Be sure to run down the complete social media campaign checklist before starting a new project in 2010

While 2009 was the year to get your feet wet with social networking sites, 2010 is the year to perfect your social media campaigns so that they yield the best results possible. So for everyone out there who is already participating, contributing and is part of the community, here are a few items to help plan out your social media campaigns for twenty ten.

Social Media Campaign Checklist:

• Determine your goals/objectives now: Many brands got on social media in the past year solely because they thought they had to but without any real idea of what they were going to do once there and, more importantly, without knowing what they wanted to get out of it.  With consumers looking to engage with brands and brands finding real results on social media, that’s no longer acceptable. Before engaging in social media establish a clear mission. Do you want to generate more online traffic and brand engagement, create buzz around new product/service, gain more newsletter/email sign-ups, increase sales, etc.? Now is the time to decide.
• Determine the media mix and customers/influencers to reach: Research and find out which social media platforms will be the most effective for each specific campaign (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.) and determine if these channels will reach your target group/demographic. While it’s easy to have a presence on all social media sites, it makes no sense to be there if you don’t plan on being engaged.
• Set a Budget: Assign a budget front to support your campaign for such things as coupons, gift card giveaways and Facebook ad buys.
• Produce engaging content: As you may have heard many times before, content is king! This holds true for two reasons, one being that good content keeps customers and audiences engaged and the second being that the foundation of SEO relies on having a continuous flow of quality content. In turn, generating such content will increase the likelihood that your campaign will connect with its target audience and be a success.
• Determine a measurement strategy: Decide how you want to monitor/track the campaign and how you plan to measure the campaign’s success. For a great read on social media ROI, check out Brian Solis’ article “Maturation of Social Media ROI.” – http://mashable.com/2010/01/26/maturation-social-media-roi/