Social Strategy for Social Success
by Paul Miser
Image from luc legay - Flickr
With the InterWebs becoming more and more of a living, breathing social web, I often see companies jumping on the different platforms with the thought of “dipping a toe” in the social space with no real reason or strategy. This type of engagement could have worked a year ago, with the social sphere barely taking shape, but not these days where real time isn’t fast enough and mistakes are seen as personal attacks to the individuals participating on social media. If you’re a late-comer to the social world or want to enhance your strategy, follow these simple steps for better engagement and results.
Narrowly define the different segments of your market: Talking with a narrowed segment allows for more personal conversations rather than the mass approach of saying something and hoping a small percentage says something back. The closer we get to the individual, the more we engage those individuals.
Listen: Identify where these different segments “hang out”online. Create a communication map of where the particular segments spend most of their time online (is it Facebook, blogs, Twitter, etc?). While doing this we need to not only listen to what is being said, we need to focus on how they are saying it. Jumping into a conversation with the incorrect nomenclature could be as devastating as not participating at all.
Develop a conversation strategy: With the targets and platforms identified, we can now develop a conversation strategy within the particular segments on their particular communication platform of choice. Know what you will say, how you will say it, where you will say it, and how often you’ll say something.
Engage: This is a no brainer. Nobody, not you not your customers, wants to be talked to… They want to be talked with. They want to feel like they are an individual with individual wants and needs; creating an individual conversation.
Track/Monitor: The great thing and the bad thing about a social strategy is the ability to track and monitor. Continually look at the social web to see where others are talking and understand the dynamics of your customer’s behavior online. You can then start to realize the social ROI, engagement levels, how effective your conversation strategy is. By developing your conversation strategy, you now have a benchmark to compare the reality of your social successes or failures to.
Evaluate/Adapt: The most important thing about your social strategy is your ability to adapt. Facebook and Twitter may not always be around. Developing a “conversation” rather than exploiting a platform is the only way to succeed in the social web. Adapting to the ever-changing space will become the leading factor of success moving forward on the social web.
Don’t just jump in… jump in with a reason, with a strategy for continued social success.
