Working with many businesses and organisations, it consistently surprises me that so few of them have a social media strategy and plan in place. They literally do not have objectives set for their social media activity or content planned. This has made me ponder on this question: Social Media Strategy – why do so many businesses not have one?
I think it comes down to 3 things
#1. Some people still don’t really “get” social
I still get businesses that work with Mykidstime asking can we boost their facebook likes. I see businesses pushing out content but never responding to their community on their social channels.
I just think many people just don’t really get social media still. They don’t realise the opportunity it presents to talk and engage with their customers and target customers, so therefore it’s still an afterthought. Or they have thrown some time and money on it and given up in disgust at the lack of results because they didn’t realise you need a proper strategy and plan and a long term consistent approach.
Or they think of social media as different somehow from marketing, not realising it’s just a different (and different type of) marketing channel. They might have a marketing plan but not a social plan.
My takeaway: putting in place a social strategy with clear objectives and a tactical plan that feeds into your marketing plan is essential to driving results for your business from social media.
#2. People don’t have much in the way of strategies full stop
Tweet ThisUnless you’re a super large organisation with a strategy team, with strategic plans and tactical plans filtering down the organisation, many businesses I find don’t really have a strategy as such in place. Or if they do it’s in the heads of the owner or managers.
Ultimately you should have your business strategic plan updated at least once a quarter with strategies then for each function that’s relevant like sales, IT, R&D and marketing feeding into and out of the overall plan. Then under Marketing might sit PR & communications strategy, partner marketing strategy, social media strategy and so on.
After all every minute of time (or cent of budget) spent on social media should be focused on objectives and meeting your strategic goals overall.
My takeaway: carve out some time every quarter for a strategy session with key people in (or advisors to) your business. It’ll keep you focused on the essentials and your overall quarterly objectives for your business and out of that will come your marketing and social media objectives so that your media efforts can align with these.
#3. People get overwhelmed by social
It’s an overwhelming thing. The sheer volume of social, the new arrivals, constant changes on existing core social platforms, a million articles about what to do on social media, tons of “gurus” telling you what you ought to be doing on social media. No wonder it gets a bit overwhelming.
Then there’s the time suck aspect of it. Start looking on Twitter for a few minutes and before you know it an hour has passed.
My takeaway – focus small but deep. Take 2 social channels as your hero channels where your prospects are active and be great on those 2 channels. Create great content that speaks to them and measure all your activity to make sure social is doing what it should. Limit your time but also focus your time on spending it where you need to. You might even consider setting an alarm to say it’s time to come off social media!
Are you a business owner or manager in a business or organisation that has no active detailed social media strategy? Any other reason than these 3 that is stopping this from happening? I’d love to hear your thoughts on a comment.
And if you need help with organising your social media strategy, get in touch now.
