Sure, “social” has been a hype word for some time now. We’ve seen the icons, tags, and ads. What shocks me is that after all this time, social marketing is still not being done properly. It astounds me that most companies are doing social just because everyone else is.

Let me ask, before you added that blog or shiny Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn icon, did you have a strategy for each? What was the desired impact? Was there a specific goal(s)? If you answered “Uh…” to any of these questions then chances are you’re missing the point of social marketing. Like any avenue of marketing, you need a strategy. You have to have a goal, otherwise how will you be able to measure and eventually meet and/or exceed it?

I think a common misconception is that “someone told me I need a company Facebook page, so I built one. Then someone told me I needed a company Twitter account, so I got one of those as well.” I should have said to myself, “Well, yes I can build a Facebook page and yes I can create a Twitter account. BUT, do I have a plan, strategy, and clearly defined goals for each? Should I create them at the same time? How am I going to leverage these avenues? How are they going to bring value to my company?”

I know, I know…that’s a lot of questions. But they are good, relevant questions that are the key to social marketing success. In our marketing world, we market to segments of contacts. These are targeted groups that we sorted and organized based on activity and nurturing. Let me give that to you again, targeted segments based on information we’ve gathered. Now if we go through that painstaking process to market to our target audiences, why in the world would we create a hum drum social page with no intended purpose and try to direct those cultivated leads to it?!

If you have hum drum social marketing avenues or don’t remember the last time you looked at your companies Facebook page, or maybe you’ve been thinking of creating social avenues but haven’t yet, start with this great article: Stop Doing Social Just to Be Social.

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