Oddly enough.. this cat is right.
Part 1: Stop thinking socially. Start thinking strategically.
Social Media and digital marketing is all the buzz right now. From fancy tech-geek conferences like SXSW to local marketing summits, every event is a’twitter (pardon the pun) with how CEOs, leaders and strategists can unlock the secrets to social media marketing. We’re taking to our Twitters, desperately joining new platforms, hiring for new titles like “Social and Digital Media Strategist” and doing everything we can to compete in this Brave New World. The problem is, some of us are doing it all wrong.
The problem with most social media strategies out there is simple: you’re forgetting to be strategic. OK, I know, that sounds juvenile, but it’s true. Sure, when social media first hit the scene it was this ephemeral new thing that everyone wanted to participate in and no one knew how to categorize. But by now we know the Facebooks, Twitters and Pinterests of the world and have concrete best practices, measurement tools and audience data to frame our efforts. So why can social media still feel like a constantly moving target?
Because there’s so much to learn and so many new platforms springing up all over that we’re forgetting our one, solid truth: we know how to think, plan and act strategically. We’ve forgotten all those years of trial-and-error, all our backgrounds in leadership, conceptualizing, execution and success in other communications platforms and have lost ourselves in the buzz-terms, cutesy new platform names (Viggle… what’s that?) and gotten lost in the sea of new social agencies and experts who tell us we can’t possibly manage all the craziness ourselves.
Well, as one of those social experts, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share with you the keys to creating and executing a successful social media strategy for your business. Free of charge.
Are you ready? OK, here we go…
Week 1, Secret 1: You already know what you’re doing. We just need to back up a bit.
While terms like “engagement,” “social ROI,” and “social CRM,” may sound shiny and new, they’re rooted in tried and true strategic business norms. If you have a solid past in understanding your product, framing that products’ branding for your intended audience, working in CRM to develop and maintain loyal customers and measure your results in print, tv, mobile and online campaigns, well… you already know what you’re doing. Seriously. While social media may seem like a new wave of communications and monetization that we’re just getting the handle of, it’s really just a new tool for all of the initiatives you’ve already dealt with in the past.
Everything old is new again, with a new, shiny name.
- Engagement is nothing new. It’s all about creating and maintaining relationships with your audience. If you’ve run a marketing campaign, conducted a focus group, worked to resolve customer complaints about your product and set the tone for all your employees to be your greatest brand advocates then guess what?… you’ve got this.
- ROI is the same as it ever was. This is probably the scariest of them all… measuring success. While terms like “Insights,” “People Talking About This,” “Social Conversions,” and “Superusers,” may seem intimidating, there’s nothing to fear. While every platform has its own measurement buzz terms, it’s all the same strategically: set your goals, then look at each of your social platforms and find out which data you need to pay attention to in order to best track your effectiveness. Is your goal to increase web traffic to your product? Then get on Google, Bing or Yahoo’s analytics and add your social platform links to measure traffic. Are you trying to increase awareness about your brand and products in general? Measure followers, retweets and mentions on Twitter and Fans, Comments/Likes/Shares and Total Reach in Facebook. Is your goal to ensure you’re serving your customers and answering questions and complaints? Measure replies on Twitter, too, to make sure your staff is keeping up their end of the bargain. It goes on and on, but it’s all the same… set your goal, then find the right stats to pay attention to. Cut through the clutter by being clear about what your endgame is, not getting lost in a sea of stats.
- Hire your platforms like you hire your talent. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr… which platform do you need to be in to be successful? The answer is all of them or none of them, depending on your business goals, your audience and your product. New platforms are created all the time, each promising to be the next big thing in social media. But the fact is that trying to go all-in on each of them is not only foolish, it’s downright schizophrenic. Just because you receive 200 resumes for people that all seem great on paper for a handful of positions doesn’t mean you hire them all, right? Social platforms are no different. Sure, they’ve got fancy, trendy names, look good on paper and hey, they have a shiny app, but that doesn’t mean you should be spending time, resources and brainpower to compete in all of them.
Instead of being everywhere at once, do the following exercise:
- Grab your vision/mission statement.
- Grab your business plan.
- Grab any research on your targeted demographic, product offerings, etc.
- Grab your current marketing/branding/communications strategic plan.
- If you don’t have any of the above… go do those things first before proceeding to number 6. Seriously.
- Take a sheet of paper out (or your iPad, tablet, etc).
- Write down a 2-3 sentence goal of what you want to use social media for as a communications tool.
- Now, go research all those platforms you thought about jumping into and find out who their key audience is, what they’re used for, user behavior in each platform and manpower needed to upkeep them.
- Compare the platforms with your goal. Only use the platforms that help you achieve that goal. That simple.
- Use the platforms you’re going to work with. You have to be familiar with how each platform works, what audiences are there and how to reach them. Just like that old adage, “you’ve got to know your product to sell it.”
- Have a plan. Work the plan. Just because social media happens in the ether, doesn’t mean your strategy should. Just like your old school efforts in print, TV and other traditional media, your social plan needs to be written down. Even if your head is still whirling with all the terminology, platforms and buzz-terms, you need to sit down, pull up a document and get planning. You should have social goals for one month out, three months out and the next year. You should be prioritizing your work in each social platform, what you want to grow in each and carve out what success looks like, just like you’ve done for everything else in your business (I hope).
- Finally… Just do it. Still nervous? You’ve just got to start. Start now. Sit down, develop a plan, any plan and go for it. Yes, you’ll need to be flexible and course-adjust. Sure, not everything you do will work out, but not doing anything is a guaranteed failure. If you take the time to know your audience, set your goals and choose your platforms, you can then look ahead and chart your course, no excuses.
Strategy hasn’t changed at its basic core. No matter what fancy tools come along, what new platforms are introduced. Thinking of social media as being a “new thing” that defies the laws of strategy is not only wrong, it’s crippling. Go forth, be social and be successful (just like you always have).
