Maximizing Social Media: Explorative questions to get the most from an organization’s social program

By T A R A J A N T Z E N

Brand and Business Priorities• How does the organization want to be perceived in

marketplace? • What is the messaging supporting the brand?• What are the vision and values of the company?• What are the key business priorities set by leadership?• What are the overall objectives for next quarter, year,

three years aligning to these priorities?• What do the various organizational units have outlined

within their business plans aligning to priorities?• How can or should you support all of these goals in your

social media program?

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Target Audience• Who are you trying to reach with your messages?• Who are your clients and customers?• Who are additional key stakeholders for the

organization? Media outlets / publications Industry analysts Influencers Investors Current employees Future employees Buyers

• What, how do you want to communicate to each audience? 3

Voice and Tone• What’s the tone organization uses in formal

communications?• Does that differ externally versus internally?• What’s culture of the company, how is it reflected

outside of internal employee engagement programs?• Does the organization prefer more formal style, or less

formal depending on activity, audience, channel?• Is the voice consistent across all company

communications?• Who typically writes company communications, are

they also developing social media posts?4

Channels• Does organization already have existing presence on social

media?• Are you launching company into social media for first time?• If existing channels, which ones, how well established or

mature?• Is there consistent look and feel, naming standard, style

across all existing channels?• If less established, does re-launch with new handles make

sense, new imagery, and / or introductory content?

• Any company events or milestones approaching where launching social media channels simultaneously would bring greater impact?

• Given time commitment for quality social media program, is there bandwidth to launch more than one channel at a time?

• If not, who is main audience, what channel are they most likely to be active? Prioritize them.

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Audience Engagement• How many followers does each channel have today?

Consider utilizing paid ad features to drive up numbers. Ask employees to like / follow all channels. Ask customers, partners to like / follow channels , give

them a reason to stay.• Regular engagement by followers?• Is posted content interesting, relevant, timely, useful?• Is content interactive – polls, open questions, calls-to-action,

contests, etc.?• Cross-promotion from other site locations?• Published handles across websites, blogs, press releases, email

signatures, direct marketing campaigns, collateral, employee LinkedIn profiles?

• Following the right influencers and audiences?• Re-tweeting or reposting content from those influencers?• Encouraging employees to repost content?

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Content• What formal content does the organization generate?• What are the various content types developed?

Examples: whitepapers, reports, blog entries, points of view, infographics, videos, webcasts, podcasts, Google+ hangouts, press releases, product or service collateral, contributed articles, client success stories, vines, newsletters, curated content, etc.

• Is it developed, published regularly, or occasionally – can you count on regular cadence?

• Is content internal only or can it be shared eternally?• Has legal reviewed, approved for external

consumption?• What content are customers requesting?• Does content align to key trends, priorities in

marketplace?• Are you driving traffic back to company

website – with a call-to-action? 7

Subject Matter Experts• Who are subject matter experts (SMEs) within the

organization aligned to trending topics, key priorities?• Any currently responsible for developing content

for company blogs, webcasts, speaking events, whitepapers, reports, view points, etc.?

• Do they regularly publish for the organization or only for personal brand or as general industry expert on community sites?

• Does their content align to the organization’s services, viewpoints?

• Are they willing to author content on behalf of the company?• Have they been media trained for potential interview

opportunities?• Do they have an external bio prepared?• Do they have professional headshots to leverage? 8

Additional Content Sources• Other activities occur outside the company aligned to the business?• Any events and conferences your company attends, sponsors,

speaks at, or exhibits with? Assign a “roving reporter” to take photos, provide commentary,

conduct interviews, or Tweet from the floor. Leverage the hashtags and handles from events to follow, repost

as appropriate.• Any active participation in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

activities – volunteering, blood, food, and toy drives, races, monetary donations, disaster relief, and so on?

• Do they partner with any major charitable organizations?

• Any paid corporate sponsorships such as sporting events?

• Any events, programs, activities planned aligning to those sponsorships?

• Does recruiting host job fairs, hiring campaigns, or require focus to particular job posts or skill needs?

• Any upcoming interviews with press resulting in published articles or contributed pieces?

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Imagery• Does your organization have access to an

image library?• Have you secured the rights to leverage and

publish these images?• Does your organization have it’s own photos

from company events and programs?• How professional are the photos, do they require editing before

sharing?• Is there reusable imagery from the organization’s business teams

representing their sales collateral, website descriptions, or presentations aligned to products or services you may be posting about?

• Does the organization develop infographics that can be shared?• Are there video clips available for external use?• Are there graphs and charts that can reinforce content

messaging?The most successful social media programs always leverage quality visuals to engage

audiences.

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Content Strategy• Based on priorities, audience, content types, assets

being developed, what’s the plan for leveraging content?• How will you define how, when, where to share various

content types?• Who in the organization should be content owner?• When do they need to refresh, renew, retire content?• How can you repurpose and get the most from a single

piece of content? Can it be posted on multiple sites? Can it be componentized, leveraged for multiple posts, timed series,

campaign? Can a longer piece be condensed to short points of view? Can you pull a set of key facts or trends and convert to multiple

posts?• How will you identify new content needs based on evolving

market demands?• How can you help in identification and creation of new content?

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Campaigns• Based on key events, programs, which

priorities are highest so aligned campaigns can be developed?

• Are SMEs expected to publish content timed with events and programs?

• Will press releases be published for key events, milestones?• Any product or service launches planned?• Any innovations coming from the organization?• Any relevant content existing or planned for external website or

blogs?• Will PR be pitching topics, experts with press to aligned to

programs?• Any awards, recognitions on horizon to apply fitting within

campaign?• Any supporting infographics to leverage which further tell the

story?• Any additional campaigns planned by sales, marketing teams

to support?

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Editorial Calendar• When are program activities, events scheduled within

the organization or industry over coming weeks, months, quarters, year?

• Any key milestones planned such as product launches, awards, events, conferences, corporate news announcements, whitepapers, research reports?

• Any existing editorial calendars for company blog, customer newsletters, webcasts, and so on?

• Any editorial calendars of key publications, reporters PR are contacting? Align content posts, campaigns to drive visibility, broader interest.

• Have you assigned content developers based on editorial calendar?

• How can you partner with the business, making most of editorial calendar?Develop a calendar for entire year so you can plan

ahead for content requirements and build a more robust program.

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For More InformationPlease contact:

T A R A J A N T Z E N Corporate Communications & PR Professional

Mobile: +1.312.305.1771Email: tara.jantzen@gmail.comWebsite: http://www.tarajantzen.com Twitter: @TaraJantzenLinkedIn: @TaraJantzen

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