“What can we do with social media please?”
the prospective client asked at the end of the briefing.
It’s true that there are many examples throughout history where the technology or application stares vacantly out at the corporate market and gets all kinds abuse before it dies or we learn how to nurture it, use it with finesse, monetize it and respect its limits. This ephemeral animal is no different, success by any measure requires more than just an isolated fire and forget “social media presence request” at the digital agency.
One of the classic bear traps surrounds the actual quality of the connections made (it’s strange how rules of marketing orientation haven’t changed for over 50 years). With results blurring connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, reignited latent ties and just simply linking and preaching to the choir. It needs handling by experienced marketers, with brand motives converted into objectives and integrated as part of an overall communications strategy – and compatibility with multiple computer-mediated communication channels. It needs the respect of real business objectives, ethical and legal considerations, planning and the ability to change that plan, again and again as channel saturation and aggregation develops. It needs the statistics and reporting tools tied back with clarity and honesty to the objectives. But perhaps most of all it needs help to dress this social media Emperor with more clothes.
That said how much would you like and in what colour?
