The 5-Step Process for Any Social Media

A Youtube video a while back showed a social media consultant explaining a flowchart of SM and how it interconnects. The interesting part was that he explained the process in generalizations rather than in the use of specific applications. To be clearer, instead of, for example, explaining how Youtube or Vimeo are places to post and store videos, and how Ping.fm is then used to disperse them to locations around the web, and then how Twitter and identi.ca are used to promote them, and how Google Analytics is used to track incoming clicks to them, and finally how Google Alerts is used to manage the reputation generated from them, he left out the specific app names and only listed the categories of the process:

Creation, Storage and Archiving
Dispersal
Promotion
Analysis
Reputation Management

That made it very interesting because, unlike most articles that explain the apps and how they fit into the categories of the social media ecosystem, this video let me think of the apps I'd found and how those apps fall into these different categories mentioned. Of note, the video limited the number of categories necessary in completing a social media campaign to those mentioned. While it simplifies the concept, that, however, may prove to be somewhat unrealistic.

In any case, below I've listed the general categories from the video and then beneath the categories are a list of apps I've found for each.

Please keep in mind that this article does not cover the conversation that transcends the process. Also, keep in mind that the process is often not as linear as it appears here. This is just a look at how the process might work if a simple piece of media were dropped into the top and pushed all the way through.

Again, the video explains the process something like this...

Step 1) Generation, Storage and Archiving of Media (blogs, articles, newsletters, videos, pics, screencasts, podcasts, news releases, news alerts, & events and reviews.)
Step 2) Dispersal
Step 3) Promotion
Step 4) Analysis
Step 5) Reputation Management

For clarity, the categories can be described as,

Generation - the creation of the media (to include storage on a web 2.0 site)
Dispersal - the dispersal of the media to different web locations
Promotion - the announcement and marketing of the media
Analysis - the analysis of clicks, visits, etc., to the media
Rep Management - what is said about the media or about a business because of the media

Here is my table listing the media types across the top and the process steps down the left column. Within the matrix is shown the apps used to achieve each of the process steps.

I won't offend you by describing the process for each medium in detail, but taking the example of a video used earlier, if a video were walked through the process above it may work something like this...

The video is created using any video camera.
1) After its creation, the video is posted to Youtube, Vimeo, etc.
2) Once hosted, the video can be further dispersed to multiple locations on the web using Ping.fm or Posterous.com.
3) The video is promoted using Twitter or email or a social network.
4) Google Analytics is then monitored to see how much incoming traffic (for example) is being generated by the video.
5) Google Alerts, et al, are monitored to determine the impact the video is causing on your reputation.

Some media are generated, stored and archived in a single location, such as blogs or articles so they vary slightly from the model above. Others cannot be dispersed by Ping or Posterous. In any case, you see the process and how it applies to media in general.

Let me know your thoughts.

This is not all inclusive and I'll update the spreadsheet as suggested additions are submitted.

Hope it helps.

Rob
http://www.LetterRep.com