Social Media – The Mandatory Unknown – Plan Your Approach

When it comes to social media, there are a number of questions that I regularly field from clients; of which these are some:

1) What is it?

2) Why do we need it?

3) How much do we need to get involved?

4) What social media sites should we get involved with?

5) Do we need to get involved as an individual or as a company?

Although the term social media is used extensively, it is relatively an unknown topic in its entirety. The discussions about social media can go on and on with many people having differing opinions. The reason for this, is the term ‘social media’ covers a subject which is very broad and complex in scope; and there are ever emerging facets to this media form. As well, social media users will each have their own personal experiences, so their opinions will be specific to them; see my article Consultants – So Many Consultants, So Many Opinions – What is the truth? for a more detailed explanation.

So what is Social Media?

The simplest definition is media that allows for social interaction (people communicating). Yes that is really vague and that is where the complex nature of defining social media begins. Wikipedia defines social media as “the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an active dialogue”. So by this definition, texting on your mobile device is social media and blogs and group sites and gaming sites and chat sites and interactive news feeds and .. and .. and. So as mentioned above, ‘social media’ covers a subject which is very broad and complex in scope; and new emerging uses are limitless.

Why do we need it?

I usually start this answer with .. “well, you don’t .. however!” The however is where you need to examine the goals of the individual or company.

For this question let’s use the company as the case study. First you need to ask some probing questions such as:

What does the company do? .. Who are their clients (the general public, professional organizations, specific vertical markets or other)? .. Do you have staff that could do social media?

By examining who a company’s clients are will answer if their clients are using social media. If yes, then examine whether the company’s exposure within social media would add value to the company in terms of exposure, increased sales or non-monetary benefits (such as goodwill). If yes, then the answer is obvious .. yes the company should get involved in social media.

How much do we need to get involved?

Being involved in all aspects and forms of social media can be a full time job; if not impossible to achieve or maintain that level of involvement without having a dedicated staff team.

The main step would be to identify which areas of social media would generate the best return on your time (and possibly monetary) investment. Another step would be to try and identify how much time could you dedicate to social media before you are negatively affected by that level of involvement.

It is not enough to just be busy; you need to be effective as well. However, ultimately the level of involvement is based on your comfort level.

What social media sites should we get involved with?

For this question, let’s use a company’s clients as the indicator for social media site involvement. Try and identify which sites or forms of social media your clients are involved with. Sometimes identifying this is easy but sometimes you will need to survey a sample of your clients to find the answer. Based on the answer then you will know where to get involved.

Many times you may feel compelled to follow the hot trends in the identification of sites to get involved with. This is fine if your activities are based on hot trends. However, note that hot trends are identified by early adopters or trendsetters. So hot trend sites will be full of early adopters or trendsetters and these people make up just a small fraction of our society. Try to stick to sites where you will find most of your clients!

Do we need to get involved as an individual or as a company?

Individual versus company involvement is another important consideration.

In terms of individual involvement, the decision should be left to the individual. Once personal information is posted within social media sites then it becomes public knowledge; so plan carefully what you want to be known about you.

The encouragement to have an individual presence, within social media, is that it can build credibility within your chosen profession. Others want to know you are a person who ‘knows how to do what you claim you do’; you can gain credibility as an expert in your field. And the more experts a company has then the more desirable the services from that company are; of course this works for companies providing services. Enough said on individual social media presence.

In terms of a company presence, there should be a compelling reason to create say a “company page” before it is created; some companies will not benefit from a company presence. For example, I hold positions at a number of firms, of which only a few have a company presence; in short, no one cares about the others having a company presence as there is no positive benefit from it. There should always be some return on investment (ROI) for a company entering into social media; whether that is monetary or not (such as building goodwill).

Regardless if you develop an individual and / or company presence, I would encourage you to further research the “do’s and do not’s” of social media. For example, self promotion is often frowned upon. As well, take some time to learn the ‘heartbeat’ of the social media form or site that you will be partaking in. By doing these you can increase your chances of success.

In summary ..

Social media can be of benefit for individuals and firms. However, involvement in social media should be planned carefully. Social media is not always ‘a field of dreams’ and just because you build it does not mean that the target audience will come.

Often social media involvement will be a mandatory activity for many of our clients and their companies. But their involvement in social media must be well planned in terms of what aspects of social media they should concentrate on and what their social communication focus should be. Without a plan a lot of effort can be wasted away without any positive results or ROI; it is not enough to just be busy. The goal should be effective communication with your target audience with regular checks against your social media plan to ensure you are still on track.

I hope that you found this article helpful. As a consultant, this article is my own point of view which of course may not be the approach of other consultants.

Should you have any questions please feel free to contact me at tony@force12.net.