Social media, so what?

[Lisa Moore]

As if we don't have enough trouble trying to help clients distinguish between content marketing strategy and content strategy, I'm now spotting a trend whereby clients are also talking about "social media strategy" as a completely separate beast. I have even seen a job title for "Social Media and Digital Content Director". 

I'm a simple gal, content is content - sure, there's a chocolate box full of different types, but it's basically one big box of chocolates. But maybe I'm wrong - maybe there does need to be a distinction and companies are right to give social media its own "identity", separate from the more generic "content" team/department/strategy.

Any thoughts...?

[Paola PH]

Hi Lisa,

I work as Social Media Manager, and I know everything is getting mixed up by now, but social is now touching many different areas as is a direct way to interact with audiences, so I am expected to have a content strategy specifically for social networks, that is not completely independent from the main messaging / corporate content strategy, but adds up more specific content, tone of voice and  tactics targeted for for each social network, you cannot communicate the same message in Facebook than in LinkedIn, or Wikipedia, because each network has its own uses and set of rules, hence is that sometimes a specialist is required. also social media content is based on trends and insights from social listening platforms, so content is shaped accordingly to user needs and interests for it to become popular, or "viral", it even is produced in conjunction with influencers.

Also, I am also dealing with other areas as customer satisfaction, CRM (as now socialCRMs are in use) and need to report on insights on the company, optimise campaigns, feedback on products and services as Social Media is an open window for  understanding better customers and audiences.

Hope this helps,

Paola

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[Caroline Holmes]

Hi Lisa, Paola,

For me, the ultimate "content" team would consist of a person dedicated to content and content strategy for each channel, working harmoniously together under someone with the knowledge, experience and passion to bring it all together... Of course, they'd need a data team too! Anyone know of a company with the budget and drive to achieve this?!

Caroline 

[Rick Yagodich]

All I can think is that this devolution is another sad reflection on the human condition: something newly shiny to get all excited about and a crowd gathering behind it as experts, to catapult themselves up the pyramid of importance.

In reality, this is no more and no less than one tiny aspect of the ability to communicate, but it will be blown out of all proportion by this week's trends. So expect to see people talking about social media strategy for the next 2-4 years, and even pushing the idea that there should be a dedicated CSMO on every company's board.

Director, strategists, whatever… the titles are being devalued in a clamour for attention. The roles themselves do not warrant those titles, but they attract the ambitious.

That said, there is a clear need for a social media strategy. But this belongs in the same basket as the overall communications' strategy. Anyone tasked with managing one singled social channel, or even all social channels, may be a social media tactician, but is not working at a strategic level. That would be like trying to win a war where the artillery, cavalry and infantry each have independent strategies - maybe even that each regiment within them has its own strategy. Strategy is devised at the level of the army. It includes the supply train. Strategy is prepared to take a loss on one front to secure a greater advantage on another.

In terms of your chocolate box, it is a certain size, and we have a hundred different chocolates we can put in it. But it has room only for 20-30. Which ones do we put in to make it most appealing to the broadest range of tastes? Do we stuff as many as we can in, or space them for aesthetics? One layer or two? Those are strategic questions. the recipe for each chocolate is a tactic, to stimulate the eyes, nose and taste buds in just the right way to elicit a moan of pleasure…

</rant>

[Lisa Moore]

Paola: I completely agree – social brings a lot more agility into the creation and delivery of micro-targeted content. Plus, it forces brands to take a more ‘customer/audience first’ approach to their content – as content strategists, we’ve long argued for that and now social is helping senior management ‘get it’ since they can literally see results more quickly. They don’t need to wait for some third-party company to generate a complicated report in a month’s time to tell them how a campaign is doing – they can see the number of shares/likes/views for themselves from day 1. (I know it’s not that simple, just making a point :)

And I certainly think it needs a dedicated person/people with that deep expertise handling the day-to-day.

But Caroline, I think your comment sums up what I’m thinking – social, video, marketing strategies all need to work together, as part of a cohesive whole... Rick, was writing this when your reply came in :) Totally agree – it is a bit ‘emperor’s new clothes’ and it’s just yet another case of finding myself having to say to clients, OK, you have a social media strategy, great, but here’s why it’s not enough. I always feel like I am the wet blanket.

And yes, I want all 100 chocolates :)

[Paola PH]

totally agree with that Lisa, Caroline -  it all needs to be integrated as whole ecosystem, including the input of each part/discipline, we have to use more cross-collaboration than ever, and having a customer-centric approach as our main guide.

[Steven Wilson-Beales]

Great points people.

At global radio we can see fluctuations in social media traffic up to 40% of overall audience. On one particular website it's as high as 90%. Once you get into those numbers it's all about a social media first strategy and using a specific tone of voice to engage people across multiple social media platforms.

This is the challenge we face as publishers - you now need to create content specific to platforms outside your own website and in some circumstances the website is no longer of primary concern.

If I consulted for a company and they said they needed the job title above, I would talk about the bigger content picture but also try and find out if they are serious about investing in content specific to a social media platform. We call them content unicorns.

Ps it's very hard to recruit for a social media expert, everyone is a social media expert these days!

Thanks

Steve

On Thursday, 6 August 2015, Paola PH <pao...@gmail.com> wrote:

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