Set reasonable expectations for a social media plan

If you never decide where you’re going, how will you know if you ever get there? Setting expectations is no less important in a plan using social media than in any other endeavor. It simply is the only place to start.

What are your objectives from a brand and awareness standpoint? From an engagement standpoint? Who will be the content creator(s), who the conversationalist(s)? How much time can you/you company devote? How much money can you invest? Will you need outside help?

I’ve been using a simple form that is a schematic for each area in which our firm wants to apply social media. It covers what I think are the basic decisions and assignments that are necessary for starting a social media component.

Forrester Research‘s report on ROI in social media is also illuminating. They insist that in-channel metrics need to be augmented with other research tactics to learn if a strategy is really working. The start of your effort is where decisions should be made on what these measures will need to be at the end of a project in order for it to be properly judged as to its effectiveness.

One can get overwhelmed with the multitude of choices. I know I was. What helped me was selecting one or two objectives and measures that made reasonable sense as targets and that were within my ability to collect and assess.

Can you think of some simple goals that might be within your grasp as you start to use social media? Would you post them as comments below? Let’s talk!