How to get up to speed on social media? 3 of 4
Now as we round the corner into the home stretch with using social media (cf. part 1 for introduction + part 2 for tutorials), it’s time to think about strategy. Granted, some pundits may talk strategy first, or concurrently with learning how to use social media…
Learning how to use social media is one thing. Learning how to use social media effectively is another thing called strategy (or strategery.) There are a bunch of articles that give advise and strategy and tactics about what social media can do for you or for your business or for your job search or for your whatever. But, this is where you have to do some strategic planning kind of thing so that social media can be effective for why you’re using it, for reasons like: to build relationships, make sales, extend your communication, reach certain goals, etc. And often it is valuable and helpful to work with a social media strategist / coach (like me, for instance) to define and refine that strategy.
Thinking through some kind of strategy is valuable for those of you who want to get something specific out of social media besides personal enrichment. Here’s a random selection of good articles about developing your social media strategy:
- 3 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Strategy + HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy (mashable.com)
- Develop a Social Media Strategy in 7 Steps (convinceandconvert.com)
- The Missing Ingredient in Most Social Media Strategies
- Social Media Supremacy: 10 Experts Reveal their Strategies (viperchill.com)
- The Missing Ingredient in Most Social Media Strategies (veryofficialblog.com) – distinguishing the difference between strategy vs. tactics or goals or metrics
- Using the POST Method to Craft a Social Media Strategy for Ministry (churchcrunch.com)
- Social Media Strategy in 30 Minutes (Connection Agent blog)
- Optimising Your Social Media Marketing Strategy (marketingtimes.com)
- Plotting Social Media Strategy – with 10 questions to consider
- Marketing 101 for Your Social Media Strategy (mequoda.com)
- How to Commit to a Social Media Content Strategy (socialmediatoday.com)
- Videos: Social Media Marketing in 3 minutes (upsidedowniceberg.com) + Marketing in a Social Media World (Stephanie Wonderlin) + Social marketing strategy tips (Louis Gray), SEO Social Media Marketing Strategies (impaqt.com)
And, the 2 best books about organizational social media strategy are: for businesses and corporations = Charlene Li’s Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, which I’ve reviewed; for non-profit organizations = Beth Kanter’s The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change.
There’ll be one more blog post on keeping up with trends and new developements to finish out this series.
