Social Media is NOT a Goal
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Photo via Flickr – akseabird
By now, many of you have heard about this magical, buzzworthy thing called Social Media. Heck, you’ve probably even heard me expound about it, personally. However, it’s really easy to get caught up in the mystique and the attraction of social media without fully understanding what you’re getting in to, or why you’re getting into it.
It is common for me to hear a business or organization have the following conversation:
“What about social media? Everybody’s on it. I really think we need to catch up.”
“True. We need a Facebook page.”
“Great idea. I’ll have my daughter make us one tonight.”
If you’ve had a conversation similar to this one, you’ve leapfrogged an enormously important component of any communications strategy: the strategy. WHY do you want to create a Facebook page? What does it help you do? What goal does it help you reach? If you don’t start with the goal in mind first, you’re not doing it right. And creating a Facebook page should not be your GOAL.
Social media is NOT a goal. Social media is a communications channel.
Saying that your goal is to have a Facebook page is equivalent to saying your goal is to have a newspaper ad, or to have a billboard. Those aren’t goals – those are communication channels to help you reach your communication goals.
So, again, social media in itself should not be a goal. Creating a Facebook page, or a blog, or a Twitter account should not be a goal. Increasing traffic to your website by 20% over the next six months is a goal. And perhaps social media can help you reach this goal, in concert with other integrated marketing communications.
The next time you enter a conversation like the example above… stop. Think about what your business or organization’s goals are, and then really think deeply about how social media can help you reach those goals. Maybe it can. Maybe it can’t. But the communication channel shouldn’t be your goal.
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