Lessons Learned: Easy Tips on How to Create and Grow a Social Media Program

I have been fortunate to spend the last year implementing and growing a wide variety of social media programs.   Over the next few days I will be sharing with you the steps needed to start your own program, including:

1. Create a Social Media Policy
2. Research your business
3. Set goals
4. Write an Editorial Calendar
5. Create content
6. Start the program
7. Grow your social media program and overall web presence
8. Handling mistakes and attacks

Every basic social media program starts the same way:  setting goals, finding out where your audience is, listening and engaging your audience, and growing the program in ways that benefit the company and its audience. So what are the specific steps one should take to set up the program?

Create a Social Media Policy

Before starting a social media program, be sure to update your company guidelines on what can and cannot be discussed online.  Without guidelines, employees are left unaware of what is or is not off limits to discuss online.

For public companies, there is a fine line in creating an effective policy that is specific enough to keep you within RegFD guidelines and yet broad enough to encourage your own internal fan base to promote your company and brand to their family and friends via social networks.

Social media policies should not only include what employees can or cannot discuss online, they should also include ways to handle customer complaints, s well as a way to implement current crisis communication plans through online channels.

Here is a great list of social media policies for your review:  http://123socialmedia.com/2009/01/23/social-media-policy-examples/

Once you have a social media policy in place or at least in process, it is time to get started.  The next step is doing the research needed to create your plan, finding your platforms and figuring out what is being said about your online.  We’ll discuss this in greater detail in tomorrow’s post.

Related posts:

• Lessons Learned: Starting and growing your social media program
• Lessons Learned: How to create social media content
• Lessons Learned: Mistakes and attacks in social media
• Lessons Learned: How to research your business
• Lessons Learned: Setting Goals in Social Media

Tagged as: RegFD, serena ehrlich, Social Media, social media policy, startuparmy