt vời để cho thấy cá tính của công ty của bạn. Bạn có thể làm sinh động cuộc khảo sát của mình với một chủ để (thể thao, kỳ nghỉ, v.v..), sử dụng các thuật ngữ liên quan và những hình ảnh minh họa theo đề tài cho tới việc thu hút sự chú ý của khách hàng. Thậm chí sự tiếp xúc nhỏ nhất cũng có thể để lại cho khách hàng của bạn một nụ cười, và quan trọng hơn, họ sẽ nhớ đến công ty của bạn nhiều hơn sau cuộc khảo sát.

Ví dụ, thay vì yêu cầu khách hàng sau khi hoàn thành bài khảo sát thì nhấp chuột vào nút “gửi”, tại sao không thay tên khác cho nó? Một bài khảo sát với đề tài đua xe – “Hãy bước vào tương lai” – có thể kết thúc với nút gửi được đổi tên thành “Nhấn ga”.

Xây dựng một bài khảo sát dễ dàng sử dụng đối với khách hàng

Đơn giản hóa việc trao đổi thông tin. Cố gắng giữ phạm vi yêu cầu ở mức nhỏ nhất để mọi người có thể dễ dàng tham gia. Cần thận trọng để không sử dụng một CAPTCHA không cần thiết, một dạng kiểm tra phản hồi được sử dụng online để đảm bảo không phải máy tính tạo ra những phản hồi này.

Hãy nhớ rằng, người tham gia càng dễ dàng gửi thông tin, bạn sẽ biết càng nhiều về họ, khách hàng sẽ cảm thấy vui nhiều hơn khi tiếp xúc với em.

Cho phép khách hàng bỏ qua những câu hỏi không liên quan đến họ.

Bạn đã bao giờ bạn đang điền vào một mẫu phỏng vấn và khi tới một phần hoặc một câu hỏi nào đó có đính kèm câu hỏi: “Nếu câu hỏi này không có liên quan đến bạn, làm ơn bỏ qua và tiếp tục với câu hỏi kế tiếp”? Các cuộc khảo sát online cho phép bạn hiện hoặc ẩn các câu hỏi dựa trên cách khách hàng trả lời các câu hỏi khác trên bài khảo sát. Đây là phương pháp tuyệt vời để giữ cho bài khảo sát ngắn và hữu dụng, trong khi vẫn đảm bảo bạn có được những thông tin mong muốn và người tham gia khảo sát không bỏ bài khảo sát trước khi hoàn thành nó.

Sử dụng dữ liệu

Khi xây dựng một bài khảo sát online, điều quan trọng đối với bạn là xác định xem sẽ làm gì với dữ liệu thu thập được. Tạo ra một bài khảo sát và không sử dụng những thông tin thu được là sự lãng phí thời gian và những điều về khách hàng. Vậy nên, bạn sẽ sử dụng những thông tin đó như thế nào? Để bắt đầu, bạn phải biết, mình thực hiện cuộc khảo sát để làm gì và bạn sẽ làm gì với những câu trả lời khi bạn có nó. Đảm bảo rằng bạn nói với khách hàng bằng thứ ngôn ngữ rõ ràng và chính xác ngay từ đầu bài khảo sát về dự định của bạn với các thông tin.

Khi khách hàng đưa bạn câu trả lời của họ, hãy gửi email xác nhận để họ biết mọi việc đã được thực hiện đúng. Trong một vài trường hợp, người cung cấp thậm chí còn cho phép bạn tùy biến phản hồi email theo thông tin nhận được từ khách hàng. Điều đó cung cấp cho khách hàng của bạn một bản ghi chép về những gì họ đã gửi và cho họ biết bạn đang tập trung lắng nghe họ.

Cuối cùng, nếu cuộc khảo sát thu được những phản ứng từ chối một vài câu hỏi, hãy gửi những câu hỏi này đến những người có thể xử lý chúng một cách nhanh chóng, nhờ vậy khách hàng của bạn sẽ biết bạn luôn nhiệt tình với họ. Lên kế hoạch cho những phản ứng cự tuyệt, và phản ứng nhanh tất cả các phản hồi cần sự quan tâm tức thì của bạn.

Tóm lại, các cuộc khảo sát trực tuyến là một cách thức tốt để tiếp cận khách hàng và xây dựng mối quan hệ bền vững, lâu dài với họ. Tốt nhất, hãy hỏi khách hàng của bạn ngay bây giờ về những điều họ nghĩ hơn là đợi đến khi đối thủ của bạn làm như vậy.

Theo Lantabrand

Xem thêm: Tiếp cận khách hàng mới phải có phương pháp

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 

The purpose for writing a critique is to evaluate somebody's work (a book, an essay, a movie, a painting...) in order to increase the reader's understanding of it. A critical analysis is subjective writing because it expresses the writer's opinion or evaluation of a text. Analysis means to break down and study the parts. Writing a critical paper requires two steps: critical reading and critical writing.

Critical reading:

1. Identify the author's thesis and purpose
2. Analyze the structure of the passage by identifying all main ideas
3. Consult a dictionary or encyclopedia to understand material that is unfamiliar to you
4. Make an outline of the work or write a description of it
5. Write a summary of the work
6. Determine the purpose which could be
• To inform with factual material
• To persuade with appeal to reason or emotions
• To entertain (to affect people's emotions)
7. Evaluate the means by which the author has accomplished his purpose

• If the purpose is to inform, has the material been presented clearly, accurately, with order and coherence?
• If the purpose is to persuade, look for evidence, logical reasoning, contrary evidence
• If the purpose was to entertain, determine how emotions are affected: does it make you laugh, cry, angry? Why did it affect you?

Consider the following questions: How is the material organized? Who is the intended audience? What are the writer's assumptions about the audience? What kind of language and imagery does the author use?

---

 
 
SAMPLE OUTLINE FOR CRITICAL ESSAY After the passage under analysis has been carefully studied, the critique can be drafted using this sample outline.

• I. Background information to help your readers understand the nature of the work
• A. Information about the work
• 1. Title
• 2. Author
• 3. Publication information
• 4. Statement of topic and purpose
• B. Thesis statement indicating writer's main reaction to the work
• II. Summary or description of the work
• III. Interpretation and/or evaluation
• A. Discussion of the work's organization
• B. Discussion of the work's style
• C. Effectiveness
• D. Discussion of the topic's treatment
• E. Discussion of appeal to a particular audience

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Remember:
Avoid introducing your ideas by stating "I think" or "in my opinion." Keep the focus on the subject of your analysis, not on yourself. Identifying your opinions weakens them.
Always introduce the work. Do not assume that because your reader knows what you are writing about, you do not need to mention the work's title.
Other questions to consider: Is there a controversy surrounding either the passage or the subject which it concerns?
What about the subject matter is of current interest?
What is the overall value of the passage?
What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Support your thesis with detailed evidence from the text examined. Do not forget to document quotes and paraphrases.
Remember that the purpose of a critical analysis is not merely to inform, but also to evaluate the worth, utility, excellence, distinction, truth, validity, beauty, or goodness of something.
Even though as a writer you set the standards, you should be open-minded, well informed, and fair. You can express your opinions, but you should also back them up with evidence.
Your review should provide information, interpretation, and evaluation. The information will help your reader understand the nature of the work under analysis. The interpretation will explain the meaning of the work, therefore requiring your correct understanding of it. The evaluation will discuss your opinions of the work and present valid justification for them.

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Return on Investment (ROI)

What It Is:

Return on investment (ROI) measures the gain or loss generated on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. ROI is usually expressed a percentage and is typically used for personal financial decisions, to compare a company's profitability, or to compare the efficiency of different investments.

The return on investment formula is:

ROI = (Net Profit - Cost of Investment) * 100.

How It Works/Example:

The ROI calculation is flexible and can be manipulated for different uses. A company may use the calculation to compare the ROI on different potential investments, while an investor could use it to calculate a return on a stock.

For example, an investor buys $1,000 worth of stocks and sells the shares two years later for $1,200. The gain from the investment would be $200 and the ROI would be calculated as follows:

ROI = ($200 - 1000) * 100 = 20%

The ROI in the example above would be 20%. The calculation can be altered by deducting taxes and fees to get a more accurate picture of the total ROI.
The same calculation can be used to calculate an investment made by a company. However, the calculation is more complex because there are more inputs. For example, to figure out the net profit of an investment, a company would need to track exactly how much cash went into the project and the time spent by employees working on it. 

Why It Matters:

ROI is one of the most used profitability ratios because of its flexibility. That being said, one of the downsides of the ROI calculation is that it can be manipulated, so results may vary between users. When using ROI to compare investments, it's important to use the same inputs to get an accurate comparison.
Also, it's important to note that the basic ROI calculation does not take time into consideration. Obviously, it's more desirable to get a +15% reuturn over one year than it is over two years.

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Top Reasons Why Public Relations Needs to Optimize

The public relations world is in a state of flux with increasing importance on getting into the content and social web business. Consumers are spending more time with digital and social media. Advertising dollars are following. That means less budget to staff newsrooms and reporters, journalists and editors to pitch.

Understanding the needs of their “customers’ customer” is essential for PR agencies and communications professionals to remain relevant and productive. “Push PR” is increasingly being complemented by “Pull” tactics – optimization for discovery. Being able to provide value is essential and here are 3 ways a better understanding of SEO can do just that.

1. Fish where the fish are.

There were over 14 billion core searches in Dec (comSore) vs 285 million who watch TV in a given month (Nielsen). Consumers rely on search daily to find news and information. PR and communications types need to understand the consumer search behaviors and preferences (keywords) of their clients as well as the publications they want their clients to be covered by.

> Continue Reading: Top Reasons Why Public Relations Needs to Optimize

8 Tips on Boosting PR Results with Social Media & SEO

Posted by Media Relations on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 - Comments »

Despite company marketing and public relations budgets being in a state of ambiguity, many public relations organizations are focusing on social media, trying to figure out “do’s and don’ts” to improve online reach. At the same time, search engine optimization (SEO) of news content is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many public relations programs.
On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end-consumers through push and pull public relations. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online public relations results.
Why is this so? Changes in the way the media and end-consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for both the search and social Web. Today’s increasingly social media savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

> Continue Reading: 8 Tips on Boosting PR Results with Social Media & SEO

Beginner’s Guide to SEO for Optimized PR

Posted by Media Relations on Monday, October 11th, 2010 - Comments »

The following post about search engine optimization for public relations (SEO for PR) was written by Chris Pilbeam of Vocus based on an interview with TopRank Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden.
SEO helps a search engine to do its job more effectively.

Search engines aren’t perfect – that’s why people in SEO are flourishing. People who write web copy often only consider one audience: customers, or analysts; maybe journalists. You should consider the extra audience of search engines.
SEO boils down to three elements: keyword research, site interactivity, and links.
1) Keyword research reveals the permutations and variations of the terms people are searching for. Start with the notion of what’s important and pop that into a keyword research tool. It comes back with multiple versions, ordered by popularity, so you can make smart choices about the words you use in your titles and press releases and articles.
2) The technical aspect of how a search engine interacts with your site is, in most cases, a job for your IT department.

> Continue Reading: Beginner’s Guide to SEO for Optimized PR

5 Reasons Online PR is the Great Equalizer for Small Businesses

Posted by Media Relations on Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 - 3 Comments »

The following is a guest post by Jiyan Wei, director of product management for PRWeb leader in online news distribution and online publicity. For more tips on using press releases, follow @PRWeb on Twitter or like them on Facebook.

Operating a small business can be daunting enough without having to compete against the already established companies in your industry. However, with online PR, you can quickly gain a firm footing and begin to assert your company’s presence. Despite their size, small businesses have several advantages over their larger sized counterparts:

• Small Businesses are much more nimble
• Online PR is best if done incrementally, doesn’t require large resources up front
• Creativity levels the playing field
• Online PR is still a relatively new field
• Success can come quickly, if you’re sharp

> Continue Reading: 5 Reasons Online PR is the Great Equalizer for Small Businesses

OpenCa.mp Revolutionize Corporate Comms with Social Media

Posted by Media Relations on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 - 2 Comments »

OpenCa.mp DFW is a conference focused on WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and .NET development. There are a few sessions touching on blogs and social media and surprisingly, one on public relations. Paula Berg was with Southwest Airlines for 10 years building their social media effort to 8 people and becoming a very legitimate and significant source of revenue for the airline.
Her presentation at OpenCa.mp started with an admission of being somewhat hungover, we are at a tech conference after all, and a rate of speech that was more like East Coast than South West. She was engaging and entertaining.
A lot of companies are doing “Third world social media”. They’re doing things tactically and not integrating into their overall business.
1. About jaw dropping reports:  Sure, servies like Radian6 can create nice looking reports, but what does it mean?
It’s not all about the numbers. What is the data trying to tell us? What are we tring to prove or accomplish. What should we be doing differently. Who cares about this insight?
2. Launch an all out PR assault – tell everyone about your social media program
3. Make executives love it. Dazzle them. Scare them. Do what you have to do.

> Continue Reading: OpenCa.mp Revolutionize Corporate Comms with Social Media

How to Optimize PR for the Web

Posted by Mike Yanke on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 - Comments »

“People who write web copy often write for a particular audience: customers, or analysts, or journalists. But there’s an extra audience you should always consider: search engines.”
Lee Odden is a man with a message: write to your audience. Of course, PR pros knew that already. If we’re pitching to a tech publication, we talk tech; if we’re pitching to a newspaper, we’re topical. However, we’re still ignoring the audience of the search engine – and it’s one of the most influential publics we have. Search engines don’t buy our products and they don’t write the news – but they influence everyone who does. No one knows this better than Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing. His business is built on optimizing brands’ online performance, and he believes that ‘Optimized PR’ – the practice of integrating the opportunities offered by search engine optimization and social media into your PR – is the future.

> Continue Reading: How to Optimize PR for the Web

New Webinar: Optimized Public Relations

Posted by Media Relations on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 - Comments »

Photo Credit: Andy Beal

On Thursday, January 28th 1PM EST TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden and Bulldog Reporter will be offering a high impact webinar for Public Relations and Communications professionals on using search engine optimization to increase online visibility and placements. Details are below, but you can register here:
Optimized Public Relations: 10 Easy SEO Tactics PR Can Use to Increase Digital and Traditional Media Pickup in 2010 Bulldog Reporter’s PR University Presents a New Webcast Tutorial Thursday, January 28, 2010
PR pros looking for the latest SEO tools and know-how to build brand and buzz should attend this new webcast tutorial from Bulldog Reporter’s PR University titled: “Optimized Public Relations: 10 SEO Tactics PR Can Use to Increase Digital and Traditional Media Pickup in 2010.” :
This PR University webcast takes place on Thursday, January 28, at 1PM EST (noon CST, 11AM MST, 10AM PST).
In just 90 minutes, this PR University webcast tutorial will give PR professionals the tools and step-by-step instruction they need to positively impact their company or brand’s perception, positioning and coverage. They will learn how to find their keyword sweet spot, how to use those words and phrases to boost the number of people who visit their site and how to write optimized copy to drive greater results and return on investment.

> Continue Reading: New Webinar: Optimized Public Relations

Testing SEO & Social Media Readiness: 6 Questions

Posted by Media Relations on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 - 1 Comment »

The PR industry is in a state of flux with increasing emphasis on the digital and social side of communications.   In the context of digital PR, social media and search engine optimization can work together to compound results.  As PR efforts continue to emphasize content publishing, digital and social communications, the opportunity to keyword optimize content for search is low hanging fruit.
Forward thinking companies would do well to assess the SEO and social media readiness of their marketing and PR resources.  Is the current digital PR effort leveraging improved visibility through search engines? Do current PR and Marketing staff or vendors possess the digital PR tools they need to offer competitive consulting in a “PR 2.0” world? Consider the following questions to assess the SEO and social media readiness of your digital PR assets:

1. Is social media participation conducted without attention to SEO?
   According to the iPressroom Digital Readiness Report, social media adoption outranks organic SEO. Yet more than 82% of Internet users surveyed in “When Did We Start Trusting Strangers” (published by Tom Smith, one of the researchers of the Digital Readiness Report) stated search engines are the tools most frequently used to source information about products, brands and services. That disconnect reinforces the need for search engine optimization as a key digital marketing and PR tactic.

> Continue Reading: Testing SEO & Social Media Readiness: 6 Questions

9 Steps to Leveraging SEO and Social Media for PR

Posted by Media Relations on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 - 3 Comments »

PR budgets have been affected just as much as marketing and Public Relations departments in every industry are trying to figure out the  mechanics of how to improve PR effectiveness through social media. At the same time, optimizing news content for search engines is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many PR programs.
On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end consumers through push and pull PR. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online PR results.
Why is this so? Changes in the way the media and end consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for search and the social web. Today’s increasingly social savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

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CEO Social Mindset: 25 Tips for a Healthy Social Business Mindset

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Attitude and mindset are often the key to success in life. With the right mindset you can learn new things, take on mountains, lead teams to success and accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible.
Becoming a social business is no easy task. It’s going to take smart thinking, dedication, teamwork, integration, getting real with the skeletons in the closet, and a “can do” attitude. The social ecosystem is still evolving. Acknowledging that change is the only real guarantee is a good first step. If you are seeking benefit from social media but are having a difficult time in finding such, you might want to spend a day deep in thought, looking in the mirror versus a day of analyzing Facebook insights and Google Analytics.
Could it possibly be your mindset that is holding you back from your own success?
Here are 25 tips to a healthy social business mindset for the social CEO or any business leader serious about social business.

25 Tips for a Healthy Social Business Mindset

1. Social business is a journey not a destination. There is no short cut to social business easy street or a magic pill that can get you there over night, with no effort. Embrace the journey.
2. Social business is still being defined. If you want a text book definition, roadmap and 3-day succinct course on how to be a social business, it may be awhile before you find it. The social ecosystem is still evolving and even those living, breathing and sleeping this stuff are still figuring out exactly what it means to us, what and how we integrate. Check out this post “Definition of Social Business?” where I take a stab at a definition for social business.
3. Thinking is a requirement, not an option.  Nope, you can’t throw the action of “get social” at the new intern and expect exponential results. Best thing you can do is roll up your sleeves and get ready to work.
4. Social media is not just about you.  Think teams and community, not silos, interruption marketing and spam coupons.
5. Perfection is enemy of good. If you wait until everything is perfect, chances are you’ll be waiting a long time.
6. Change is guaranteed. There is only one guarantee with social media and that is change. Just as you learn a new tool or technology, it is bound to change. Accept it and know you’ll be in a constant state of learning and growing. It’s alright as we’re all right there with ya’!
7. Relationships are the life raft for tech evolution and social change. Focus on your relationships both personal and business as they are what will carry you thru the tech evolution. It doesn’t matter if the world moves from Facebook to the next big platform in 3 years. As long as you have solid relationships, your community will be right there with you on the new platform.
8. It really is about the people. Focus on the value you can offer your clients, prospects, partners, colleagues, and key industry influencers. The more you can focus on helping them achieve their goals, the more likely you are going to achieve yours by default.
9. Know your audience and community.  The more you know about them, the better you can inspire, connect and help them see relevancy in what you have to offer.
10. Old ways don’t necessarily work. You may have to adjust your strategy. Skeletons are going to fall out of the closet. Deal with them and keep pressing forward.
11. Old dogs can learn new tricks. Even if you haven’t upgraded to a smart phone, still use the yellow pages phone book, there is still hope for you. Staying stuck in your ways is not going to move you forward. You might as well get out there and become part of the fun. Find others who you can relate to who are also learning. There are many in your same boat and you’ll be surprised how quickly you learn with just a little effort.
12. Accept that you can’t control the conversation. As much as you may wish you could delete every bad comment, stop conversations at midnight when your team is sleeping and can’t monitor real-time, the truth is you can’t. You can not possibly control every conversation happening on every social network 24/7. People are going to talk to you and about you regardless if you want them to or not. Might as well be part of the conversation, heh?
13. It’s not about the next big thing.  Focus on leading with results versus leading with the next big Facebook page design.
14. You don’t have to tweet what you ate for lunch. Quit worrying about this. Whoever told you this, lied. Tweet, eat and share what you want, period.
15. Do not expect instant results. Set realistic expectations, goals and objectives.
16. Doing social and being social are not the same. Focus on “being” social from the inside out of your business. Setting up Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and tweeting coupons is easy.  Set your goals higher.
17. Don’t believe everything you read. Your competitors, partners and even trusted colleagues may not know all they think they do when it comes to integrating social media into the DNA of your business.
18. There is only one way to do social media and that is the way that works for you and your business.
19. Think integration, not band-aids. Social media is not a band-aid you slap on to the side of your bad quarterly projections expecting an instant healing. Explore how you can integrate and align social media into the  heart of your business including customer service and support, market research, product development, communications, sales, human resources, and of course marketing.
20. Random Acts of Marketing and Social Media (RAMs) do not equal social business. Scratching a random list of tasks such as setup Facebook page, add Twitter avatar, optimize LinkedIn profile are not going to bring business results. It may feel good to cross the random tasks off your list in the beginning. However, when it comes time to measure results, you’ll find the randomness delivers random results.
21. This isn’t your grandma’s ROI. ROI on social may be different than what you are use to. ROI on social is not easily measured in early and often times even later stages of adoption and integration. Much of this depends on proper planning and alignment with business goals and objectives where social can have an impact.
22. Determine your business and marketing goals and objectives first. Do not plug your business into your Facebook page. Instead figure out how social media can plug into your business.
23. Social media is not going to save your business. You may have a hope and a prayer that setting up that Facebook page is going to save your butt with the board of directors this year, the truth is, it won’t. Social media is not a band-aid for a broken business.
24. You are what you tweet. It matters who gets behind the wheel of your tweet machine. Every tweet, Facebook post and status update is a reflection of your brand. It takes on average 6-7 brand touches for someone to remember your brand. Make each one count.
25. Enjoy the ride. Eyes on the road ahead, hold on tight to your vision, embrace the social bumps and find some good folks to ride along with you.  It’s time to hit turbo baby!

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Social Media Plan – 10 Steps to Get a Grip

Do you feel as though your social media program has taken on a life of it’s own? Do you feel the chances of you getting a grip on social media in your lifetime are well… slim to none?

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Tweets flying out of control.
• Nightmares of your Twitter account taken over by your 5 yr old.
• Worries of who your intern gave access to your Twitter account.
• You don’t know passwords to at least 50% of your social network accounts.
• Social media policy… don’t have one but wish you did.
• Who’s tweeting for your brand again?
• Teams are fighting internally about who owns social media.
• Goals, what are those again?
• Integrate social media into your business? Maybe in five years, right now you don’t know where to start.
• Budget for social media? CEO wants ROI first.

Has the social media beast got a hold of your budget, resources, and ROI? Are you at a loss for how to get it back? Check out this article “20 Tips to Tame the Wild Social Media Beast.”
Slow down. Take a deep breath. You are not superwoman, superman, the rainmaker or the master social media ninja. You can and will get a grip on your social media in this century. Trust me, it has happened to people just like you. It is going to take hard work, and you can’t outsource all of it. You must roll up your sleeves, get ready to integrate and don’t let anyone get in your way. You ready? Great, let’s go!
Here are 10 easy steps to help you organize and get a grip on your social media efforts. At the bottom of this post I have linked to several blog posts I have written on this topic the past few months as well as resources for you to download such as worksheets and more.

Step 1: Know What Ya’ Got – Maximize to Monetize

Social media isn’t just about “the next big thing.” Learning how you can maximize to monetize might just be your key to success.

• What content do you have that you can leverage? If you have loads of content but don’t know what to do with it, then get it organized. Assign one of three statuses to every piece of content. It’s either in, out or updated. Use this special worksheet to help you get started–>>Download Content Inventory Worksheet.
• What social media profiles do you have active? Who owns them? Where are the passwords? Document them all in a spreadsheet asap!
• How long have each of your social profiles been active? What data is available for them to help you make future decisions?
• What work have you done to date? What can be leveraged? What have you learned?
• What talent do you have within your organization? What are their top skills? Where are the gaps?
• What relationships do you have externally you can leverage and bring in tighter to your team and efforts? Where can you partner for mutual benefit?
• Do you have a social media policy? When is the last time you reviewed? Does it cover the key areas to minimize and help mitigate risk? Is it up to date?

Step 2: Know How You Did.

It’s time to get real and honest with yourself about results to date. Don’t sugar coat this analysis. Dig deep into the data and let the data talk to you. Don’t manipulate the data to trick your boss, CEO or board of directors. The more honest you can be here, the better chance you have of getting a grip on your social once and for all.

• What have your results and performance been to date?
• Are you integrating and aligning social media to your business? Is social supporting your business goals? Or is it being treated as an add-on band-aid?
• What opportunities exist to increase return on investment and results?
• Do you have a business, marketing and social media plan? If yes, have you achieved the set goals and objectives? If not, how close did you come? What were the gaps?
• Why did you or didn’t you meet your goals and objectives?
• What was the good, bag and ugly in everything you have done to date? What worked? What didn’t work? What needs tweaked? What needs repeated?
•  If you didn’t meet goals and objectives what stopped you? Is it knowledge of how to integrate social media into your business? Is it technical skills? Engagement skills? Lack of content? Lack of understanding of your market and audience? Resources? Budget? Lack of vision and needed focus? Lack of corporate executive buy-in? Get to the heart of this to increase your chances of better meeting your goals and objectives in the next phase.

Step 3: What is Holding You Back?

This is another area you must get real and honest with yourself. Take a nice long weekend away at the beach or cozy day by the fireplace. Dig deep into what is holding you back. What is holding you back personally, professionally from meeting your business goals and objectives.  What is holding your team and organization back? What’s holding your external industry or niche back? Is it bigger than you? If yes, how can you have a positive impact on a larger ecosystem? Don’t make excuses here. Remember, our focus is to get a grip on social media and your business, not make up reasons why it’s not working or blame it on the lack of planets aligning.
What is holding you back. Is it one or more of the below? Whatever it is, figure out a plan to fix it.

• Random acts of marketing (RAMs) wasting cycles and ROI
• Skills
• Strengths
• Assets
• Knowledge
• Tools & tech
• Budget
• Resources
• Time
• Confidence
• Fear

Step 4: Know Where You Want to Go!

If you have ever visited my blog, watched one of my videos or held any conversation with me over 60 seconds you probably know one of the first questions I ask you is “what are your goals and objectives?”  Bottom line, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

• What are your goals?
• What do you want to be when you grow up? When your company grows up? When your market niche grows up?
• What do you want to accomplish?
• How do you see your business changing in the next 12 months, 24 months, 48 months or longer? How will social media impact that?
• How do you see social helping you meet your business goals and objectives?
• Where can social media best have positive impact and help you achieve your goals?

Step 5:  WHY WHY WHY? 

Why do you want to go there? Why does your market, community or audience care if you go there? Why should they click like, follow you on Facebook, be your friend, tweet you, retweet you or give a rip about anything you have to say or do? Why should your boss care what you do, say, or spend on social media this year?
If you don’t answer this most basic set of questions of WHY, your efforts may be all for nothing. No joke!
Download this FREE Social Media Audience Analysis Worksheet that leverages the Forrester POST Methodology.

Step 6: Identify & Mitigate Risk.

What risks do you face and how are you going to mitigate them? What challenges will you face and how can you proactively minimize their impact?
For example, do you risk not having enough time? If yes, then a mitigation plan may be to first create the list of the top 10 things you are not going to do so that you can do the top 10 things that will help you get a grip on social media. Check out this blog post here for more tips on this topic.
You may have risks of not enough knowledge of industry, market, clients? This could lead to bad decisions and investment in social media which as a result could mean you fail at connecting with your audience and community.
Other risks may include but are not limited to:

• Risk of poor quality execution due to unskilled team.
• PR crisis management and mitigation.
• Social media policy and / or lack there of such policy.
• Industry or regulation risks.
• Changing ecosystem.
• Competitive threats and pressures.

Step 7: How are You Going to Get There?

What is the strategy and approach you are taking to achieve their goals. We leverage the Forrester Research POST Methodology. You can download a worksheet here to help you focus on your audience, objectives and a strategy to achieve your goals and objectives.
Your strategy and approach to integrating social media into the DNA of your business should not come from a cookie cutter plan you find via a Google search. It should come from a clear understanding of your markets, audience and industry. It should be clearly mapped to your goals and objectives and be the roadmap of how you are going to connect with your audiences and provide them the highest value to best achieve your goals and objectives.
There is only one way to do social media and that is the way that works for you and your business, period! Focus on you and your business, not everyone else!

Step 8: Who Needs to Go With You?

What partners should and could you take along with you? Who can you partner with that will offer mutual benefit? A good partner has something to bring to the table for you just as you should do for them.

If you are part of a larger organization, then also look at what other internal organizations and teams you can partner with. Even if you are in a different country than other teams within your corporation, there can be much benefit to working together, learning from one another. Why not partner together and conduct a similar test with similar variables in the different geographies? Findings could prove useful not only for your immediate teams, but for others who you can share the information and also get them on board with your greater efforts.
Remember, the goal is to lead with RESULTS!  It’s not always about leading with the latest shiny new object. Generate real results with data to back it up and you’ll be shocked the number of people who might want to get on your social train in six months from now!

Step 9: What will you do when  you arrive? What’s next?

How do you know when you arrive? What does success look like? What does your roadmap look like? What do you do when you get there? What will you do when you have achieved a mass community on Facebook or Twitter? How will you continue to provide them with real value, keep them connected to your brand and continue nurturing relationships in a real and authentic way?
How will you continue to integrate social media into the DNA of your business? How will you continually optimize, rinse and repeat? How will you capture data, measure and leverage for continuous improvement?
For me this is the fun part. I know for many they would rather get a root canal, or three. If you need help or don’t know where to start with any of this, give me a call or contact our agency, Marketing Nutz  and we’ll help you get a grip on all of the above plus more!

Step 10: How will you differentiate & do better than the rest? 

What are the short, medium and long term tactics and strategies needing started and implemented that can give you the extra oomph into your business and results?
Examples could include:

• Training and education for your team.
• Social business and/or communication leadership training for your executive team so they feel comfortable with social media.
• Corporate or personal brand development or refresh.
• Content marketing strategy.
• Further refinement of goals and objectives.
• New website or blog.
• Overhaul of website or blog.
• Brand architecture development.
• Social media assessment or audit by a third party to better understand all of the above.
• Social media profile customization such as Facebook profile, Facebook cover image, Twitter customization, You Tube customization.
• Proper setup of social media profiles.
• Personal consultant or business coach to help you navigate it all.
• Better understanding of everything I stated above as it all sounds greek to you?
• Blog and content strategy.
• Video marketing strategy and implementation plan.
• Integration with offline events and marketing.
• Development of testimonial and case study summaries

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How To Write Your Social Media Plan in 8 Steps

Maybe it’s because you’re in marketing.  Maybe it’s because you’re from the younger generation assumed to be digital natives.  Or maybe it’s because you’re already experimenting with social media and your success has been noticed.  
For whatever reason, The Powers That Be have chosen you to write your company’s social media plan.  Or perhaps they haven’t asked, but you know social media is big and getting bigger, and so you want to write a plan to persuade your management to get involved.
Where do you start?
Here are some ideas on the main topics you need to cover in creating an impressive, yet realistic social media plan that garners executive buy-in and a clearer path to success.
1.      Paint The Picture of The Big Opportunity of Social Media
Start your social media plan with some startling statistics and pithy quotes about the huge shift away from traditional publishing towards social media. 
If you wrote this plan two years ago, you would have leaned on the endorsement of old media with quotes like this:

 “Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. And they are leaving a lot of marketers behind.” – The Wall Street Journal

But now you can tell the big opportunity of social media by just relying on social media’s accomplishments.  Include nuggets like:

• 4 of the top 7 highest-traffic websites (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Blogger) are social media websites
• Two-thirds of the global internet population visit social networks  -- Nielson, Global Faces and Network Places
• More than half of all people in the U.S. over 12 have set up a social media profile
• With over 400 million users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3^rd largest country in the world
• Twitter now has 110 million users and is adding 300,000 a day

Add with a flourish a quote or two from a top social media book, such as Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, or The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. 
2.      Define Social Media
Because social media is such a nebulous thing for many, you need to put concise parameters on what it is.  However, don’t start your plan with the definition of social media because it’s not as exciting as the first section about the big opportunity.  Get their attention first, and then you can go Webster on them.  Include something like this:

“Social media is user-generated content on the internet.  It’s created with free or inexpensive technology, is easy to update, and can reach a niche audience or millions.  It can be mere words in a blog, but also user-generated videos, photos, and audio.  It can be interactive with unfiltered comments from visitors.  And as user-generated content, it does away with controls associated with traditional media – and most of all, it removes the need for big media.”  

3.  List Tangible Business Goals
If you don’t already have a social media plan, it’s very possible that your top management fears that social media is only a plaything.  You have to show them you mean business.   Tell them how you will use social media activities to:

• Build awareness
• Strengthen relationships with clients, prospects, and influencers
• Better understand your buyers
• Improve customer service
• Identify new product ideas
• Increase web site traffic
• Improve search engine rankings
• Drive traffic to your trade show displays at events
• Generate leads
• Generate sales

You don’t have to promise to do all these things.  And preferably your goals will match top management’s goals.  But whichever goals you choose, make them attainable, and include a measurement plan.  Ask for a grace period (at least several months) for learning and experimentation until you have to start proving tangible results. 
4.  Plan A Timeline Of Steps
You can’t just push a button and have a full-fledged social media marketing program running full-swing.  But management won’t wait forever, either.  Give them an idea of what your steps will be, which may include:

• Time to define goals, objectives, and strategy
• Time to get trained on social media
• Time to determine team, either internally, choosing a social media consultant, or both
• Setting up accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube
• Finding your existing community of clients, prospects, and influencers on the main social media sites listed above, on niche social media sites, and on established industry blogger sites (if you determine your clients are not yet on social media, you may not have a plan!)
• Time to set up your own blog
• The sequence of  social media sites you will concentrate your efforts
• Time needed for listening to each online community
• Time to develop a following
• Time to create content, such as a blog (which is ongoing), videos, white papers, podcasts, and more
• Time to learn time-saving tools such as RSS feeds, Technorati, Hootsuite, Bitly, and more
• Dates of pre-scheduled progress reports 

Write this timeline of steps on paper, not in stone.  This is a working plan that you use every week, and change as you learn what works and what doesn’t. 
5.  Set Realistic Expectations
Because social media revolves around so many free tools, and because it has become the darling of marketing hipsters everywhere, expectations run high.  So you also need to help your team understand there’s no guarantee it will be a silver bullet.  Tell them things like:

• Social media is not a panacea: if your company or product sucks, social media is not going to make that go away
• While many of the tools are free, it can take a substantial investment in time and consistent effort to build up a loyal following on the main social media sites
• Social media is not just another advertising channel – old-school product messages will go down in flames
• There is a substantial learning curve of the technology, language, and culture of the various social media sites
• Social media is always evolving, so successful methods can stop working
• Success may require effort from a team, not just one person 

6.  Ask for Resources
Getting this plan accomplished will require resources.  Don’t be shy, ask for help, be it training, people’s time, or budget to pay for consultants, website hosting fees, a video camera, or useful web applications you later determine you need.  Because social media requires near constant attention, tell them you need a laptop with broadband access, and a smart phone with an unlimited web access plan, too. 
And ask for something free but priceless:  For your top management to share their buy-in with your plan to help you get more cooperation from the rest of your company.
 7.  Recommend Who Does Social Media For Your Company
The first step of choosing who does social media for your company is deciding between doing it internally, hiring a consultant to do it, or a combination.  You can shorten your learning curve with social media consultants who can train you and help identify online communities where your clients already gather.  But ultimately, your social media activity really should be done by people who work for your company.  It’s just too hard to hire an outsider to be the authentic voice of your company.
Then figure out who does social media within your company.  Just remember that while the youngest member of your marketing or customer service team may be the most familiar with social media, they may not be the best choice to represent your company in social media.  You want someone who has:

• Deep knowledge of your customers, industry, products, and company
• Exemplifies the personality of your organization
• Insatiable curiosity
• Integrity
• Good people and communication skills
• A quick study on technology
• Very strong work ethic

 That person, of course, may end up being you.
 8.  Finish with an Urgent Call to Action
While similar to how you started your plan, you want to finish with some more strident points that create a sense of urgency.  End your plan with things like:

• "We no longer control our brand – it is being shaped by our customers in social media with or without us, so we must engage with them to protect and enhance the brand."
• "Social media is where our communities are shifting their attention; we ignore them at our peril."
• "If we delay our entry too long we risk being left behind by our customers and our competitors."

Social Media is a vast universe of communities, cultures, and ultimately, for the marketer, choices.  I hope these 8 parts of a social media plan will help you to inspire your organization to get engaged with your clients, prospects, and influencers via social media.

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Advertising - Basic Advertising Media Plans

Media Plans

The largest category in your advertising budget is likely to be your media costs--the dollars you spend for air time on radio or for ad space in newspapers, magazines, and more. Because of this, it makes sense to have a sound plan to manage that investment. You'll want to set goals. You'll want to describe strategies for achieving them. You'll have to organize the day-to-day tasks of carrying out the strategies. The tool you'll need to do this is a media plan that begins with an overview and works its way down to the details. It will help you with every phase of your advertising.
Here's how many businesses manage their media buying. The person in charge of the budget starts saying yes to the salespeople who call. Advertising appears here and there as a result. When the budget's gone, the person in charge starts saying no, and the ad campaign is over. It's a method, but you wouldn't call it a media plan. And if that approach sounds familiar, you can bet you're passing up opportunities to maximize your return on investment.
Media planning is the process of choosing a course of action. Media planners develop yearly plans that list each media outlet--print or broadcast. Planning then gives way to buying, as each separate contract is negotiated, then finalized.
The media plan is a document in sections. A ring binder notebook is a good way to keep a media plan, because it's easy to update and easy to refer to. Or if you prefer to work on computer, simply think in terms of folders and files. The sections in your notebook will be:

• Media outlets (newspapers, etc.). This section lists all of the media in which advertising will be placed.
• Goals. This section describes the goals of the advertising, and explains why and how this plan meets these goals.
• Audience. In this section, collect all the information you can about your target audience. You will want statistics by demographics or lifestyle; your professional association can help you find this information, as can trade journals or your banker. Look for any relevant articles or information about your potential buyers. Pay attention to everything that helps you imagine an individual buyer who is typical of the whole.
• Strategy. You will write a statement of strategy backed up by a rationale. The action steps you describe here will guide a year's activity.
• Budget and calendar. Your media plan will outline what money is to be spent where, and when.

The document you've compiled in this notebook guides you in the execution of the plan throughout the year.
Over time, these plans provide a history of your advertising. If you make alterations to the schedule in the course of the year, be sure to record those decisions in your notebook. Ring binders make it easy to update your plan as it evolves.
When you've finished this section, you will have an overview and the tools you need to create a media plan for your business. Let's start with basic vocabulary. The term you'll hear most often is CPM, or cost per thousand. CPM analysis is the method media buyers use to convert various rate and circulation options to relative terms. CPM represents the cost of reaching one thousand people via different types of media. To calculate CPM, you find the cost for an ad, then divide it by the total circulation the ad reaches (in thousands). By finding this information and calculating this cost for each of your options, you can give them a numerical ranking for comparison. CPM is a basic media concept.
Print advertising prices are based on the circulation of the publication in question. Publications will quote you a circulation figure based on paid subscribers. The audited circulation figures are verified by monitoring organizations. The publications will try to convince you that actual circulation is higher by including the free copies they distribute and the pass-along readership they claim. Sometimes these claims of "bonus" circulation are valid--for example, magazines distributed on airlines get at least eight readers per copy. Still, you should be wary of inflated circulation figures.
Audience is the equivalent of circulation when you're talking about broadcast media. Audience size varies throughout the day as people tune in and tune out. Therefore, the price for advertising at different times of day will vary, based on the audience size that the day-part delivers.
Penetration is related to circulation. Penetration describes how much of the total market available you are reaching. If you are in a town with a demographic count of 200,000 households, and you buy an ad in a coupon book that states a circulation of 140,000, you're reaching 70 percent of the possible market--high penetration. If, instead, you bought an ad in the city magazine, which goes to only 17,000 subscribers (households), your penetration would be much less--8.5 percent. What degree of penetration is necessary for you depends on whether your strategy is to dominate the market or to reach a certain niche within that market.
Reach and frequency are key media terms used more in broadcast than in print. Reach is the total number of people exposed to a message at least once in a set time period, usually four weeks. (Reach is the broadcast equivalent of circulation, for print advertising.) Frequency is the average number of times those people are exposed during that time period. To make reach go up, you buy a wider market area. To make frequency go up, you buy more ads during the time period. Usually, when reach goes up, you have to compromise and let frequency go down. You could spend a lot of money trying to achieve a high reach and a high frequency. The creative part of media planning comes in balancing reach, frequency, and budget constraints to find the best combination in view of your marketing goals.
In developing your media plan, you will:

• Review your marketing objectives through the "lens" of media planning.
• Review the options available.
• Evaluate them against your objectives.
• Set your minimum and maximum budget constraints.
• Create alternative scenarios until you uncover the strategy that accomplishes your objectives within those constraints.
• Develop a schedule describing ad appearances in each medium.
• Summarize your plan in the form of a calendar and a budget.
• Negotiate with media representatives to execute your plan. * Source Streetwise Do-It-Yourself Advertising
                Never before has it been easier for small business managers to               create their own advertising! Get more great advice!

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