Jason Bear wrote a great post recently about building a social media strategy.  He includes with his post a cool one page worksheet you can use to create a mini media plan. The Plan includes just seven elements:

• Step One: Describe the Business
  
• Step Two: Business Goal
• Step Three: Where Is the Audience Cyclically?
  • Awareness. They’ve maybe heard of you, vaguely.
  • Interest. They’ve heard of you and maybe have visited a Web site. No purchases.
  • Action. They’ve made a single purchase.
  • Advocacy. They are fans of the brand. Frequent purchases, tell their friends, etc.
• Step 4: How Does the Audience Use Social Media? – Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators
• Step 5: The One Thing – What is Most Compelling About the Brand
  
• Step 6: How Will You Humanize the Brand
• Step 7: How Will You Measure Success?

While each piece of this plan is critical I would like to focus on Step Three for just a moment.  Where is your Audience Cyclically.  What type of relationship do you have with with them?

To understand why this is important, think about your real life for a moment.  Do you talk to everyone the same way?  I don’t. I will say things to my husband, and good friends I would never say to a busienss associate, beause they wouldn’t understand.  They don’t know me well enough.

The same is true in business.  You need to let people get to know you, slowly, and with each step, the nature of the communication changes. While good in theory, it is sometimes tough to do in practice.  I would love to hear about you manage your communication?  Do you have different messaes for different audiences?  How do you keep them straight.

Need help writing you small business social media plan? Call Roundpeg today for all your social media needs!