It's been interesting to talk to people over the last few months about social media strategy. Few observations:
1) I am sometimes surprised when companies are unable to figure out what social media could mean to them and their businesses. Using social media / web 2.0 tools gives companies such a powerful way to engage w/ their customers. To not take advantage of them seems like wasted opportunity to me.
2) Some companies struggle w/ engaging in conversations in such an open environment. In my opinion, any company who is still hiding behind their advertisements will soon realize that conversations about their brand are happening whether they are there or not. Wouldn't you participate so you can listen, learn and potentially shape and influence your potential customer's opinions?
3) Connecting w/ customers in such a direct manner is a refreshing (and often challenging) change for many companies, especially a lot of B2B companies. Although, I do agree that you want to move at the right pace for your organization. The steps you take here fundamentally change how you engage w/ your customers. You want to make sure that you don't take any steps that can potentially backfire. I think the biggest mistake marketers can make is "faking it". Come on!!
In this video, blogger Joseph Jaffe gives his take on the biggest mistakes some companies have made in social media engagement. He identified faking it as the #1 mistake companies can make.
In my opinion, don't put yourself out there unless you are ready and committed to actually drive the conversation w/ your customers in an honest and transparent manner. Having others blog for you, or tweet for you, or email for you - or even worse having generic email responses from marketing or legal departments is a pathetic attempt. You, your company and most importantly your customer will all be better off, if you had just stayed behind the corporate wall.
That being said, I know that getting to consensus in large companies about such radical behavior change is not an easy task. There are many people in different organizations thinking along different tangents. How do you get alignment with such obstacles? How do you ensure that your company does not show up in Jaffe's next video? Good questions - for another post.
4) My approach to social media strategy is the same as my approach to developing strategy in general: always understand your customer needs and behavior and map them back to your business/marketing objectives. Find the overlap, identify specific problems that you want to go solve. And focus on a few specific items as a start. Don't pick too many things at one time. It's better to do one thing well, than to do many things w/ mediocrity.
4) My approach to social media strategy is the same as my approach to developing strategy in general: always understand your customer needs and behavior and map them back to your business/marketing objectives. Find the overlap, identify specific problems that you want to go solve. And focus on a few specific items as a start. Don't pick too many things at one time. It's better to do one thing well, than to do many things w/ mediocrity.
5) The world has changed. The power in the marketplace is now with customers. They have access to all the information and the tools and technology to connect w/ millions of peers in moments - tapping into their thoughts about brands and products in seconds. Social media tools build upon the foundation of Internet technologies to more effectively connect individuals and harness that power of customers into powerful communities.
With this intense momentum, staying on the sidelines is a futile and foolish attempt. You will get swept in whether you want it or not, wouldn't it be better to do so on your terms?
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