From brands big and small, I am consistently seeing social media effortsthat are driven by social media goals. Social media is still a nascent tool and that means that most still don’t truly understand how to utilize it effectively. Couple that fact with the often inherent conflicts of interest from social media professionals having to justify their existence and you have a recipe for a very ineffective result.
Social media is a tactic, not a strategy. Your business strategy and goals need to lead your social media campaigns. Otherwise, you have the tail wagging the dog.
I have seen campaigns from major brands that are built on getting likes, votes or followers. Those efforts are only interim milestones or goals at best. As a business, your end goal needs to be customer loyalty and revenue generation. If not, you are generating R.O.E. (return on ego) instead of R.O.I. (return on investment).
I will be speaking more about this at MPI’s Tech Con on February 8 in Chicago: http://bit.ly/mpitechcon. If you have questions you would like for me to address there or in future blogs about business strategy and social media, please leave those questions in the comment box.
Also, here are two videos (part 1 and 2) that I did with Mark Carter talking about some of the strategic social media mistakes that companies and meeting planners make.
