Social Media can be really annoying. When used inappropriately and naively, it is intrusive, irrelevant and impersonal – lacking in intelligence and charm.
Social Media can however be positively impactful.
It’s not obligatory. However, understanding that Social Media is no longer an add-on – is crucial.
A recent McKinsey report summarises the importance and purpose of Social Media with aplomb:
“Social Media enables targeted marketing responses at individual touch points along the consumer decision journey”.
Right now, brands and marketers should be at the very least, considering Social Media as an important [if not a driving and defining force] when it comes to their wider marketing mix and never in isolation or as an afterthought.
Brands and audiences are hooking up all over the place on a daily basis – be that via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Google+ et al so it’s important to at least be considering the following questions:
- What are people saying about your brand?
- What are your competitors doing well/badly?
- Where is your audience, what are they doing? Are you there too?
- If you were to jump into social ‘places’ what kind of activity could benefit the brand and audience?
- What would be an absolute disaster for your brand in social media?
- If you have a campaign idea that has related social media activity, are you also thinking about a year round engagement strategy?
- What would you like social media to deliver for you – i.e. what would success look like?
- Do you have any internal resource that could be re-directed to manage baseline social media activity?
- Could social media ever be the starting point for your ATL campaign activity?
You now have the beginnings of a strategic brief…
Stop thinking of Social Media as ‘Social Media’ and instead think about it as: content distribution, brand familiarisation and two way conversations and then ask yourself – what would you like to START doing, what would you like to STOP doing and what would you like to CONTINUE doing across Social Media platforms?
