Strategy varies per target group
A strategy is actually a battle plan; the way in which an organization wants to realize its vision. That does not sound so difficult, but in practice it turns out to be stubborn. When mission and vision are formulated, it is usually in abstract concepts and empty sentence constructions. Now translate that into concrete (online) goals across the entire company.
In addition, it is usually necessary to take a different course per subject; a completely different approach may be required per target group. It makes quite a difference whether you are dealing with a young or older audience, low or highly educated, digital illiterate or internet nerd and from hardly to strongly involved in your organization. It is therefore much more logical to determine the desired communication strategy subject, product or service.
dead endA social media strategy is about resources. And so, in no time at all, you are having discussions about whether or not your organization should be active on Twitter and whether or not a Facebook page is a good idea. That is not relevant and certainly not strategic.
What is relevant and strategic? Determine how you can contribute to the realization of organizational ghana phone number list communication or marketing objectives with (online) communication. And make your organization aware of the fact that the changes in the media landscape mainly have consequences for the mindset of the organization. An (online) communication strategy today is, for example, about the consequences (and opportunities!) of real-time communication and (in government) about the consequences of the shifting of authority due to the radical emancipation of the internet user.
Another big pitfall of a separate social media strategy is neglecting the rest of the online communication. It is a risk to invest (a lot of) time and money in social media and at the same time have a lousy website that is not optimally findable, accessible, user-friendly and readable. With that you make yourself somewhat ridiculous.
But what should I do then?
Hopefully, you have not concluded from the above that you should not do anything with social media. On the contrary! Social media are indispensable and offer great opportunities for (online) communication. Just beware of the pitfall of thinking in terms of means. And be aware of the fact that social media are means. Which, by the way, have an enormous impact on how we live and work and therefore on your organization. And how you deal with that impact should be discussed in a strategy!
What do you think?
Is your organization developing a social media strategy? In my opinion, strategic use of a tool is different from creating a strategy for a tool. I am curious about the discussion in your organization and your opinion on this topic!