The business world is made of some really bright, innovative 'Change Makers', we all know who they are, I've worked with some really great ones. 

And then there's a lot of other people we look at and say to ourselves 'how the f*@# did you get that job', if we're honest we've all come across those kind of people from time to time, and quite frankly they've probably cost you, me, and the company an awful lot of opportunities?

When it comes to 'social media' I constantly have a similar impression when I talk to C-Suite Executives, who for some odd reason have disconnected themselves from what should be a board level strategy to something that's nothing other than a bunch of unrelated tactics managed by the bright young millennial in marketing, or handed to the agency. 

If your the Logistics and Operations Director for example, you don't simply say to the operations team we need to shift 'x' number of boxes this week, or if your the Customer Services Director, your brief to the team isn't we need to answer 'y' number of calls this week, if your the CTO you don't say to the development team 'I know, lets come up with something to develop each week', or do you?

You all have an aligned strategic framework that's supposed to ensure the business doesn't become just functionally efficient, as members of the C-Suite it needs to move as one in order to achieve the enterprises commercial objectives - I would hope?

So why, do we see time after time social media being a place where random acts of 'post', adverts, and promotions take place, why is no one looking at engagement, why is no -one asking whats the ROI for all this stuff we seem to be doing?

In my experience its because its all tactically driven, its just tactics over strategy, and secretly you, your CMO, and your agency really don't know how to measure it, so your there because of FOMO.

I would call out any business today to articulate what their 'social media' strategy is, are they hitting their KPI's, how is it being reported into the business, how often, and if its outsourced to an agency, why?

Guys, this is business 101 and you're missing it big time. We are genuinely struggling to evidence that you even have a customer persona in play, so how is that agency, or millennial going to know if they're doing the right job or not?.

The reality is very few businesses can't answer those questions because they still think its about transferring the 'advertise and promote' mentality into what is a 'social' channel'.

Effective utilisation of a Social Media strategy is one of the biggest 'Superpowers' you can bestow on your company and employees, its effectiveness is delivered by trained internal experts empowered with the key skill sets, it can provide true transformation, reduce marketing and customer recruitment cost, it can afford you with insights from your consumers in a way unheard of before - You just need to turn on that 'Superpower' and start to listen.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.