tactics

No Social Media Success Without Execution

By Mark Evans in Social Media 3 Comments Tags: , , ,

Over the past couple of years, I have talked and worked with lots of companies excited about the potential of social media. Fuelled by this enthusiasm, they create detailed strategic plans and set themselves up on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, et al.

Then they run into a serious hurdle: who’s actually going to make social media happen tactically on a day-to-day basis. It is one thing to have a master plan but if no one is going to execute on it, the plan is not worth paper it’s written on.

As a social media consultant, it is always disappointing when a client doesn’t or can’t execute on a strategic and tactical plan. In some ways, I feel as I’ve let the client down by not making it abundantly clear about the commitment needed to do social media. But sometimes even the best intentions – and plans – don’t work because the reality of doing social media on a regular basis is dramatically different in reality than practice.

Too often social media strategy gets too much attention while tactical execution isn’t focused on enough. This means that a strategic plan is not just about creating and launching social media services but developing a plan of attack, hiring the right people to make social media happen on a regular basis, and giving them the education, training and tools so they can be as successful as possible.

Tactics is the part of social media that is crucial but doesn’t get as much attention as it should be it’s not as sexy as strategy or the cool services. Tactics is grunt work, it’s blocking and tackling, and it’s a game in which victories are measured in inches rather than miles.

Many companies who want to get into social media don’t truly appreciate the work that goes into day-to-day tactics. One of the key hurdles is finding the right person. Often, they believe that a junior person who knows how to use the social media tools can operate their campaigns. But they soon learn that using the tools is only half the battle; good social media tacticians also have to be good writers, communicators and thinkers.

At the end of the day, social media strategy has a relatively short shelf life before tactics starts to impact everything you do. Sure, strategy can be tweaked and re-calibrated but once social media has been launched, the execution of tactics will determine whether what a company does is successful or not.

Too many companies consider tactics to the less glamorous cousin of strategy when, in fact, tactics is as, if not more, important.

(Note: This post originally appeared on the Sysomos blog)

The Harsh Truth of Social Media Tactical Economics

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , ,

After a company has created a strategic plan for social media, the next move is tactical execution. And while the tools are free, it costs money to use them. A company may need to hire someone internally to run their social media activities, which could cost $50,000 to $75,000 depending on the program being implemented and how much experience may be required to do the job.

Another option is outsourcing social media tactics by hiring a contractor or public relations agency. Here’s where the economics of social media start to get complicated and more interesting.

Let’s assume that you need someone to put in at least two to three hours/day to be engaged on social media and create content. At $40/hour, this works out to $1600 to $2500/month, which is probably a reasonable investment given it provides social media coverage without the need to hire a full-time employee.

The other scenario is hiring a PR agency. The biggest and immediate sticking point is $40/hour for a PR agency would be dirt cheap – something that doesn’t work within the current economic of the public relations agency.

For now, PR agencies are charging $75 to $150/hour to do social media tactics. This means a company needs to spend $3000 to $6000/month, which is pretty hefty investment, particularly for companies just starting to get into social media. For PR agencies, however, social media tactics is currently a high-margin service that is filling the void as traditional PR activities such as creating and distributing press releases starts to disappear. As a result, PR agencies are reluctant to do anything to kill the golden social media goose.

The problem, however, is they may no choice but to eventually align themselves to the new economic reality. If $40 to $50/hour become the standard to do social media tactics, then PR agencies will have to drop their prices. This means they will need to adopt a new approach that doesn’t see them charging $75 to $150/hour. It could mean hiring younger and cheaper employees to do social media tactics. It may become a low-margin business, which could mean that the money comes from offering creative and content services.

I do not expect this economic reality to hit home soon but it’s coming. As companies get more familiar social media, they are going to weigh the benefits of hiring someone internally for $50,000 to $75,000, or hire an external partner. Unless outsourcing PR offers tangible and significant economic advantages, it makes complete to sense to hire someone who drinks the corporate Kool-Aid every day.

Idea Paint’s Approach to Social Media

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

There’s so much talk about social media and the tools that can be used, it’s refreshing to see how a company actually leverages social media to drive awareness and sales.

Here’s a video that I discovered in which Marcus Wilson, Idea Paint’s head of marketing, talks about how the company’s blog is the engine that drives it social media efforts, which, in turn, drive people to a variety of landing pages, which, hopefully, leads to happy customers. In less than two minutes, Wilson provides some great real-world insight.

The Anti-Shotgun Approach to Social Media

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , ,

Social Media Today had a post recently with the provocative title, “When Not to Have a Twitter Account”, which is a sacrilegious thought to all of us social media junkies.

The post reminded me of an important social media tenet: that it’s alright not to have a Twitter account or, for that matter, a blog or a Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr or MySpace account. In other words, you could take a “popgun” approach to social media as opposed to a “shotgun” in which you try to be everything and anywhere (aka a recipe for failure).

And while it is, heaven forbid, possible not to embrace social media, a more reasonable approach is that it’s perfectly fine to have a small social media presence.

Yup, your digital existence can be happy and fulfilling by only embracing a single social media service. It could be Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or a blog as long as it meets your goals and objectives and, as important, the needs of the target audience.

The key – and I stress this point to clients – is that whatever social media service(s) is deployed, it has to be used consistently and done well. In other words, if you do only one thing, do that one thing great.

It’s like deciding to open a bakery to only make cupcakes. As long as those cupcakes are delicious, you’re not going to be penalized for not baking pies, cakes and muffins.

Too often, social media is seen in terms of quantity rather than quality. There’s too much focus on the number of tweets, likes, comments, page views, comments, etc. rather than the quality of the conversation. The same approach goes for social media services. It’s far better to do one thing really well, rather than many things average.

This is not to suggest some people and companies can’t have a social media arsenal with several tools but less can sometimes be more.

(Note: This post originally appeared on the Sysomos blog.)

Huh, Social Media Without a Strategy?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , ,

An essential part of social media is having a strategic plans that addresses why a company wants to do social media, the goals and objectives, how success will be defined, who's going to make social media happen, and how it will be integrated into sales and marketing activities.

So is was pretty surprising to see a recent study by Digital Brand Expressions in which 78% of respondents said they are using social media but only 41% have a strategic plan.

At first blush, it seems bizarre that companies could embrace social media without a strategic plan – something that is probably applied to other parts of the business.

Of course, it goes without saying that not having strategic plan is a huge mistake but many companies are jumping into social media armed with enthusiasm but, unfortunately, little else.

It explains why many companies are frustrated and disappointed when their social media efforts fail to make an impact. This often causes them to withdraw from social media, which is another mistake.

Like any business activity, social media needs a strategic plan before for it to be launched. Given its importance and need, companies need to invest the time and effort to go through this process. It may be a necessary evil because a strategic plan takes time to create but it has to happen.

In Social Media, Content is Still King

By Mark Evans in Social Media 3 Comments Tags: , , , ,

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.

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