Creating Your End-of-Year Social Media Review

Because the calendar dictates that it is so, this time of year we're all looking back at our year (and, this year, a decade) of what we did. Best of and Worst of lists abound and Twitter, particularly, is a love-fest of Top this and Top that in Social Media. :-)

So, while we're talking about reviewing the year in Social Media, it's probably past time that you took a look at your own Social Media Strategy. Large companies have entire departments devoted to tracking metrics, but when you are a small or mid-size company there may only be you.

Here's a few questions to prompt you to figuring out what worked and what didn't.

Put your answers down in plain and simple language. Do not use business buzzwords or jargon. Be as specific as you can.

1) State your Social Media Strategy for 2009


2) State Your Top Three Tactics for the Above Strategy


3) State the Estimated amount of time/money each tactic took, per month


4) State your Objectives for each Tactic


5) State your desired measurements for each Objective


This *should* all have been established when you created your strategy. If you lacked any of the answers for these questions, that indicates that there was a big hole in the strategy to start with.

Now, draw a vertical line next to these statements and put in what you actually *did.*

For instance, you may have estimated that your Facebook page would take an hour a week, and your Foursquare page might take 3 hours a week, but you found that your Twitter feed actually took the bulk of your time, and your FB page languished as a result.

Looking at your objectives and the measurements you used for them is critical - did you, in fact, gain 10,000 fans/followers, sell three boats, get that recommendation or are your efforts to entice users to "Fan Us" work poorly? Or, conversely, the non-committal nature of Facebook may have worked awesomely well for you and you've more than made your numbers, but you may find it hard to get those followers to *do* anything.

Look at the gaps between the expectations and the execution. Analyse them without delusion. It's not your users fault that your content isn't compelling or that you don't give them reason to join your exciting /fill in the blank/, or your action language consists of "check us out!"

Look at what worked better than you expected. Did you find your sales rising when you posted that link on Twitter? Did you presence on Friendster cause a peak on your Shop? Maybe that hashtag you used on Twitter brought in new visitors to your site.

Note which objectives of your strategy each successful tactic was connected to. If you have a specific tactic that was unexpectedly successful and it was *not* part of a specific objective, note that, as well.

After looking at all this, walk away. Talk it over with a friend, or drop me an email - I'll listen. Focus on one thing that worked and one thing that didn't. Figure out *why*.

When you've looked at what you've done without delusion, once you know the why of what worked and what didn't, answer this question:

State your Social Media Strategy for 2010

Then take it from there. ;-)

Have a Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2010!