How to plan ahead? (Week 5)

Warning, due to time management issues (two interviews, two exams, three papers), this post will be very formal. If you have heart issues or diabetes or if you feel nauseous while reading it, click on the "comments" button below and just type in "Amazing post, it made me cry, as a teacher I am so proud I have a student like you" and all symptoms should go away. Just saying.

After spending hours of research and doing extensive writing for my final paper, I figured I should take a break and write one of my blog entries. I have already messed up the order of weeks, so I will just try to take where I have left. 

POST approach, just like peer-to-peer, enables us to get rid of corporates and get what we need from regular internet users. I can use this post to reach my goals by influencing the audience with my content, and I will tweet my post so that I can reach to new people creating new audience. Considering I had a problem with one of my followers about the offensive comments, I would most likely regulate the comments and filter them. And if Jaigris says "Good post!" then I will know my post has reached a certain level of success. If Deniz Can texts me "hey you used my name in your blog post" then I will confirm the reach of my post from Canada to Turkey. 

Above mentioned is basically what my "raw" social media strategic plan looks like. To list down what I have planned, I have taken important aspects into consideration. I want to first list POST approach then I will mention the other factors. 

People: Know your audience!

The essential part of effectiveness of social media is the competency level of people who use it. Strategically, you have to know what your audience is capable, so that you can address them properly and with correct channels.  In addition, you have to hear what they have to say, in order to have a healthy conversation with them. Engaging your audience is a critical part of your success. 

Objectives: Mission Accomplished!

An old saying states that, a sailor without a wind can end up anywhere. Main reason for strategic planning is to avoid ambiguity, and to do that, you have to be clear about your goals, if you have no destination, how will you know when you arrive? (Goosebumps)

Strategy: Bishop on E4

Just like the game of chess, to reach a certain objective, a player must have strategies, a pathway to the success, which is more elastic than objective, changeable according to the developments. In terms of social media plan, you have take lots of variables into consideration such as governance and policies. 

Technology: Desktop vs laptop?

It has been emphasized that knowing the audience is necessary for the message to go out. In addition to that, a plan should indicate what types of tools will be used. Blogs are very effective, instant messaging is rapid, Facebook is...well Facebook, twitter is common, and etc. The idea is "how" will you communicate with the audience, by using which tools and infrastructures? A plan should include these answers.

In the presentation by Li & Bernoff, it is obvious that different companies use different strategies, and every environment is unique in its own terms, so above mentioned four dimensions of the strategic planning should be evaluated not just for different sectors but also for the same company as well (iteration). Social media environment is a rapid environment and it is important to monitor the indicators and analyze the results to evaluate the success rate of the plan, so that company can align its strategic plan to the changes. 

My personal insight on best practices would come from the article "Users of the world, unite!" which highlights the importance of sincerity and friendliness of the conversation in order to reach out to more people and attract new comers. So opening your mind and keeping a close eye on the consumer behaviours, trends and needs would be the best advice for developing a successful strategic plan for companies.

Related question: What does a social media strategic plan look like? Should social media strategic plans be different for different types of organizations? What are best practices when developing a strategic plan for social media adoption?