Many businesses today are embracing social media to market their products and services. They have created detailed strategies designed to garner the largest bang for the buck. Unfortunately, they spend so much time and attention on the strategy they neglect to consider what’s involved in the day-to-day maintenance and usage of these tools. Having a social media strategy is a great start. Failing to execute the tactics and develop the objectives within the strategy, leaves these business stuck at the starting gate.

One of my favorite sayings is Take Action Revise Later, (Thank you Bob the Teacher). This is so appropriate with Social Media. You have to start somewhere so why not jump in with both feet. That’s where outsourcing or delegating can help you. There’s a common misconception that it’s bad for business to outsource social medial marketing. It’s been likened to having someone pretend to be you at a cocktail party.

Why do I feel it’s a misconception? Remember that old saying “time is money”? Well a better use of your time is engaging customers and prospects. Instead of routine maintenance and daily tasks, you’ll be able to focus on the overall strategy. If you’re using social media the right way, there will be a great deal of maintenance. Use it the right way and your inbox is always full. Do you let it overflow, or do you get some help to tame it? An assistant can keep your inbox under control. Let’s face it, there are many channels that you either don’t know about or don’t have time for. A social media assistant will get your message to those channels in the most efficient manner.

Actually, hiring a social media assistant is just the natural evolution of existing business practices. Customer service departments are set up to handle customer service issues. Advertising agencies are hired to develop advertising. If you want to help your organization bring in more money, you need the right personnel. Having the right people managing the details will save you both time and money.

Effective outsourcing comes from communication.

Unfortunately many organizations and business owners feel that they need to control all aspects of their outsourcing, especially where social media is concerned. As the business owner, you need to focus on the message. Create an engaging message and you will attract your customers and prospects. Leave the mundane business of dealing with SPAM, managing profiles and applications to your Social Media Manager.

Are you considering adding Social Media to your marketing mix? Before you jump feet first into the land of Facebook or Twitter, you need to have a plan. Whether you create a social media marketing plan yourself, or hire someone to do it for you, there are certain components that a good marketing plan should contain.

Begin by Defining the Scope

The document should contain a high level strategy for implementing your social media marketing plan. The scope clearly defines what is included in the plan, and more importantly, what is not. Anyone reading the document, should clearly understand the resources and methods that will be used to implement the social media campaign.

There are four basic components to any Social Media Campaign:

1. Requirement Phase
2. Research Phase
3. Implementation Phase
4. Monitoring Phase

Requirements Phase

This is where your goals and expectations will be laid out. These become the starting points for planning the campaign.

Research Phase

As the name implies, this phase involves an industry analysis, a look at the competition, and identifying your unique selling position. Implementation Phase

Once the research is completed, the implementation phase will stars, this is where the fun begins. Generally the implementation will start by creating or revising social profiles on the networking sites defined in the Scope. There are 100′s of networking sites. Rather then be overwhelmed, or spread yourself too thin, it is best to start with two or three of the key networking sites and if necessary, branch out from there.

Implementation Phase

This is the phase where you, or your Social Media Manager, actually does the work.  Typical items that happen in this stage include:

• Writing Daily Blog Posts
• Promoting those Blog Posts on Social Networking sites
• Engaging with your followers through Twitter or Facebook
• Creating automated/integrated postings

Monitoring Phase

This is where you track the effectiveness of your social media campaign. This can be done by:

• Tacking Keywords related to your business
• Tracking website traffic
• Tracking the level of activity on your Social Media Networks like Twitter and Facebook
• Creating Weekly Reports

Every social media campaign should have a goal. Most marketing campaigns focus on ROI, but this can be hard to quantify in this type of campaign. Instead consider these tactical goals:

• Creating a buzz
• Engaging customers/clients in conversation
• Increasing traffic to your website
• Increasing your following on sites like Facebook or Twitter

The final portion of your Social Media Marketing Plan contains the approximate costs for implementing the plan. Even if you are planning on doing the work yourself, you should be aware that there will be costs and they should be documented. Remember, your time is valuable.