Does Social Media Replace the Marketing Planning Process

I recently took a group of students in a VECCI  Social Media seminar, and one of the points that I  very much wanted to emphasize with the group was that Social Media is not a replacement for the Marketing Planning Process (MPP) but rather a way to augment it even further.

 
  The MPP as described above is a methodical and logical methodology to guide a business or brand from one point to another, whilst both minimising risk and maximising the potential for sales and profitability long term.

The great news of course is that with the ever expanding range of social media platforms and modalities, not only can it help a business do its marketing planning, but it can do so at each stage of the MPP process.

Stage 1. Where are we know.  Social media can obviously tell you a lot about about how people see you today and your product offering. Is this where we wish to be positioned or is there some serious adjustment required.  Sentiment analysis for example will provide some clarity on this point.

Stage 2. Where are we going. No marketer has a crystal ball of course, but what we can do is look at current trends and by projecting that trajectory forward, we can in effect make educated guesses at what the future may hold for our business or brand. Again, looking at any number of research tools such as Survey Monkey as an example, we can ask clients and prospects what their intention to purchase is in the next 3 or 6 months.  Remember that your real value is much more linked to your future value not your past value.

Stage 3. Vision Statement. Aspirational and certainly out of our reach today but what we want to achieve anyway. Hopefully for an intelligent firm there will be a strong correlation between this and the unmet customer needs for your target market group. Again by listening in on your market using tools such as Board Tracker you will know what people, think, want and don't want.

Stage 4. Action Plans. Deciding how you are going to get there. Surely it makes sense to again align your broad strategy and specific tactical decisions on what your market wants, needs, desires, etc.
Again a plethora of tools exists to guide a business here and none better than Google Insights which is still tragically underused by so many businesses in the planning process but hopefully not by you.

In the end, Social Media can certainly amplify the signal in the MPP, but it still needs to be done and reviewed regularly to be and stay relevant to your market and business. And of course there's no better time to start than today.

If you'd like to attend a VECCI Social Media Seminar just go to the VECCI website at:    http://www.vecci.org.au  and Check for the next date that suits you, and until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.