I meant ‘irrelevant’ as in a semantic disconnect rather than an intellectual one (i.e. the question of whether we’re talking strategies or tactics is ultimately irrelevant).

I just found BrandTwist and I’m delighted I did — too few strategists are able to come up with cogent, practical guidelines that businesses can really use (sheepishly raises hand admitting to bouts of cerebral theorizing). Your clients are evidently in good hands

Thanks for the kind words
Russell

It seems you are on to my devlish ways.

The provacative title was less to “draw convention crowds” and more to draw intelligent people such as yourself into the debate.

Glad it worked

I do believe you need both a brand strategy and a creative strategy (and kick ass executions in both SM and good old advertising).

But I was in some ways exaggerating to point to combat the rash of “get me some social media” I keep hearing lately as reactive to the buzz all around us and with very little thought as to how it fits into the overall brand objectives.

Thanks for commenting. And great blog BTW http://www.ibrander.org/

I will definitely follow. So I guess my irrelevant headline had a positive result for us both.

Julie

It’s tempting for brand strategists to argue that everything derives from the brand because, in the end, it does. But that doesn’t mean that online socialization is not also strategic, even if it can be characterized (in a somewhat reductive manner) as just a new toolbox.

A brand strategy alone, no matter how comprehensive, is not going to contain enough obvious implication for how to use social media such that channel or platform strategies are unnecessary. Businesses do need social media strategies (those that align with their brand strategy, naturally), as well as practical best practices such as Julie has outlined here.

Our venerable host has taken a perfectly good primer on how to socialize a brand and tucked it under an arch headline, one that is not so much misleading as it is irrelevant. I suspect the indulgence in a bit of semantic somersaulting is for the purposes of drawing convention crowds.

Perhaps, Julie, you should write about the relationship between advertising and content

‘Be someone that most people want to be friends with.’

It’s as simple as that.

This should be the starting point for everyone instead of just publishing stuff out there and seeing what happens or following some tired old best practices.

We’re still humans sitting behind a PC or phone and enjoy people who are fun, interesting and useful just like in the offline world.

Great post!

As with many other hypes, people mistake a new means for a new goal
Then the hype’s attacked by other people who say that it is useless because it’s not going to save the world, doesn’t have a clear businesscase or ROI, etc
The answer then is that it’s not a goal, just a means, that can use new methods that have to be pondered before implemented right away

And then, after long debates and disagreements and the creation of new “camps”, we end up selling the new hype as either means or goals or any half-hearted solution in between – and missing the goal nearly completely (sigh)

Posts like this keep the frenzy out, and help to prevent this last phenomenon. New technologies are NOT an excuse to -again- try to impose your failed marketing, business or IT strategy on the same or different poor souls by entirely focusing on the new sexy ways in which you can do it

Thanks again!

Just today a friend of mine who has her own PR firm said her senior client was pushing the staff to get a corporate Facebook page up ASAP without any thought/direction as to what purpose it served. All he kept repeating was “we need one.”

Hopefully we’ll get to meet at another conference.

For companies that are not inherently social by nature, I think developing a social media strategy makes complete sense. Managers DO need to think strategically about how they will take an organization that has been operating on traditional business principles into this new medium. What will it take to open them up to this type of interaction and direct feedback with their customers? Those are things many companies absolutely need to plan around.

However, the number one thing I take away from your post is the fact that social media does not live off on its own. It most certainly needs to be integrated into everything else the company is doing–from marketing to public relations to product development. Though at the same time, determing that level of integration could all be part of your social media strategy.

Great post. Too bad I couldn’t have seen the presentation in person.