1. BOSS
CREATIVE
FIRST STEPS
The following is a series of action items that will help you develop a strategic foundation
for your social media campaigns and your company guidelines. These guidelines should
be reviewed with every employee before they start working on your social media
campaign, and after vetting them through your company’s senior management, human
resources, legal, IT, marketing and/or PR departments.
© 2010 Boss Creative

2. R E S EA R C H
Audit the current environment so you can set a baseline for measuring results.
Consider relevant networks to monitor.
Quantify the volume of chatter.
What is the perception of your brand?
What is your share of voice?
Identify themes and trends that will work for/against you.
© 2010 Boss Creative

3. Audit your company and the competition. Make two lists and describe the following:
Goals
Mission
Core Values
Strengths
Weaknesses
Brand Attributes
© 2010 Boss Creative

4. Do some analysis of your target audience.
Description
Challenges in Life
Value Drivers
Social Networks and Blogs
Psychographic Profile
World View
View of Themselves
Dislikes
What’s Important in Their Lives?
Decision Process
Investigate social media guidelines for other companies in your category.
http://wiki.beingpeterkim.com/
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/155843
© 2010 Boss Creative

5. S TR A T EG Y
Write out what your goals are for a social media campaign.
Determine which sites will bring you the most value.
List why other prominent sites will not be used at this time.
Create a brief written strategy for each site.
Describe the culture and climate.
Recommend activities.
List assets that will be required.
© 2010 Boss Creative

6. Define roles and responsibilities.
Create a budget estimate.
Write a list of keywords important to your business and category.
Create a one-year production schedule for content.
What are your projections?
Describe an engagement strategy.
Explain how you will promote these sites, including the logistics and budgets required for each program.
Determine if your brand name is available.
Also check similar names.
http://www.ud.com/
Briefly describe the tone of the company voice.
Write a backstory for the company voice.
What does your profile icon look like?
Write a backstory for the icon.
Write profile/bio information and initial content
for each site—optimized for search engines.
Write ten fictitious posts.
Write a response in character
W R I T IN G
for the following comments.
“You’re full of it!”
“Good job.”
“That’s a mistake. Here’s a link to the correct info. :)”
© 2010 Boss Creative

7. MA N A G E M EN T
Determine who will be in charge of online engagement.
Determine who will be in charge of recruiting influencers.
Determine who will create tent-pole events for each site.
Determine who will be in charge of content creation.
How will your social media campaign be monitored?
What company will measure and analyze your efforts?
Determine who will monitor internally.
What link-shortening service will you use?
Create a cheat sheet with company contact information.
Clearly state what information can be made public.
Clearly state what information should not be made public.
Develop a consistent tone and graphic look across all the sites.
Create guidelines for crisis management.
© 2010 Boss Creative

8. TR A IN IN G
Review how you would like employees to handle the following:
Explain how to post.
Speak the truth.
Be transparent.
Know what you’re talking about.
Set a clock so you can post at regular times.
Check for accuracy before posting.
Explain how to moderate engagement.
How to address off topic subjects?
How to handle offensive behavior?
When management should be notified.
© 2010 Boss Creative

9. Define your policy for repeat offenders. Block them?
List subjects that should be flagged for engagement.
How to handle criticism?
How to handle non-response?
How to handle “hot” issues (misinformation/defamation)
How to track subjects for follow-up.
Explain how to recruit influencers.
What are your tactics?
How will you track your success?
TRAINING CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE
© 2010 Boss Creative

10. Create a form like the one below. Have each employee sign it, acknowledging that they have
reviewed and understand the company’s social media policies before they are allowed to work on
your social media accounts.
“You must conform to the employee handbook and code of conduct at all times. The rules
still apply when working in social media.
You are not allowed to sign onto any company-designated social media account until you
have read and understand the following social media policies—attached. As a
representative of the company, you are obligated to follow these policies.
You do not speak for {name of company} unless your manager has authorized you to do
so. You do not discuss financials, internal emails, confidential conversations or
correspondence with outside partners. You do not attack others, threaten or embarrass
people. You do not post pornography, jokes based on gender, sexual orientation, race,
ethnicity, age or religion.
You do respect the law. You do respect copyrights. You do check terms of service. You
do consider whether our clients would appreciate this information being made public.
Use extreme caution in posts about {name of company}, our clients and our work. This
pertains to all people who maintain personal or professional blogs that mention {name of
company}, our clients and our work. We only post client names if we have prior approval
from the client and your manager.
If you do not understand whether you should post specific information, then check with
your supervisor beforehand.”
Signed: ____________________ Date:____________
Print: ______________________
© 2010 Boss Creative

11. TI C K ET S A N D R E PO R T S
Create two forms. A Ticket is simply a snapshot of what’s happening with the account and a Hot Ticket
flags an issue needing immediate attention. Decide who is sent which tickets and under what
circumstances. Employees fill out a Ticket for the following reasons:
To report an observation/trend/issue.
To report an unresolved issue.
© 2010 Boss Creative

12. Create a Weekly Report to track progress. Decide who gets routed the Weekly Report. Employees
filling out a Weekly Report should include the following:
Number of followers/fans/friends
Efforts to recruit influencers
Suggestions to fine-tune the strategy and tactics
Issues
Success stories
Level of engagement
What is the competition doing?
CONTACT: Mike Johnston
Boss Creative
206.250.7915
mike@bosscreative.net
twitter.com/bossseattle
twitter.com/johnstonmike
facebook.com/mikejohnston
linkedin/in/4mikejohnston
© 2010 Boss Creative