The following is a sample social media strategy that I prepared as a creative exercise. It is in no way connected or endorsed by any specific brand but all ideas were created by myself.

1. Example Social Media Plan
This plan was put together by myself as part
of a creative exercise and is in no way
connected to simple.tv or any other specific
brand.
By James Hills
james@aboutjameshills.com
@JamesHills

2. Objectives
 Increase Awareness within Target
Segments
◦ Overall Customer Base
◦ Retail Partnerships
 Increase Social Engagement
 Grow Social Reach
 Support Commerce Goals
◦ Direct Sales
◦ Channel Sales

3. Our Path to Success:
First we make it cool!
1. Influencer Endorsement
2. Friends That Like it, Share it.
3. Social buzz and positive reviews will
drive customers to find where to buy
and attract attention from channel
partners.

4. Program Assumptions
 Budget: $1,000 / month for paid media
 Time Scope: May – Dec
 Software for tracking website visits
(Omniture / Google Analytics etc.) is
available
 Software for measuring social mentions is
available
 Internal assets and talent are available for
creation of graphical content.
 Target Consumer Segments:
◦ “Geeks” and “Tech Adopters”
◦ “Busy Dads” who love technology

5. Our Consumer Target
 Digital Natives
 Busy
 Technology
Enthusiasts
 Highly Mobile
 Urban
 Male

6. Opportunities & Challenges
Opportunity Challenge Solutions
People love to discuss TV
/ Movies / Entertainment /
Current Events with
friends.
Legal restrictions may
limit ability to fully
engage using visual
assets
Establish “risk tolerance” and “rules of the
road” to guide social engagement
strategies on a go-forward basis.
High potential for
“acquisition” and
“customer service”
engagement
Limited sustained
engagement
opportunities.
Establish regular cadence of promotions
and giveaways designed to harvest email
addresses as well as “best in class”
Customer Service (Sales Questions,
Customer “how to”, and Break/Fix)
Develop editorial calendar with engaging
opportunities around media consumption
and supporting the customer’s lifestyle vs.
“the box”.
Partnerships (Influencers,
Retailers, Marketing
Events)
Small brand and limited
overall marketing
budget.
Develop calendar of promotions as well
as featuring influencer “guest content”.
Develop “promotions tool kit” that can be
provided to channel marketing managers
for engagement with retail partners.

7. Key Social Platforms
 Influencers
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Google+
 Simple.TV Community

8. Proposed Social Cadence
60-day Outlook Editorial Calendar:
◦ Facebook – 8x per month engagement posts about TV/Movies and 5x
per month product feature or promotion
◦ Twitter – 16x per month engagement about TV/Movies, 10x per month
outreach to influencers (non-promotional), 10x per month product feature
or promotion including “tips” on how to get the most out of Simple.TV.
◦ Community – 1-2 guides per month to help customers and potential
customers be empowered to do what they want to do.
Weekly 15-20 min G+ Hangouts:
◦ Engage with influencers discussing their favorite TV shows / movies.
◦ Weekly or Monthly themes based around things like “Favorites from the
Fall Lineup”, “March Madness Predictions”, “Best Horror Movies”.
Bi-Monthly Retail/Channel Partner Event:
◦ Sweepstakes and Contests developed in partnership with channel
partners to engage with their audience promoting our products.
Frequency can be adjusted as needed.

9. Increase Social Engagement
1. Concise text
2. Ask a question
3. Use highly engaging
visuals where possible
4. Engage with
Influencers
5. Integrate product
features with engaging
content

10. Recommended Facebook
Apps
1. Sweeps with email
capture and viral
sharing components
including FB share
pop up and ability to
easily share and track
Tweets.
2. G+ Hangouts Tab to
display Hangout
archive and live feed.

11. Growing Social Reach
Organic:
1. Creating superior content
designed to be shared and
consumed by our target
audience.
2. Events designed to be highly
sharable such as
sweepstakes with viral
components.
3. Engagement with
influencers.
Paid:
1. Promoted Tweets & FB
posts to target audience.
2. Paid influencer outreach
including Twitter Parties.
3. Promoted videos to reach
people on YouTube

12. Support Social Commerce
Goals
1. Implement regular
cadence of promotional
posts on FB and Twitter.
2. Ensure all links have
proper tracking codes
3. Promote posts to target
audiences.
4. Run sweepstakes and
promotions to harvest
emails for remarketing.
5. Coordinate with channel
partners to execute retail
level sweepstakes and
other activations such as
sponsored blogger
campaigns and Twitter
parties.

13. Measuring Success
 Traffic from Social Channels to Simple.TV
◦ Visits
◦ CTR from Paid Social
◦ Orders
 Engagement on Owned Social Channels
◦ Likes / RTs
◦ Comments / Replies
 Global Social Mentions
 Social Community Growth