It All Starts with a Social GPS™ Report
I’ll create and deliver a full Social GPS Report. The report includes:
- Up-front input from you (and your key staff, if applicable). Through surveys and interviews, I’ll gather data to help guide your social media efforts, and to create/identify your social media team.
- Section 1: Current position – An overview of your company, products, services, key audiences, and demographic/geographic/psychographic data, as well as a brief review of your current marketing strategy and online efforts. (This can be culled from existing materials and/or surveys and interviews.)
- Section 2: Destination – This is a summation of the key goal(s) of your social media participation: customer communication, product research, list building, etc.
- Section 3: Route Map – An overview of your social media “neighborhood,” including which communities, forums, blogs and software/services should be targeted for participation. All recommendations are based on traffic statistics, industry/niche match, trend data, and other factors. This section also includes key topic areas, and strategies for joining the conversations in your targeted communities, as well as a strategy for using social media in crisis communication.
- Section 4: Waypoints – A complete schedule of your short-term social media efforts (1-3 months), including projects to be developed, people responsible and deadlines.
- Section 5: Road Ahead – A view of long-term projects (4+ months), coupled with general social media trends and social media trends in your specific areas of expertise.
- Section 6: Travel Journal (Monthly service clients only; see below) – All ongoing activities, recommendations and data from Social Media Scout are noted in real-time in your Travel Journal. The Travel Journal also becomes a communication center between you, your team, and Social Media Scout.
How much does it cost? That’s a difficult question to answer, because I don’t attach a specific cost to this report; I don’t want to churn out reports for dozens of people. Typically, I prefer to produce this report as a starting document for clients who hire me for monthly scouting services. So, if you’re interested in working with me to help develop and implement a social media strategy over the long-term, the scouting report is free.
That said, if you have a specific one-time project in mind, contact me and we can chat about it.
Monthly Scouting Services
What are monthly scouting services, you ask? Think of it as having a social media person on staff–someone to be your eyes and ears in the world of blogs, Facebook, forums, Twitter, and so on:
- Research and Recommendations: Each month, I’ll scout the social mediasphere for mentions of your company, your products, and your competitors, alerting you to new content and recommending steps to take. I also monitor social media trends in your specific industry, and pass along that information to you.
- Assistance with Content Development: I’ll recommend ongoing schedules for posting content (blog posts, forum topics, status updates, etc.), as well as specific topics to be covered. I’ll also help you research and edit content, but please know that I won’t simply develop everything from the ground up on your behalf. Social media is all about participation, and you need to commit to participating by offering your expertise and knowledge.
- Trend Analysis: Every month, I’ll report on data related to your social media efforts (activity within communities, traffic to your site, responses in the blogosphere, etc.), and make recommendations for fine-tuning, increasing reach, and optimizing efforts/data for additional social media (and search engine) traffic.
- Crisis Communication: I’ll work with you to develop a crisis communication plan, putting your social media tools to use when your company needs to get the word out to end consumers/customers immediately.
- Social Media News Rooms and Blogger Relations: I can help you build a social media news room, capturing the information you’d typically put in a news release, and capturing the attention of bloggers, online magazines/journals, forums and other communities. As a bonus, your social media news room will help your search engine optimization and build inbound links.
- Scheduling and Maintenance: I can provide a complete schedule of all projects, along with followup/reminders on upcoming deadlines.
- Partnerships and Opportunities: I will pursue partnerships and promotions that match your company and brand, bringing you ideas for harnessing social media to get attention that’s “outside of the box.” For instance, I might suggest blog tours, or ways to repackage/resell your current content (as web videos or webinars, for instance), or extensions into other products, or…well, who knows what opportunities we might discover? That’s the fun of it.
Best of all, I’m only accepting a handful of clients (about 10 max) for ongoing services. Why? In the spirit of social media itself, I want to build a community of clients with common beliefs and goals; I’m not interested in working with anyone and everyone.
Um…Yeah, But How Much are these Scouting Services?
Well, once again, it depends on the size and complexity of your needs. Realistically, figure on a minimum $200/month for basic reporting in the “Travel Journal” section of your Social GPS report, and ongoing communication/consultation with you and your social media team.
I’m also happy to discuss large allotments of time at a discount. Contact me for a proposal.
