You Don't Need a Social Media Strategy.
One request that comes into the agency on a regular basis is from marketers who are looking for help developing a social media strategy. These folks generally fall into two camps: either their organization is not yet active in the social space (a rare occurrence these days but it does happen), or they are active in social venues but not seeing the results they were hoping for.
In looking for ways to build up the practice of social media marketing, pundits, "gurus" and enthusiasts often pooh-pooh traditional marketing efforts, and will call for social-only approaches which serve to maintain the perception of social as being super-special. Then the echo chamber takes over through retweeting and forwarding, and such statements command an inordinately large share of attention.
But our opinion is that you don't need a social media strategy. Seriously. Because that's an approach focused on the tool, rather than your end business goals. Tool specialization and knowledge are essential, but like digital, email, events or direct, should not be built in a silo. A better question to ask is, do you have an engagement strategy? A conversion strategy (that includes social channels)? An activation/loyalty strategy that spans traditional, social, etc.? Those are the important questions to ask and that's where a savvy integrated agency can help you.
I've been in traditional marketing for nearly 20 years. I've also been a blogger, podcaster and social media enthusiast since the beginning. I'm paid to explore and experiment with new marketing toolkits, to see which technologies, tools, and memes might benefit my clients. Because of this, I have huge respect for the social sphere as an environment that is not commercial in origin. But I also know that siloed approaches—often led by siloed social media enthusiasts—just don't have the same power that blended traditional+social campaigns do. In many ways, it's as if we're back in 1997 and companies know they need to be on the web but haven't realized the power of combined digital/traditional approaches.
I was fortunate enough to be a keynote speaker for the 2010 Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver last month, and the opening speaker at Jeff Pulver's 140 Characters Conference in Los Angeles two weeks ago, in which I presented this idea that You Don't Need a Social Media Strategy. The SlideShare presentation below covers this concept of the power of combined traditional/social efforts and the strong stance that social media efforts should not be developed in a vacuum.
Think we're crazy? Read through the results and let us know what you think.
And if you're in Vancouver on Wednesday, October 20th, come watch the presentation live at the Canadian Public Relations Society October dinner at the Cascadia Hotel. Register here.
