OMG! I Want That.

Social media tools are changing. New platforms are being developed. Competitors are leveraging new social platforms every moment. All of this makes it difficult to maintain a strategic direction as detours slap us in the face at every moment, and we find ourselves saying, “OMG! This could be huge for us.” The truth is… it probably won’t be.

Every day we are faced with the decision of where resources are devoted, and jumping from platform to platform and tool to tool is the easiest way to appear very busy without ever doing anything.

Success in the social space doesn’t come down to what brand is using a new tool first. It comes from taking a deliberate approach of testing the waters, determining resources and investing with care. That’s how you separate the real deal from a meaningless distraction for your business.

Test the Waters

Every tool is different. The communities come with their own cultures, the rules differ across platforms and the ultimate payoff for the end user is never the same. So learn the lay of the land. Jump in and participate... as a user. Talk to the users, and determine the emotional benefit of the platform. Is this something that your brand can be a part of? Is this an environment your brand can bring value in.

While you’re there… you may only be testing, but it’s usually a good idea to claim your brand’s username. For some platforms this is easy. For others, it’s more cumbersome and may not even be possible. Claim your brand’s name. Whether the platform will be used or not, you at least have the proper username.

Determine Resources

When the platform starts to feel like a viable opportunity, prove it. Use your audience and/or brand prospects to justify an investment in the platform. Do they use it? Will they? What does the platform offer them that they can’t get elsewhere? Basically, find information to justify a recommendation and clearly articulate the brand benefits.

That information will be critical for determining just how important of a role this platform can play for the business because the danger with moving from tool to tool is never investing enough in a single platform to make a difference. A new platform doesn’t always come with more time, money or people, so it’s important to determine if the new tool will replace some efforts that aren’t necessarily delivering or will be in addition to efforts that are. But those aren’t the only options.

You can stop. Some brands decide that now isn’t the right time for this particular platform, which is the right decision more often than not.

Invest with Care

When you do decide to invest, determining what to invest and how much can be a bit tricky because you have to give the platform a fair shot, but you also need to make sure it’s a viable tactic. Start with a trial plan with short-term objectives, invest a reasonable amount to achieve objectives and then measure against those KPIs.

An Opportunity to Be Tested

There will never be a shortage of opportunities for brands in the social space, but they should all be viewed with tempered enthusiasm and as opportunities that need to prove themselves. Brands that jump from tactic to tactic will never go anywhere, but brands that follow a strategy and evaluate platforms through that strategic lens will end up on top.

Industry trades and blog posts don’t make platforms great for businesses. Businesses do that. So don’t give into the hype. Be deliberate and be strategic.

The Complacency Standard

Social media platforms have given marketers a lot of tools and new ways to both reach and connect with customers on a deeper, more on-going basis than ever before. And some brands have used this as an opportunity to push the boundaries and constantly reevaluate how they use the tools, reach customers and interact with them while others take the status quo.

Too often social media marketing is viewed as just another channel that needs to be addressed, managed and then left alone. Marketers see what their competitors are doing and want to copy them. They hear about a new feature from a platform and want to add it. They think that as long as they’re keeping up, that’s good enough. They’ve become complacent.

Platforms Make Us Lazy

Part of the complacency is because of all the platforms. Features come and go. Platforms rise and fall. It’s often a full-time job just to keep up let alone do something different.

Marketers now have numerous social platforms at their disposal, and many of these platforms offer standard, cookie-cutter brand opportunities. We respond by taking them at face value. We input the appropriate information, we add the necessary content and we update accordingly. All of this is done without asking how we can do more.

This isn’t the case with all brands. Some brands push what a platform can and can’t do. If a platform can’t do what they want, they create the experience they’re going for elsewhere.

Things like profile photos, about sections and ongoing content are necessary, but any brand would be hard pressed to use these templates to stand out from the crowd. Most brands are one of many following the same template but for some reason, expecting different results.

A Social Idea and a Hacker Attitude

Successful social campaigns start with a social idea--an experience that can be shared between consumers across platforms. A social idea is platform agnostic. It’s an experience consumers will have with the brand and share via social channels. That idea should drive the platform choice and execution, not vice versa.

We also need to get back the sense of wonder that initially came with social media. We now ask what needs to be done versus questioning what can be done. That’s a hacker attitude. A templated approach allows you to get the job done, but taking it to the next level and to truly address business objectives often requires breaking the template and bending platforms to your will.

The standards have been set, and too many of us have become complacent. It’s time to go back to where we started and start breaking things again.

An Eye on the Long-Term Payoff

Social media marketing is an ongoing investment with the payoff coming from a culmination of activities versus coming from disjointed, intermittent efforts.

Brands get excited when they execute something new (they should be... it’s exciting!), but doing something new and different that’s disjointed from other efforts or isn’t given the proper support is only going to end in disappointment.

One example is in community recruitment (whether it’s a Facebook Page, Twitter profile, etc.). Brands want to let their advocates know they have a presence and invite them to follow them on a specific platform--a worthy goal. One tactic to achieve the goal might be to use Facebook ads, but those ads executed in a silo are a waste of resources because you may see an increase in fans. However, without a program to activate those fans to take action, it’s a pointless exercise. At the end of the day, you’ve increased your fan base, but you’re only going to reach less than 17% of them through content alone. That’s not exactly the payoff you’re looking for.

Just as social media marketing shouldn’t be done in a silo separate from other marketing communications, tactics shouldn’t either. They should be tied to a larger plan tied to business objectives.

Have a Vision.

Before you leverage the social space, you have to understand what you’re driving toward. What will be the long-term payoff for internal and external stakeholders from social media? Understanding this piece will help define how tactics build on top of each other and pick up where the previous effort leaves off, so the program is building to something bigger.

That vision should drive everything.

Know What You’re Truly Striving For.

Know what you want consumers to do and why. Then give them the reasons and means to achieve it. The example above is perfect. You don’t want the fans.  Those are meaningless. You want the potential for those fans to take action and expose your brand to their social connections.

Understand what you really want from an effort.

Social Media Marketing Is Cyclical.

At the end of the day it’s about using social media marketing to drive consumer action, and we should focus on giving them the reasons and the means to do so. Marketing efforts done bit-by-bit and in a silo get you into the mindset that social media marketing has a beginning and an end. Really, it’s cyclical. Drive consumers to take action, capitalize on that action and use that action to make your next efforts more effective.

Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome

Leading social media within an organization is a challenging job. There’s a lot to manage and countless things to keep in mind. There’s also the challenge that there are almost always others within the organization who are as enthusiastic about social media as you are, so you can always count on an email or two in your inbox regarding a new tool or platform with a question along the lines of, “How are we using X?” or “There’s a big opportunity for us here.”

All of that may be true. It may be a big opportunity. It may be a chance for the brand to create a presence before the platform hits mainstream. The challenge is separating shiny object syndrome with real opportunities. This is the difference between testing simply because it’s new and testing what is a real opportunity.

The challenge is platforms come and go all the time. Social media marketers have a seemingly impossible job of 1.) keeping up with what their brands are doing, 2.) where their brands are going, 3.) industry trends and opportunities and 4.) new platforms. It’s a big job, and marketers are forced to separate the meaningless from the meaningful pretty quickly.

Depth Beats Breadth Every Time

One of the key things to remember is that having a presence on a platform that’s meaningful and delivers results takes time and resources, which marketers should constantly keep in mind. They may already be spread too thin. Don’t get on a new platform unless you plan to invest in it. Otherwise, you risk sacrificing what actually is successful for the brand.

What Would Your Customers Do?

Social media is people-driven, not platform-driven, so check in on your customers. Find out if they’re using the platform. If so, determine what they’re using it for and what they’re getting out of it. 

Maybe they aren’t there, but it seems like something they’d find useful. Instead of creating a presence, keep an eye on it. It might be worth creating a personal account and learning the ins and outs before your audience comes, so you’re ready to go with a thorough understanding of the community and how it works.

Tell Your Brand’s Story

Successful social media marketing is tied to determining the story the brand has to tell, the people who will care and the time and places to tell it. Evaluate the platform and determine if it’s something you can be a part of. It may require large amounts of photography or video. Determine if you have the assets to tell your brands story effectively or if something needs to be created. But also determine if your brand story has a place on the platform. Sometimes a brand just doesn’t belong! There are a lot of options for brands out there. If a platform won’t tell your brand’s story, move on. There are other options.

Stack It Against Your Strategy

The most important factor in your decision should be determined by your strategic framework. Does the platform tie back to delivering results against your objectives? Will you be able to prove success and that the investment was worthwhile? You also need to look at how you are planning to achieve your social media objectives. If the platform doesn’t fit, save it for another day or take a test-and-learn approach.

A Following or a Community

Marketers that create a brand presence on social media platforms lack one very important thing in the beginning: an audience, and that is what marketers and their bosses constantly hunger for. From Facebook fans to YouTube subscribers to Twitter followers and so on, marketers want more of them and often they have no idea why. They just want them.

An audience is one thing, but it’s another thing to define what kind of audience will best serve business objectives. Do you want a following or do you want a community? 

We want a following.

A following is essentially a body of people that has subscribed to your brand's content by clicking 'like,' follow, subscribe and so on. This group has seen something from the brand that they'd like to see more of in one way or another in their social streams, but beyond that, they may not want more.

Marketers are often after a following. They don't care who it is or why. They just want to see the number go up. That number, for better or worse, is one way that marketers can easily point to in company meetings or hold up to a competitor's number and say, "See. We're doing it."

But the number is only cosmetic. A following is great, and it's important for a brand to build an audience in the social space, but efforts can't stop there. Any brand can get a following and for much less time and energy just by buying a traditional ad and getting its content in front of millions of people. Social media isn't made for just building followings. It's made to take them a step further. 

We really want a community.

A community is a group of people living together and practicing common ownership. Now, that's powerful. A community is a following that's evolved to a more invested and more valuable long-term group of consumers invested in a brand. They want to spread the word and help the brand succeed by sharing their personal thoughts and opinions.

A following is about quantity and growing the numbers, but the number means nothing if the following isn't invested. They can hide posts from their News Feeds and ignore tweets. A community is on the lookout for more content.

While a following can be bought, a community must be earned by proving value over the long-term to those who have chosen to follow.

Building a following is a short-term objective, but marketers shouldn't be short-sighted. The true value that social media can deliver like nothing else is the ability to build a community. Don't get caught up in the numbers associated with building a following. Gauge the quality of that following and the potential for it to turn into a community of invested advocates eager to spread online word of mouth related to the brand.

It's the Ends, Not the Means

A quick Google search can, for the most part, allow anyone to find the most common social media best practices. Everything from knowing your audience and goals to developing strategies and social media policies is information that’s easily available.  Sometimes these best practices become company mandates, but a combination of limited staffing, time and knowledge can lead to stagnation and not moving forward because they're just not feasible.

Simply put, best practices are sometimes too much to ask, and they may not be best for the business.

Best Practices Exist for a Reason

Don’t get me wrong. Best practices belong and are important. A solid social media strategy allows marketers to be more effective because they understand how they’re going to take action versus throwing out tactics to see what sticks. Internal social media policies allow businesses to protect their online reputations.

If social media marketing could be described with one word, one worthy candidate would be agile. No organization has the same needs or the same path to accomplish those needs, and best practices can be molded to meet those needs.

Moldable Best Practices in Action

Aimee Roundtree spoke at SXSW in a panel I attended called Big Social Media Results at Small Organizations.  In her panel she discussed real results being seen by businesses using social media without best practices.

One example, included #RiotCleanup, a hashtage campaign following the London riots to get local businesses running again. The movement was intended to mobilize users, and it attracted 50,000 volunteers before the hashtag was created. Essentially, the campaign developed and the purpose took hold after action got started.

Another example was @AnimalGeneralHospital, which empowers employees to provide an inside look into the hospital. When asked what their strategy is, there isn’t one. The staff isn’t formally trained. It’s just empowered to share the hospital’s story.

Responsible for the Business, Not Best Practices

In the end, it comes down to knowing what the business needs, and using best practices to define how they apply to the end goal. The standard may not be set by what others are doing. Businesses should hold themselves to their own standards and ensure that all internal stakeholders’ expectations are met. Focus on the end goal first. How it is accomplished is secondary, and it may mean choosing the best practices that apply and tweaking the ones that don’t.