about YOU. Social platforms Which social platforms will help you effectively reach your target market? How are these different ie. Facebook is more visual, which Twitter is more relevant for links? Engagement/ conversion What are your strategies for creating engagement and converting visitors to your social platforms? Metrics/ analytics What metrics will help identify what's working from what isn't? What elements should you A/B test before a full launch? Step 4: Budgeting Step 5: Contingency planning This is the AW SH*T element of social media strategy.  What do you do when things go wrong? The faster and more efficiently you handle a failure, the less impact that failure will have on your viability.  Planning for things like negative mentions in social media, website downtime, or product failures is critical.  So, setting up a listening post to track what people are saying about you is critical.  Setting up a systematic way of transmitting found conversations to individuals who can handle them quickly is also critical. I'm an Associate Professor of Marketing at Howard University and the Associate Editor of the European Journal of Marketing for Social Media and Internet Marketing. I manage Hausman and Associates, a full-service marketing firm operating at the intersection of marketing and social media. We provide marketing strategy, branding, feasibility studies, market research, and a variety of other marketing programs to mid-sized and large businesses. I hold a PhD in Marketing from USF. I live in Alexandria with my 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 3 cats. If