Social media: What you really need is a strategy

There’s a saying that goes like this… “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Amen when applied to social media. An analogy came to me one day that I use when explaining social media in context to clients and at learnshops that I run, and it goes something like this…

Imagine that your blog or your website is where you have your party. Social media are simply the channels you use to invite people to your party and to share news about your party.

So if you spend all of your time on your site or blog, organising the party décor, getting a rocking house DJ with a name like “DJ call-to-action”, and making sure the glasses get delivered – guess what happens? Sadly you have the most amazing party and you’re the only one there to enjoy it. That’s more like a great night in than a party and it will feel like a #partyfail.

Scenario two. You hit the Twitter keyboard between getting out of bed and taking a pee, and you’re sharing and telling and retweeting to anyone who will listen (or not). Then onto Facebook to continue the fascinating comment thread you were driving until midnight. Something to eat and then it’s LinkedIn during tea time, Plaxo when no-one’s watching and perhaps squeeze in an email or two and get a few invoices paid.

Problem with scenario two – you probably guessed – is that everyone knows about your party and they all arrive on Friday night. To find you online having a peek at your cousin’s baby shower pics on Facebook and no party organised. Uhm, forgot the DJ, the glasses – even the drinks. You make your name a bit of a joke and notch a major brand dilution coup.

It is so easy to get sucked into one or other social media channel that time really does have wings. And that is why it is essential to have a strategy that guides what you are doing, how you do it, and how much time you spend on each part of it.

Strategy is the working “on” your business rather than working “in” it. And if you are employed by someone else that would mean working “on” your role and how to be brilliant at it, rather than “in” your role where you just keep yourself busy. Not very productive.

What a strategy should do is provide simple guiding principals and goals that inform every action we take online, including all social media. If you are using social media to grow your business then it has to work for you, not the other way around.