aaron hughling online

Before engaging in the social media space you should have done several things to prepare for this new adventure. Here's what I have come up with:

1. Content audit. First things first here. You've got to know exactly what content you do and don't have. Are there gaps? And you must work to iron all that out before diving in. The last thing you would want to happen is to have that Facebook, Twitter, etc. account with nothing to put on it.
2. Content creation. Back to number one here. If you found some missing gaps, take care of that before diving in.
3. Research. Do all the research you can, be as prepared as you can be. Look at all the numbers and analytics for all the social media spaces. Where are the growth trends? What segments? Look at what your competitors are all doing with the tools. Which ones are successful? Why or why not?
4. Implementation. This is certainly something you don't want to be figuring out on-the-fly. Think about how the implementation of these tools will actually happen for your organization. Who will be responsible for which accounts? Are their multiple accounts for the same tool? What will be the internal process by which information is collected and decided on to post? How will you, or whomever is responsible, keep your ear-to-the-ground and get funneled all the stories to post?
5. Promotion. Lastly, come up with a plan on how you plan on promoting these new tools to your customers. You can't depend on search alone so how will you go about spreading the word?

As we're all figuring out, there is no 'golden ticket' award-winning solution or plan for this stuff. But going in blind is never the answer. You want to do as much to prepare and make educated decisions as you can. I think covering these bases should give you a great place to start when you do begin establishing your presence. What do you think?