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MarketingSherpa's Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook

A method for mapping an effective social strategy (a $347 value)

Your step-by-step guide includes: 27 real-world examples of what works 11 case studies from leading companies 20 charts and tables 3 special reports 9 checklists and worksheets Social media policy template Special Section: Search and Social Special Section: Email and Social

Get on the ROAD to Social Marketing Maturity (and success)

Social media has created an exciting and challenging world of new possibilities for marketers. The opportunities are vast, but only if you find specific ways to use social media for achieving your marketing goals -- goals such as: increasing website traffic; improving lead generation; generating incremental sales revenue; improving search engine rankings and maximizing brand exposure.

Marketers are transitioning from the initial trial-and-error tactical phase of the learning curve to the equally-important strategic phase—in many ways, taking a logical step backward to plan their strategies prior to implementing misguided tactics. The Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook is designed to help you ascend this steep learning curve, providing the practical tools and techniques you need to develop a streamlined process for achieving social media marketing objectives that can be easily and routinely performed.

The Social Marketing ROAD Map: A method for mapping an effective social media strategy

Developing an effective strategy for integrating social media into the marketing mix presents a significant obstacle to the successful adoption of social media marketing. Identifying a critical need to develop a practical method to overcome this obstacle, MarketingSherpa created the Social Marketing ROAD Map, to provide marketers with a clear methodology to plan, implement and manage effective strategies and tactics.

ROAD is an acronym for the following four elements:

• Research – Gather intelligence on target audiences, social use and competition
• Objectives – Define objectives aligned with target audiences and social metrics
• Actions – Create a social marketing strategy with a tactical plan of action
• Devices – Select platforms by their tactical effectiveness and architectural fit

Social Marketing ROAD Map: What it is ... and what it isn’t

Based upon our ROAD Map methodology, the Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook is a step-by-step guide to mapping your social marketing strategy. It is loaded with research-based insights on proven practices, hands-on worksheets and checklists and social marketing case studies featuring the real life successes of marketers like you.

It is intentionally “social media brand agnostic”, meaning that familiar technology brands like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are used only when necessary as tactical examples. The purpose of this approach is to help you develop a strategy that will outlive technology brands that are often here today and gone tomorrow.

Summary of Contents:

• Three Questions to ask yourself before getting started (pg. 3-6)


• The Social Marketing ROAD Map Defined (pg. 7-9)


• Chapter 1: ROAD Map – Research (pg. 10-30)
  • Gathering intelligence on target audiences and their social use
  • Stop, look and listen – social media monitoring
  • What to monitor
  • List of social media monitoring tools and solutions
  • Segmenting and profiling target audiences
  • The human factor – resources for a social marketing team
  • Auditing existing content to identify digital assets
  • Worksheet: Profiling target audiences by social influence, platform preferences and use
  • Worksheet: Finding candidates, defining roles and recruiting the social marketing team
• Chapter 2: ROAD Map – Objectives (pg. 31-47)
  • Aligning objectives with target audiences and metrics
  • Defining targeted and measureable objectives for social marketing Purposes
  • Prioritize objectives by effectiveness or impact?
  • How to align objectives with target audiences and metrics for success
  • Case study: The objectives of social marketing in a real estate recession
  • Case study: When the objective of social marketing is a social cause
• Chapter 3: ROAD Map – Actions (pg. 48-119)
  • Creating a social marketing strategy with a tactical plan of actio
  • Tactical effectiveness versus “fast and easy” implementation
  • Tactics for the effective use of social media platforms
  • Blogging
  • Microblogging
  • Social networking
  • Social bookmarking and other platforms
  • Engaging the vocal minority and pitching the social authority
  • The importance of a social media policy and how to draft one
  • Social media's share of the online marketing budget
  • Special Report: Six lessons on developing your social marketing tactical plan
  • Case study: Six social marketing tactics to attract prospects
  • Case study: How to use Twitter to push your products
  • Case study: Economic stimulus package lands 7,000 new customers
  • Integrating social media with other tactics in the marketing mix
  • Inbound marketing’s powerful pair – search and social
  • Social media’s influence on search engine rankings
  • Special report: Part 1 – Five key trends in search and social integration
  • Special report: Part 2 – Seven tactics to build rankings using search and social
  • Case study: Eight steps to create a team-authored blog and reap SEO gains
  • Social sharing extends the reach of email campaigns and more
  • Case study: How social sharing buttons increased email interaction by 25%
  • Case study: Eight essentials for using social media and email to prospect
  • Case study: Five email and social integration strategies to grow audiences
  • Managing social marketing tactics and resources
• Chapter 4: ROAD Map – Devices (pg. 120-139)
  • Selecting platforms by tactical effectiveness and architectural fit
  • Social marketing architecture
  • Social marketing architecture hub sites
  • Social marketing architecture spoke sites
  • Case study: Exploring alternatives to Facebook with a branded social network
• Appendix and Glossary (pg. 140-150)