Social Media Strategy Before Tactics?
Posted by: | CommentsLee Odden asked this interesting question of several dozen social media insiders. Their answers make up his latest blog post, which you can find here:
http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/04/social-media-strategy-tactics/
The overwhelming majority said “Of course you need strategy first.” But Guy Kawasaki had a different answer. He said,
“Get more followers, make them happy, promote your stuff to them once in a while. That’s all you need to know about strategy right now.”
What’s most interesting to me about his statement is that it reveals perspective. For someone like him – the big Apple corporate evangelist – “planning a strategy” could be a year-long process in his world.
But for small business owners or anyone with a limited base of technology resources, his simple advice of “Get more followers, make them happy, promote your stuff,” can seem daunting.
If you set out to “get more followers” would you know the first step to take? Or does the thought of figuring out the first step give you a headache and cause you to look for the next item on your to-do list? Doesn’t it feel much more reassuring to get someone who knows the ropes to develop a simple strategy for you?
(By the way, throwing a few hundred bucks every month at some VA to post tweets for you does NOT count as “developing a simple strategy.” That’s the worst example of tactics without a strategy.)
I agree that spending months of time or thousands of dollars on simply “creating a plan” is overkill with your social media efforts, no matter who you are or what size your business. By the time your 3-month analysis and write-up is complete, the market will have shifted beyond recognition. Again.
But that’s exactly the same reason why most business owners do themselves a tremendous disservice when they attempt to do their social media themselves – or hire an assistant to manage it for them. You’re in business to do your business – not to stay on top of every twist in the marketing landscape, and figure out how to capitalize on every new opportunity.
Do yourself a favor and find yourself someone who knows marketing and who also knows social media and have them help you with your strategy before spending a penny on your tactics.
Someone like me, for instance. 
Email me at JuliaKlinePersonal@gmail.com to continue the conversation.
Should you have separate personal and professional profiles on Facebook?
Posted by: | CommentsFacebook was created as a way for people (specifically college kids) to stay in touch with each other. As it’s grown, marketers have figured out how to leverage it … but more and more people, besides just college kids, are also using it exactly the way it was originally intended.
So marketers are left asking the question of whether to separate their business and professional endeavors by creating two separate profiles on Facebook.
The simple answer is no, don’t separate the two. First, from your friends’ perspective:
- if you’re sending out enough marketing messages that your friends would be annoyed, so would your customers!! Stop!
- Social media is not a broadcast medium. People don’t tune in because they want to be inundated with your one-way sales messages.
- Having to think about your friends receiving the same messages that your potential customers are getting is a great filter, or test, as to how much you should be sending out.
And second, from your customers’ perspective:
- The magic of social media as a sales machine is that it builds rapport for you. Because your potential customers get to see stuff about your personal life, they come to know you, like you and trust you … and therefore will buy from you.
I said that was the simple answer. Now for the more complex answer.
If you’re doing social media marketing in any sizable way at all, you probably want to think about having a fan page. It’s every bit as flexible as a personal page, but it has the advantages of unlimited # of fans, plus great tracking.
Iyou want more info about how to do that effectively, that’s what we’re here for! Give us a shout.
