The Tendo View

Tendo has lots of clients (both B2B and B2C) who are in various stages of adopting social media strategies. Some are wrestling with ratings and reviews. Others are trying to encourage internal bloggers and Twitter users to be more active and engaged in the blogosphere. Still others are in the listening stage, using social media monitoring tools to collect data about online conversations and struggling to convert that data into actionable analysis.

A common misstep I see is the tendency to rush toward social media without a clear idea of why. Facebook pages, proprietary communities, and Twitter accounts pop up all over without a clear strategy behind them. This doesn’t bother me as much as another habit I’ve noticed—because, after all, social media is relatively new (in the grand scheme of things) and companies will figure out their strategies soon enough, especially after diving in.

The other habit, though, is a bigger concern. Some companies rush toward social media with the assumption that that’s all there is—that social media should replace other communications channels and, for instance, that Web content is so “yesterday.”

I couldn’t disagree more. Rather than trade social media for other channels, I believe companies need to integrate social media elements with existing channels in ways that benefit both. Integrate community discussions into your Web content (and link from one to the other); bring your case study company representatives in as guest bloggers; include a real-time hash-tagged Twitter stream on your events landing page.

This blog post from SandersSays captures my point perfectly:

“When I asked him what his social media strategy was, his answer surprised me:

“You don’t need a social media strategy—you need a brand strategy that leverages social media. Don’t get off the brand strategy just because there’s a new communications channel; that’s how you lose the plot as a brand. Technology is the tail, not the dog.”

Wow. He’s spot on. I saw this back in ‘97 when companies had to quickly create an “Internet strategy,” often wasting tons of money on agencies, consultants, and painful meetings. What they eventually realized was that they needed to integrate this new communications channel in their brand promise/fulfillment approach to their customers. Those that did succeeded wildly in the coming years.”

How are you integrating your Facebook pages with your Web content? Or landing pages with Twitter streams?