An integrated social media strategy

     It’s important to have a new media strategy attached to your new media tactics—or you’ll find yourself running around in circles and left with a sense that all this online networking stuff is a big fat waste of time.

     Here are some worthy marketing objectives where new media tactics can excel:

• Do you want to spread your content and expertise to new audiences?
• Do you want to network with like-minded individuals and companies?
• Do you want to build a community of evangelists?
• Do you want to involve your customers and prospects in co-creation?
• Do you want to automate the process of repurposing content?
• Do you want to reach new audiences in the exact way they choose to communicate?
• Do you want to be seen as a thought leader in your industry?
• Do you want ways to aggregate and filter content so you and your people can digest it?
• Do you want to easily hear literally everything that’s being said online about your brand, products, or industry in real time?
• Do you want to be seen as a trusted source of information?

     I think the best way to look at social media is to view it as a way to open up new access points. These points can then be leveraged to create content, context, connection, and community. Do that well, and they can also add to lead generation, nurturing, and conversion. And that’s the payoff of social media. But get the order wrong, get the interaction wrong, get the participation wrong—and you may never see much return on the time you invest.

     Social media conversations are just that—open, honest, transparent conversations, not sales pitches or shouting festivals.

     Source: Let’s talk, Social Media for small busniess, version two (John Jantsch) e-book