so good! we just had twitter training here at my work, and there was a discussion about how it can’t just be a marketing platform, we have to have something compelling to say.
Well said. People lose sight of their goals/mission. I always think “Oh boy, here we go…” when we ask a client, “What are the goals for your website.” and get a blank stare in return.
Twitter training! Who’d have thunk it.
Great post. I’m constantly amazed at how many people pursue a strategy (whether it be social media or something else) with no regard to what, as you put it, The Mission is. You might also enjoy this one.
This is great to hear from a church who has a lot of staff involved in social media. “Quantify the strategy. Set measurable goals and hold people accountable to hitting them. Otherwise you’re paying someone to play on Facebook and Twitter all day, and no matter what they say, that just ain’t business.” = Gold
Oh, don’t I know it. While I am the one that maintains my company’s FB page, twitter, flickr, and blog, I do so because I don’t want anyone else to screw it up.
I am constantly battling the marketing department who doesn’t understand that “The Mission” behind this sort of networking is to be a participant in our industry with grace and poise. It is to show that we are real people who care more about interacting with our clients and potentials and less about making a buck.
I see social networking (as far as businesses are concerned) as an opportunity to improve and expand one’s online image. There should be absolutely no other ulterior motive! Anything else comes across as desperate and/or skeezy.
Thankfully, I also work in an environment where I can exercise my right to say “NO.” And no one is getting these usernames and passwords. You’ll have to pry them from my dying grasp.
I think that Twittering is a very valuable key to many companies and organizations. It gives them ability to communicate projects, services, new releases (products), etc. Of course, so many companies can misuse Twitter as well, like ONLY advertising, instead of sharing things like company secrets, stories, etc. MySpace allows corporations the ability to connect with their consumers, giving their company that certain ‘edge’.
AMEN! That is all.
About The Author
I'm a graphic designer and sometimes writer living in Anderson, South Carolina. I serve as the Design Director for NewSpring Church. I love Jesus, my wife, Levi's Jeans, good Tex-Mex, and 8oz glass bottle Coca-Cola Classic. On good days I love them roughly in that order. Email me.
The Social Media Strategist/Guru Has No Clothes
Wed 01/28/09
“Social Media! Social Media!” they all cry. It’s everything. It’s all-important. It’s capitalized. If you don’t have a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WhateverIsNextThatYouHaven’tHeardOfYet account for your company or organization or clambakesale, you can’t possibly function or be successful, right? And if you don’t have someone that understands all of it, you can’t possibly pull it off by yourself—you need a Social Media Strategist/Guru/Mahatma to run point and decipher the turbo-complicated, multi-leveled world of the big, wide web.
Only you don’t.
You don’t need those sites and you don’t need that guy on your team. You need to find The Mission and do everything in your power to ignore the voices that compromise it. If social media can help support The Mission and drive it forward and reach more people (which it typically can), then by all means, use it. But it will only help if you already have something truly remarkable going on. If you don’t, your social media strategy isn’t any different from a 13 year old girl posting on her BFF’s Facebook wall. Only it’s way more embarrassing.
And the guru? Maybe they are indispensable. Just be wary if their only strategy is “if you blog it, they will come.” Quantify the strategy. Set measurable goals and hold people accountable to hitting them. Otherwise you’re paying someone to play on Facebook and Twitter all day, and no matter what they say, that just ain’t business.