strategy Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Post Control Marketing

“See the forest for the trees” is a saying that means getting caught up in the details and failing to understand the bigger picture. With all the new social media channels vying for our attention these days it is easy to get bogged down by all the particulars and immediate demands. Yet being able to discern the overall pattern or vision from the minutia of specific social media options and tactics is a valuable skill. Strategy – taking a broad, long-range approach and thinking systemically – is a very valuable skill. A 30,000 foot view, not a 3 foot perspective is what is needed to plan and marshal organizational resources to meet and exceed business goals.

How valuable is strategic thinking? A global study of over 60,000 managers asked them to access over 20 leadership practices (such as innovation, persuasion, communication, results orientation) and 20 measures of effectiveness (such as future potential, credibility, business aptitude, people skills). “Having a strategic approach” was seen as 10 times more important to effectiveness than other leadership behaviors and nearly 50 times more important than tactical behaviors. Another study asked 10,000 senior executives to select the leadership behaviors most critical to organizations success. “Strategic” was chosen 97% of the time.

Most people may agree that strategy is very important yet thinking strategically is not easy. Strategic thinking is especially hard when immediate demands are often rewarded over long-term vision and planning. Yet seeing the forest for the trees is a leadership quality necessity for social media success. When faced with 800+ social media sites, apps and services – a lot of trees – being able to focus on a long-term approach is the only way to see the path to reach your ultimate business or organizational goals.

Many marketers, advertisers, public relation professionals and entrepreneurs are jumping into the social media race, but they must be in it for the long haul to see real, lasting results. They must take the time to take a step back and see the big picture through a strategic social media plan. Trying to apply old marketing control strategies in this new consumer controlled social media environment does not work. Social media marketing is a different game with different rules.

Sure, there are plenty of tips. A Google search of “social media marketing tips” returns 135 million results. But very few tell you to do the same things and what worked for one business will not exactly work for others. For marketers and advertisers to succeed at social media integration, they must first start in a place rooted in their distinct situation and drive a strategy of choosing social platforms and creating content based on their business objectives, marketing strategy and target audience. This can be accomplished by following a 5-step process:

Define current business and social media situation
Create a big idea and plan integration
Selection social media channels
Integrate non-marketing social media activity
Finalize social media plan and sell

That is what I have detailed in my new book Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution. It is a roll up your sleeves roadmap to sound social media strategy that draws from the best in academic research and professional business practice. An approachable text to teach my social media marketing students, it lays out a method that cuts through the hype and sets a strategic mindset to take advantage of the exciting opportunities of social media. This text provides the context, process and tools needed to create a comprehensive and unique social media marketing solution.

Are you having trouble seeing past the trees of social media channels and tactics? Perhaps you need to take a step back along with my students and invest some time into getting above the forest and plan a path for long-term strategic success. Do you see the value in strategic thinking? How can you take the time to make it happen?

\For more insights into the big picture in social media strategy consider my book Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution.

Everyone seems to be talking about big data. And for good reason. Knowing which content is driving more conversion is important, but analytics can’t write and there’s still no app for a big idea.

A simple Google search on the term “Big Data” reveals 2 billion results while a Google search for “Creativity” only brings back 60 million results. Nearly 50% more attention is being devoted to data, but I say half of social success depends on creativity built on top of and verified by good data. Not a direct measure but research has proven that 65% of TV ROI is attributable to the creative and 35% to the media data.

Big ideas drive social action.

Knowing humor is a common characteristic of viral videos doesn’t create the video. A list of high performing key words doesn’t simply form into a good piece of content. Both need a creator.

Yet, you don’t need to be Picasso or da Vinci to be creative. Knowing the creative formula can help you be more creative. I was surprised that there is a formula or process to creativity until I read A Technique for Producing Ideas. by James Young Webb with a forward by Bill Bernbach. Then I discovered that as an advertising creative I followed this technique naturally.

Production of ideas follows a definite and necessary process. The formula is so simple that few believe it. As Young Webb said, “While simple to state, it actually requires the hardest kind of intellectual work to follow, so that not all who accept it use it.”

What is the creative formula?

Step 1: Gather Raw Materials – Both the materials of your immediate problem and the materials of your general knowledge. Gather research on your company, competitors, target audience, but also general knowledge about life and current trends.

Step 2: Mental Digestion – The working over of these materials in your mind. Try all these pieces of information together this way and that. Bring two facts together and see how they fit – look for a relationship.

Step 3: Incubation – Here you let something beside the conscious mind do the work of synthesis. Make no effort of a direct nature. Drop the whole subject, and put the problem out of your mind. Go see a movie, play basketball, work on another project.

Step 4: Eureka Effect – The actual birth of the Idea – the “Eureka! I have it” stage. This tends to come when you least expect it. In the shower, in the middle of the night, on a run. Always be prepared to write it down. Big ideas are fleeting and can leave just as quickly as they came.

Step 5: Final Finessing – The final shaping and development of this idea to practical usefulness. Take your idea out into the world of reality. Here you may need to adjust it and make it fit the company, product, target, social channel, etc.

In my experience, the process would get short changed by deadlines, and expectations of those who believed writing is simply sitting down and typing. I never sat down to type until I first had an idea. When you have an idea the ad, plan, paper, story, book, almost writes itself. If you skip the incubation stage, you miss out on really brilliant big ideas.

Everyone has creativity, but sadly most of us left it behind with childhood …