For all of the flowery, unicorn and fluffy bunny adjectives and buzz words that float in the nebulous twittersphere /social mediascape, it’s a word of military origin that is the most effective in Social Media success: Strategy.
When we talk about strategy, it’s worth noting the origin of the word.
“Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.”
Thanks Wikipedia!
Much as the military does not go into battle without a plan, I never encourage a client to go into the social web without a plan. When designing a Social Media strategy for a client—as I did today—I don’t start by talking about what sites they are going to use or go on at great lengths about “the conversation.” I look at it as a General might… I see three components: Goals, Strategies, Tactics.
Before designing the strategy, I need to know the goals.
Goals: What do you want to accomplish, specifically and measurably and by when? This is the outcome. This is the basis for strategy creation. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
Strategy: This is the plan to get there. To be clear, this is not the “tactics,” or the “methods” there is a difference. A strategy is an overarching plan that is the result of tactics. It’s more the “what” you are trying to accomplish than it is the “how” you are going to accomplish it.
Tactics: This is where we get granular. This is the specific action items, the everyday tasks and chores.
An Example: The strategy for my main blog, Social Media Philanthropy, looks a little like this:
GOALS:
- Double the number of subscribers I have in the next 6 months, ending June 1st.
- Generate 2 business leads from my blog by June 1st.
- Increase traffic to 2,000+ visitors per week
STRATEGY:
- Get new readers via current readers
- Be more assertive in asking for new business opportunities from readers
- Increase the reach of my blog by exposing it to new areas of the web
TACTICS:
- Add strong calls to action at the end of each blog post
- Ask 5 Facebook Fans per week to promote my blog and help me spread the word
- Add SMP to 3 blog directories per week
- Write 4 blog posts about my work at Devine + Powers and make it very clear the type of companies I’d like to work with
- Sign onto LinkedIn Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week and reach out to someone new about my blog each time.
Are you using strategy to dictate your Social Media activity? If you are not, contact me, because to me, this is war, and I want to win.