THE FACEBOOK GAME PLAN

…because being prepared is a good thing.

The Rundown

Step one: Objective, Brand, & Audience

Step two: Staff

Step three: The Editorial Guide

Step four: The Crisis Management Plan

Step five: Launch

Objective │ Audience │ Brand

While these are really three separate topics, it’s difficult to discuss one without exploring the other two.

Objective: What do we want to achieve? Audience: Who do we want to reach? Brand: Who are we?

We’ll break these down in depth and consider why they’re important individually and how they relate to each other.

Staff

This is when we’ll break down what we need from different staff members.

We’ll discuss how we’re going to filter information and ideas.

We will have to identify the content creators, communicators, and social media cheerleaders.

The Editorial Guide

The Editorial Guide is where we plan out specific rules and guidelines for various aspects of Facebook interactivity.

Posting: How consistently do we need to post? Content: What type of information do we want to post

and what do we want to avoid? Where are the lines? Formatting: What level of formality are we looking to

achieve? Engagement: How interactive do we want to be?

Each of these needs to be discussed thoroughly so that we can set standards before we can begin.

Crisis Management

Facebook (and other social media, for that matter) opens us up to criticism and negative feedback from anyone. It is important that we come up with a strategy for how we’ll respond to negativity.

We’ll look into what types of issues have come up in the past, how we handled them, and how that can translate to our social media presence.

Launch

We put everything into practice.

Mark Zuckerberg smiles.

Objective

Objective answers the question “what do we want to achieve?” This should be looked at from three different perspectives:

Awareness Sales Loyalty

While all three of these is important, one should be our primary focus. This will dictate the tone of every decision throughout this process.

Objective: Awareness

As the title suggests, an awareness plan is focused on getting our name out there.

This is important for startup companies, non-profits, and organizations who focusing on recruiting.

Plans like these require a good amount of interaction because awareness and name recognition are dependent on repetition.

This would be a good plan if we were to determine that our main goal is to make a bigger impression on the accounting community.

These plans are measured through website traffic.

Objective: Sales

If our main objective is sales, then we need to focus on finding ways to bring in more revenue.

This would include using social media to reach out to potential clients.

Sales plans require a constant communication of what we have to offer to both current and potential clients.

These plans would be measured by monitoring revenue.

Objective: Loyalty

Loyalty plans are focused on strengthening relationships with existing clients.

These plans are centered around enhancing customer service.

A successful loyalty plan is reliant on understanding our client’s needs.

It is very difficult to monitor the success of a loyalty plan because it requires customer feedback.

Audience

Once we have a clear idea of our objective, we need to examine our audience and their needs. Who are we trying to reach?

Current clients Potential clients The local community The accounting community Anyone looking for non-billable accounting tips

Are there any demographic specifics we’re looking to reach?

Do we want to decide which specific clients we want to give extra attention?

Audience (cont.)

For any of those options, we also need to examine what they need from us. Are they looking for: What’s going on in our office New information about changes in the

accounting world Explanations or resources surrounding

our field Social media support from us (sharing

their information, posting for them, etc)

Brand

Now that we have an idea of what we want to say and who we want to say it to, we need to make concrete decision about who we will be in the digital world.

This is crucial.

We need to examine how we feel about the following questions: Who are we? What do we do? Why does anyone care? What makes us different?

Brand (cont.)

We need to: Identify our company’s personality traits. Decide which qualities are most important to us. Define how those qualities can be

communicated to our employees and our clients.

Examine the “elevator test” – how would you sell the brand if you only had an elevator ride?

Where do we fall on the spectrum of stoicism to informality?

The Editorial Guide

This is where we establish the nuts and bolts of what type of profile we’ll have. There are four major categories that we need to explore:

Content Posting Formatting Engagement

The Editorial Guide: Content

We need to determine what type of content we’ll be posting. How much of it will be: Re-sharing client posts/supporting client

causes. Updates on office news. Sharing external articles (etc) that we found

and liked. Articles that our staff members have written. Polls. Timeline.

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Re-sharing client posts/supporting client causes. Are all clients created equal?

Do we have PICs decide which clients they “care” more about?

Where do we draw the line: what deserves reposting, what doesn’t?

What type of non-client (but community relevant) information concerns us?

What type of information do we want to note/comment on, but not repost?

How closely do we want to be monitoring their pages?

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Updates on office news. What types of professional achievements do we want to

post? Passing CPA exams? Promotions? New hires? Remote workers?

What types of personal achievement? Weddings, etc. Where do we draw the line? Is it up to each staff member or

is it a blanket decision? Do we want to add photos with these updates? How

many?

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Sharing external articles (etc) that we found and liked. Who searches for these? What publications do we want to focus

on? What type of articles are we looking for?

Important changes in tax law (etc)? Interesting financial advice? Content that appeals just to businesses or

individuals as well?

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Articles that staff members have written. Do we want to start hosting articles on a blog

site? Should we start transferring old articles to the

blog too? Do we want to re-post old articles as a way to reach

new audiences, keep up with creating content, etc? Do we want to spread out the articles that we

would normally write for the newsbrief or do we want to create articles that are completely different?

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Polls – a common method amongst businesses on Facebook is to poll their fans to get them to interact with the page. Is this something we’d want to do? What types of questions?

Financial? Somewhat personal but still business-

related? Community-related?

Is this something we may want to explore down the line?

The Editorial Guide: Content (cont.)Facebook works on a timeline where we can post major events in the company’s history (and add a corresponding photo, if we’d like).

Do we want to utilize this feature? Which types of events are timeline-worthy and

which aren’t? When people started working here? When we opened the satellite office? Anything else that’s noteworthy?

Is this another aspect that we want to explore down the line?

The Editorial Guide: Posting

We need to decide how frequently we want to be posting. This can change with time, but if we don’t set goals/rules, it is easy to get off track. Should we have minimums and maximums for the

number of posts per day/week/month? Do we want to designate specific days/times of day

for different types of content? Do we think we should create an editorial calendar?

These are generally used for companies that use more than one form of social media.

Do we want to start with a good habit or worry about it down the line?

The Editorial Guide: Formatting

We need to set a guide for what type of voice we’ll use in posts. We decided on a tone that was professional with personality. What types of “personality” are acceptable? A casual tone? Engaging with clients?

How personal can we be? First name basis?

Is there ever a time when humor is acceptable? Puns? Sarcasm? Funny accounting-related comics/pictures/gifs?

The Editorial Guide: Formatting (cont.)

Should posts read like a newspaper headline or something that a friend is telling you?

Should we designate specific posters and have them “sign” each status/link/photo they post and comment they make or should they all just come from the brand? Showing individuals creates identities that may

be easier to relate to. Posting as the brand avoids any confusion if an

employee leaves for any reason.

The Editorial Guide: EngagementWhat is our policy on responding to fan comments? Do we “like” everything someone posts? Is it a rule that we respond to every comment? How quickly do we need to respond? Do we need to come up with a contact list of

which employees handle which types of questions and comments?

Do we set a rule about deleting comments? What do we do about promotional posts from fans? Note: negative comments will be discussed in the

“Crisis Management” section.

Staff – Identifying needs

We need to establish what our needs are, and then which staff members possess those skills. Some things we may need: Content creators – Who is good at coming up

with ideas for articles? Who writes them well? Client relationship rules – Who should

maintain social media relationships with clients? Do I post as the brand or do I send updates to the PIC?

Success stories – Do we ask clients?

Staff – Identifying needs (cont.) Infographics – Who provides that data or

ideas? Sharing articles – What type of comment

goes along with it? Who approves them? Master list of important topics – What is

most important to our clients? Should we create that now or do we want a social media “team” to discuss this? Important SEO keywords. “Departments” we need to utilize.

Crisis Management

We need to prepare for the possibility that someone can publicly complain to us, post negative things on our page, etc. What are the most common complaints/issues we’ve had with

clients? We can’t plan for every possible concern, but what are some

that we can prepare ourselves for? Do we want to have a script in place? Should each PIC (or former PIC) handle the concerns? If so,

how should the posts be acknowledged? Should we preemptively post a warning if we have an issue in

the office? How do we feel about publicly turning a client away (which

shows we have their best interest at heart)? Perhaps for lower income individuals with price concerns?

Crisis Management – Response Posts

What qualities should a response to a complaint have? Apology Acknowledgement Personal or generic? Publicly offer explanation or refer them

to their PIC (or person who can handle the issue)

Quality Checklist

We should have a list of traits that every post needs to adhere to. Some things that should be considered: Compliant with mission statement. Consistent and professional tone. Relevance to clients and non-clients alike. SEO keyword. Proper spelling and grammar. Inoffensive. Polite/diplomatic tone when competition is

mentioned. Credit given to outside sources.

Basic Editorial Calendar