Planning a Social Media Strategy

Planning a Social Media Strategy by social media expert, Joanne Jacobs

When the financial services sector make public claims about their intentions to mobilise social media to improve their service offering, you know that social media is no longer a mere fad.  On closer inspection, the actual tasks for which the sector plan to use social media are for cheaper, more direct customer service and monitoring of investments and competitors in the market, so the actual deployment of social media is not terribly innovative, yet it is decidedly effective for their purposes.  But what's crucial about this kind of public announcement is that it indicates the maturity of social media as a measurement tool for real-time changes in the marketplace, affecting stock prices, public reputation and customer loyalty. 

Of course the problem with the strategies being presented by many organisations adopting social media is that they assume

this is a new loudspeaker for delivering ideas, messages and traditional marketing gumf in the manner they have traditionally done in broadcasting, print and outdoor media.  Indeed the very word 'deliver' is a misunderstanding of the nature of social media.  It's not a channel you tune in to and receive carefully crafted messages designed to present a brand at its best.    If it is a channel at all, it is the kind that predates the industrial revolution - a canal for communication between multiple sources with a highly complex economy of information sharing and reputation development achieved by sharing of honest and drafted, rather than crafted information. 

This sophisticated information exchange system is one which requires a great deal of learning and experimentation before it can be effectively deployed for tracking ideas and communicating with audiences.  It takes time to build reputation, and it takes a humble approach, rather than brash "ASK ME HOW!" effrontery.  It needs a combination of monitoring and careful strategic thinking before it will generate observable value to the organisation.  It's not a matter of setting up a Facebook page and a twitter account and using them to archive press releases or make aggressive sales-oriented statements, and expecting customers to flock to your door.  It's not even sufficient to provide a simple marketing hook that may have drawn people in the door to a retail outlet or via a print advertisement.  These technologies require sustained engagement and the exposure of the distinctly personal, warts-and-all personality of the individuals within an organisation.

Now this does not mean that information that would normally regarded as private - information that refers to your private life, personal medical or romantic details and your activities at the pub or club  - will necessarily find its way on to your public profile via social media tools.  Indeed it is imperative that such information be kept private.  Instead it is a reversal of the trend of the past fifty years in developing brands as vast, disembodied, yet desirable and perfect concepts.  Social media is enabling the recognition of the role and personalities of the people who build and inhabit  organisations, brands and services. And make no mistake: social media has come about precisely because consumers are dissatisfied with the cosmetic surgery that marketing has inflicted on brands with increasing plasticity over the years.  There is, in all media, evidence of the desire for reality.  While programmes like Big Brother and The Apprentice (among numerous others) are still deeply constructed and crafted, it is the people in these environments which capture our attention.  It is their stories, their struggles that are compelling.  It's a relationship that is forged and developed, not a mere billboard. 

This is what social media can be: an opportunity to identify and share your journeys and your values within the context of your organisation. It is a chance to seek out assistance from your audiences, to be honest about what is happening within your organisation and perhaps most importantly, to listen.

In developing a social media strategy, organisations risk seriously damaging their reputation if they pursue a piecemeal approach to social media, but there's also a risk of losing trust altogether if they fail to strategise for social media at all.  So there's another lesson to be learned from financial services industries and their adoption of social media: in a sector that has traditionally been risk-averse and yet has been battered by the global economic crisis, it helps to have a social media approach which is as much about listening to its customers as it is about listening to everyone else. 

If you're interested in online marketing and social media mentoring tailored to your organisation, feel free to discuss an application for funding through Striding Out. To enquire about email [email protected]

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