Developing a Social Media Plan

Written by Dr. Cheryl Cottle

A social media plan is becoming a part of large corporations and organizations’ strategic planning to economic positioning in the marketplace, to gain competitive advantage. Their strategy goes beyond meeting a local market; it extends to a wider international market. It is very global in its reach.


Larger corporations who are thinking about integrating social media into their design plan to achieve their goals have several questions that they must address in order to find the right solution to the adoption of social media.

Some questions that must be asked are as follows:

1. Should social media be a part of our computer technology plan or a part of our marketing and branding plan?
2. Should our social media plan be organization-focused or employee-focused?
3. Should each department be responsible for its social media needs?
4. Should a decentralized-approach be used or should a centralized-approach governed by a social media unit be utilized to introduce a social media plan within the organization?
5. Should a social media plan be a part of the IT Unit - - an approach used by some companies and organizations as they became technologically prepared in the 90s?
6. How should decisions be made regarding introducing a social media plan?
7. Should a collaborative approach to decision-making be used where employee representatives from across the organization is a part or should be it only involve upper management?
8. Which social media technology should we adopt that would best meet our needs?
9. Who should be prepared to used the new technology?
10. Should training be a part of the design plan to introduce social media?
11. Would all the employees’ be users of social media or only a selected few?
12. Would there be resistance to this new change? How should these issues be addressed?
13. Should new recruits be considered? Should a new recruitment strategy be instituted to find suitable candidates?
14. How much will it cost to introduce social media into our existing technology plans?

These are some questions that large corporation should be thinking about as they think about introducing social media into their marketing and branding strategy. I hope that these were helpful in assisting you to make the right decision around social media integration into the workplace?


Related topic: Social Media: Impact on How we Learn, Relate and Interact

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Dr. Cheryl Cottle is the author of this article. If you need any support Cottle’s Professional Consulting can assist you. Dr. Cottle draws from her implementation model to adopt new technology in the workplace and can provide you with workable solutions in the adoption, diffusion and infusion of social media. For more information you can contact her at:ccottle@drcottle.com

Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Cheryl Cottle ● Cottle’s Professional Consulting.