Corporate robot was managing their online and social marketing strategy in a space where consumers turn to talk with human beings.

If you are on Twitter, have a strategy.        If you are on Facebook, have a strategy.        If you are online, have a strategy.

Common theme today is strategy and the dire need for one, whether you are online for personal reasons or online for professional purposes. Perhaps this should be filed as a rant, or perhaps should not be written at all; however, I enjoy writing what I am thinking.

So where is this coming from? A conversation with an extremely friendly gentleman who I sat next to on my Southwest flight last week.

I settled into my normal (or however normal it can be) routine when I fly Southwest and turned to my row-mate to say hello and learn more about him; a flight in conversation is a much better use of time than a flight watching a movie. We ended up talking for the majority of the flight about social media, but more as he knew social media and believed social media was: twitter.

We started with a crash-course (our flight was only 2 hours long, and I tend to be long-winded) in how Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogging, etc are simply platforms to engage with business partners, current customers, potential partnerships and customers, and build brand awareness. Then we moved onto Twitter. Unfortunately his experience with Twitter was with, what I would call, billboarding and viewed Twitter as an advertising tool (billboarding) to push content onto the online world, push their message to customers online, and simply convert their offline marketing strategy with their online marketing strategy.

He was, after all, a consumer at that point AND part of a brand who wanted to push their content in the online world.

Fast forward about three months, and he convinced his company to go social media and begin their journey with Twitter and Facebook. Three months after their launch the company was trying to figure out why their Twitter followers were low and their Facebook FanPage was not growing at the same rate of others. Unfortunately they are not the first, only, nor last brand to experience this.

Thirty minutes and a coffee after landing – and the availability to connect to the internet – it was very clear what happened. I will share a bullet list of what went wrong:

• Company had a lack of strategy
• Company had a lack of understanding of platforms available
• Spaghetti approach – they threw everything onto the wall and see what sticks BUT never had conversations
• Employees engaged and spearheading the campaign had limited knowledge of online branding
• Assuming offline strategy would convert easily online based on limited exposure

What went correctly:

• Company knew the importance of social media and thought it imperative for their presence online
• Company had produced some wonderful content to share online (articles, press releases, highlights)
• Employees involved did not give up, were trying to learn and reach out, and truly believed in their company (I hope they do receive special recognition)

Where did this bring us? In the end of the day, the company had great content they were pushing into the online space but never talked with (or responded to) their followers and customers. The company did not have any metrics in place to judge and measure their success with social media.

Corporate robot was managing their online and social marketing strategy in a space where consumers turn to talk with human beings.

My suggested changes to their approach were simple, easy to change in the short-term, and would yield them some quick turn around. There certainly is more this company can explore, but until the responsibility is taken upon (or delegated) to oversee the social media strategy, step one is a giant step in the right direction.