The need for a media plan

It’s been said you can’t accomplish anything without a plan, and you can’t get to  places you haven’t been without a map. Your media plan is critical for your social media efforts because it provides you with both your direction and your goal.

In social media and content marketing, your media plan is the detailed written action plan that will tell you and your team how you are going to achieve your goals. The best media plans are detailed enough to provide specific audience, media and message, but still open enough to allow for some serious creativity.

Media plans go by many names: content marketing plans, social media campaigns, editorial calendars, fast calendars and more. We’ll break these down later but all of them are planning documents to be used to organize ourselves and make ourselves more efficient and effective.

Editorial calendars go back years, before the time of social media, where topics were targeted to daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, trade publications, TV, radio, email, and more. They’re all still there, with the additional of all the new media, the social media, but the goals are still the same, with the addition of these new players.

Editorial calendars are usually organized for a 12 month period, however, that period can be longer or shorter depending on need. It can be divided into quarterly or monthly periods as deadlines draw near. A quarterly period is very effective for medium-range planning, testing your effectiveness 0r  implementation ROI measures.

Monthly planning is perhaps the key unit for implementing your social media, media relations, government relations and content development. This will be broken down further into weekly and daily increments but the month is generally central organizing unit.

The media plan is useful for a number of reasons. It serves as a planning document and we explore our creativity as we approach deadlines. The plan helps to organize us and focus our team. The media plan can also be a vital aid in team building. From a practical perspective, we often need to develop a story 3-4 months prior to the publication date, and even with Facebook and Twitter we often need prep time of several weeks prior to post

With a content calendar, you can look for story ideas from the seasons and the holidays, and milestones for your business and industry. Major products to be released, newsworthy events you will hold, outstanding staff stories, can all help fill your news calendar.  It lists all of your promotions and how you are going deliver them to your audience.

Use an excel spreadsheet to develop your media plan. Palettes can be developed to create copy blocks of frequently used content.  You can do this on your own, but a public relations or social media professional may be able to provide a superior effort and take you to the next level!

Every media plan is different. In future updates we’ll tackle a number of issues regarding media plans. But what is essential for every plan is a listing of the topics to be covered, the targeted audience, the responsible author or editor, and the date to be released.
 

 

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question!

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question!

When it comes to developing social media marketing plans, one of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners is “I’m not going on Twitter!”

For many — if not most — small business owners this is probably the right way to go. If few members of your audience are on a certain social media outlet, you may not want to post there. Each business needs to look into what is the right mix of social media to use for its marketing campaign.

As things have settled down over the last few years, it looks like most small businesses can benefits from a Facebook page to one degree or another. For some it can be very effective. Also there are few people, professional or technical, who wouldn’t benefit from a page on LinkedIn.

At a minimum, it is like having an on-line resume, and increasingly a LinkedIn profile is expected both for business prospects and job seekers.

LinkedIn also holds the potential for getting real business or a job. It is an excellent way to communicate with peers in your industry or a geographic area, directly or in groups. Check out all it can do!

There are other useful tools like a personal or corporate blog, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram, to name a few, that can be used, depending on your preferences, your audience preferences, how much time and staff you have available and what you’re trying to accomplish.

So don’t agonize over your social media or doubt your mission like Hamlet. Put together a plan on your own or with a consultant and start communicating with your audience. You don’t have to be Shakespeare to get a great return on your investment!

Holiday Blog: Repurposing Content — The Gift that keeps on Giving

Now that we’re in the holiday season, it’s a good time to talk about repurposing content, which I see as the gift that keeps on giving!

Repurposing content is the gift that keeps on giving because we can continuously use the content that we previously created if it’s still good, valuable and timely.

We need to remove content that is dated or out of use, or no longer attractive for our brand. When this process is completed we should have a sizable collection of blogs, emails, white papers, sales materials, etc. that are now available to be reposted and repurposed.

If you have been doing a blog for years, for instance, many of your blog posts can be repurposed. The same can be said for White Papers, sell sheets, brochures, news articles and more. This is one instance where you actually benefit from the fact that so much material sent out online is not viewed by our followers, and it really makes sense to report.

Think about it … in many cases we have tons of material that we have originally created, available for use in our content marketing efforts. It’s here that we can recoup the time and cost of originally invested in developing this material. As the amount of profitable repurposing increases, the cost of developing the material decreases.

These materials can now be placed on your editorial calendar or your marketing calendar. Repost them on Facebook , LinkedIn and Google Plus, maybe Pinterest. Use them in an aggressive Twitter rotation. Email marketing may be the way to go!

Maybe you need or want to update the material, maybe that isn’t necessary. Anyway you now have a full arsenal of marketing materials at your disposal, ready for repurposing.

You may be surprised that there are some absolute gems in there. Something you wrote in 2010 may sound really good today, while others may not sounds so clever today! (Edit or discard them, in these cases).

But just remember, that those pieces that didn’t take off the last time, might take off right now. Have fun with it, good luck!

3 essentials for 3rd party endorsements

3rd party endorsements have the potential for taking your PR pitches, campaigns and social media to the next level!

3rd party endorsements include support from political leaders, legislators, directors of not for profit organizations and associations, opinion leaders, and any other individuals or groups who have expertise on a topic and an audience or following.

Bloggers, too, have now become a new form of 3rd party endorsers in many cases.

Three ways to get 3rd party endorsements include:

— Outreach to find politicians who support your position and the topic you are publicizing, especially a committee chairperson, or those who have prior or pending legislation on your topic of interest.

— Locate organizations that support your cause. For example, if you represent a vineyard, contact the local congressman or state representatives, the local business developmental agencies, and other state agencies to partner with you on your activities. In addition, contact associations that represent agriculture and entertainment industries, locally, regionally and nationally. This will provide you with an strong alliance of supporting organizations.

— Contact 3rd party groups directly and get their endorsement in writing, in support of your product, topic or client. Have them attend your event or speak the media on your behalf on topics of interest. Joint press releases can also be very effective.

You will be surprise at how many organizations and politicians who may be willing  to help you increase your publicity and visibility. They can also provide expertise, research information and significant credibility. Your pitches may appear stronger because of the endorsement provided by these groups.

Sometimes you can get an instant recognition and support because of the appeal of these groups and individuals. For example as a luxury travel PR firm, news and events pitches are infinitely stronger if your working with the Senate Senator who chairs the Tourism Committee or the Mayor’s Tourism Task Force, or a local parks, beach or equine organization.

Third party endorsement can provide a bigger bang for your buck. With a little bit of work you can develop strong, long term relationships with allied groups.