Social Media Descends to 35 Feet’'.

I read an article by Tom Keene recently
titled ‘ 2014:" Social Media Descends to 35
Feet’'. I had to read it a couple of times
(it's a little bit abstract), but the gist I got
reminded me of some of the long-held
views of social media I’ve heard repeated
many times by traditional business minds
who poke at social media advocates with
those three block letters – ROI.
‘Great, you’ve got people to ‘Like’ the
company, where’s the ROI numbers?’
‘You’ve got us a thousand followers,
what’s the ROI?’
‘Social media’s the future? Show me
definitive proof tracking the ROI’.
While it’s different for every business,
return on investment can be difficult to
quantify. You’re often working to develop
and generate stronger brand
relationships, rather than putting on the
hard sell for quick returns. This is still
possible through social media, but it’s
generally in response to paid
advertisements, as opposed to a longer
term content strategy, which works with
clients to establish ongoing partnerships
and reputational reach. Understandably,
this is what your CEO and CFO want to
hear about, not the amount of ‘Likes’ or
followers you’ve achieved. At some point,
you’re gonna’ have to show them the
money, so you need to ensure this is part
of your strategic plan from the very
beginning.
While there are various ways to
conceptualize your social media strategy,
here’s one to help expand your thinking
on how your business goes about it:
Relationships are the Roads, Data is
the Map, Profit is the Destination
1.       Relationships are the Roads
The first phase is the relationships. Social
media is about being social, joining the
conversation. Once you’ve worked out
your social media presence, you need to
become part of your online community.
Build relationships with your target
audience, establish a presence on the
platforms most relevant to your company
and create content that will resonate with
your target audience and showcase your
expertise. And more than anything, you
need to listen to and learn about their
wants and needs of your target audience.
The amount of data you can get from an
engaged community is invaluable, but you
need to be active, you need to be
listening and you need to be working to
understand what you can do to help. You
don’t need to have all the answers, but
you do need to be present and involved.
Relationships are the roads, they need to
be constructed in order to facilitate you
reaching your destination. This is where
everything starts.
2.       Data is the Map
Once you’ve established your presence
and learned what your audience needs,
you need to provide it. Develop and
improve on what works, action the key
data points and implement business plans
to maximise your performance. It’s
important too that any action plan is
filtered through to all your teams –
there’s no point telling clients you’re
addressing their concerns if the customer
service reps they deal with on another
platform are not working towards the
same goal. If the business is not unified
in adhering to the targets, the whole
process will fail. You’re working to build
trusted relationships, the only way this
works is if you’re honest, up front, and
you deliver where you say you will. The
data you gain forms the map, based on
the relationships you develop as you go,
and then you can move further towards
the final stage.
3.       Profit is the Destination
And this is the key element, one which
may be difficult to fully determine before,
at least, you've established relationships,
but you need to plan for how you can
monetize your social media presence. It’s
important for this to be built into your
initial planning and that it’s something
you don’t lose track of in the process. You
can get seduced by vanity metrics and
data, but you need to ensure you remain
focussed on the end goal - ongoing and
increased revenue through smarter
insights, better relationships and meeting
customer requirements. It's the
destination, the goal of all your efforts,
and it's important to keep it front of mind
in planning and execution.
Of course, it’s easy to put these things
down in words - the reality of each
element is far more complex than a
three-step summary - but hopefully these
notes generate some ideas for you to
consider in the investigation and
implementation of your brand strategy.
Building processes around these three
stages will help categorize and clarify your
long-term goals, bringing focus and
alignment to your social media blueprint.
And staying with that focus will guide your
plan towards delivery of definitive ROI.
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