OK I know that acronym thinking is trite and that many of us have already heard about the POST methodology until we want to PLOTZ.  But, I have been speaking with many companies lately about their social media plans and I have to admit that this old methodology keeps coming up as the one of the best places to start.  Here’s a quick review of how it works and why it works so well for social media plans in my opinion.First of all POST stands for people, objective, strategies and tactics.  The order is important because it forms the basis of the planning process.

People: Spend time identifying,  finding and listening to your audience.  Where do they go online?  What do they do?  What are they saying?  What kind of online content do they like (articles, reviews, images, video games etc).  Do they like to create things or just watch?  If the web can be thought of as a playground, what toys does your audience like?  How might you best join with them in the play?

Objectives:  What is that you hope to accomplish by joining in the play?  What would you like your audience to do?  Though objectives are often linked to revenue generating activities you would be best served by having some objectives that are not.  The objectives will lead directly to the communications strategy and it needs to be focussed on the audience..not the sale.

Strategies:  This is where you develop a content and communications strategy.  How will you play with the audience.  What will you share.  What will they share with you?  Where will the content come from?  This step gets overlooked a lot.  Much of the time businesses just share their promotional information.  Blah.  No engagement there.  Spend the time planning the content generation and communication strategy and you will find much more success.  Make sure to bear in mind the sustainability of the effort based on whatever internal (staff) and external (agency)  resources you have to use.

Tactics:  All of the thinking in the previous steps should lead to this but it is amazing how frequently this becomes step one for many businesses.  Would this plan be best executed on an existing platform (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, dare I say MySpace etc.)?  Would it be best executed on your own site via a blog, game, widget or some other form of interactivity that you build. Don’t overlook this option. There is no law that says all businesses must be on Facebook or Twitter though it may appear so by the level of discussion about it. Also, this is is the step to develop your plans for tracking and optimization.  You may need to develop some specialized approaches in your web analytics  or you may need to use outside services as well.  What software and services can help you and your team administer this?  Finally, what sorts of training or coaching might you or your teams need to be able to carry this through?

I can’t believe I wrote a post about POST.  It works though.  Build a social media marketing plan and your prospects for success will be much higher than those who jump in by saying “Hey let’s post some special offers on Facebook and see what happens!”