The Social Media Strategy

HiveFire on Content Curation (Feb 10 2010) Marketing , Social Media

1. For many of us, social media is a blessing - guiding us toward the answers we seek by shortening search times, summarizing the big pictures and offering up quick analysis.  As individuals, social media has allowed us to develop an online identity and share our views to an audience size that has typically been reserved for the rich and famous. But for businesses, social media can cripple communication efforts. In his article The Information Divide: The Socialization of News, Brian Solis stresses that information moves with or without businesses. Business communicators often have to choose between being accurate or immediate when distributing content online, and they do so not as an individual blogger or tweeter, but as a brand, with significantly more to lose.

   Own social media discussions. Publish relevant industry content to your website.

   So is social media a lose-lose proposition for businesses? Many certainly don’t think so. Of course more resources must now be allocated toward staying on point with the media and delivering relevant, compelling content to the new “human network” online, but the communication opportunities available are new, and particularly friendly to the burgeoning small business community looking for way to get their voice heard.

   Leverage social networking sites. They can help define your leaders as online thought leaders.

   In the realm of social media, ignorance is everything but bliss. Most organizations are playing around with social media, but becoming really relevant in the online content space separates the men from the boys.  When a company takes it upon themselves to become an information provider, prospects turn to them for advice; gaining this trust is light at the end of the social media tunnel. It’s a position any organization would love to be in, but one that takes a dedicated commitment to finding and providing relevant info. So don’t turn a blind eye to the online community; add links to press releases and resources such as a trade publication, microsite or news portal to your website.

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