Strategy - easy on the T&A

I've been writing a social media strategy, it isn't my first, but since the first few I've written I feel the use of social media has matured, also, as we are constantly told, these are leaner times, and hours spent on social networks must be justified, particularly to higher management who may associate something like Facebook with something their teenage kids play with. Of course, in higher education, that is the exact reason why we are using social media, we're going to where our audience are. However, without a clear strategy, complex and well judged social media activity can come across as sophisticated as hanging out in the local park with a sandwich board.

I used a standard CIM style SOSTAC strategy, but it was heavy on the situational analysis and light on the actual actions. This may seem shallow, but, in itself, social media strategies are shallow - in a couple of years they probably won't exist, this is still a hangover from the shock of the impact of social media on business, and many people still think of it as an end, not a means - an undergraduate recruitment strategy is common but we don't have a billboard/48sheet strategy, it's a method, not an objective.

This is why my social media strategy is heavy on the S and light on the T and A (hmm, unfortunate letters), because it would end up 30 pages long, no-one would read it and it would be out of date in 6 months time.

I consider the purpose of a social media strategy as an overview of where we are using this channel, so far (it's rare, particularly in a university, that people wait for a fully formed strategy before diving in), how successful it's been, and where errors have been made. Then over arching aims (recruitment etc) and some specific SMART objectives for the establishment of the channel as part of standard marketing and communications protocol. I discussed integration with existing activity, but personally didn't link these to specific campaigns, I know that isn't a SMART objective exactly, though I didn't add some time parameters).

Finally I added measurements. This section is important because it outlines the fact that all we do is measurable - these are no longer the days of Wanamaker.

Hopefully this will be useful to you - you could disagree completely and feel pages of specific action are important, but remember that these actions should be in individual campaign strategies, and no-one wants to read the same thing over and over!


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