ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to guide marketing professionals as they attempt to determine how to leverage the opportunity offered by social media. It provides the current social media landscape from a marketer's perspective, highlighting some of the major social media and their particular strengths. The chapter also provides an actionable five-step road map that a firm can implement to extract value from its social media presence. These steps include: SET strategic objectives; CHOOSE a platform or small set of platforms to focus on; LAUNCH content, listen to reactions, learn from feedback, and repeat; MEASURE value created through social media strategy; and BOOST social media presence to enhance results over time. Once the firm has mapped out the social media channels where it wishes to focus its attention, it is time to begin to populate those channels. Readers are probably familiar with the adage 'content is king'.
