Ever run into a situation where you asked, “What would you do with a social media budget if you had one?” If so, it’s highly likely that you have received some blank stares or oddly contorting faces looking right back at you. Questions quickly begin to surface with regard to how it will be used and who will operate, manage and measure performance. From a business standpoint, the biggest question of all remains, “Now what do I do?”
While I don’t want you to think I’m over or under simplifying social media marketing (SMM), here are key principles to follow for businesses who want to achieve greater value out of these investments:
- Business Objectives – Whether related to sales, branding, public relations, product development, market research or to attract and nurture customer relationships, a clearly defined strategy must connect to business objectives. At the end of the day, performance is going to be based on how your efforts support and achieve organizational goals.
- Traditional vs. Social Media Management – This is a new media that can not be effectively leveraged, managed and operated by traditional marketing rules and practices. When organizations are considering an entry into SMM, initial steps need to address more on how it is treated and managed differently, not conforming to traditional practices.
- Personalized, Versioned, Relevant Interactions – From mass media to direct marketing, we target individuals in the B2C and B2B world with tailored content and campaigns to promote greater effectiveness of our investments. SMM is not all that different in this regard.
- Dialogues not Monologues - The notable difference in an SMM environment from traditional media channels is that visitors are engaging and interacting with you or other participants. One-way monologues do NOT fit the bill, so don’t talk at but rather have open, two-way discussions with your guests, hosts or other fellow bloggers.
- Social Auditing – For truly effective SMM strategies, a social media audit is conducted before, during and after to inform approaches, advise on needed adjustments as well as to evaluate effectiveness. Often described as the “Listening” phase of social media strategy, it’s healthy for any organization to conduct a broad audit on interest areas before engaging as well as on active discussions they may have currently in motion.
Sounds like a lot to do. I hear it all the time, “we’re doing more with less” or “I don’t have time to commit to this.” There are two things to consider when you begin receiving or making excuses of why not to invest in an SMM strategy that follows these key principles: 1.) Lost Opportunity; 2.) COI (Cost of Inaction).
