Strategy needs to drive your social media outreach

We often get calls from communications directors and managers asking us to come in speak with them (and often their senior executive) about what they “should” be doing when it comes to social media.

When we meet, our discussion always begins with a few questions:

  • What do you want to achieve?
  • What are you doing currently to meet your objectives?
  • Who is your target audience or community?
  • How do they want to connect with you?

As you can see – there’s not a question or directive about any of the social media tools until we understand more.

In order to be strategic, you need to clearly understand what your organization wants to accomplish, what is being done now (and how you can blend or evolve what is/isn’t currently working), who you want to start the conversation with and, most importantly – how do these people (never forget – we’re talking about individuals) want to participate and communicate with you?

Chris Brogan (one of our favourites) has a great blog post about this topic on his blog yesterday. It’s worth a read. And remember, don’t let the tools drive your strategy. Tools are important, but they are a part of the tactics, not the strategy.

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