Every new technology has a learning curve — and sometimes it feels like this goes double for social technologies. First, you need to learn how to use the tools, then you have learn how to use them to engage others.
It can seem like an awfully long road to walk, as Dave Curry explains in today’s lead story in SmartBrief on Social Media. It might even be tempting to wait until there are more case studies and best practices for these new services. But waiting for a blueprint to magically appear has its own dangers. Three reasons to jump in now:
- No one can teach you but you. Social-media marketing case studies can be valuable teaching tools, but that abstract learning can only take you so far. The most memorable lessons don’t come from the triumphs of one brand or the blunders of another. They come from personal experience. You’ll never learn as much by watching as you will by doing. Your mobile strategy needs to be tailored to your company’s needs, not taken off the rack.
- Starting small keeps your risks low. Keep your expectations in check and your ambitions modest — at first. Fail early and often, but do it in front of a select audience. That way, you can learn in a controlled environment, where very few people will notice if your earliest efforts aren’t as strong as they could be. Once you understand what works for your brand, you can expand your efforts.
- If you don’t, someone else will. While you’re waiting for the technology to be perfected, for the rulebook to be written, for the blueprint to appear, your competitors are on the ground and figuring it out for themselves. The extra experience and the additional opportunities to establish a community will be difficult obstacles to surmount.
Of course, not every company will end up embracing mobile — and some of the holdouts may have great reasons for doing so. But apprehension over the learning curve shouldn’t be one of them.
Are location-aware networks part of your social strategy right now? What are the biggest challenges these services present? Anyone want to make the case for waiting?
Image credit, daboost, via Shutterstock
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Hmmm….mobile strategy = social strategy? Not really. Headline promises. Article does not deliver. (Not that the content is bad. It's encouraging advice, but not what is promised.)
Location based marketing is going to need to review the history of older media channels like email to make sure they don't repeat the mistake of un-wanted spam information.
The concept of Peppers and Rogers 1to1 permission based marketing is a idea, but who provides the content? The carriers will want to make money from location based services, and the companies subscribing to the AR programs want to make money. The smartphone users need to be in charge. We need to recieve notification a vendor wants to offer a coupon and ask permission to send the or reject the offer.
The individual needs to be in charge and offered the choice by subscription to a carriers AR service or sign up with specific vendors for SMS offers. Will these options work, or is it too early in location based services?
Hey Hollister — Social and mobile are getting closer all the time, via services like foursquare and twitter's @anywhere. The gap between the two realms is a little intimidating — but I think we're at the point where it's better to just dive in and start experimenting. How are you approaching the intersection of mobile and social?
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jstanchak: What are the roadblocks to establishing a mobile strategy?: http://bit.ly/aQbJ4y...
Don't forget….ask your customer! Instead of jamming a Web-based thing onto a mobile phone, ask your customers if they need that Web-based thing on a mobile phone. They might not.
That said, here's a few quick and dirty things you can do right away:
1. Ask your Web metrics guy to discover how many people are hitting your homepage via mobile devices. If it's >15%, consider adding a "m.yourcompany.com" url. It's pretty easy to do and will offer content formatted to mobile phones. Want to see a good one? –> open the browser on your mobile phone and enter the url: m.cdc.gov.
2. Are any of the services you offer likely to be used 'On-the-go'. If so, ask a few 'on-the-go' users what they would want in a mobile solution. Ask, then create. (This is a great way to get your best users — your consumer evangelists — closer to your brand, btw…put them on an unofficial "Big Brain Mobile Task Force")
3. Don't just develop for iPhone and BlackBerry. Just because everyone in your office uses them doesn't mean that your customers all use them. Put another way, developing for iPhone leaves 94% of Americans unable to use your content.