The first step in a social media plan – conducting a Situation Analysis

Last week we provided the framework for creating a comprehensive social media plan. In total, we offered 9 steps you should include in your plan before setting out.

And as promised, we’ll now take a closer look at the first step in that 9 step checklist…

Situation analysis – Looking at your business objectively

          1)  Listen first - How do people view your company?

To do this you’ll have to start listening to the online conversations and general sentiment towards your brand, company and products.

There are 2 ways to do this – the free way or the paid way.

Free –

Download Tweetdeck and add ‘search’ columns that cover everything from your brand name to the products you offer. Start following these streams and analyze the online sentiment. Are people happy with your company or brand? Are there questions or concerns about the products you offer? Once you have a good sense of the online sentiment, you can start setting objectives and answering questions or providing better customer service.

Go to Addictomatic, Social Mention, Blog Pulse and Twazzup and add your company’s name and products to the search terms. These sources will provide a comprehensive look at how your brand is perceived online.

Since these sources are free, they won’t be overly comprehensive; you’ll get a sense of the general sentiment towards your company but you won’t necessarily see ‘who the influencers are’ and/or the demographic stats of those people talking about your brand.

The ‘free method’ is a relatively effective way to monitor the online conversations, but they do require some patience and some legwork.

Paid –

Sign up for a paid social media monitoring service. Radian6 and Sysomos are two of the best paid services out there. These tools will give you everything you’d want to know about how your brand, company, products and industry are perceived online. Plus, you’ll get demographic stats of everyone who talks about your company.

Paid sources are extremely efficient and effective, but they do cost money.

My advice? Start using the free sources and then as you get more familiar with where your company appears online, you can move towards a paid service.

One other key point to make – look at what your competitors are currently doing online, follow best practices and then find ‘untaped’ areas online. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

            2)      Conduct a S.W.O.T. analysis of your company

Take a step back and objectively analyze your company.

Strengths

- What is your company currently doing well?

- What’s unique about your company and/or products?

Example: providing great customer service

Weaknesses

- What is your company doing not so well?

- What area does your company fail to meet industry standards? (product, price, promotion)

Example: lack of resources for promotion

Opportunities

- What can your company do to improve?

- Is there an ‘untapped market’ your company can pursue?

Example: customers want more info about your products

Threats

- What can go wrong if you invest in a social media campaign?

- Will social media have a negative impact on your brand image?

Example: potentially alienating your loyal customer base

 

         3) What are you willing to invest in social media? (resources, staff, time)

Ask yourself, what is your company willing to invest in a social media plan? (both in the strategy development and execution.)

- Do you have the resources, staff and time needed to develop and execute a social media plan?

Once you address these 3 steps, you’ll have a better understanding of what your company needs to do in order to succeed in social media.

Then, when you’re ready, you can start developing a solid social media plan. You will then need to address objectives and figure out ‘why?’ your company should be involved in social media.

Does this all make sense? Have we missed anything? Are there any other good ways to conduct a Situation Analysis?

I’d love to hear your thoughts….