Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Because social media can be faster and cheaper than traditional tools it can sometimes be the best way to get the job done. Small businesses are often under-resourced and typically have a to do list a mile long.  As such, social media tools should make a lot of sense in certain situations.

Below is a simple, light and lean framework to help you get your social media project off the ground.  It’s called OASIS and is is a five step process that stands for Objectives, Audience, Strategy, Implementation and Sustainmnet.

The first step to any social media project is to define an objective.  Define your top 3-5 business goals and write the steps you plan to use to accomplish each one.  Social media projects work best if they have a specific goal.  As such, you will probably find your goal somewhere in and around the tactics/plan level.

Tip: Do not worry about what technology can or cannot do at this phase or you will hamstring the possibilities.

For each goal, define the audience involved and make sure to include everyone.  Next, determine the on-line habits of each major group.  If you don’t know, you can make some working assumptions using free on-line tools here, and then refine your knowledge with actual experience.

Tip:  If you are confused about whom your stakeholders are, think about it from the perspective of a value chain and define who is involved from start to finish.

Next is strategy.  Given your goal and audience, whom should you try and connect with whom (that’s the social part) and what should they say to each other  and how to help accomplish your goal (that’s the media part)?  If you are trying to keep customers from switching to the competition your strategy might be; “We would like existing customers to tell new customers how they can implement/configure/ use our products so that we become more entrenched in their business”, or if you are trying to reduce service costs you might say “We would like to capture the knowledge our customers have in troubleshooting our product so other customers can start solving their own problems.”  Statements like these will allow you to then draw some conclusions about who you want to connect and why.

Tip: Try to avoid technical considerations here, that comes next.

The next step is implementation. If you are not familiar with the tools, you can get a great education at Wikipedia.  Generally speaking, there are a lot of choices so take some time to look at the options.

Tip:  A lot of tools are free, so don’t assume you need to build anything yourself, just use what’s out there already.

Finally comes the issue of sustainment.  Successful conversations do not necessarily end.  Part of the planning process will be to look at how you will manage for the long term.  If you are successful, this may be one of the most valuable assets you have, so think about how you will stay engage with your stakeholders for the long haul.

Good luck! For more information, advice and free social media tools, feel free to visit our blog, or drop us a line.

* Patrick Mason is the owner of TechMarkets, and a successful entrepreneur specializing in technology and marketing, specifically targeted at new Social Media techniques and technologies. As Managing Partner and co-founder, Patrick is SocialMedia404’s CCO (Chief Chatting Officer) and is responsible for business and product development.