Social Media Blog by Michael BritoSocial Media Blog written by Michael Brito.

Okay, it’s not really what you think; like a newsletter or magazine. POST (aka: the POST Method) is really the most effective acronym ever invented; ever since the four P’s of marketing. It’s a four-step approach that helps marketers define a social media marketing strategy for their business and/or clients. It’s been talked about for quite sometime, but I think it should continue to be drilled in the hearts and minds of marketers who either work in the social media space or are just thinking about it.

P equals people, “assess your customers’ social activities” – difficult in some organizations, easier in others. This really goes back to mapping your customer segmentation to Forrester’s “Social Technographics” which are behaviors displayed on a ladder with six levels of participation within social media.

It’s a year old but still very relevant and applicable today and I am sure it will live a long time. The graph helps you determine the social media usage models that you can map your customers (or target audience) to. Here is another resource to help you figure all that out since this is probably the most important step of them all.

O equals objectives, “decide what you want to accomplish” – this is really simple I guess. I assume that most medium sized to big companies define objectives before launching something. As Forrester explains, “Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them?” The key takeaway from this step is to take your time and first figure out your objectives. I have worked for companies in the past that determine objectives after launch … probably not a smart move.

S equals strategy, “plan for how relationships with customers will change” – what’s your strategy? Are you integrating other elements of your marketing mix with social media? Are you involving the right people? If you are launching a blog or community to help address customer service complaints, are you getting folks from your customer service org involved? Another element in this step is measurement; and you plan on measuring the effectiveness of your campaign.

T equals technology, “decide which social technologies to use” – is it a corporate blog, wiki? Is it hosting a community on domain or participating in a community off domain? The reality is that once you figure out who the people are that you want to talk to; mapped out the objectives and strategy, you can then focus on which tool (or tools) to use. It’s all gravy from there!

POST is the heart and soul of the book, Groundswell, written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. I have yet to read it but my colleagues and friends say it’s the Bible of social media, so I am off to Amazon once I finish up this post. Groundswell, along with the ClueTrain Manifesto and Naked Conversations are all great resources to help you maximize your social media strategies. These three books should be on every book shelf within corporate marketing.

The POST method is something we take very seriously at Intel. It serves as a guide to help us determine the right strategy for the right audience. Hopefully, your company following the POST method because it works.

Tags: Groundswell, Cluetrain Manifesto, Naked Conversations, POST Method, Social Technographics, Forrester, Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff, “social media strategy” & groundswell