Social Media Strategy Do You Need One?

Do You Think You Have a Successful Social Media Strategy?

You know the cliché “don’t put the cart in front of the horse!” That’s exactly what many businesses do when they say they need a social media strategy. That’s the wrong way to look at it. I’ll explain and I think I’ll convince you (if you need convincing).

Social Media is a Channel

Would you agree with me that social media is a channel for communication and engagement? When you use social media you connect with people and communicate with them. And, hopefully you have some meaningful engagement with some of them. Unless you are a “lurker,” this is probably how you use social media.

When you get in your car, the roads you drive are also channels. The roads provide the channel to get to a destination. But, do you ever get in your car to drive without a destination? If you don’t have a destination, the roads are pretty meaningless. With a destination, or a purpose for getting in your car, the roads are very meaningful.

What’s Your Social Media Destination?

Back to social media. If you think you need a social media strategy, what’s your destination? We can equate this to your goals or objectives. This is an excellent question to ask before you set out on a social media strategy. But, there is still another question that is just as important.

Assuming you want to use social media for measurable business value, who is going to care about your business in social media and why will they care?

It’s All About Content

No one will care about your business in social media unless you deliver content of interest. So, the question to ask is what is your content strategy?! Develop your content strategy first, and then identify how you will implement your content strategy through social media and other communication channels.

Think of it this way. If your content strategy is rock solid, and you do a good job of communicating it in social media channels, then people will share it. Some people will “like” it in Facebook. Google is looking at who those people are. They are looking for the relevance of the people that share and “like” your content. When those people are relevant to your content, you gain favor with Google’s current algorithm. Such is the evolving nature of SEO, or as some would call it social media optimization.

Develop a Content Strategy

The “horse in front of the cart” approach to social media is to develop a content strategy. Identify who the people are you want to reach. Develop personas for each type of person you want to reach and identify their pain points (the issues they care most about), and then write your content against this plan. Use social media as one of (not the only) channels of communication and engagement.

Download the content marketing chapter from my book, Marketing 2.0 for an executive summary on how to develop a content strategy that gets results.

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