In Social Media, Content is Still King

Last week, I asked what happens when everyone has embraced social media. Then what?

To me, most of the social media energy is focused on strategy and tactics. This is not surprising given it’s still early days for many companies as they get comfortable with social media, or continue to explore the idea of getting into it. At the same time, there’s an army of social media consultants and experts pushing strategy and tactics.

As social media matures and evolves, there is no doubt in my mind that strategy and tactics are going to become table stakes, particularly tactics. They will be something that every company will understand and implement. Then what will differentiate one company doing social media from the next?

The simple answer is: content. Once again, content will be king as companies realize that when everyone is using social media, one way to stand out from the crowd is providing compelling content and stories.

These stories can be 140-characters (or less), a two-minute video, a 500-word blog post, a beautiful photograph, a provocative Wall post, an interactive contest, or an inspiring crowdsourcing campaign. Whoever tells the best stories has a better opportunity to attract the most attention, and thrive within the social media landscape.

Here’s an example of my own realization of content vs. strategy and tactics. At the mesh conference last month, Janice Diner did a terrific presentation about how to use Facebook Pages. She showed how many companies are thriving by being creative – be it Pantene selling shampoo or TSN letting people create Team Canada sweaters. It dawned on me that Facebook could be a creative platform that would engage people in different ways.

Just to make things clear, here’s a table that shows the social media “quadrant”. There’s currently a lot of attention on listening (aka social media monitoring), strategy and tactics, while creative is almost an after-thought. Yet the companies getting a lot of attention within social media have moved into the creative quadrant. I’m thinking of companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Blendtec and Big Rock Brewery.

This isn’t to say that listening, strategy and tactics will become less important but, instead, suggests that creating great content and stories will be a competitive advantage.

It will likely take some time, however, before social media creativity gets the attention it deserves. With the focus on strategy and tactics, many companies are fascinated with metrics and ROI to justify their social media investments. This means it is all about the number followers, tweets, “Likes”, blog traffic/comments, Diggs, etc. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but simply a reflection of the social media market’s development.

At the end of the day, however, content will be king because it will give companies a competitive edge and, in the process, drive metrics by engaging and resonating with consumers.

It may be lead to the emergence of “social media creative directors” or “social media story tellers”, although I’m still waiting for Chief Social Media Officers to appear within the executive suites.