Get on the ROAD to Social Marketing Maturity (and success)

Social media has created an exciting and challenging world of new possibilities for marketers. The opportunities are vast, but only if you find specific ways to use social media for achieving your marketing goals -- goals such as: increasing website traffic; improving lead generation; generating incremental sales revenue; improving search engine rankings and maximizing brand exposure.

Marketers are transitioning from the initial trial-and-error tactical phase of the learning curve to the equally-important strategic phase—in many ways, taking a logical step backward to plan their strategies prior to implementing misguided tactics. The Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook is designed to help you ascend this steep learning curve, providing the practical tools and techniques you need to develop a streamlined process for achieving social media marketing objectives that can be easily and routinely performed.

The Social Marketing ROAD Map: A Method for Mapping an Effective Social Media Strategy

Developing an effective strategy for integrating social media into the marketing mix presents a significant obstacle to the successful adoption of social media marketing. Identifying a critical need to develop a practical method to overcome this obstacle, MarketingSherpa created the Social Marketing ROAD Map, to provide marketers with a clear methodology to plan, implement and manage effective strategies and tactics.

The Social Marketing ROAD Map, an acronym for the following four elements:

• Research – Gather intelligence on target audiences, social use and competition
• Objectives – Define objectives aligned with target audiences and social metrics
• Actions – Create a social marketing strategy with a tactical plan of action
• Devices – Select platforms by their tactical effectiveness and architectural fit

Social Marketing ROAD Map: What It is – and What It Isn’t

Based upon our ROAD Map methodology, the Social Media Handbook is a step-by-step guide to mapping your social marketing strategy. It is loaded with research-based insights on proven practices, hands-on worksheets and checklists and social marketing case studies featuring the real life successes of marketers like you.

It is intentionally “social media brand agnostic”, meaning that familiar technology brands like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are used only when necessary as tactical examples. The purpose of this approach is to help you develop a strategy that will outlive technology brands that are often here today and gone tomorrow.

MarketingSherpa’s Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook Content Summary

• Three Questions to Ask Yourself Before Getting Started (p. 3-7)
• The Social Marketing ROAD Map Defined (p 7-9)
• Chapter 1: ROAD Map – Research (p. 10-31)
• Chapter 2: ROAD Map – Objectives (p. 32-48)
• Chapter 3: ROAD Map – Actions (p. 49-115)
• Chapter 4: ROAD Map – Devices (p. 116-134)

What Others Have Said about Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook

"Whether you’re a marketer just starting out in Social Media or have been traveling these roads for some time, you’re bound to find many valuable tips and strategies in MarketingSherpa’s Social Marketing Road Map Handbook."
Debbie Hemley, Weber Media

Checklists and Worksheets in the Handbook

• Determining your organization’s phase of social marketing maturity
• Monitoring search phrases
• Monitoring social media factors
• Aligning social marketing objectives with target audiences and metrics
• Profiling target audiences by social influence, platform preference and use
• Finding candidates, defining roles and recruiting the social marketing team
• Repurposing existing content for social marketing use
• Constructing your social marketing architecture
• Putting the pieces of an action plan together