It’s tough to be successful marketing with social media tools without a strategic plan. I ran across a method of helping marketing professionals decide where start their social media marketing plans. It’s called the POST Method. It was derived by social media analysts at Forrester.POST is an acronym, which stands for People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. To break it down further, below is a list of questions within each category that should help you think about starting a social media marketing plan.People: Who is your audience? Are they online? What do they do online? What influences their decision making? Are they producers, readers, or both? Are there existing communities within your industry?Objectives: What are your goals? Do you want to gain exposure? Do you want to create brand evangelists who will promote your product to passers by? How will you measureyour results?Strategy: What are your key messages? What do you want evangelists to tell passersby? How do you want to change or improve relationships with customers? How can you get the most out new relationships forged?Technology: What resources do you need to connect with customers? Do you want to create an entire community? Do you want to create an application to interact with customers in existing communities? Does your audience listen to podcasts? Watch videos? Read blogs? Or watch presentations?Lots of questions of here to get you started thinking about creating a social media marketing strategy. If you find yourself unable to answer a lot of these questions, support numerous social media relationships and/or execute social media development, it may be best to contact an agency. If you are entirely new to the social media and are a bit overwhelmed or uncomfortable, they best way to learn is to indulge yourself, explore and listen.If you need some more advanced tips, check out this post by Rohit Bhargava.