Social Media within marketing and sales plans for 2013

In organizations around the world discussions and meetings are now ongoing in regards to their respective income and cost budgets for 2013, an integral part of 2013 planning are the marketing and sales plans and the expected ROI from the various activities.

Having an online presence is expected of every company and customers are placing judgment on how well a company manages its social media accounts, engages its audience and improves their overall service offering via the social media and online channels.

Social media focus and activities must be an integral part of any company’s marketing and sales plan, however many organizations fail to properly evaluate the direct usefulness of all the tools available and often spend lots of money and efforts on channels that not necessarily reach their respective target audiences most effectively.

Many organizations goes into the trap of following what everyone else does to maximize the number of likings and followers but very often neglect and don't know how to properly evaluate and identify the solution that will best assist in ensuring the overall objectives of the organization are meet, with the identification and assistance of the most suitable social media tool.

Your organizations message must also be adapted to the respective social media platforms where they appear, adapt and customize the brand message to suit the respective platforms. Customization helps the message spread and give it more value, the same message sent via many channels will only portray identical communication and bore the receivers.

Clearly define the target audience you want to influence and reach before you start clarifying how much efforts and money you should allocate to the channel(s) defined as ideal and optimum. Human resources are required in managing and optimizing your social media activities, have all the costs put together in your plan for the year and define the ROI expected – not very different from the evaluation of the sales force’s activities.

However many fail at this point and spend unnecessary amount of money, time and resources on work that might not in the first place have been the ideal starting point(s).

Identify a smart platform for brand engagement, if a company could center its communications and marketing efforts on a single platform and perform the most tedious of tasks digitally within this space, it will be cost effective, efficient and help the organizations increase productivity. Instead of having your resources spread on many platforms that that might not be the right online space for you in the first place.

It is also crucial that the brand and values of the organization is portraying a consistent and coherent message in what the market picks up via your social media efforts, you must be able to link these back to your other activities on your company web or via the images and values your employees send out to the market via emails etc.

A lack of consistency here is often observed within organizations and it can do more damage than good if you have not been able to ensure alignments. Do not get into the trap of putting content online just to show that there are constant updates - ensure quality and set clear benchmarks on the standard of content that you want the market to associate with your brand, your voice coming clear on social media platforms must resonate with your core target customers/audience - otherwise your efforts are wasted.

How much importance are you putting on your social media activities within your marketing and sales plan will and should vary depending on your industry segments and geographical areas that are of most importance for your company’s future growth.

Have your competitors social media activities clear in your mind, describe in your marketing and sales plan how you are going to ensure a better social media presence than your competitors. It can do more harm than good to develop a follower mentality - spend your time on social media platforms and channels that you have defined as ideal to reach your objectives - and don't follow what everyone else is doing, that can surely get you into a blind alley and bring wastage of money, time and human resources.