Developing a Social Media Marketing Plan

Compare these objectives to what you've learned about how each group currently uses social media. Also look at industry best practices and review the activities of your top competitors. As you move forward, you should be prepared to adjust your goals based on new learning about the potential that social media represents. You may well learn that possibilities exist that you had not anticipated, and this may affect the goals you set.

Desired outcomes. Clearly define your organization's goals. They may include increases in brand awareness/ stature, enhanced search rankings and Web traffic, improved preference, engaged brand ambassadors, and growing patient volumes.

Be as specific as possible. The desired outcomes should affect the ways in which you measure results.

Toolbox and channels. Identify social media channels that will help you accomplish your marketing objectives for each audience. This will become your toolbox.

The vehicles you select must consider several factors, including resources, desired outcomes, and their ability to effectively deliver your message and content. This assumes that you know the strengths of various social media platforms. (Hopefully, you've done the earlier analysis of each group's use of social media.)

Identifying the appropriate social media tools may require the most research. For example, you may not know which LinkedIn groups reach a specific target audience, so you'll need to get online and start digging around. Join those groups and start following the conversation. Find out what these people care about. Identify the top bloggers and thought leaders that you want to influence. Start following those blogs and monitoring those conversations.

Integration. Define the process you'll use to integrate the program with the traditional marketing and branding efforts of your organization. And don't forget about PR and media relations. There are many great social media tools that can make your PR program more effective, such as pitch engine, LinkedIn, filtrbox, and Meltwater News. Be sure to incorporate those into the plan. Consider, too, the role of social media in internal communication.

Resource allocation. If you allow it to happen, your social media program may end up dominating your life. That fear keeps many people from taking the plunge. It is vital that you make your program sustainable, avoid overtaxing your internal resources, and fend off social media fatigue.

You'll need to get tactical by identifying how you'll use each platform in your plan given the internal or external resources you have available. Much information can be repurposed and shared within various social media platforms.

A simple press release can be distributed through LinkedIn groups, become a blog post, a tweet on Twitter, and fodder for the wall of your Facebook group. You must also define work flow and who will do the work. Who will develop content for these various outreach mechanisms? How will information travel within your organization to the content generators?

It's important to recognize that you don't have to do everything at once. You will be more likely to experience success if you avoid biting off more than you can chew. Start small and you can always grow the program over time.

Measurement. Determine how you will measure results, knowing that not everything can be measured. Build these measurement tools into your plan. Whether it's Google Analytics for your blogger site, Wordpress' built-in analytics (e.g., page views, referrers, and comments), Technorati's blog rankings, friend counts, or member volume on your Facebook group, it is not difficult to find meaningful ways to measure the appeal and relevance of your social media efforts.

It is also important to measure productivity on your part, not just the activity of your target audience. This means you should measure your posting frequency and your level of engagement.

Conversation tracker. Develop a plan for actively monitoring social media conversations. It is essential that you know what's being said about your brand online. The most obvious tools are Google Alerts and Yahoo! Alerts. If you don't have these set up for your hospital, you should do so immediately. Each service will send you e-mail alerts when your keywords come up in blogs or traditional news reports.