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Where do we want to be in social media?
How will we know when we get there?
Where are we now and what must we do?
How will we get to where we want to be?
What may change the environment in the future?
Don’tlaunchintosocialnetworkingwithoutfirstknowing
why you’re doing it and how to make the best use of
the tools for your business to achieve results. Combine
systems thinking with the journalist’s five questions—the
Who, What, When, Where and Why—to ensure you’re
using social networking to your best advantage. See our
ABCs and top five tips below for our Systems Thinking
Approach to Social Media Marketing.
TOP FIVE TIPS FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
What may change in the future?
Systems Thinking begins by examining the external
environment around you so that you can make
informed plans and decisions. This phase is an ongoing
process. Researching social media will get you started
answering the journalist’s five questions:
Who is your target audience?
Start by identifying your target audience or audiences.
The tools they use and how they interact with online
websites and social media differ by age, gender and
demographics. In order to reach your audience
effectively, you first need to know your customers or
clients and find out what they’re doing online.
AnexcellentresourceforthisdataisMashable.com,atop
source for news in social and digital media, technology
and web culture. Aaron Uhrmacher, one of the site’s
bloggers, provides especially helpful information and
resources for understanding this industry in his entry
“How to Find Statistics on Social Media.” In this blog,
he cites several resources for information about who
uses which social media sites.
One resource mentioned is a study of 49.3 million people
conducted by Rapleaf. The study identifies each of the
social media tools most used by men and women in
several age categories. For example, between the ages of
14 and 34, women tend to be the heavier users of social
media sites. However, from ages 35 to over 65, men
are the heavier users of social media. Clearly, knowing
statistics like this will help your organization target its
desired demographic.
©2014 DO NOT DUPLICATE
SYSTEMS THINKING IN TODAY’S COMMUNICATION
As the new-media representative for House Minority Leader John Boehner,
Nick Schaper was in charge of the communications team that rocketed
Boehner to the Speaker of the House in 2011. Schaper expanded Boehner’s
campaign through the use of social media, video production and custom
web development. He said the election “was a real spark for our members to
realize this needs to be a major part of our communications strategy. This is
no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want to receive their
news and want to hear from us.”
Social media is now a part of business. Like any business structure, it needs to
be approached strategically to be used efficiently and effectively to get revenue
and results. Applying The Systems Thinking Approach® to social media is the
difference between arbitrary web postings and connections and using today’s
means of communication to attract and retain customers. Social media
marketing is all about creating relationships with customers and potential
customers. Of course, the big question is when and how do you actually turn
social media relationships into sales?
The Systems Thinking Approach®—the Haines Centre’s Universal Framework
and Guide to work and life—allows you to build a strategic plan and direction
for your social media marketing. It involves five phases that have five questions:
PO Box 1132 Mayer, AZ 86333 • Phone 858-357-9600 • www.strategysd.com
Social Media Marketing
The Systems Thinking Approach®
This is no longer a gimmick. This is how ... people want to receive
their news and want to hear from us.”
— Nick Schaper
By Jeri Denniston, Chief Marketing Strategist, Denner Group International and
Stephen Haines, Founder and CEO, Haines Centre for Strategic Management®
Tip 1: Do some research.

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Another tool to help you identify the social media sites your
customers are using is the Social Technographics profile tool,
which was created by Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff of Forrester
Research Technographics as part of a promotion for their book
Groundswell. The tool lets users enter basic information and
see how participation varies among demographics worldwide.
The results give you a picture of whether your target audience
are comprised mostly of “Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners,
Spectators or Inactives” when it comes to using social media. (See
model to right. You can also view an explanatory slide presentation
on Forrester.com.) Of course, the big debate right now is how do
you translate this information into sales?
What are they doing online?
It’s important to know what your customers and clients are doing
when they go online, not just which tools they’re using. Are they
blogging, searching for products and services, sharing photos
and comments on Facebook, or looking for jobs on LinkedIn?
You need to understand what they’re doing so you can meet
them online in the same space—providing coupons, special
promotional offers and information they’re seeking.
There are many websites that provide information about the myriad
social networking sites. These resources can help you make the key
decisions about which tools to use to target which audiences:
• ComScore,Inc.—resource for statistics about the most popular
tools and what age groups are using them (comscore.com)
• The Future Buzz—blog by Adam Singer that provides useful
statistics on some of the most popular social media sites
(thefuturebuzz.com)
• Web Strategy—blog by Jeremiah Owyang (web-strategist.com)
• TechCrunch—technology media property “dedicated
to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet
products” and breaking tech news (techcrunch.com)
• CNET—technology reviews and news (cnet.com)
• Nielsen Online—online measurement services (nielsen.com)
Nielson reported that social networks and blogs have surpassed
personal e-mail as a popular online activity. Member communities
are visited by nearly 70 percent of the global online population,
with time spent growing at three times the overall internet rate,
accounting for nearly 10 percent of all internet time.
This increase in use often alters expected demographics, as Nielsen
reported: “Facebook started out as a service for university students
but now almost one third of its global audience is aged 35 to 49 years
of age and almost one quarter is over 50 years old. In the UK, for
example, if the average month-on-month audience changes over
the last six months were to continue; by mid-June 2009 there would
be as many 35- to 49-year-olds on Facebook as 18- to 34-year-
olds. The changing audience offers advertisers the opportunity to use
social networks as a vehicle for targeting all demographic groups. In
Italy, brands such as Maserati—traditionally marketed to an older
audience—now have fan pages on Facebook.”
When are they going online?
It is also crucial to know when your customers and clients are going
online to interact with social media, so that you will be online at the
same time. This is a critical component of your social media strategy.
Gary McCaffrey, for example, has tracked the best times for
sending Tweets on Twitter to gain the maximum traffic and
attention, based on the traffic he’s seen to his websites. He reports
that early in the morning (5 to 6 a.m.) and midday (noon to 2
p.m.) seem to be the highest traffic times.
The research resources listed earlier may provide insight about
when your customers are using social media. You may want to look
at similar statistics for traffic to your blogs and websites as well.
Where are they coming from?
Acriticalaspectofyoursocialmediastrategyistounderstandwhere
yourcustomersandclientsarecomingfrom.Aretheybeing referred
by other customers? Are they finding you through Google searches?
Are they coming to your sites because of your online presence, your
blogs or your links to other key sites? What other sites are they
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©2014 DO NOT DUPLICATE
visiting and where are they buying? You’ll want to find ways to link
to or advertise with those sites to entice customers to visit yours.
Why are they using social media?
To successfully use social media, it is critical to gain an
understanding of why companies, clients and customers are
turning to social media. A scan of the environment around
you will provide some clues. For a holistic view, consider the
following Future Environmental Scanning categories grouped
together under the acronym SKEEPTIC (which is the new
industry standard copyrighted by the Haines Centre):
1. Sociodemographics: Consider how society is changing and will
change in the next 3 to 5 years, the possible exit of many boomers
from the workforce, the talent gap that will exist between the
30-somethings in power and the knowledge and experience void
boomersleavebehind.Lookatdemographicstoseehowtheyimpact
your products or services and your changing customer base.
2. Competition: Gain a thorough understanding of who you’re
competing against today, as well as who the new entrants might be
into your particular industry or market. For example, in banking
in the 1980s, the mentality was “build it and they will come.” Who
would have thought that retail stores like Sears and Wal-Mart
would enter the field? Now we find bank branches in grocery
outlets. Automated banking is now the norm for many people who
never visit any bank branches. Clearly, the banks had to change to
meet their customers where they shop. So consider—who might be
your next competitor?
3. Economy: Yes, the poor global economy is having a dramatic
impact on how people work, live and shop, and it’s affecting how
companies market to them. More dollars are shifting to online social
media sites in order to establish relationships with customers.
According to a survey by Forrester Research Technographics, 48%
of company respondents said the current economy has made them
experiment more with social media to compensate for budget cuts.
Additionally, 22% said they would shift dollars from traditional
channelstoonlineuseand20%saidtheywouldfocusmoreonsocial
media then traditional tactics. Only 10% said the current economy
would make them cut back on all marketing activity.
4. Environment: Are your customers and clients concerned
about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, buying only products
and services that are environmentally friendly? What are you
doing or can you do to ensure your company is “environmentally
friendly”? If it applies, be sure to include this in your plan. There
is a growing green revolution world-wide—are you a part of it?
5. Political and Regulatory Issues: Do you operate in a regulated
industry like energy, health care or the financial industry? How
are the changing political and regulatory issues affecting the
way you do business and how you serve your customers? What
additional changes might take effect in the next 3 to 5 years for
which you need to prepare today, and how do they affect your
social media and online marketing strategies and tactics?
6. Technology: The world is changing so fast. What do you need to
do to ensure your staff has the latest technological tools in order to
do the work necessary to achieve your social media goals?
7. Industry: How will your global competitors and industry
change in the next 3 to 5 years? Who will be the new entrants
to the market—and who will be gone? What do you need to do
today to be ready for the changes, and what impact will these
competition implications have on your social media strategies?
8.Customer/Clients:Today’scustomersmaynotbeyourcustomers
tomorrow.Thenewspaperindustryisagoodexampleofanindustry
that didn’t pay significant attention to the changing environment.
They continued to write for an increasingly diminishing market:
the baby boomers and older. While many have also gone online
to reach the younger audiences, they focused their major attention
on the print side rather than online. And we see what’s happening
today with that industry’s demise.
What about yours? Are your customers of tomorrow increasingly
researching and shopping online? How can your website(s) and
blog(s) become “trusted” sites to which your customers refer for
valuable information?
Considering the environmental around you is a critical component
to creating and successfully implementing your Strategic Social
Media Marketing Plan.
Tip 2: Have a vision and plan.
Where do we want to be in social media?
After considering the external environment, you need to determine
your vision. What is your Ideal Future Vision for social media
marketing? As Stephen Covey said, “Begin with the end in mind.”
Begin your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan by detailing your
desired outcomes—what you want to achieve. Apply the research on
the Who, What, When, Where and Why identified in the first phase.
Once you’ve created your desired outcomes, you can begin to
put them into action and be on your way to your Ideal Future
Vision. The next three tips lay out the framework for creating your
Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.
Tip 3: Identify your key success measures.
How will we know when we get there?
Once you’ve decided where you want to be, you need to
determine your own specific goals/ Key Success Measures for each
demographic you’re trying to reach. What feedback will determine
that your strategies are working and you are progressing toward
your desired outcomes? Customer comments? The number of
people that link to your information, websites, blogs? A percentage
increase in sales or customer satisfaction? Only you can determine
these measures, and they are critical to helping you to gauge the
success of your social media strategies. Make sure to include
financial results, not just massive activity buzz.
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Another in the
Becoming Customer-Focused Series.
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WRITTEN CONSENT.
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INTERNAL REPRODUCTION ONLY (IRO) license,
contact us at info@HainesCentre.com.
For books and comprehensive materials, visit
www.SystemsThinkingPress.com.
Tip 4: Understand your current situation.
Where are we now?
The next step is a Current State Assessment in which you consider
the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) to
your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan:
Internal Strengths and Weaknesses: Honestly evaluate your staff’s
current strengths and weaknesses relative to social media use. How
knowledgeable are you and your staff about the social media tools?
Who will be using these tools and to what purpose? Will you rely on
one person or department to handle all the social media marketing?
Will you outsource the process or do it yourself?
External Opportunities and Threats: Next, evaluate the Oppor-
tunities and Threats of your competition and the implications of
your Future Environmental Scan. Know which of your competitors
might be ahead of you in the social media networking arena—and
which are lagging behind or still sitting on the sidelines. You also
need to look at where new competitors might be springing from 2
to 3 years down the road. The world is changing so fast, and new
opportunities are being created daily that didn’t exist a year or so
ago. You need to be reviewing these environmental trends on a
quarterly basis to stay ahead of the game. Be ready to act fast when
the opportunities present themselves.
Tip 5: Close the gap with key strategies and actions.
How do we get there?
Now that you’ve established where you are, you can close the gap
between your current state and your Ideal Future Vision. This is
where you start creating the strategies, initiatives and actions you’ll
implement to reach your desired outcomes. This phase is also about
implementing your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.
For each target audience identify the social media tools they use:
blogs,RSSFeeds,LinkedIn,Facebook,Twitter,YouTube,etc.Arethey
creating content, uploading videos, reviewing and linking to other
people’s content, or reading and commenting on content? This will
determine how you and your staff participate and communicate with
the specific target audience. Youmaywant toassign different people to
focustheireffortsondifferenttargetaudiences—andyoumayalsowant
to match your staff with the appropriate age groups so the language
they use matches that of the target audience. These are some of the
key decisions you need to make as you develop your Core Strategies
and actions. Resources such as Chris Brogran’s “The 100 Personal
Branding Tactics Using Social Media” (chrisbrogan.com) and Bill
Crosby’s “Twitter Traffic Machine (twittertrafficmachinethe.com)
can help in this process.
If you choose to outsource the social media networking process,
external consultants such as the Haines Centre would help you
develop your 3 – 7 Core Strategies with a maximum of four key
actions supporting each strategy. (It’s difficult to execute more
than that in one year.) External consultants also help to ensure we
have the right team of people communicating on your behalf with
your specific target audiences.
Finally, set a calendar of key dates to track your progress and your
staff’s progress in executing the strategies and actions. If you don’t do
this, other work will get in the way, and you’ll find this plan falling by
the wayside. This is one of the most critical aspects of putting your
plan into action. People do what you inspect, not what you expect.
Setting a calendar for progress review meetings and reports and
holding those involved accountable is critical to ensure successful
implementation of your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.
SUMMARY
Strategic use of social media requires a Systems Thinking
Approach® to guide you through the creation and implementation
of your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan. But remember
that online use requires constant vigilance. Technology is created
and updated at a dizzying rate. What is state-of-the-art now may
be obsolete in six months!
To keep up with the pace, it is important to repeat the Systems
Thinking Cycle, constantly scanning the future for changes that
may affect your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan. Doing so
will keep you on top of the social media game. Clarity, simplicity
and speed—and better financial results—are the norm when you
use The Systems Thinking Approach®.
For more information or help with your Strategic Social Media
Marketing Plan, e-mail Jeri Denniston at
jeri.denniston@hainescentre.com or visit strategysd.com.
3/2011