Gabrielle Medecki, marketing director for Wolfgang’s Vault (a kick-ass 9-year-old music website if you’ve never visited) questions whether the creation and guidance of a social media plan (also called a social media policy or a social media strategy) is a sound business decision.
In an interview with Marketing Vox, she reminds us that social media is about living in the moment and how anything can go viral at any time. Conversations are formed when “everyone is talking about” a product, a service, a company. She suggests the unpredictability of social media may endanger your plan for online behavior.
Should you have a plan? Obviously.
But how necessary is it to be all inclusive?
Look to Microsoft for guidance. Their policy for social media is simple:
“Be smart.”
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Proper plan, the path to achievement.
A plan!
Ooops that’s where I went wrong :-/
I just do it as it happens if you know what I mean, I don’t have a social media plan.
Thank you for this content rich article. Social Media is a great blogging tool. I am a newby and just in the process of learning that’s why I landed on this page looking for great contents. Thanks for your efforts in providing this.
It’s certainly true that social media can be unpredictable. That’s pretty much in it’s nature. I tend to find that as well as being unpredictable, it rewards unpredictability. The things that tend to go viral are the things out of the ordinary that catch people’s attention. So maybe I’d make a small addition to Microsoft’s concise policy: “Be smart. Be unpredictable”.
Unpredictable yes, but unpredictable in lots of different ways. Blogs, for instance – some are updated on a daily basis, while others more rarely (in extreme cases two or three times a year!) – and some after a bout of frantic activity just seem to disappear. I guess tho that “social media” in the strict sense really refers to sites such as FaceBook and Twitter etc – I mean, some blogs are just plain anti-social and don’t respond to comments at all; some sites that call themselves blogs don’t even accept comments.
Sometimes comments are not responded if there is nothing in the comment that calls out to someone, “HEY YOU! YEAH YOU! READ WHAT I HAVE TO SAY.” Lots of times, Sean, comments are a dime a dozen and there is nothing unique there.
I agree. I too often questions whether the creation and guidance of a social media plan is a sound business decision. Social media requires constant upkeep and interaction and many companies must hire someone full-time to fill this need. If you are a massive company you can easily justify and absorb these costs but many smaller and medium sized businesses do not have the time or resources to keep up with “Social” activities.
Ari – It’s like Gabrielle said, social media is about living in the moment and which is why I don’t have social media plan. I implement social media in my online business but I don’t have a solid plan for using it.
I think me not having a social media plan allows me to be more genuine with who I interact with on the social media platform. This is just my experience with using it, but I’m not surprised there are others out there that feel it is absolutely necessary to have a plan when using social media.
As for me, I just have a more “let things happen naturally” approach when it comes to social media. It works for me.
We should always have a smart plan in everything we do so that we know which path we are going to follow. It’s our guide or pattern to lead us to our goal. It can be applied also in social media to make us more aware and updated of the trend and changes online.
I think you need to have a general set of goals that you are working towards with your blog. Are you hoping to index your pages quicker, make useful contacts, find staff or promote opportunities for yourself or business? These are examples of general goals that you can achieve through social media and as long as you consider these when you are publishing social content then you are working in an efficient manner.
Hi Ari,
I couldn’t agree more. It is way important. Without a plan is like being Christopher Columbos without the map. It will make huge impact when you know your goal, the steps you are going to take, the expected results and not just in mind but in detailed-written plan.
Ward
My social media plan was simple.. I wanted to hire a smart intern who would be managing our social presence and float offers / quizzes to our followers. I personally think it’s working out great. Many people spend a lot of money and time doing extraordinary stuff to get nothing out of social networks. Simple presence and interaction with followers on twitter and facebook often results into converted sales for us.
January 18, 2011 at 2:38 PM
Your plan should be to interact more and Social media let’s you do just that… I think social media is an important tool in the SEO’s tool belt and should be a part of a company’s strategy.
Well SMO is the latest trend in increasing traffic to your site. It may not be as effective as SEO & back links, but I do believe as more and more people jump onto the social networking bandwagon, its going to be a very important to have a good strategy in place. Or you may find your site lagging behind . ‘Viral Videos’ has already show how friends sharing can lead to an huge explosion of traffic. It may be possible to recreate that for your site.
I for myself haven’t decided on a Social Plan for my site but am thinking of getting it organized ASAP.
Social media helps to harness and portray one’s individualistic skills, which otherwise goes unnoticed. But yes it would be a safe notion to interact and communicate with people with little discretion when online.
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