In the my last post, I introduced a concept called “social relevance” that has been rumbling around my head for the past few months. It’s based on the idea that social media within the corporate context is not about shiny, new toys, it’s about how social media can be relevant by aligning it with a company’s strategic goals and objectives.

It’s straightforward proposition but one that I would argue gets lost in the mix amid excitement what do with Facebook Pages or how much engagement should be done on Twitter.

In my mind, social relevance is the foundation for everything that a company does with social media. It sets the stage for strategy, tactical execution, content, influencer outreach and monitoring/measurement.

Creating a social media strategy, for example, hinges on why a company would want to use social media rather than other tools such as advertising or e-mail campaigns. Is social media more strategically relevant that other options? If so, what are the objectives and how is success going to be defined?

These questions come before a company can even start to explore social media strategy because if it doesn’t have a strong graph on how social media fits into the overall corporate mix, it is difficult to effectively embrace social media.

Unfortunately, too many comes get into social media without a clear idea of why they want or need to do it, and how social media could be a relevant and productive activity. The worst case is the “shotgun approach” in which a company does a whole bunch of social media activity with no idea of what they want to get out of it.

In too many cases, companies are puzzled whey they’re not getting any traction from their social media efforts. The problem is they have no social relevance. As a result, they have no clue about how best to create content, reach out to influencers, engage with users, measurement/monitor activity.