My advice to companies who think they need a “social media strategy” is to tell them that they have it all wrong. What companies need is a marketing strategy that has social media as part of the mix.
For most companies, this means changing/disrupting the operations of marketing people. Instead of “demand generation”, focus on “social capital”.
I was involved in a meeting where a “demand generation” program was discussed and I was shocked by the prices being mentioned. Then I realised, the cost of capturing/managing the leads/names/addresses was enormous. The technology cost alone was staggering much less the people cost of managing the data.
“Social Capital” doesn’t need planning only managing. Every companies says it talks its customer but in reality talk to only a small percentage. Social Media creates conversation with many more customers.
Building social capital means that the day someone makes an error or mistake, your audience/customers will be more willing to forgive. You should be more important to them as a source than as someone to vilify or pillory.
Simple. Stop spending on demand generation and move those funds to social media. And be tolerant. Convincing customers to listen to you is hard, social media isn’t any different to the sales cycle.