Execution Paths

Execution Paths are the traditional project and program management tasks that need to be addressed. Essentially the Execution Paths are phases that you need to go through to rollout repeatable, successful Social Media Initiatives. Here you Strategize to identify your target audiences, objectives of your social media programs and determine the measures that you will use to gauge success, Plan who will do what by when and how, Create compelling content, Execute on your Initiatives, Measure the success of your Initiatives, and finally, Optimize what you are doing based on your Measures..

• Strategize: Social Media Marketing must be included as part of your overall marketing strategy and cannot be addressed independently. During this Operations phase, you will segment your target markets, identify the best Conversation Channels to reach those markets, as well as identify your Objectives and measures.
• Plan: Because there are so many moving parts, Planning is key to Social Marketing success. Identify your main initiatives and then schedule resources to do the content creation, monitoring, contribution and measurement tasks.
• Create: Create the content that will be used in your initiatives. If you want to be heard and break through the clutter, compelling content is critical. While you can develop great content in-house, getting outside perspectives and collaborators can be helpful given the volume on content needed.
• Execute: Once the strategizing, planning and content creation is over, it’s time to execute. This is where your plan meets reality and you deliver exceptional results.
• Measure: Your measures provide a quantitative way to track the success of your social marketing initiatives. So, I recommend watching your metrics daily to check for irregularities and then doing monthly reviews to check if course changes are needed. The frequency of measurement will vary industry by industry.
• Optimize: Based on the results of your initiatives, start the Operations cycle over again. Shore-up underperforming initiatives and reinforce the success of your top initiatives 

EXAMPLES

    Strategize

• Segment the key audiences that you need to reach
• Identify customers / prospects that need to be reached
• Identify digital influencers that need to be reached
• Identify the most appropriate Conversation Channels to reach your key audiences
• Determine the Initiatives that will be executed
• Allocate budget to different initiatives
• Establish Measurement timelines with metrics and KPIs 

 Plan:  

• Schedule the initiatives and their components (this needs to be  aligned with other marketing activities)
• Allocate resources (people + $) to execute the strategy
• Develop an Editorial Calendar for content creation

 Create:

• Develop the content to be used within Initiatives and across initiatives
• Provide guidelines for content use
• Develop messaging templates (this is important if Spontaneous Content creation will be distributed across your  organization)

 Execute

• Launch a new product with social marketing components
• Add a Social Media Center to your website

 Measure:

• Daily KPI reviews
• Weekly KPI reviews
• Monthly analytical “deep dives” to track progress against goals
•  Quarterly reviews to evaluate the overall program

Optimize:

• Tweak your Initiatives based on your actual results….and start again