Is Your Social Media Strategy Grown?

It is high time that the business of social media grew up!

Having a presence on social media platforms is simply just not enough. Twitter . . . “check”.  Facebook . . . “check check”.  YouTube . . . “of course”.  Strategy . . . “our editorial calendar is lined up for the month”. Measuring our social media ROI . . . “we get Retweets, Likes and Comments.”  How nice.  But that does not cut it.  This is not a social media strategy, this is merely a use of social media tactics as your master marketing plan.

What you DO with your social media is what matters.

Are you meeting your own business goals? Are you using your social media to offer a customer experience? Are you meeting your customer expectations?  After all, customer relations is what lies at the very center of a coherent business plan.  Your social media strategy must align with your business goals.

Are you building a social media strategy  or are you building a social business?

Does your social media strategy meets the following two criteria?

1. Your social media initiatives are clearly aligned with the strategic business goals of your organization.
2. Your company invests in the organizational alignment and support that encourages execution of your social media strategy.

Are you grown enough to appreciate the commitment an effective social media strategy takes?

A truly coherent social media strategy does not occur overnight.  It takes time. Your goals will change as your business evolves and so will your vision. Your clearly defined road-map and detail oriented plans will adjust accordingly. As you develop your social media strategy, ask yourself where you want this journey to take your small business? Figure out where you currently are and where you want to be. Use the opportunities of social media marketing to help you to get there. Benchmark your successes along your journey. These are the baby steps to developing a successful social media plan.

The teen years of social media marketing.

After you have clearly defined your overall business goals and genuinely aligned them with your social strategy, you can establish a long-term vision. As part of your internal business model, you must communicate your vision with your staff.  Assign various members of your team with daily tasks that support your social media plan. Who will be responsible for executing your social strategy? What is your protocol for listening and responding to your customers?

In the early stages you may outsource your social media to an agency.  But be sure that you have also established your own resources internally to move your small business to the next “social” level as your business grows.

Moving toward adulthood with your social media strategy.

Now that you have proven you are a small business that is truly committed to being “social”, (meaning your online customer experience and reputation are a priority), you understand that all phases of your social media strategy coalesce to form a coherent/mature social media strategy. All phases of your social media strategy are interdependent. You should routinely assess your social media strategy to determine where it aligns with your vision and where it gaps. Moving forward, you will be able to define clearer goals and use them as the foundation for horizontal and vertical programs that all face toward a common vision.

Your road-map to social media maturity.

• Set the foundation of your social media strategy.
• Create a road-map based on your vision. (Recommend this be at least a three year plan).
• Establish benchmarks for measuring successes and failures.
• Align your organizational standard operation procedures with your social media strategy.
• Invest the resources and technology to support your social media strategy long-term.

To learn more about establishing and executing a genuine, transparent, and GROWN social media strategy, contact INVOKE MEDIA GROUP