Introducing the Social Media Matrix Planner

These days, most every water cooler conversation somehow turns to discussion about some form of Social Networking. Given the astounding growth of Social Networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the ubiquitous presence is little wonder. Facebook alone has over 250 million active users with 120 million users logging in at least once per day. With the Social Media movement exponentially exploding among individuals users, businesses are now scurrying to determine how to best leverage this technology. Before jumping into the deep waters of Social Networking, businesses must determine a salient strategy to integrate social media into the overal marketing plan. A clear map to social media success can be created through the use of the Social Media Matrix Planner (SMMP).

While Social Networking is all the buzz in many marketing circles, companies must take the time to plan properly how usage of these applications will intergrate into existing marketing communication plans and mesh with existing communication modalities. The use of Social Networking for business must be carefully planned. To be effective, marketers must identify how social media tools will assist in reaching the marketing goals of the organization. Many companies seem to skip the strategic planning steps and move right into the selection of Social Media tools. Social Media must be integrated into the company plans and should not be seen as a stand-alone proposition.

As the general acceptance of Social Networking continues to expand, the creative use of Social Networking tools may result in the replacement of current forms of Marketing Communications. A clear example of such a replacement might be the choice to utilize Social Networking to distribute a company newsletter that previously may have been mailed.

The planning stage can be confusing, especially as social media tools continue to evolve. Just a few days ago, LinkedIn announced customized pages for business applications. Twitter recently revamped its landing page to ehance the search capabilities. These are prime examples of the frequent shifts in social media features available to companies. Clarity regarding the optimized use of such social media tools can be realized through the use of Walker's SMMP model.

The premise of the SMMP model is to identify key marketing communications functions that are currently being performed and once enumerated, match social

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