This document adapted from Groundswell walks you through how to develop a comprehensive social media strategy using the "POST" methodology. The worksheet is designed specifically for youth in Systems of Care.

1. Developing
a Social
Media
Strategy
Presenters:
The Caring for Every Child’s
Mental Health Team
Leah Holmes-Bonilla
Brittany Smith
YIT—Youth In Transition
September 2011 • Randolph, VT

3. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
Developing a Social Media Strategy: Think POST
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
Social marketing is at the heart of effective communications. We make the decision to reach out to
a group of people to encourage them to change the way they think or act about an issue in order
to reach our goals. When it comes to systems of care, we’re often trying to increase acceptance of
system of care values or raise awareness about the issues that exist in our communities. Yet, when
people talk about social media, we get distracted... we ditch our social marketing strategy and go
straight for Facebook!
Developing and implementing an effective social media strategy follows the same guidelines as
social marketing. It is driven by your audience and is measurable. The following approach—known as
POST1—can help you create a social media strategy.
People: Who is your audience? How do they use social media?
Objectives: What are your goals? Determine how you will use social media to reach your audience
(listening, talking, energizing, supporting, embracing).
Strategy: How do you want your relationship with your community to change? Do you want to give
your group a way to communicate privately online? Do you want a way to tell your community about the
work your group is doing? Determine your strategy and then develop a plan for doing it.
Technology: Based on your audience, objectives, and strategy, what technologies do you want to use
to engage your audience? Social media is not about technology, it’s about relationships.
People:
In order to develop an effective social media strategy you have to know whom you are trying to reach.
Start by thinking about your target audience(s), the people that can benefit from the work of your
group.
• Professionals—caseworkers, foster parents, judges, lawyers, teachers, providers
• Policymakers—State legislators, members of Congress, local elected officials
• Volunteers—coaches, Court Appointed Special Advocates, mentors
• Youth and Adults—other advocates, youth involved in systems, parents of system-involved
youth
Once you know who your target audience(s) is you will have to conduct research to find out more
about them, including where they go for their information and what social media tools they use.
1
developed by Forrester Research (http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html)
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4. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
Objectives:
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
After you determine your key audience(s) you have to decide what you hope to accomplish by
communicating with them. Objectives can include:
(1) Listening—better understand your audience and what their wants and needs are
(2) Talking—communicate with your audience by sharing content and spreading messages
(3) Energizing—power influential and enthusiastic members of your community that are using
social media and are dedicated to your system of care
(4) Supporting—set up spaces and tools to allow members of your community that are already
using social media to support each other, rather than just receiving support from the system of
care
(5) Embracing—bring the youth and families that are receiving services into the work that you do
(social media can be an effective way to identify champions and draw them into the work)
Strategy:
After you have determined your audience and your objective(s), you need to plan your social media
strategy. Think about both your long-term goal, and short-term goals to plan how you are going to
engage your audience to achieve those goals.
• Create a plan that starts small but has room to grow.
• Think through the implications of your strategy.
 Plan out sample scenarios that might come up as a result of your engagement in social
media and then plan for how you will handle it.
 For example, develop a crisis plan in case a youth or other community member posts
something that needs to be responded to immediately.
• Make sure to get buy-in from your adult supports and partnering organizations within your
system of care.
 Hold an informational meeting with key stakeholders where you review the benefits and
risks of using social media.
 Be honest about the risks but come prepared with the ways that you plan to address
them.
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5. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
• Put someone in charge of managing the strategy, preferably someone with experience using
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
social media.
 Recruit other people to help monitor your social media presence; create a work group to
help with this.
• Develop social media user guidelines and policies for your system of care.
 If you plan on engaging with other youth, develop specific guidelines for youth and hold
informational sessions for them and their parents on how to stay safe online.
Technology:
Once you have determined your audience, objectives, and strategy you are ready to think about the
technology needed to meet your goal. In this process, consider:
• Social media isn’t about technology, it’s about relationships.
 When selecting what technology to use, think about how it enables your system of care to
have a relationship with the larger community, and in particular, youth.
• Technologies that enables community members to not only engage with your system of care
but also with each other.
 Family members and youth often want to connect so they can offer shared experiences,
support, and advice.
• Select the technology based on your audience. For example, if you want to reach behavioral
health professionals set up a LinkedIn group, but if you want to reach youth, set up a Facebook
page or group.
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6. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
People
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
Who is your audience? Examples could include your governance board, Latino youth between the ages of
18 and 24, family members that have a child receiving services within the system of care, etc. How do the
audiences you’ve selected engage with social media (are they on Facebook or Twitter, and if so, how do
they use these technologies)?
(1) _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Objectives
What are your long-term goals? What are your short-term goals? Based on these, how do you want to
begin engaging with your audience? For example, if you want to let youth in the community know about
an upcoming youth conference, you’ll be “talking.” As your system of care and youth group get more
comfortable with social media you’ll move from “listening” to “embracing.” List your goals below and
identify where they fit within the five objectives that were listed on page 2 (Listening, Talking, Energizing,
Supporting, Embracing).
(2) _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Strategy
Based on your goals how do you want to engage your audience? For example, do you want to provide a
place where community members can get information about your group? Or do you want to create a place
where youth can actively support each other? Whatever your end goal is, develop a plan for how to get
there. List your strategies below and identify some action steps to get there.
(3) _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Technology
Relist your audience and identify what social media platforms they use and how they use them (listed
under People), then identify which social media platform you’re going to use to reach them. Indicate if you
need to create something original such as a blog, discussion forum, or Web site.
(4) _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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7. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
Notes
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
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8. Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health
Notes
Worksheet: Develop Your POST Approach
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