“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”
That’s social media in a nutshell.
As we come to the close of 2015, marketing execs will be wide-eyed with excitement about strategies for the coming year. They’ll scurry to highlight trend lines and various pieces of ROI data to justify their bold plans for 2016.
And social media departments will not be exempt.
The sheer speed of social media can be tempting, allowing you to rapidly experiment and try new messaging, deftly moving from one targeted audience to the next, one medium to the next. Looking to advertise to manufacturing CEOs in southeastern Wisconsin through LinkedIn? No problem. Want to live tweet from your next conference? Social’s got you covered. Is your Facebook audience not as active as you had hoped? Fine, let’s try YouTube.
With social, you can certainly be quick.
But like any good marketing campaign, a good social campaign is tied to a greater strategic plan. Just because you can swiftly pivot from one social campaign to the next, one audience to the next, one social platform to the next, doesn’t mean you always should.
The best approach to social media is an agile one – a process allowing for speed, but still based in thoughtful execution.
With so many potential outlets and audiences, social managers need to have more frequent conversations with their teams and supervisors about the what, where and why of their social messaging. It’s critical for everyone to be on the same page about how social campaigns tie into an organization’s larger business goals and objectives. This helps you stay nimble in the social sphere, while always remaining focused on strategy.
So for the New Year, be smart and be quick.
But don’t ever hurry.
-Mike Shefky is an account supervisor at The Ritterbusch Group.
