Social Media Integration Checklist: Linking Your Way to More Liking

Once you have your social media profiles established and have built an audience with some community interaction, make sure you are well and consistently branded across all social networks, and then integrate the ability to connect in every marketing function and every customer touch point.

First, you have to think like a customer: where do they see, touch, hear, and interact with your brand? Make a checklist of everything, separating online and offline.

Remember, to KISS (keep it simple, silly marketer) the easier you make it for your customers to connect to your brand, the more likely they will be to do so.

• Make your social media integration visible. 
  Print your social media profiles: on the bottom of your receipts, on your shopping bags, on your business cards, on trade-show banners, on table tents, thank you cards, etc., on signs on doors and at registers, everywhere!
   
• Cross promote your social media integration.
  Remind your audiences that you are on other platforms and invite them to join you there:  promote Facebook on Twitter, Twitter on LinkedIn, Pinterest on Facebook, LinkedIn on Google+, Twitter on Instagram, etc. Add links to social profiles on YouTube, links to social profiles on your blog, in your website header or footer, on your company email templates, in your email signature, everywhere!
   
• Have fun playing with your social media integration. Host events with interactive contests (example: Tweet a photo with the event hashtag to win).
  • Implement hashtag and photo contests on Twitter and Instagram.
  • Take photos at company events and ask attendees to tag themselves on Facebook. 
  • *Bonus points if you use a photo booth with you logo, web address, and event hashtag on all the pics.
  • Use video and photo sharing on Facebook, Social Mention, Viddy, and Vine to post across your social networks.
  • Photo contests on Pinterest and Instagram
     
• Get your audience invested in your social media integration. Ask you audience what social networks they prefer.
  • What's new with your customers?  How do they want to connect? 
  • Ask your audience to name your next product, email newsletter, or blog via Twitter. 
  • Monitor brand mentions (your company and product names) across all social networks to see where your audience pops up next.
     
• Get your employees invested in your social media integration. They are usually the most knowledgeable about what tools and technologies your customers are using.
  • Ask your employees to advocate connecting with your brand on social media as they interact with customers. 
  • Ask for ideas from your employees. 
  • Showcase your employees and their work on your social media sites through pictures and videos. 
  • Let them guest blog to tell their perspectives.
     
• Use your imagination and stay aware of opportunities as you build social media into your marketing mix.

You'll need a graphic designer to implement and perhaps a budget and timeline for execution. Still, you will need a running list of social media integration touch points. It will take time, but you have to start somewhere and making a social media integration checklist is a great start.