Are you are still trying to figure out how to implement a social media strategy in your organization? If so, you should take a look at this post on Social Media Today: 6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan. While it may be yet another plan in a long string of similar plans, I think that what we are seeing is a formalization/crystallization of what does and doesn’t work based on experience. This maturation process lends itself to better strategies and more simple approaches and make it a lot more accessible for late adopters.

While it may not tell you everything you ever wanted to know I think the six-step plan is a really good starting point, especially for those who still haven’t taken the plunge either because of uncertainty or fear. The highlights of the article are as follows:

First take time to determine the following:

1. Your goals – SEO, PR, traffic ( to drive awareness? advertising click-thus? conversions?)
2. Your audience – where does your target demo hang out?
3. Your resources – you, you plus an intern, internal team, agency?

After you figured out those aspects you are in a much better position to implement a durable strategy following the authors six-step plan:

Step 1: Understand What Social Media Is: The best way to look at social media is to view it as one of many Internet marketing channels, one that has the amazing power to go viral.

Step 2: Understand What Social Media Can & Can’t Do: Social media can engage your audience, encourage online conversations that are user-generated, increase your web presence, expand brand awareness, generate publicity (both good & bad) and provide SEO benefits.

Step 3: Determine Where Conversations are Happening: You will need to respond to conversations that are already happening.

Step 4: Divide: Next, you want to expand into unchartered territory. Before venturing out into the vast unknown, create your social media road map – a map of the social web as it pertains to your business.

Step 5: …and Conquer: Now comes the tactical deployment.

Step 6: Trust in the Force: Finally, trust is a huge factor in social engagement. Understand that social media marketing is most effective when users in the community know you.

Some may call the plan too basic/remedial. I feel that that is exactly why this approach is so appealing and would likely work well – especially for those who are just starting off. Start small, keep things simple and make sure you can analyze and measure what you are doing. If you go too big out of the gates you’ll never know exactly what is/isn’t working but if you start small you can always make incremental changes and add or subtract from what you are doing with very little problem. Good food for thought.

Just this morning I received one of the funniest serious emails that I have seen in a while from a former colleague at PMI. The title of the message was “In Poor Taste”. Her message was short but animated:

The other day I found a new pastry, called ‘Long John,’ in the vending machine at work. My first thought was that the name suggested a colloquialism other than “pastry.” Colleagues in my department thought the same thing because we didn’t know that there was this type of donut.

Apparently she did some internet research and discovered that: “During the NAMA Expo, the company previewed its latest premium pastry, the 4-oz. white iced raspberry jelly-filled Long John, which will be available in January and vend for $1 or more.”

She closed her note emphatically stating: I don’t plan on trying this “premium pastry.”

Attached to the message was a camera phone shot of the questionable delicacy.

Her whole experience started me thinking about how, in a time where access to information and easy to use communication tools empower millions every day, this situation could have been a boon or an absolute disaster for the company involved. Case in point, this could be the most delicious jelly-filled vended treat that one could possibly find to satisfy a mid-day snack attack, but many people will never know simply because the imagery and the product marketing appear to be more suggestive than it has to be. Some may even interpret it to be perverse or offensive. Personally I think it’s one of the funniest things I have seen – at least in a food product – in quite some time. I guess it’s all about interpretation. But all you need are a few people who don’t like it and the buzz-storm begins. They tweet about it and blog about it and tell their friends. Then one of the blog posts gets Dugg or Slashdotted and then it’s drawn into the national spotlight. It’s a vicious cycle all caused by a poor choice of words. Would it ever happen? Probably not in this specific instance, but it could and it has.

The moral of the story: It’s imperative to make sure what you are saying is consistent with how you are saying it. How do you really want to be perceived? I believe the adage from Edward Bulwer-Lytton: the pen is mightier than the sword is perfectly applicable here. If you are responsible for communicating specific messages choose your words very carefully. Let’s make it personal, how many times in your personal or association-related communications did you intend to convey one message only to end up communicating something totally different? I know that it happens all of the time.

So while this is a pretty humorous situation – at least for those of us who don’t have to deal with the impact of it – it’s also a powerful reminder of just how imperative clear communication is.

What you say matters, but how you say it is key.

Your thoughts, opinions and reactions are always welcome.