Are You Planning Your Social Media Backwards?
When it comes time to put together a social media strategy for your company, there are a few key steps you need to consider before getting started. Unfortunately, most companies bypass these steps and do everything in exactly the wrong order.
Their conversations usually go a little something like this:
Person 1: We need to get involved in social media.
Person 2: You’re right, how do we get started?
Person 1: We need to build a Facebook page.
Person 2: You’re right, Joe put up a Facebook page for his company last year and he said they have more than 1,000 followers.
Person 1: Ok, I’ll get Maria on it this week.
Time passes….
Six months later:
Person 2: So how’s that social media strategy doing?
Person 1: What?
Person 2: You know, the Facebook page you were going to have Maria build?
Person 1: Oh…yeah…let me check. [keyboard clicking] Looks like we have 127 fans!
Person 2: That’s awesome! So…what’s next?
Person 1: Um…
Yeah….that conversation has happened in office after office around the world in the last few years. Companies jump on board with social media because they hear buzz about it and think they have to get involved or because some C-level type reads an article about how social media is changing the face of marketing and they issue an order to start Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts and to start posting existing video files to YouTube.
The problem is that action without a desired outcome is generally pointless. If you walk out your front door with no destination in mind, you’re likely to find yourself standing in the middle of a strange neighborhood too tired to get home. Worse, you may walk yourself right off a cliff.
If your social media efforts have been driven by “we need to do this” instead of being driven by “we need to accomplish X and social media will help us,” you’re wasting your time. Social media success rarely falls into a company’s lap by accident. Social media success happens when you plan for it and executive a supportive strategy.
Ask yourself why you are involved in social media. Is it because you “have to be?” Is it because you want to be? Or is it because you understand how social media can help you reach specific goals and you are using it to support your company’s growth?
If your answers are the former and not the latter, you need to sit down and think about the goals you have for your business in the next year. List them out and ask yourself how you might be able to use social media to accomplish them.
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You have it exactly right Jennifer.
I started using Social Media because it was fun and exciting.
Now I have a large Facebook following, a larger Twitter following and a Facebook fan page that I set up and forgot about.
Well since I am in business to help small businesses “get found” on the internet and setting up blogs, Facebook business pages, and Twitter accounts are all part of a large social media plan, I need to get the “blueprint” established before setting up any accounts.
You have stated exactly the problem many companies have with Social Media, they jump in with both feet, yet did not set up a plan and goal first.
I am changing my ways and need to so I can be successful. From now on all clients will get a mindmap of the activities and tactics to achieve a stated goal with measurable results that we track and make course corrections along the way as needed based on the results we are getting.
@ClayFranklin
Clay,
That’s great to hear! It’s so easy (and as you said, fun) to jump in with both feet and get things moving…but it’s also what leads to social media’s bad wrap as a “fun waste of time.”
It won’t be until marketers and business owners alike start to change the way we approach things that we’ll see a higher success rate overall.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!