Social Media Bandwagon

Social Media Bandwagon

In The Sound Of Music, Julie Andrews sings “ Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start….”

Just in the last week alone I have been approached by at least four clients wanting to hop onto the social media bandwagon.

They seem to have “suddenly” found Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and have a desire to enter the social

media scene.

In all the cases I mention, these are clients with no sophisticated PR or communications program in place.

In exploring why the sudden interest, I get the impression that social media is seemingly accessible, it looks easy, and “everybody is using it”. In addition, one can be “liked”, and that is always appealing.

When I ask what they want to write about, I draw a blank.

I have simplified the above analysis slightly, however, I use it to illustrate a point.

Effective communications ensures that your message is delivered and understood by the recipient.

To maximize the effectiveness of communications, start at the beginning, it is a very good place to start.

To engage in effective communications, first define your objective – what messages do you want to deliver to whom and why.

Then create a strategy to achieve the stated objective.

The platform for delivery is simply one of the tactics used. In most cases multiple channels will be used to deliver messages ranging from traditional media, to social media, presentations, blogs, web site, advertising, direct marketing, events and so on.

Social media is an extremely valuable platform, and one I nearly always recommend as part of an integrated communications platform. To use social media efficiently you need to know what to say, which brings me back to the beginning.

To maximize the effectiveness of communications, start at the beginning, it is a very good place to start.

What do you think? Can one just hop on the bandwagon?

Photo Credit