Developing a Social Media Strategy

As businesses of all sizes work towards creating and implementing a social media strategy, most fail to take account of three important company-culture issues that must be addressed first .

Social Media Strategy Must be a Team Effort

Very often, in any business, the people responsible for marketing, internet presence, IT and sales do not work together, each has their own area of responsibility which does not overlap with others. An element of competition between departments also commonly exists in larger businesses, which is often considered a positive driving force towards efficiency and performance.

Social media, however, is a collaborative matter with all the above competency areas involved. Unless your business can formulate and carry out the social media strategy in a collaborative manner, the strategy will not be successful.

For example, if a new blog is being created as part of the social media strategy, it is not helpful if the IT department are unable or unwilling to link it up to the main company website. Or if the marketing department do not recognise the importance of conducting launch promotion via email and instead bury the announcement of the new blog in the regular weekly newsletter to customers.

This kind of disconnected strategy implementation hinders promotion of the social media initiatives and stifles their potential in driving measurable results.

Social media is primarily about communication and relationships. A social media strategy which does not benefit for communication and relationships within your business will not succeed with communication and relationships outside the business either. A culture of ‘social co-operation’ needs to exists between the people and departments formulating and carrying out the social media strategy in order for it to work effectively.

The Boss Must Buy In

Commitment and endorsement of the social media strategy must come from the very top echelons within the company. Unless the CEO or Managing Director are directly involved and evangelising the iniative, people at lower levels in the business will naturally gravitate towards maintaining the status quo.

In many cases, the employment of a social media strategy meets with widespread resistance from people and departments within a business, until and unless the initiative is directly sponsored by top level management. The ‘go ahead’ to expend resources, time and money on the social media strategy must be given unambigiously from the highest level in order for middle and junior management to feel comfortable committing to the project.

Implementing a social media strategy involves changing the very culture of a business, because of the relationship and communication elements. Internal relationships and communication are critically important in order for a social media strategy to succeed in growing relationships and communication with the outside world. For most businesses this is a major shift in the operational culture of the business. And people fear change.

One benefit of a social media strategy is the ability to monitor what people are saying about your brand or business. By listening to what customers and others are saying it is possible to glean invaluable intelligence about the market, the business’ public image, and to open new channels of communication with existing customers as well as reach previously unidentified markets.

Whether or not a business is listening to customers, the customers are talking. Business that do listen are better positioned to react and interact, leading to increased market share and revenues, and leaving businesses that do not listen in the dust.

Social media is changing customer expectations regarding communication with businesses, and this area is rapidly becoming an essential component of conducting business. It is vital that businesses embrace the cultural changes demanded by a social media strategy, and the impetus to do so must come from senior management.

The Importance of Long Term-ism

It may be that your social media strategy delivers early results in the form of popular Facebook fan pages, participation in and buzz about competitions and offers, or viral videos. More likely the returns from your social media strategy will be lower key and longer term, building a solid relationships with customers and markets upon which sales can be generated. Businesses must be willing to see their social media strategy as a long term project, and a fundamental part of the overall operation of the business rather than as a ‘flash in the pan’ single iniative.

New social media tools and opportunities arise all the time, and it is essential that your social media strategy can be expanded, contracted, focussed, diversified or amended to take advantage of developments. Fast, responsive management of the social media strategy is key to it’s long-term success.

Furthermore, communication through social media is not linear. By building relationships with your customers, you enable them to communicate about you to their friends. Continuity of relationship building, empowering and incentivising members of the community you build to bring in new customers and fans builds trust and loyalty, and spread your marketing reach beyond the channels you initially identify.

Importantly, communication is two way. Actively listening to the customers already participating in your social media communities, and being prepared to act upon their suggestions, further promotes trust and loyalty, and gives your business invaluable market information.

Where to Start?

Having come to the realisation that social media is a long-term factor in your marketing efforts, and will require cultural changes in your business, the first step in formulating your social media strategy is to identify attainable, measurable goals.

Working on a one-year plan, set a small number of goals for your social media strategy. For example:

• Create a blog (for internal use only) and make it possible for all your employees to contribute to it
• Formally establish a Social Media Policy covering how employees may and may not participate in social media venues on behalf of the company
• Involve employees in formulating the social media strategy, by inviting their input and collaboration on ideas
• Create a target response time to customer service issues, and develop channels for doing so through social media

Importantly, choose one or two goals that you can comfortable reach and maintain. As company culture changes to embrace the social media model, additional projects and initiatives can be added to your social media strategy.

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