social relevance

2011: The Year of Social Media Reckoning

Mar 7, 2011 By Mark Evans in Social Media 5 Comments Tags: Social Media, social relevance, strategy

The rise of social media in the last couple of years has been fun and definitely interesting. Millions of people and companies have embraced the various services, even though many had no idea of how they would be used or why. But it didn’t matter because social media was so new that everyone wanted to experiment and dabble.

But like any wild party that comes to an end, people eventually have to sober up and take stock of what’s happened. And the same holds true for social media. After the enthusiasm and experimentation, there is a growing sense that many companies are looking at their social media efforts in a new and demanding way.

It’s not enough any more to be doing social media. The focus is shifting to the benefits of social media and what it’s generating for the business – be it Web site traffic, leads, sales or better customer service. It was not that long ago that being on social media was enough of a competitive difference. But this is no longer the case.

Now, companies want tangible evidence social media is contributing to overall operations. Like any corporate activity, social media must earn and keep its place. It is a matter of recognizing whatever resources and money being allocated to social media is not going something else. As a result, the ROI of social media is becoming a growing consideration to measure and justify how money and resources are being spent.

This is actually a positive development because it will make social media more than just a digital novelty that is being done because everyone else is doing it. Taking a more pragmatic approach to social media hopefully means companies will be more focused on making sure their strategic and tactical efforts are implemented properly.

In many respects, it means embracing what I describe as “social relevance”, which involves harnessing social media to make a business operate better or gain a competitive edge. It means focusing on a company’s strategic and tactical goals for social media, and then adding other elements such as the different services, influencer outreach, monitoring, and tactics on top of it. (See the graph below).

A more serious focus doesn’t mean social media will be less fun or exciting but it does suggest companies could be more discerning in how they use social media and the potential benefits before jumping into the fray. There will be plenty of opportunities for social media to evolve and resonate but the corporate landscape is changing….and that is a good thing.

The Social Relevance Ecosystem

Jan 24, 2011 By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: relevance, Social Media, social relevance, strategy

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.