Strategy: A plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world. In military terms there is a distinction between strategy and tactics. Strategy is the long-range planning and development that leads to victory. Tactics deals with the deployment of troops and weapons in actual combat.

For your brand, there is no shortage of marketing activities that can draw your resources and without employing a strategy, this can lead to little impact and mixed messages online.  How do you know which ones to choose? What social media channels do you need to be involved in? Unlike ever before, there is the opportunity to engage and connect with your audience but even more chances to miss the mark.

The sheer volume of information on this topic is mind blowing and it easy to get carried away with the next thing without first thinking through the best practices. The myth is that social media is easy, free and available to everyone. I would argue that it is effective and empowering but not easy, your time is not free and not everyone will know how to use it.

How do you know when to take the messages offline or how both spheres best complement each other. The hand should know what the foot is doing in for maximum leverage. A large though disconnected army, has a big disadvantage against a tight, concentrated team.

So lets look at Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz ,Vimeo as the ‘tactical’ elements then the overarching strategy it as the ‘why’ we are doing what we are doing. Below are elements we include in any social media strategy and answering all of these questions below is healthy start to getting you on track.

What are you trying to achieve?

You need to understand how your audience is using Social Media? Finding, listening, monitoring is all part of strategising ways to engage with your target market across multiple Social Media platforms.

• What is your unique value proposition? The one thing that makes you unique. Just simple copying what your competitors is doing leads to nowhere.

• How Will You Measure Success? Setting up measurement KPI to test and measure what channels are working best, what adjustments to make or what to freeze altogether.

This post doesn’t even touch the surface of the ‘what and how’ of a social media strategy. I intend to go into more depth by the guidance of your comments, so feel free to comment below in regards to what you want to know. I can’t wait to blog about strategy further!

It’s the start of a new year, and what better time to start fresh with a new blog, and put in some of our favourite plugins!

In the past 5 and a half years, I’ve installed WordPress more times than I care to remember. Since 2004 it’s been my platform of choice for blogs, and in the past year or so, it’s become perfect for small-scale websites.

A large reason behind this is the plugins. Anyone can whip up a plugin that taps into pretty much any of the built-in features of WordPress, to make an already brilliant platform that little bit better.

Theres a handful of plugins that I couldn’t work without, going from behind-the-scenes of WordPress to sidebar widgets:

WP Dummy Content

By Zvi Band – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dummy-content/

WP Dummy Content

When you’re working on a WordPress theme, the last thing you want to do is spend 20 minutes making a bunch of pages to fill the menu, and enough posts to make your page numbers show up. Even then, there’s only so much Lorem Ipsum you can use.

This plugin gives you as many posts/pages/sub pages as you want, with paragraphs, lists, quotes etc. So you can style everything as you need, then just hit the “Delete them all” button when you’re finished!

Page Lists Plus

By Tim Holt – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/page-lists-plus/

Page Lists Plus

This plugin is so powerful, it’s hard to sum it up in a couple of paragraphs. In a nutshell, it overrides the wp_list_pages function, adding heaps of new features, like

• Changing the title text of your menu links from the default of the page title
• Open certain links in new windows
• Redirects (ie. Links to external sites in the header)
• Include (my personal favourite, removes pages from the list)

There’s also a ton of options for the list as a whole, such as adding span tags around links (perfect for weird background images), adding a ‘home’ link to the start of the list, unlinking the current page, and heaps more.

Twitter For WordPress

By Ricardo González – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-for-wordpress/

Every man and his dog (well, just about) uses Twitter, and with over 200 websites using WordPress, there’s some overlap.

There’s a ton of different ways to integrate twitter into your blog, but Twitter for WordPress gets my vote. Automatic @reply recognition, URL hyperlinking and email linking are options, and it can be used as a widget, or by a call to twitter_list_messages(); in your template code if you want it somewhere different.
I love this plugin so much, I’ve been working on a modified version that supports twitter lists…

Widon’t 2.1

By Shaun Inman – http://www.shauninman.com/archive/2006/12/05/widont_2_wordpress_plugin

The effects of this plugin probably go largely unnoticed by a large portion of people, but the few that notice it will love it.

It removes ‘widows’ (a word by itself on a line) from page titles (and any other specified tag), by adding a none-breaking space between the penultimate and last words.

Simple Flickr Photos

By Onur Kocatas – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-flickr-plugin/

Simple Flickr Photos

This one does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s simple, and it shows Flickr Photos. My only disappointment with this plugin is that you have to know your Flickr user ID (idgettr solves that issue though). Aside from that, It’s simple, but has a load of options (user photos, group photos, tagged photos etc). You can see it in action at the AFLPA Blog.

WP-PageNavi

By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

Before

After

Out of the box, WordPress adds ‘next’ and ‘previous’ links to blog pages. While this is useful, some people want a little more control. That’s where this plugin comes into play. It adds page numbers to your archive pages, and in the case of a lot of themes (such as those from WooThemes), there’s ‘plug-and play’ support for it.

Obviously there are a lot more useful plugins, but these are the main ones that I use with any fresh WP installation.

Which plugins can’t you live without?

Wow! What a year it has been for the Thinktank Media team and the social media world. We have made some huge connections in 2009, from small business owners, personal brands to big brands and organisations, and it’s mostly down to ultilising social media as a way to connect and build our relationships. We want to thank EVERYONE who has part taken this year, you really have been the difference that makes the difference. Whether it be commenting on our blog posts, hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter, sending us thoughtful feedback emails or simply soaking up what we have to say on here!

THANK YOU.

Before we see the new year in with fresher than fresh content, I wanted to refresh your memories and fire up your motor neurons to what have been the hottest posts of 2009. We simply can’t wait to share and engage with you even more in 2010! It’s a year that will truly be hotter than the sun!

So here they are – the hottest posts or 2009! Would you agree?

Social media – ROI ! – some controversial comments and thoughts here from our readers. Definitely worth hearing what they have to say!

Our top 11 wordpress plugins – always a popular one, and we will be covering “our top wordpress plugins for 2010″ early Jan by Thinktank Media’s brainbox coder Matt Bannon.

How to use twitter lists in your business – this was a HOT post by Jade Craven and one that ranked highly due to it’s timely release and informative content. Things are moving on from this, however it’s a great refresher.

Never take short cuts within social media – ow boy! A lesson learnt. This is definitely something we all need to remember when playing in this social media world..well, life actually!

A great new tool from Google for small business – google business centre – have you heard about it?

Interesting Web 2.0 stats 2009 – ow how the figures have changed since I wrote this post, and watch them sky rocket next year!

Get super connected with twitter and facebook widgets – a handy post if you want to add widgets to your wordpress blog.

How to use Web 2.0 to shamelessly promote your business – Oww what a year – last year I had a space to promo the business whilst being in hospital and looks like this year I will do too.. pregnant belly space!

Well, there was just a sprinkling guys. Have a ripper new year and we can’t wait to thrive with you in 2010!

The purpose of this post is to share with you one of my role models within the online world. Damn this guy is so heart pumpingly great that I just had to dedicate a post to him. Why am I sharing this with you? In business, we all need outside influences that fire us up, get us to think differently, challenge our beliefs and assist us to think then action these thoughts.

Gary Vaynerchuck caught my attention from the very first 3min video I saw from him way back last year. His animated and effervescent personality combined with his strong beliefs and ethics in business simply set off a fire works show in my head. I was hooked!

Gary’s insights into social media are inhaled by millions across the globe! It’s not all about the facebook, twitter and youtube accounts you have, it’s about community and relationships and how you use the tools to make this happen. He is a walking, talking example of how you can ultilise social media within business/branding, whilst being authentic, creative, caring about your community and of course working extremely hard.

I wanted to share this phenomenal energy fueled business man with you (that’s if you have not had a taste already). I truly believe he assisted me to sky rocket forwards, strengthening the confidence in me to do what I want to do, and be who I want to be within my career choice.

Here is his latest presentation at Le Web 2009. It’s a full 25 minutes long and I promise, you will all take something away from this presentation, that will get you to think a little differently within your own business/organisation..life! A must watch… and I don’t often say that.

In the words of Twitter themselves –“Twitter is without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now”. By far my favorite feature on Twitter (at the moment) is the classic #hashtag. They are certainly nothing new, but no less very valuable to you.

What are hashtags?

 It is quite simply a mention in your tweets with a topic defined with a #.  People can just click on the hashtag and follow the entire conversation. The most current example of this is the following Australian politics and the over turn of the oppositions leadership via the hashtag #spill last week.   The most up to date information has been coming through Twitter.

Why use hashtags?

1. Join a global conversation not in your usual tweet stream.
2. Track an event eg. Footy match or global conference in real time.
3. Gets you on the radar of a heap more tweets.
4. Follow the latest in a particular news story.
5. Grab the hottest info from your chosen industry or interest.
6. Find new interesting tweeps.
7. Attend an event you couldn’t otherwise make it too.
8. Watch your favourite TV show with people all over the country while seeing their opinions and input live.

How do I use hashtags?

1. Click on a hashtag that interests you and add your view by adding the hashtag in your tweet.
2. Create a topic others may like to discuss or follow.
3. If you are running an event, get your attendees to use the hashtag.
4. Monitor global hashtag conversation here at http://www.hashtags.org/

 Follow or invent one today. I would love to hear your most beloved use of the humble #hashtag below.

With McDonald’s ranking 32 out of a list of the 100 top “most social” brands, they still have a way to go, however are in no rush to get there.

Below is a slide share version of McDonald’s Social Media Strategy. Notice that they are very disciplined to develop the right strategy for the brand first, without leaping into tactical activation, like many other brands feel pressured to do.

McDonald’s first steps are focusing on Acknowledging, listening and engaging with their audience, whilst being open to feedback. They also focus on making the journey fun. Social media can be an extremely fun and creative process, and they seem to be really focusing on these values.

With their strategic vision built on this foundation: “Deepen and enrich the brands relationship with consumers through knowledge, sharing and entertainment. Ultimately, providing moments of Simple Easy Enjoyment.” I trust it will not be long before we see some even more exciting and creative campaigns filled with a strong dedicated community of fans.

Heather Oldani - Director of PR for McDonalds presents below:

What are your thoughts here? Have you had an experience with McDonald’s via the social media channels? How do they compare to other brands? What brand stands out to you in this space?

There has recently been an increase in the places businesses are choosing to spend their dollars marketing and advertising new products and services.  Facebook is now one of the powerful places where marketing $$$ are moving . This simply makes me beam! We can now roll out campaigns that are creative, catchy, have a reasonably low budget and the golden key – get connected, engage and stay connected with people by a quick status update.

Let’s look at one of many successful Facebook campaigns that have been rolled out recently.

IKEA, in Sweden, have been reaping the rewards from their new showroom campaign.

How did they do this?

Forsman and Bondenfors were asked to engage people in the opening of the new IKEA store in Malmö. IKEA wanted to spread the word of their new store fast whilst creating awareness well beyond Malmö.

Instead of recreating the wheel, they decided to utilise a platform that was already there: Facebook, the largest Social Network Platform in the world, with well over 325 million active users…..half of which log on daily for 25 minutes an average session.

They also used the most popular function Facebook has in their strategy  – TAGGING!

After creating a Facebook profile for the store manager, they then uploaded pictures of their showrooms to his photo album.

The person that tagged their name on a product first, won it. The demand for more new pictures from IKEA spread quickly growing thousands more people through their profile page, news feed and links.

This in itself is powerful. Why get a person to look at a banner with furniture, when you can get them to personally promote IKEA.

Watch the video to gain a greater understanding of how this worked.

In a nutshell, Facebook is a powerful, engaging and connective place to raise awareness of a brand. When a campaign strategy is executed correctly, Facebook is well up there with many other successful marketing campaigns. Are your motor neurons firing yet?

“Our head of Social Media is the customer” – McDonald’s

“You can’t just say it. You have to get the people to say it to each other,” says James Farley, CMO Ford

Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter

What do these statements say to you? For all of us it will be something different. I want you to think about these whilst you read the post below.

It’s common knowledge that social media is pretty tricky to measure, due to it’s fresh appearance on the scene and it’s diversity – many of the pieces that need to be evaluated are difficult to track.

Many times we get asked this question, as do many media agencies executing social media strategies. The Socialnomics blog put’s it extremely well:  “What is the ROI of Social Media? Or the ever popular how do I measure the ROI of social media?  Often when I get this question it’s appropriate for me to retort: “What’s the ROI of your phone?”Other times it’s not appropriate to respond with this answer, which, if done in the wrong tone, or place, can win you a free punch in the face.  Then there are the naysayers that adamantly proclaim, “We aren’t doing social media because there isn’t any ROI.”

To borrow from the Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander, there are those in life that sit in the back row with their arms folded, judging, and complaining.  Then there are those that sit in the front row with a vision and they are spending their energy on making that vision a reality.  This article and video have been put together with the hopes of it being a viable tool for those with a vision to get those seated in the back row to stand up and see the social media light.

Social media is not for everyone, it’s for those companies and businesses that do want to reach their consumers on a whole new level,the ones that see the relationship building side one of the most important elements of any strategy. I believe there is no other marketing strategy that can touch this, as we are dealing directly with emotions. When you have built up a relationship with a consumer and harnessed it by strengthening trust, then nothing else can touch that. So back to ROI.

The Socialnomics blog states: “After all, why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel?  Social media touches every facet of business and it should be viewed more as an extension of good business ethics.  Which, if done properly, will harvest sales down the line.  Co-Chairman Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter & Bogusky puts it best when he states:

“You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…The old media paradigm was PAY to play. Now you get back what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to PLAY to play.” – Alex Bogusky, Co-Chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky

We are high 5ing that!

The video below by Socialnomics, simply get’s my heart thumping. It highlights the Social Media ROI on campaigns and companies that have launched themselves into the Social Media space. Sit back and soak it up!!

So what are you thinking now?

Twitter lists are here and are now available to all users. Horray! The last two twitter list posts we shared, I trust gave you an insight into what they are and gave you a  greater understanding of how you can benefit from them. For a quick refresh -  here are those two popular posts again:

How to use twitter lists in your business and Twitter lists for business explained

Ok, so you now understand the concept of twitter lists, so what next?

Twitter launched a new widget yesterday to assist the list process. It’s built in a similar manner to the twitter gadget/widget that you can put on your website/blog - click here for examples – however this widget enables you to promote a specific list on your website or blog. If you look to the right of your screen you can see we have compiled one which streams all Thinktank Media teams tweets. This is a fantastic way to get multiple use out of twitter with one easy widget, and its a great way for you to see what the team is up to, who they are connecting with, what advice they offer and who they are engaging with on this space.

You can also promote other peoples lists on specific pages of your website/blog with this widget. For example, I run an offline twitter networking group @tweetupmellers and I am going to use @geehall1 list for this site – why? Because he has already compiled this list so there is no need for me to reinvent the wheel.

Click here for the link  – so you can get started setting it up.

How can you use this in your own business?

Here are some ideas that spring to mind:

1) Create a list of your team/workforce and display the list widget on your “about us” page.

2) Use the people around you to create lists then share via the widget eg. If you are in the accommodation industry and there are others in your community using twitter, then why not create a list of the whole business community. This is a value add to your guests as they can touch base with other businesses in the area – eg. restaurants, massage, sailing, hairdressers etc – it’s also showing your community you are supporting them. You can simply place this in an area on the website/blog to assist visitors to find them easily.

3) It’s your turn now – any thoughts on how you can use this widget to make the whole twitter list process even more effective????????? Any questions, then hit me up

I got a lot of feedback on my recent post on twitter lists. Not all people have this feature and its understandable that people may be confused. In this post, I’ll answer some of the common questions I was asked.

What is Twitter Lists?

This is still in beta stage, which means that many readers may not be able to see it. I’ve included two images that show the major changes.

The below image shows my regular sidebar as well as the page that displays when I click the text ‘Listed.’

There are two differences in the sidebar. You can see the lists you are following under your favourites. I’m only following two lists currently, but you can see more when you click View all. When you click that, you are taken to a screen that shows the lists you are following and the lists following you. You can also see the person that created that list and the amount of followers that list has.

The next image shows what you see when you click on a specific list.

This takes you to a page featuring the tweets by the people on the list. You are able to see who the list was created by and have the option to follow it. You can also block the list owner and check out other lists they have created.

How are these features useful?

Before I go into details, I’ll discuss how these basic features are useful:

• You can ascertain how ‘popular’ someone is by the amount of times they are featured in the list. You can see how truly useful they are by checking out the quality of the individual lists. This can prevent gaming of the twitter system
• It can easily allow you to see what is trending, just by reading the updates by a group of people.
• You don’t necessarily have to create all of these lists yourself. If someone has already discovered fabulous people, you can just follow their list. You can then follow and interact with interact with interesting people within that list.

How Do I Find Interesting People To List.

I was actually asked this recently by the lovely girls at Caroline Service Apartments. They loved the idea of lists but weren’t part of the beta and was wondering how could they find interesting people to add to lists. I was specifically asked about useful tools.

I’m often complimented about how I network on twitter but I don’t use any of the search and follow applications. I just find a core group of interesting people and follow more people as I discover them within a community. This is a very simple version of what I do:

• I follow people that seem interesting and that I want to get to know better
• I see who they interact with and, if interested, start connecting with them
• I see what names are frequently mentioned in that community. These are the influencers/sneezers
• I start to know most of the people in the community and usually follow anyone who enters.
• The rest is mostly based on referrals. People recommend that others connect with me, or vice versa, because we can help each other.

Now, I’ve been on twitter for over a year and it takes up time to do this. You can reduce the amount of time needed by using some of the applications on the twitter fan wiki

How The Twitter Fan Wiki Can Help With Your Lists

On the page, they feature a number of applications that can improve your twitter experience. It is also worth noting that they’ll soon release the API for this feature so there may be some tools developed to specifically help.

They have organized the information into groups. These are the groups I thought would be relevant to those creating lists:

• GeoSocial/Local: These can help you find local people that you may want to interact with
• Groups/organizations: How to find many people according to certain selected variables
• Search Engines: A better way of finding people according to your business goals.
• Trends: Allows you to know what information is hot, so you can see if any people in your lists are talking about it

There are also travel applications which may help Caroline Service Apartments.

You can use these tools to cut down the amount of time it takes to find the interesting people, but it can be hard work creating the lists. I recommend that you follow the lists that other people have created for certain niches and locations and then create certain lists (private or public) for people that fit outside of those categories.

What do I do once they are on a list?

You don’t have to do anything – its like following. However it is a waste of time researching this feature if you have no intentions of connecting with people within the lists. Taking action on this is worthless unless you genuinely want to connect and support your community.

Twitter lists can give you a reason to make the initial connection:

• Explain why you added them to a list and offer to help. Ask if they’d recommend anyone to add to your list
• Thank someone for creating a really useful list. You can network additionally by mentioning specific people you found from that list
• Thank people for adding to a particular good list. If you do this via DM, people will know that you are thanking them because you genuinely appreciate it rather than seeking attention.

Over to you

I understand that lists are a bit confusing. Let me know what questions you still have about them and I’ll answer them either on twitter or in future posts. You can also contact Sam and she’ll help you utilize twitter lists as part of your social media strategy.