Strategize your New Media
OMG! Can you believe I'm posting something to my blog two days in a row?? Is this a fad or have I turned over a new leaf??? Only time will tell!
After reflecting on the questions I received after yesterday's presentation on New Media for the contemporary PR professional, I thought I'd talk a bit about PLANNING your online strategy.
No longer is it enough of an online presence to have a website. Now, you have blogs to watch, participate in and host. You have RSS feeds to publish. You have message boards to host, monitor and respond to. You have social media to contend with too -- facebook and twitter. While it's cool to reach your target audiences online, couldn't you just spend endless hours on this stuff?
The way to make sure you are covering your online presence appropriately is through one word -- PLANNING. Yep, my PR friends, just like what you're supposed to do with your traditional PR campaigns -- make a plan first.
And guess what? It's not much different from your traditional PR planning -- think RPIE!! But before I dive into that, set your objectives. Why are you engaging in new media? What do you hope to gain from it? You shouldn't do it to do it... you need to have a measurable goal in mind.
Research -- where is your audience online? Are they on facebook? Myspace? Twitter? Blogs, message boards? Industry sites??? Find out.... Then, watch and listen. Decide Where is the best place to be online to reach my audience. Ask your known audience (clients/donors) about their online habits -- what keywords they used to find you, what sites they frequent (that are relative), etc. You want to find people just like them.
Planning -- Once you've done some research, decide which sites you are going to spend your time on. Then, make a plan for each (Update Twitter once a day; Update Facebook twice a day, etc.). Decide on some topics in advance of what you're going to focus on in these posts. You can always participate in and respond to topics your audience is bringing up but have a plan for when things are quiet. Is it national take your pet to work week and you sell pet food? Would be a good topic.... This phase should answer Who - What - Where - When - and How.... (we already know why)
Implementation -- get to it. This is the part where you will actually execute the strategies and tasks you identified.
Evaluation -- how are you going to know it works? Think about ways you will evaluate this plan. If you wrote out your objectives, you will know what you need to prove. If you can't prove it, better change your objective to be something you can measure!
Not sure you can do it? Call me and I'll write a strategy for you and then you can implement it in house. Yeah, I know, I don't come cheap but then again, is wasting your time cheap?
After reflecting on the questions I received after yesterday's presentation on New Media for the contemporary PR professional, I thought I'd talk a bit about PLANNING your online strategy.
No longer is it enough of an online presence to have a website. Now, you have blogs to watch, participate in and host. You have RSS feeds to publish. You have message boards to host, monitor and respond to. You have social media to contend with too -- facebook and twitter. While it's cool to reach your target audiences online, couldn't you just spend endless hours on this stuff?
The way to make sure you are covering your online presence appropriately is through one word -- PLANNING. Yep, my PR friends, just like what you're supposed to do with your traditional PR campaigns -- make a plan first.
And guess what? It's not much different from your traditional PR planning -- think RPIE!! But before I dive into that, set your objectives. Why are you engaging in new media? What do you hope to gain from it? You shouldn't do it to do it... you need to have a measurable goal in mind.
Research -- where is your audience online? Are they on facebook? Myspace? Twitter? Blogs, message boards? Industry sites??? Find out.... Then, watch and listen. Decide Where is the best place to be online to reach my audience. Ask your known audience (clients/donors) about their online habits -- what keywords they used to find you, what sites they frequent (that are relative), etc. You want to find people just like them.
Planning -- Once you've done some research, decide which sites you are going to spend your time on. Then, make a plan for each (Update Twitter once a day; Update Facebook twice a day, etc.). Decide on some topics in advance of what you're going to focus on in these posts. You can always participate in and respond to topics your audience is bringing up but have a plan for when things are quiet. Is it national take your pet to work week and you sell pet food? Would be a good topic.... This phase should answer Who - What - Where - When - and How.... (we already know why)
Implementation -- get to it. This is the part where you will actually execute the strategies and tasks you identified.
Evaluation -- how are you going to know it works? Think about ways you will evaluate this plan. If you wrote out your objectives, you will know what you need to prove. If you can't prove it, better change your objective to be something you can measure!
Not sure you can do it? Call me and I'll write a strategy for you and then you can implement it in house. Yeah, I know, I don't come cheap but then again, is wasting your time cheap?
posted by Jan at
11:02 AM
