![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.spaighttalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/planning.jpeg\" "\\"planning\\"")
\nIn the debate regarding whether or not social media should be planned, I typically fall on the \u201cyes\u201d side, while others may feel it should be more organic. Really, though, my answer is, \u201cit depends who you are and what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a large organization like Aurora Healthcare, you\u2019re going to benefit from a more formal plan, for these reasons, according to Jamey Shiels, Aurora\u2019s Director of Marketing: Yet, on the flip side, if you\u2019re an individual, a small business, or a small, grassroots effort, having the \u201cplan in your head\u201d can be enough.<\/p>\n When Joe Sorge from AJ Bombers spoke at the Milwaukee Interactive Marketing Association earlier this year, he talked about not having a formal strategy: \u201cI just really like to talk to customers.\u201d It comes naturally and organically, to Joe. And that is awesome. Yet it\u2019s also a huge mental shift for planners like me who are used to having a strategy for everything.<\/p>\n When we got #saveteecycle<\/a> underway, being a planner, I started to write a plan. And while that discipline can almost always help crystallize efforts in some way, there was so much to be done in such a short time that I ended up deciding that the hour I would have spent putting the plan to paper was better spent just making it happen.<\/p>\n Had I put a Save Teecycle plan on paper, it would have contained these incredibly simple \u201cstrategies.\u201d<\/p>\n There is a reason why WhatTheF*#kIsMySocialMediaStrategy.com<\/a> exists. I interpet it as commentary that social planning is not rocket science, to the point that when you are writing it, it often seems ridiculous. I\u2019m not belittling the discipline; again, in larger organizations, it is much more complex to make social business happen, and having a written plan can help align the many planets.<\/p>\n So the answer to \u201cDo I need a formal social media plan?\u201d is really super simple: Do what you need to do to make it happen.<\/p>\n When you do a social plan, it needs to be incredibly flexible and dynamic. But that a topic for the next post.<\/p>\n Do you need a social plan, and why? Or, do you prefer a more organic approach?<\/p>\n Susan Spaight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the debate regarding whether or not social media should be planned, I typically fall on the \u201cyes\u201d side, while others may feel it should be more organic. Really, though, my answer is, \u201cit depends who you are and what you\u2019re doing.\u201d If you\u2019re a large organization like Aurora Healthcare, you\u2019re going to benefit from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,618],"tags":[661,662,660,30,208,663],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-susanspaight","tag-debate","tag-planned","tag-planning","tag-social-media","tag-strategy","tag-unplanned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1262,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions\/1262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\u201cOur social marketing strategy is planned and documented. We have a corporate plan and smaller plans for internal partners that feed the larger plan. The documentation is critical for keeping groups focused on the long term strategy and goals. While documented, the material is not lengthy, one to two pages and is flexible to adapt to performance, user feedback and overall activity. Our success and ability to measure becomes easier to achieve with this approach.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n