Periodically, our organizations are faced with the question
of when and how to incorporate new trends into our business plans and
strategies. It’s the struggle between
the minimum our respective customers expect versus what the leading
organizations are doing. For instance, when the internet was young there were a
few of the visionaries who saw the value in incorporating a web site into their
marketing and communication plan. At
that time, there were a select few that had effective compelling web
sites. A short time later it was standard
operating practice to have a professional and informative web site. It was no
longer a luxury for the few. If you were
to be taken seriously, you were expected to have a user friendly, professional and
informative web site.
We are faced with s similar dilemma today in regard to
social media. In the early days of social
media some of the more insightful organizations incorporated social media into
their communications strategy. The rest
elected to wait and see. Social media
today like the internet of yesterday can be overwhelming and frightening yet
compelling.
While many are still trying to figure out which is a better
platform, Facebook or LinkedIn, you’ve already missed the boat to be on Twitter,
YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, Vine, etc.
By the time you finish reading this article someone will have introduced
another in a long line of the next great social media outlets. Some will be successful others will
fail. How do you sort them out and how
do you know which are the right ones for you?
The answer depends on your organization and its members or
customers. This blog can serve as an
example. Remember all the parts are
interchangeable. Depending on your
business, some elements may be more effective than others as people receive
their information and communicate in different ways. This is why there is no one correct strategy
for everyone. Any communication strategy must incorporate multiple elements to
be effective. It all starts with a
communication hub. For me that means a
compelling web site or in this case a blog site. Make certain your web site is easy to
navigate and allows the user to get the information they’re looking for with
little effort. You can also control the content of your web site so while it is
a constant the information will vary.
Then determine how to reach your target audience. Many communicate by e-mail and that is one
option. By using abbreviated messages
you can drive your customers to your web site by e-mail. This is only effective
if you have the e-mail address of everyone you want to do business with and
they are likely to follow a link to your message. To reach the rest of the
world you turn to social media. You can
post messages on your own LinkedIn group or groups where your customers go for
information. You can send tweets with
links and hash tags. Perhaps the one advantage
this digital age provides over print is you can track your progress and assess where
your message is well received and where it is not. I posted the link to this article on my
LinkedIn profile. I then shared it in a
variety of LinkedIn groups where I felt professionals like you might benefit
from its content. I then sent out a
summary and link to this blog on Twitter.
In the days and weeks that follow I can track the views of this blog and
assess where the viewers read the post and followed the link. In some cases the origin is from a message
board I do not use. This means someone
shared this link with their network, another benefit of utilizing social media.
I have one suggestion and a word of caution. I suggest
trying a variety of social media outlets.
They’re not complicated but it does take some research to understand the
culture of accepted practices by the users of the various outlets. For
instance, messages posted on Facebook pages vary greatly from those users
expect to see on a LinkedIn page. Caution: Due to the number and variety of
social media platforms it would difficult for most of us to devote the time and
resources to master them all. Even if you
did, they will evolve and new ones will emerge.
But like the growth of web sites, social media as a component of your
communication strategy is a must.
I will close with an article a friend posted in a LinkedIn
group of like minded professionals. It is about social media trends for
2014. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-trends-2014/
