Social Media Marketing Plan: SAMPLE
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Funtastic! Social Media Tutor offers personalized social media training for individuals and small groups, primarily targeting parents, educators of teens, and solopreneurs in real estate. The service aims to empower users to navigate social media effectively and affordably, with plans for a comprehensive online presence, including a blog and community engagement. Despite anticipated losses in the initial years, the business expects significant growth and a strong community by leveraging social media marketing and customized tutoring services.
Social Media Marketing Plan: SAMPLE
- 1. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com FUNTASTIC! Social Media Tutor Social Media Marketing Plan
- 2. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com Executive Summary Funtastic! Social Media Tutor is a unique service offering customized social media training for individuals’ personal and business needs. Shea Glenny offers in‐person tutoring for individuals or small groups and also hosts the web site FuntasticSocialMedia.com with free and paid training and educational material. The site will eventually offer virtual one‐on‐one and small group tutoring. The competition for this service is light and limited, with competitors offering consulting and training services that are more costly and less customized. The primary objective of this social media marketing plan is to launch Funtastic! into the public as a new service offering and generate buzz and excitement regarding the launch. All of the goals and strategy presented herein are designed to accomplish this main objective. The first two target markets to be reached are the parents and educators of (pre)teens, and solopreneurs in the real estate industry. They are generally women in their 30s‐50s with an annual income of $37‐$150. By developing a blog‐based web site and a strong, focused presence on 5 major social network channels, a community will be established of my target market surrounding continuing education and stimulating discussion on social media in our individual lives. The social media marketing plan is a year in scope and includes SEO, mobile and traditional media integration. The budget is $1000 in seed money and will expand with venture capital or as net operating income grows. A loss is projected the first two years, with income growth rapidly and exponentially increasing beyond the first 12 months of operation. Campaign success will be determined by using site analytics, Alterian SM2, BrandsEye and Google Analytics. I have established measureable and attainable goals to track progress and have systems in place to respond near‐instantly to market changes and analytic findings. Product Description Funtastic! Social Media Tutor (Funtastic!) provides tutoring services for individuals who want to better understand and navigate the social media landscape for business or personal reasons. Tutoring can be done in person or online by appointment. Eventually tutoring services will be available on‐demand 24/7 online. The tutoring service can be purchased a la carte or prix fixe, with service menu items ranging from a single hour of tutoring to the Socially Launched comprehensive learning plan. From learning how to protect a teen’s online reputation to expanding a 2
- 3. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com company’s online presence into the right social network, Funtastic! Social Media Tutor makes the individual the expert in their circle of influence. Brand History While Shea Glenny, the founder of Funtastic!, was completing her degree in Internet Marketing, she eagerly looked towards establishing her own digital marketing consultancy firm. As she began her research, she found a surprising gap between the needs of individuals and the offerings of marketing firms. She found that the average person could not afford the expert advice of a social media marketing expert and that the average business was not outsourcing any aspect of their social media marketing needs. This left the majority of society unmet in their social media education needs. Determined to put the power of social media back into the hands that formed it, she developed the concept of a social media tutoring service that could be completely customized to an individual’s needs at an affordable and flexible rate. The idea was to empower the individual to become the social media expert in their realm of responsibility and influence. 3
- 4. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com Brand Story Funtastic! tells the individual that they can master social media for their personal or business needs. The brand story revolves around a fun, approachable cartoon graphics package with a French flair. The cartoon graphics package is used to engender a sense of enjoyment and fun. It also removes intimidation from the industry term “Social Media” which the average person is still unable to clearly define. Blending in the French theme adds a sense of sophistication, refinement and culture to increase desire for the service. Brand and Product Differentiators The Funtastic! brand and service is highly differentiated from social media marketing firms and even social media education services. The brand takes on a fun and unintimidating approach that acts as a servant to come beneath the individual and elevate them in knowledge and status. The educational approach is different in that it is tutor‐based and not geared towards large classroom settings. This approach allows the individual to gain knowledge and skill far more rapidly while also spending less time and money on doing so. Brand Community Optimization: Community Story The ideal community around Funtastic! Social Media Tutor will be one where graduates of the Socially Launched curriculum will continue their learning experience by sharing with visitors and other students on the social networking sites and continue to interact through the blog. It would be a community with shared values of learning, practice to refine skills, collaboration and personal responsibility for social betterment. Funtastic! 4
- 5. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com will offer certifications for completion of various stages of material and may team up with a complementary social media service to offer and promote more certifications. Competition Analysis I have been unable to find any direct competitor offering social media tutoring services. However, besides the growing number of social media marketing firms and divisions, and the existing educational warehouses of online social media publications such as SocialExaminer.com and SocialMediaToday.com there are a few companies offering live support and assistance for their social media tools. I wouldn’t consider them direct competitors and in fact it is the gap they collectively leave that Funtastic! seeks to fill. Competition watch and analysis will be a regular and on‐going part of my marketing strategy. In a sentence: Funtastic! Social Media Tutor offers one‐on‐one tutelage in a personalized fashion to make you the expert in social media for your family or business. SWOT Analysis: Strengths • Unique service offering • Low competition • Can be virtual or live • Affordable to consumer • Personalized/Customized service Weaknesses • Low market awareness of service (since it is a new concept) • Curriculum will need constant evaluation and development • Short history in the field • No current presence in social media Opportunities • Untapped and unmet market needs • Reach to national market • First‐in‐industry seniority and authority • Expansion into other countries/languages Threats • Low start‐up funds • Low content quantity • Poor SERP organic ranking 5
- 6. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com • Competition rapidly moving in • Limited Time • Material easily stolen Market Conditions People are starting to recover emotionally from the downturn of the economy and optimism is on the rise. There seems to be more of a willingness to invest in personal and professional improvement since the downturn of the economy. Stats show less than 16% of companies are outsourcing any aspect of their social media marketing, yet social media marketers are on the rise. Parents and educators are beginning to dialogue and explore the threats and possibilities for students in regards to online reputation management. These trends create a market of business professionals who need to get up to speed quickly on social media, and a market of middle‐aged adults who are being proactive in searching out solutions for their lack of knowledge surrounding their teens use of social media. Social media has formally established it’s legitimacy as a marketing arena through advanced metrics and favorable statistics that have been highly publicized and discussed. Target Markets A. Educators/Parents/Mentors of high school students B. Solopreneurs Demographic Data A. Mothers, age 42‐56, college educated, $150‐$250 annual income, Balanced Teachers/Mentors, females, age 35‐47, college educated, $35‐$65 annual income, Balanced B. Realtors/Brokers, females, age 40‐55, some college, $65‐$85 annual income, Makers & Belongers Realtors/Brokers, males, age 37‐45, some college, $67‐$87 annual income, Makers & Strivers Strategy and Tactics As the web site is being developed, social media will be used to stir up excitement and buzz about the launch of the company. At first I will use my personal social network accounts to stir up buzz with my personal and professional connections on these sites, inviting them to get in on the anticipation and share with their own networks. Once the web site is open and the official launch has commenced, I will use social media to attract new customers by drawing them into the site with rich content. New content will be added every Tuesday at 12:01am and every Thursday at 12:01am for the first quarter, then I will re‐evaluate the content posting strategy. The site will be optimized for social media sharing and user contribution (will be a blog‐based site). For the first 6
- 7. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com year, there will be discounts, rebates and other non‐financial incentives for visitors to share the site and it’s content on their network, for making referrals and for giving written testimonials of their use of the tutoring service. All of my material will be protected using industry best practices and with trademark and copyright laws, but as I position myself as a national consultant my material will be freely shared and contributed to the industry pool of knowledge and discussion. Past the first year, social media will grow to become the basis of the marketing plan instead of an aspect of it. I also foresee my tutoring services integrating into new social media platforms in a dynamic and natural way. Customer & Community Growth This will take time, patience and consistency across social media channels as well as in‐ person networking events. I project modestly steady growth through the first year and an exponential burst at the beginning of the second year. Both Customer and Community growth will be sustained by being an early adopter of new social media tools, applications and networks; and by branching out further into SEM practices as finances allow. As the Funtastic! community grows, so will the number and variety of customers grow. This will need further development upon review of the first quarter analytics. Objectives The primary objective of this marketing plan is to present a cohesive and comprehensive public launch of Funtastic! Social Media Tutor and to generate initial target market awareness, involvement and purchase. Goals • To establish Funtastic!’s presence on The Big 3 (Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook), Google Buzz, Gowalla and on the web site • To publish fresh, rich content that is highly‐targeted and site‐specific at least once per week • To draw in meaningful and active community members to each social media site and retain those members (with trackable growth every week) • To stimulate and nurture genuine discussion on the sites and cultivate at least 3 Influencers on each channel • To aggregate enough authoritative content that a link strategy and SEO plan can be launched in 6‐12 months • To spend no more than 10 hours per week on the maintenance of the social media marketing plan • To secure 10 new online customers by the end of the first year 7
- 8. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com Faces of the Company Shea Glenny is the owner/founder of Funtastic! Social Media Tutor and is a soon‐to‐be graduate of Full Sail University’s Internet Marketing Bachelor’s program. She has a 10‐ year track record in sales and consulting and has always been actively involved in mentoring people to reach their full potential. She brings a bubbly and smiling buoyancy to the people she helps and sees no obstacle as too big. With a knack for problem‐solving, inspiring people and a comprehensive social media foundation Shea is a great public face for Funtastic! Social Media Tutor. <demo video will be inserted here upon completion> Website Integration Every page on the web site will have social media connect icons and social media calls to action. Many of the posts on the networking sites will lead back to the web site. There will also be a mobile view of the web site for mobile social purposes. Standards: Graphic All graphics will be from the marketing graphics package or will be creative commons or properly licensed stock photos. All graphics will have alt text to aid in SEO. A graphics standard book will be developed with trademarked graphic cartoons/icons with a French flair. All graphics must be original, including charts and graphs. Website Design All web design meets or exceeds industry best practices and W3C specifications. All competitors site’s must be regularly monitored to maintain competitive advantage and ensure brand differentiation. Copy Standards All copy is to be free of grammar/spelling mistakes and must be creative commons or properly licensed for use where applicable. Copy must be original and quoted material must not exceed 15% of the total copy. Language must be distinctly personal, sunny, intelligent but not condescending, friendly and use occasional French words or colloquialisms. Email Email will be opt‐in for all email campaigns forward from the initial launch announcement email to my existing database. Email must be graphic‐light, content‐ 8
- 9. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com light with a clear value proposition/offer and clear calls to action. This is not to be done more frequently than bi‐monthly. RSS feed subscriptions are exempt from these email standards. Both Benchmark and MailChimp are being evaluated as email campaign service providers. Timeline: Introduction of individual channels • The Big 3 to be launched by 9/30/10 • Google Buzz & Gowalla to be launched by 10/31/10 • Web site to be unveiled 11/15/10 • First marketing email to be sent on 11/15/10 Duration of campaign • 12 months SM Channel Inter‐relational Chart To be developed. Content Propagation Schedule To be developed. Traditional Media The only traditional media that will be used for the first year is print media in the form of business cards, promotional tank tops to be handed out at PR events and a cross‐ promotional PR event with some of the area’s local entertainers (TBD). Social Media Optimization Outline List of Social Media used in the campaign (e.g. Facebook) Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google Buzz Gowalla Demographic profile for each social channel Twitter – other social media and marketing professionals; industry networking Facebook – all 3 target markets are found here LinkedIn – Employees of companies that don’t outsource social media marketing are found here, as well as the Independent Contractors/One Man Agencies 9
- 10. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com Goggle Buzz – a small but growing population of all 3 of my target markets are using Buzz, as well as the influencers in their lives Gowalla – this will be an exploratory avenue to work with geo‐targeting and gaming within a social media channel Mobile and Telematics Primarily mobile marketing will be done via promotion of existing useful mobile apps and offering tutoring services to master and/or integrate them into business or personal life. By the end of the campaign I hope to have developed a unique and useful mobile app for Funtastic! that can be promoted to the Industry influencers and through my social networks. I’ll use the mobile Gowalla app to further develop that channel, and I may do some text‐to‐win campaigns at local gatherings of my target market to capture their mobile numbers for a possible SMS campaign. As I gather more information on mobile analytics and opportunities I may branch into highly‐targeted mobile banner ads. Search Engine Optimization All content will be keyword optimized and properly targeted to my audience. All graphics will have alt text and any video will have an accompanying transcript. I will identify and select specific long‐tail keyword terms to optimize for while also keeping my eye on the short‐tail terms I’d like to eventually contend for. I will use websitegrader.com to quickly check the SEO status of my web site along with the data from the analytics applications. I will also use multivariate, A/B and usability testing at every quarter and milestone to respond quickly to changes in the market. Analytics, Measurement and Testing The web site will have analytics on it (Wordpress) and I will also be trying out Google Analytics, Alterian SM2 (for social media analytics) and BrandsEye (a sentiment analysis). By the end of year one, the analytics needs are likely to shift and changes will be made accordingly. Estimated Project Costs The entire start‐up phase will stay below $1000. As additional funds become available further development of rich content, mobile applications, SEM, mobile advertising and web site redevelopment will be completed. A business license will cost $150, trademarking the business name will cost $100, and my time is billable at $59/hour. I will keep detailed and accurate expense records for tax and accounting purposes. Profit Revenue Forecast, Projections, and Targets 10
- 11. DanyaShea Digital Marketing © www.danyashea.com I project an annual average of 5 new clients per month each with an average spending of $150 on tutoring services for the first year for a gross revenue of $9000. I expect most clients will come in towards the last half of the 12 month plan. I expect this number to quadruple by the end of the second year for a gross revenue of $36000. The third year and beyond will hopefully see a 10 fold growth curve as my online presence and services become easier to find and use. Payments will be received via check, cc or PayPal with payment processing and service charges being passed on to the customer for the first year. Legal Review Legal review is necessary for trade marketing the Funtastic! name and brand, securing a business license and incorporating (or whatever other legal status deemed best). It will also be needed for Funtastic!’s service contracts, terms of use on the web site and social network sites as well as any email or text campaign to avoid violating the CAN‐SPAM laws. A strategic relationship will be built with a lawyer to possibly exchange/barter professional services. Conclusion: Optimization Review By building a community‐oriented blog site, and facilitating genuine and engaging discussion on social network sites, Funtastic! will be known as a trusted and approachable resource for learning how to apply social media in the user’s personal and business life. After the first year, the company will expand to include other tutors and will offer tutoring in other languages, as well as tutoring virtually, around the clock and through a custom mobile app. The educational material on the site will be expanded and refined for continued learning and certification, and an affiliate marketing program will be launched. Using analytics and real‐time data, future social media plans will be developed to facilitate greater market saturation, increased desire for the services and to secure more business. 11