Think Before You Engage: 100 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign

94. What Do I Include as My Next Steps?

Writing a strategy is the first step, but implementation is the next. Detailing the action items is the plan for implementation and gives you specific, written deadlines for completion so that you can ensure your team stays on target.

This list of deadlines can also act as your editorial calendar for blog content or social network content. Although it lists overall action items, it does help to have a plan for the content you place on the sites on a regular basis.

During the strategy development session, specify a review period. This can be a week, a few weeks, a month, or even several months. The length of time you set aside as your “trial period” shouldn't be long, but it should feel like enough time for you and your team to feel like they had an opportunity to implement the strategy before they have to review feedback and results. A good standard of time to consider is 30 days, because the first two weeks will be mostly spent on setup, and another two weeks should have garnered enough reactions (or enough of a lack of reaction) for you and your team to look at the strategy and revise as necessary to improve the return on investment. Much longer than 30 days might result in too much time investment in the project right away, and it might take longer to recover from any negatively impacting issues. During this “trial period,” you might also ...