Social Media Strategy Versus Tactics And The Tools To Use

By Author: Aaron Bare
Total Articles: 3
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Facebook and Twitter are not a social media strategy. These are tactics within a social media strategy.

But what exactly is a social media strategy?

A social media strategy is a messaging platform and defines the perceptions, issues and tactics. A social media strategy needs the same preparation as a speech that is prepared for a politician.

In the movie, Our brand is crisis, James Carville explains these principles which should be considered for political candidates as well as companies social media.

- Simplicity - the ability to simply state, in a single phrase, what you will do for your clients.

- Relevance - the ability to tell the story in the eyes of your clients.

- Repetition - the relentless effort in telling the story over and over and over again.

So once you have your messaging platform, content creation becomes easier as you can listen to social media and engage in the conversations that are most important by following others, listening to thought leaders, publishing blog post, commenting, creating media and sharing opinions on an industry. Every company should think ...
... about defining a strategy so they are consistent with their message, brand and product marketing within all of social media.

Buzz Mouth has built a tool for mid to large companies to integrate their entire online presence in one place. We have clients managing over 500 places where their brand, content and messaging touch. Every time they publish they create a huge impact on their marketplace and have a large voice. This is great as the tool also allows for companies to listen to competitors, thought leaders and the media to engage in the conversation. This is great when they are a 3-person consulting firm with a waiting list of clients. Yet, often small business does not have the werewithall to implement such a dynamic social media strategy. So they outsource it to us.

Otherwise, some nice alternatives are TwitterFeed, HootSuite and Ping.fm to manage multiple channels of social media content.

For 1-5 person companies:

Minimally, we recommend Twitterfeed integration with a WordPress blog that automatically post to Facebook fan page and their Twitter followers. We then suggest using Google Alerts and Social Mentions to monitor what people are saying about you, your employees, your brand and your company. Now with an integrated messaging platform, a small company can be growing a social media strategy. Keep the content focused to your overall goals and you are set.

I often share a couple more analogies about a social media strategy, first it is like writing a book and second like sharing your vision for your company in 3-5 years. What do you want it to be? If you are writing a book about your company, what would it say and why? What do you stand for? What is really interesting to your clients about you?

For 5-25 person companies or aggressive 1-5 person companies:

We recommend using HootSuite as it allows more robust tactics. Although not scalable as a Professional Social Media Management tool.

For 25 or more employees in a company, we recommend a Professional Social Media Management tool where 100′s of tactics can be managed simultaneously. Our goal of the software is to be able to manage your entire online presence from one place.

More tools to come as Buzz Mouth shares their social media strategy through the next 150 blog post. Check back soon.

Article Source: Buzz Mouth blog