Ruwena Healy, CEO of Marketing 24/7, Inc., in Trussville, Alabama, USA chaired the final judging committee for the Communications and Marketing Awards categories in the 2013 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for women executive, entrepreneurs, and the organizations they run. Her company won the Gold Stevie for Low Budget Communications Campaign of the Year in the 2012 Stevies for women. Here she applies her own award-winning marketing expertise to provide some tips for marketers on planning for 2014.

Like many companies, you are probably in the midst of preparing your strategic plans for 2014. Successful business leaders understand that in order to anticipate a profitable upcoming year, you have to plan.

If you are struggling with the planning process for your marketing and social media, or need a few ideas about how to implement a plan going forward, here are a few important tips to keep in mind:

1. Figure out where you stand.

It may seem obvious, but in order for you to move forward, you have to figure out where you are right now. This means taking a serious look at the inner workings of your marketing and social media plan. Conducting an internal and external audit of where your business really is—and not where you think it is—will give you a true picture of where you stand. Now would also be a good time to examine the strengths and weaknesses of your business. What are you doing right and what have you done that hasn’t worked?

2. What are you trying to accomplish?

Too often, businesses think that if they advertise everywhere and post everything on social media, they will magically receive countless leads, gain more loyal customers, and increase their bottom line. In order to craft the right message to get concerted results, you must identify what outcome you are looking for and then proceed to target the right market with the right message through the right medium.

3. Identify your target market and plan how to reach them.

The best way to identify your target market is by investing the time to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is an example of a real person you need to influence crafted from information you retrieve from interviews you conduct with customers or potential customers, or from website and social media analytics you collect from your website or social media business page. For example, you can gather the analytics from your Facebook page to find out the exact age group, demographics, and gender of the individuals who visit your page the most. From this information, create a persona of an individual within that median group and make a plan that targets your message toward him/her to gain more engagement and interest in your business. Understanding who your clients are will help you serve their needs and keep them coming back.

4. Have clear objectives and goals and research, research, research.

Be specific about your own objectives and goals. Do they align with your business’ mission and priorities? How will you get there? Which team members will be accountable for implementation? What are your competitors doing? Research is a critical component that too often is left out of the planning process. Research is a continual part of the process that you have to take time to achieve if you want your overall plan to be succinct and, most of all, successful.

5. Evaluate.

You’re not done: You must evaluate! Put benchmarks in place (i.e. quarterly) to review what you’ve done, measure your success, research some more, and evaluate your successes and failures.

Conclusion
Strategic planning is a vital part of any business and if you want to use marketing and social media to help brand your business, you need to take the time to think things through and get the most out of your time and resources. Remember the old saying: “Plan your work and work your plan!”

About Ruwena Healy
Ruwena Healy is the CEO of Marketing 24/7, Inc., a full-service marketing, branding, and public relations firm, which she founded 8 years ago. Marketing 24/7 has a diverse client list and is one of Birmingham, Alabama’s Top 10 PR firms. Marketing 24/7 and Ruwena have garnered numerous international, national, state, and local business awards. In addition to recently being awarded “Honorable Mention” in the international Enterprising Women of the Year Award by Enterprising Women magazine, Ruwena won a Gold Stevie in the 2012 Stevie Awards for Women In Business. Ruwena was recently named 1st runner up in the Birmingham Business Journal’s Social Madness competition that showcased a company’s social media savvy by gaining new followers and encouraging follower engagement. 

Ruwena continues to gain popularity as a LinkedIn expert and trainer (her LinkedIn profile was among the Top 1% of the Most Viewed profiles in 2012). She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and lecturer, and has also presented numerous programs on branding, social media, public relations, and how to successfully get the word out about your business. Ruwena maintains a marketing blog at MasterMarketing247.com and her articles have appeared in PR News’ 2011 Crisis Management Guidebook, Birmingham Business Journal, The Birmingham News, Alabama Business News, and al.com. Ruwena is an active member of the Birmingham, Alabama community:  she is a member of The Women’s Network; a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Relations Council of Alabama’s Birmingham Chapter; a former Board member and currently a member of the Public Relations Society of America Alabama Chapter; and a current member of Alabama Women In Business.

Ruwena has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Florida and a Masters in Business Administration from Florida State University. Today, with twin boys that are seven years old, Ruwena gives her time to fundraisers for their school and as a leader in the Cub Scouts.

About Marketing 24/7
Marketing 24/7, Inc. works with a diverse client list of companies, entrepreneurs, and professionals to offer unique expertise in personal branding and company branding. The firm has proven itself with marketing and business development effectiveness for the purpose of increasing revenue and profits.  For more information go to: www.marketing247.net

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Brickfish is a performance-based Cost Per Engagement® (CPE®) social-media solution that has generated over 300 million consumer engagements and conversations for advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 marketing leaders like Microsoft, Estee Lauder, QVC, Dell, and Neiman Marcus. As Cofounder and CEO, Nichole Goodyear is driving unprecedented growth (up 368% since 2006).

Nichole’s achievements over the past year were recognized at the 2010 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Brickfish took top honors in two categories: Nichole was named Best Entrepreneur (Services Business-Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations); and Brickfish was named Technology Innovator of the Year.  Brickfish was also a Finalist for Most Innovative Company of the year (Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations).

“It’s an honor to win these innovation awards and women in business awards,” said Nichole. “These awards validate our industry thought leadership. It’s a great nod to technology innovation for the Brickfish team. We’ve built our reputation delivering measurable social-media results for the top brands and agencies in the world.”

Under Nichole’s leadership, Brickfish has also been awarded the Red Herring Global 100 Award and an OMMA Award for Best Viral Campaign. The San Diego-based company is VC-backed (of note, since less than 5% of all women-owned businesses receive venture capital) and completed Series B fundraising in 2009.

A seven-time serial entrepreneur and tech-industry thought-leader, Nichole serves on the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Social Media Committee and chaired the creation of the IAB Social Media Buyer’s Guide, the industry’s first-ever guide to buying social-media advertising. She was recently elected to the Board of the Social Media Advertising Consortium (SMAC). Her personal mission: transform the way that advertisers and publishers measure social media from CPM (cost per thousand) to CPE® (cost per engagement).

“We all need a Nichole in our lives,” commented Karen Robinovitz, the self-designated creatrix of Purple Lab, a Brickfish client (Brickfish has powered two social-media programs for this new beauty brand).

New Mobile Capabilities
Brickfish® has just announced multiple-platform enhancements to its programs, including mobile capabilities, to meet the needs of the ever-evolving social-media space. The Brickfish platform now supports mobile submissions, mobile sharing, and QR code support for its social-media programs. In addition, the platform has tighter integration with Facebook and Twitter, offering clients additional social touch points for their Brickfish-powered programs.

These Brickfish mobile capabilities will allow consumers participating in Brickfish programs to participate via their mobile phones. In addition to being able to upload their photos, consumers will be able to engage with other programs and branded content as well as share content across the social Web. All mobile engagements will be tracked and reported through the Brickfish platform.

"At Brickfish, we continue to be at the forefront of technology and innovation in the social-media space," added Nichole. “Our recent enhancements to the platform reflect our dedication to the social-media space. We will continue to improve our platform to meet the growing needs of our clients and to provide them with measurable social-media results.”

Founded in 2005, Brickfish delivers results-driven programs for many leading consumer brands. A global enterprise, Brickfish recently released Spanish and Portuguese foreign-language support to address client needs in the U.S. and Latin America.

About Nichole Goodyear
Nichole Goodyear is CEO, Cofounder, and President of Brickfish, an award-winning technology platform that powers social-media programs for Fortune 1000 marketing leaders and advertising agencies. A seven-time serial entrepreneur, Nichole’s previous early-stage startups (many of which were acquired) included: ParCom Technologies, Jostens Learning Corp, RNB Technologies, Lightspan, and Pacific Fusion Technologies. Prior to cofounding Brickfish, Nichole cofounded Pacific Fusion Technologies, Inc., a technology leader that created Web-based portals that interfaced with payroll companies and banking systems for such renowned companies as Disney, Hughes, and several multi-billion-dollar financial institutions. As the systems architect and project leader for one of the top educational software companies in the nation, Nichole oversaw the implementation of countless innovative and groundbreaking Internet, video, and cable-modem digital media solutions. Nichole led the initial development team for Lightspan Local Connect, an ASP Internet-based communications product that successfully linked teachers, students, and their families.

About Brickfish®
Brickfish® is the performance-based Cost Per Engagement® (CPE®) social- media solution that has generated 300 million consumer engagements and conversations for advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 marketing leaders like Microsoft and Nike. Its patent-pending Viral Map® and Geo View technologies track reach, frequency, and viral activity in real time across the global Web. Brickfish is a Red Herring Global 100 winner and an OMMA Award winner for Best Viral Campaign.  For more information go to brickfish.com.

Cost Per Engagement and CPE are registered trademarks of Brickfish.