Is your Social Media Strategy… really a strategy?

July 12, 2010

I’ve been reading a lot about social media policies and strategies, lately. In all my readings, there is one introductory line that every company seems to include; “Everyone’s doing it.” Developing social media policies, creating strategies; you get the idea. As more and more companies invest in social media, the number of strategies, or ‘attempted’ strategies, is on the rise. How will our company use social media to propel our business?

Thanks to my news aggregator, I happen to come across a related article, from Social Media Today, about social media strategies and how to identify whether or not your social media strategy is a legitimate one. It was too good to just ‘mark as read,’ so I thought I’d share some of the great points.

According to the article, the problem with the “everyone else is doing it” approach is that it typically leads to a thoughtless social presence. As a result, some social media strategies don’t turn out to be strategies at all. They are just a bunch of tactics thrown together disguised as a strategy. Remember, a strategy is a comprehensive plan meant to achieve a long-term objective. A tactic is a specific action within a strategy intended to help reach the designated goal.

The following steps will ensure your social media efforts form an actual strategy:

1. Set your social media objectives. What do you ultimately want your business to achieve from social media? Brand awareness, networking opportunities, SEO benefits? Pick one and stick with it.

2. Choose the right channels to meet your objectives. Integrate various social media channels to achieve your set objective. Choose channels based on your individual tactics; they may be different and that’s OK!

3. Establish a timeline for completion. Create a timeline to reach your goal. This step helps you establish smaller goals within each tactic for measurement against your deadline.

4. Put together your metrics. You must establish metrics to gauge your progress. For example, the number of Twitter followers, number of YouTube views, number of blog subscribers and growth patterns for each metric.

 5. Deploy, measure, adjust. The point of setting objectives and benchmarking them is to make sure that your strategy stays on course. It’s OK to alter this course if things aren’t working as planned.

The great thing about social media is that it is an ever-evolving medium. Therefore, your strategy can be too. Make changes along the way to better achieve social media success for your company.

Source: Social Media Today, June 18, 2010

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Posted by Jackie

Social Media Strategy: A platform with pillars

July 7, 2010

In my previous blog post I talked about the importance of having a social media policy. OK, yeah, that’s great and all—but the policy is just the primer. It’s the guidelines; the protocol; the “Hey, we acknowledge that social media is out there so make sure you protect our brand when you use it,” kind of document. The policy is used internally as a reference for appropriate social media use among employees.

So you have the policy, but what about the strategy? Your social media strategy. You know, that comprehensive plan that helps your company achieve its long-term objective? The strategy aids an organization’s ability to accomplish its overall goals and objectives using social media. Thanks to the policy, you know your company’s rules for social media engagement. Now, how will you use social media tools and applications to engage with external audiences and get your message across?

The Social Media Bible (Safko and Brake, 2009) illustrates the development of a social media strategy. The goal of all social media, in a business context, is to engage people. This engagement leads toward a desired action or outcome (p. 25).  Company leaders should think of their social media strategy as a platform supported by these four pillars:

Communication: What are you communicating and through what channels? Are you measuring how that communication is perceived?

Collaboration: What tools is your organization using to foster collaboration among coworkers? Brainstorms, retreats, conference calls? Get your audiences involved.

Education:  Leverage your expertise and educate your internal and external audiences.

Entertainment:  Be optimistic about the prospects of entertaining your audience by finding aspects of your product or of your company that others might consider entertaining (p. 675).

Finally, when building the platform, keep in mind that:

  1. Social media is all about enabling conversation among your audience or market;
  2. You cannot control conversations with social media, but you can influence them; and
  3. Influence is the bedrock of which all economically viable relationships are built (pp. 681-2).

In my next blog post I will come back to the social media strategy with the question: Is your social media strategy, really a strategy? Hmm….

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Posted by Jackie

A tribute to policies on Social Media Day

June 30, 2010

Did you know…In 2009, 8 percent of American companies reported that their online reputation had been damaged by employees’ social media activity?

As a result…29 percent of American companies have developed formal social media polices (March 2010, ragan.com).

No more excuses; it’s time your company has one. A social media policy, that is.  It appears that some companies think they don’t need one; that it’s only for those ‘communication/PR’ folks who engage in that sort of thing.

I beg to differ.

Regardless of your company’s size, industry or area of specialization, if you want your organization to engage the right way in the social media landscape, then a policy will help to educate and guide employees along the way.

Employers are quickly realizing the importance of harnessing their employee’s social media use. I’ve read through several policies from a variety of industries. They vary in length and specifics, but they all communicate one overarching goal—that employees understand the power and consequences of social media participation. Instead of hammering and pushing these policies, companies are providing them as guidelines and advice on what employees should do to help them engage safely with a digital audience. Here are several reasons why social media policies are important:

  • SM policies educate employees about communications strategy (how they are supposed to participate, share information and respect the brand) to ensure that actions fit within the overall company model.
  • SM policies reinforce traditional company values and branding.
  • SM policies serve as a reminder that if employees are engaging in social media at a personal level, that they are aware they are always representing the company they work for directly or indirectly.
  • SM policies communicate the value of social media to the entire company and gets employees on the same page as to the company’s current participation and/or plans for future involvement.
  • SM policies help employees feel connected to the brand.

Whether companies fully embrace social media’s potential (to do both harm and good) or remain skeptical and timid about its use—one thing’s for certain: social media is NOT going away. Get involved, create a policy and keep company goals and objectives in mind.  In the end, these guidelines can help stimulate great discussions and build a company’s presence in the media landscape.

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Posted by Jackie

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