Great ideas are only as good as their implementation and planning. The Goal POST method of public relations and social media planning is a great way to both organize your thoughts and keep from making easy-to-avoid mistakes. It is also something you can complete in about an hour or two, and which can save you untold hours when you start implementing the plan.

 

Here is an example of how the method looks in the context of the overall initiative, which includes Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. Each of these other steps can also be broken into parts, but for this post we will only look at the Goal POST part.

 

 

Research	Using methods such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) as well as secondary and primary research on what others have done.
Planning
Goal	Large overarching vision for your communication Example: To raise the number of people getting secondary education.
P	People, the most important part of your purpose Example: High-school Juniors and Seniors
O	Objectives, measureable, or SMART Objectives Example: Raise the number of high school juniors and seniors applying for college by 20% over two years in the pilot schools.
S	Strategies, the general approach you plan to take Example: Education and support to overcome obstacles and objections to college or other secondary programs
T	Tactics, the channels and other things you will do Example: Use Facebook, texting and in-person mentoring
Implementation	Should include timeline, budget and allocate the people and other resources to each task
Evaluation	This is the measurement portion of the plan and it should match with the Objectives

 

Using this method is not only a great way to win communication awards but also to get a great job. If you take have a portfolio filled with a couple of campaigns or programs that you approached in this manner it is much more impressive than a bunch of press release writing samples. If you add in the Research, Implementation and Evaluation pieces, it becomes even more valuable.

 

The Goal Post methodology is not new. I first heard of it in a public relations accreditation workshop in Washington, D.C., back in 1997. And more recently it showed up in Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's book, Groundswell.

 

The following presentation was given to arts organizations in the Bay Area as part of a grant-supported program administered by Theater Bay Area, an arts organization that serves more than 300 member theatre companies and 2,900 individual members in Northern California. Beth Kanter has been leading this for Zoetica and designed the training. It goes into more detail about the Goal POST method using arts examples. However, you can drop in any examples that apply to your work and the method still works.

 

I would love your feedback. How do you approach social media planning?

 

 

Photo credit: By woodleywonderworks