Less Is More
Recently, after a long introductory phone call, I received an email from a client about how he thought I might help his business. The list included almost every facet of online and offline presence and interactions with customers, vendors, and employees.
I was flattered and also bowled over by his commitment. I had to tell him that I needed him to participate equally in making those things reality.
I started to write a response that turned into this blog post.
What Social Media Strategists Don’t Know About Growing Your Business
Social media — the tools and social networking sites — have come to be looked upon as some sort of “industry.” But it’s not. in the same way a mechanic’s Craftsman tool kit and his classes in who to use it aren’t why we hire him, our fluency with tools and knowledge of sites we use aren’t what grows businesses.
The art and the science of a social media professional is understanding your business and helping you choose the right tools and sites that will connect you to the customers who love what you do.
Our experience, our expertise, and our ability to build strategies and tactics that move businesses forward are what can bring, but they’re limited by what works in general. The answer for you isn’t a “general go do these things.”
Strategy is a realistic and practical plan to gain ground over time. It’s sets the plan of campaigns and tactics that will gain you visibility, traffic, brand identity, and loyal customers and fans. Upon meeting you and working with your business there are five things every social media strategist doesn’t know … (though every strategist should know these things about his or her own offering.)
- Is your business culture fit ready to participate and make relationships that last beyond a single transaction? A social media strategist can help you choose and learn how to use the tools to do that, but only you can follow through and make the relationships.
- What do you offer that no business like yours offers? How have you removed what customers don’t like and enhanced what they love? That single clear message is what your social media strategist can amplify, magnify, and help you connect people with.
- What is unique about the customers that you’re reaching out to? If you reach out to everyone, you’ll look just like the thousands of other businesses doing the same thing. Find that one group who needs what you offer and tailor all you do to make their lives easier, faster, and more meaningful. A social media strategist can help you find those people using the speed and the reach of the Internet.
A social media strategist can help you build tactics to reach goals and grow your business the ways business have been growing since business started … with relationships that stand behind your work and your products and services.
Yet no social media strategist can know whether a business is willing to invite the people who help it grow to participate, collaborate, and be part of what makes that business great.
If you’re a social media strategist, how do you find out whether a business is ready to grow? If you’re a business how do you know you’ve got the right social media strategist?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
I’m a proud affiliate of
Liz,
Thank you for your excellent post. Your thoughts are bang on. As a fellow social media strategist, I often have clients who approach me wanting to do everything for them, but I need to remind them that the work of a social media strategist is based upon their own corporate strategies and mapping those to social media. Without asking the types of questions to further understand our client’s corporate and marketing objectives like you list above, it is impossible for us to create any strategy on their behalf.
Looking forward to your future posts on social media strategists!
@NealSchaffer
Hi Neal,
Yeah, though it’s been said that we can “outsource” bedtime stories to our kids, the result is going to have a different effect than doing the reading ourselves. The same is true about inviting customers to be part of our business. We have to show up in the planning, in the strategizing, in the execution. A strategist can help guide our thinking, point out opportunities we might be missing, and predict reactions, but a strategist can learn for us what we learn by actually interacting, doing, and being part of the relationships that form. 🙂
Great post, Liz.
Social media can’t create your company’s value proposition, it is just an amplifier for it!
Hi Carol!
I love how you say it so simply. I need to hang out with you more!
Liz, I love this post.
I see these same issues beyond social media. I have done Marketing strategy for years and have the same types of discussions with clients. We can come into companies and help define value propositions, segment target markets, put plans together… What I struggle with at times is getting the client to really understand that they have to put some ‘skin in the game’ so to speak. We cannot make it happen alone and can’t take care of the details forever!
Hi Lee!
What I find is that looking in that client group for the “champion,” the one who is ready to try something, do something that will make a difference and enlisting that person’s help is what works for me. If I need to I ask if we can do one small thing. I find ways to raise that champion up. When good things, even the smallest good things happen, I make sure they’re amplified in ways that work for the client so that they want more. 🙂
Great post about business strategy and how to work with an outside consultant. As an organizational strategist, I’d also add a few of questions about whether:
1. They have a clear vision for the organization
2. The company has the ability to scale their organization to execute on this kind of work
3. The right kind of talent exists inside the organization
And finally–how committed are they to this as a strategy? So many companies seem to get into it and then do it haphazardly when the going gets tough on a daily basis. I think this can damage a brand even more.
Susan,
You are the kind of strategist that would be a pleasure to work with! I often start by asking a business leader a qualifying question, such as “What are your goals for the next two quarters?” Those who can’t or won’t share them are folks I know I don’t want to work with. Those who can have already been thinking about where they want to go. It’s a start. 🙂
Liz, another brilliant post.
Too many people think that merely grabbing as much social media real estate as possible is a magic cure for bad publicity or lack of exposure.
I always make sure to examine why each client wants to use a specific social site before recommending if and how they use it.
Hi Andy!
In this noisy world, it seems to me that if we don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing, no else can figure out why we’re talking so much either. One clear message is so important. 🙂
Productivity depends on the market size of the Business. As social media works as a great platform to build marketplace, once we have established with what we have(say genuine/unique/interesting) in this area, we will see the growth!
Hi Allen,
Don’t forget to ask for the business. I know many folks who are so genuine, unique, and interesting that everyone assumes they’re already too busy to have room for another client. 🙂
Liz great post!
I believe in cultural fit. If a company hires an outside social media strategist to fulfill a ‘void’, than they need to fit in the company. And by fit, I mean understand the culture, the direction, and have the same understanding of the end goal, thus knowing if the company is ready to grow.
Far too often SM strategists shy away from looking at the marketing plan for emphasis and direction. This is one of the first things they should be reviewing to see where SM can buffer areas that are missing or need emphasis. SM is complimentary to and not in place of marketing.