Do you really need a social-media strategy?
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues.
Last week’s poll question: Does your company have a formal, written social-media strategy?
- No, but we’re getting around to it 32.73%
- No, and we probably won’t write one anytime soon 27.64%
- Yes, and it’s really useful 20.00%
- Yes, but it’s not that relevant to our daily operations 12.36%
- We’re not using social media 5.82%
- We paid a consultant to come up with one for us, but we’re not sure what it really means 1.45%
More than 60% of the 320 SmartBrief on Social Media readers who took this poll say their company is using social media without a strategy. About 14% say they’ve got one — either pawned off from a consultant or self-inflicted — but it doesn’t seem to be doing them much good. One-fifth of respondents say they have a strategy and find it useful in their day-to-day business. And I’m willing to bet those are the readers who are seeing the biggest, most easily measurable returns on their social-media efforts.
Social-media strategies get a bad rap. We think of them as meaningless piles of euphemisms that are so inane you can actually build a random social-media strategy generator to dispense them. But just because it can be a Dilbert-esque jumble of cliches doesn’t mean that’s all it can be. You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint. You wouldn’t start a business without a business plan — or at least you wouldn’t be without one for very long. So why leave something as powerful as social media up to chance?
It doesn’t have to enormously detailed. It doesn’t have to sound like it was written by Captain Buzzword. It starts with a pretty simple question: “What are we actually trying to do here?” Any project, big or small, at least merits asking that question. And if somebody writes the answer to that question down and then uses it to foster further discussion later on, I don’t see how that could possibly be a bad thing. But what if you can’t explain what you’re trying to do? Then maybe you need to take a step back and ask whether social media is really the right technology for this project.
What’s your social media strategy? Can you explain, in a sentence or two, what you’re trying to accomplish with the social tools you’re using?
Posted by Tweets that mention SmartBlog On Social Media » Do you really need a social-media strategy? -- Topsy.com on August 11th, 2010 at 11:07 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SmartBrief on SocMed, Bill Ives, Lucy Cooney, Social Media Agency, SocialWize and others. SocialWize said: 60% of businesses say they use social media w/out strategy. Would you do the same w/other marketing? http://bit.ly/bvl6CK [...]
Posted by @ImpactMktPR on August 11th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Great post! Your company MUST have a social media marketing strategy in cooperation with your public relations, marketing, and advertising strategies. Start with small steps. Keep in mind that strategy will change as you expand your online and social media awareness. That is a hard lesson for many businesses to understand.
Posted by @jrvito on August 11th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Social Media without a blueprint to leverage technologies to engage/collect profiles, activity streams containing social capital is ensures failure
Posted by @CorinnaSchramme on August 11th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I agree, a social media strategy doesn't have to be a book-size document. That would defeat the purpose, too. But not to have an idea at all about how, when, and where to use social media, how it aligns with other corporate communication or how to deal with incidents is shortsighted.
What might cause the hesitance to a social media strategy is probably the poor communication of how it will actually help an organization (especially reading the last reply in the poll).
Posted by @oth11 on August 12th, 2010 at 4:24 am
As a recent study from Digital Brand Expressions shows (http://bit.ly/dM_Strategy), the majority of social marketers don't have a formal social-media strategy. Companies have indefinite ideas about how they want to use social tools, but then fail to explicitly think through and communicate the methods and metrics they want to use.
No doubt – you should have an overall marketing plan to start with and then see how social media fits in your scenario. Establishing measurable goals, developing a marketing plan to meet those goals and then developing a method to measure to make sure the money your spending is in the right place to meet your goal is furthest from their minds it seems. Social media is "just" another method we can use to reach goals – some of them can be achieved more easily through social media, others are more difficult. The process of social media within an organization should be well coordinated so that the message and response is consistent.
Many companies do not understand where and how their customers are interacting and using social media. The challenge is to get companies to take a step back from what they have been doing to ensure that there is good interaction and understanding of social media within the organization, have a solid plan with measurable goals and, education within the company on social media importance to brand.
My recent post Starbucks Cleared 10 Million-Fan Mark on Facebook
Posted by @oth11 on August 12th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Sorry for the broken link… bit.ly/dM_Strategy
My recent post Starbucks Cleared 10 Million-Fan Mark on Facebook
Posted by Mark H Cohen on August 12th, 2010 at 7:46 am
Yes, you need a social strategy around content, policies and the like. But what is missing from a lot of companies who DO have social strategies is how it integrates with the overall marketing strategy. From messaging, to content, to how it works with other forms of media, to metrics – integration is a missing link that is critical to the success of social media efforts. Please, please, please don't use social in a social silo, that is the kiss of death from a corporate perspective.
Posted by jstanchak on August 12th, 2010 at 7:57 am
Mark — you're absolutely right. I'll have to ask a poll question about social-media strategy integration one of these days.
Posted by jstanchak on August 12th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Your point is well taken. Goal setting is important, but the more I think about it, that's probably the easiest part of the process.
I wonder how many companies get stuck at this juncture, where they can see what they hope to accomplish, and understand in theory what they need to do get there, but can't quite seem to put those ideas into practice. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what's happening with the 14% who have social-media strategies in place, but can't see how their strategies connect to their daily operations.
Posted by KarenEman on August 12th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Thank you for helping spread the word that social media is not a complicated, secretative process. It is marketing using new tools.
Just because "everyone" is on Facebook (or another platform) doesn't make it the correct platform for a particular organization. I love your conclusion: Explain in a sentence or two what you are trying to accomplish. Simple and logical — no smoke and mirrors.
My recent post Twitter- Phishing Attack
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Posted by Tweets that mention SmartBlog On Social Media » Do you really need a social-media strategy? -- Topsy.com on August 14th, 2010 at 3:05 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Oliver T. Hellriegel, Elizabeth Filippouli. Elizabeth Filippouli said: RT @oth11: Commented on Do you really need a social-media strategy? / SmartBlog On Social Media http://bit.ly/bSyFAH [...]
Posted by Michael Lowndes on August 17th, 2010 at 6:25 am
Good post: Any social media strategy should be seen as a guide in much the same way you would develop any marketing or business development strategy. It’s an organic roadmap which will change and develop over time as your business grows.
As new technologies are developed within the social networks they should be tested for suitability against the overall strategy and only then, if they are seen as a good fit, embraced and utilised as part of the delivery platforms.
Identify what your social media objectives are:
- Brand awareness
- Search engine optimisation
- Networking
- Thought Leadership
And as Karen says, "it's is not a complicated, secretative process" just takes a little thought that's all.
Good luck to you all
Michael
Posted by From Krisi Dahl from Socialmedia Academy « MMSP Social Media For Professionals on September 10th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
[...] 60% study: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/08/11/do-you-really-need-a-social-media-strategy/ [...]
Posted by Tweets that mention Do you really need a social-media strategy? | SmartBlog on Social Media -- Topsy.com on September 16th, 2010 at 5:17 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by leonardo sobel, Teco Sodre. Teco Sodre said: +60% say their company is using social media without a strategy from @mostash http://bit.ly/bi9m3Q [...]
Posted by Do you need a social media strategy? « The Lab is open: John Moore's Blog on September 16th, 2010 at 9:20 am
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Posted by Hey, Everyone Else is Doing It… « Being Social About Social Media Jobs on September 20th, 2010 at 8:01 am
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