Are you a business owner trying to figure out how your profiles on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are going to create buzz for your business? Or, more importantly, are they going to create buzz that will lead to more business?
Social media is not a silver bullet no more than newspaper ads are or the 30 second radio or TV spot. Just like any form of advertising, the first thing you need is a strategy. You must use your strategy to help generate the keywords, titles & content that you will write in your profiles on all of these social media sites.
Lets start with a few questions:
- Who is my audience or who do I want my audience to be?
- What information will my audience be looking for and how can I supply that information?
- Who is my competition and how can I be unique enough to stand out? EX: How many other online wine retailers are there? Why does everyone know who Gary Vaynerchuk is and not them?
- What result am I looking to produce related to my presence on this site?
This is much easier if you do this before you start signing up for sites and filling in profiles but don’t worry if you have already signed up, most of these sites are easy to edit. Also, once you get this setup you can easily transfer this info to other sites so you have a consistent brand across the web.
Lets examine these…
Who is my audience or who do I want them to be?
Do you know who your audience is? Look at your product line and customer database and try to figure out who your ideal customer is. If you are happy with your current customer then focus on them. You already have the data, look at it and try to build a picture of your ideal customer. If you want to target a new customer the next question is very important.
What information will my audience be looking for and how can I supply it?
Create buyer personas (detailed descriptions, several sentences long, of your typical buyer) for each of your target markets. Depending on your product line you many have many of these personas.
Who is my competition and how can I be unique enough to stand out?
If you were going to buy a hybrid car, which one is the number one selling hybrid in the US? The Toyota Prius. Is it better than all the other hybrids that exist. Edmunds.com list 32 different models of hybrids from 14 different manufacturers. Yet one outsells all the others. Why? If you were going to compete against Prius you would have to be more than just another hybrid. What makes you stand out against your competition. Are you just another company performing the same thing or is what you offer unique and different.
What result am I looking to produce related to my presence on this site?
Why am I on this particular network. Is to build your brand? Connect with your customers? Drive traffic to your website that you can convert to sales? You need to give some clear thought to that and build your strategy around that. Understand that some networks are better at some of those goals than others. Some prohibit selling in their terms of service, others may not prohibit it but the members may not appreciate it and if you try that route you may have significant backlash from the community.
Just like the US Marines have different battle tactics for attacking from the water, in the mountains. or in the desert, you need to have different tactics in your marketing and you need to remember that social media is only one of them. Without a larger strategy to tie it all together you will likely invest a lot of time putting out an incoherent message that generates little to no results.
Christopher Johnston (@chrisjohnston) is 37-year old husband, father, christian, iPhone owner, and new Mac user. A recovering former financial advisor, passionate about the new green economy and how it will help my hometown, New Orleans, recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Image courtesy of Pete Kim
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Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Easton Ellsworth is owner of 
I’ve been trying to explain to small business owners in my area that it’s all part of the conversation. They still have to close the deal, but the chances to close the deal is greatly enhanced by getting known through social media.
So… “A Screwdriver is a Tactic, Not a Strategy” would make sense then too??? Why does everybody keep calling a tool a tactic? This line of thought is only making people realize who hasn’t really thought the dynamic through. Business Management 101 Professors everywhere are cringing at the misuse of terminology.
If you are speaking to an educated Small Business Owner they will see the miss-logic and misuse of of terminology and hire someone else.
Randall,
I think our disagreement is one of semantics. To me tools are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, ActiveRain, etc..
When I am talking about them collectively I refer to them as a tactic. My line of reasoning is that strategies require specific tactics, which utilize specific tools to execute that tactic.
I totally get what you’re saying Chris.
My strategy is to reach moms who want to work at home with free resources that make them want to give me their email address and get to know me – ultimately drawing them into my marketing funnel to spend money on my paid resources, membership programs and coaching.
One of my tactics is to engage in social networking to go out and find them where they gather.
Individual social networks and forums are some of the tools I use to do that – along with my mailing list manager and the free resources I’ve created.
If I didn’t have a strategy going in, I’d be floundering – as many are.
Good post Chris