Seven ways to prevent your social media strategy from going into a tailspin

Posted August 31, 2009
14 Comments
Attempt Failed by nicholasjon

"Attempt Failed" by nicholasjon

Remember flying a kite when you were a kid? How many times did you crash before understanding that how you were holding the string determined your outcomes?

You learned that string tension enabled you to:

  1. Steer the kite
  2. Gain (or lose) altitude

Too much slack made the kite tumble down to the ground. Too little slack meant missing that crucial crosswind.

Seven ways to align your social media strategy

Running an inbound marketing effort is like flying a kite – but with more strings. The success or failure of social media (the kite) is determined by it’s alignment (strings) with specific aspects of your business.

Social Strategy Alignment

(click on image to enlarge – or download the PDF)

  1. People. Not only the people “in charge” of social media, but everyone (they’re on Facebook and Twitter too). Ultimately, this is about how your organization treats their people. Netflix, for example, believes that all their employees are “responsible and free” agents of the company. Download a PDF of the 9 values of Netflix here. Spend some time with it.
  2. Mission. Does the strategy align with the stated mission of the organization? If your mission is to be the leader in customer service, don’t have a Twitter account that only announces the latest product.
  3. Goals. Smart goals, right? This is about measuring and adjusting the strategy to stay on track with these goals.
  4. With what’s being said. If you’ve developed your strategy in a vacuum, at least commit to listening (and changing course) if there’s a mismatch of perspectives. And understanding what’s being said should happen very early in any social media strategy.
  5. With other efforts. Is there a direct mail piece going out without your Twitter ID printed on it? Is there a plan to post videos of a recent event on your Youtube page? You get the idea here.

    6. Thanks Stacey Monk for helping out with the next two:

  6. Technology. How will you be able to measure results without the right tools? And how sophisticated is your staff with that technology? Try and have a social media blueprint of all the technology you’ll touch.
  7. Peers. If you’re a cancer support organization, what will you be doing that’s different during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. How can you create your own M&M pink ribbons? What conversations will you have about breast cancer?

I bet there are at least 7 more ways you can align social media in your organization. The point is that you align things so that your “kite” soars.

A parting thought from Hildy Gottlieb: “How will every single action you take hold you accountable for the future you intend to create?”

What else?


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  • One key aspect is to have very clear guidelines about what staff can say as employees and what they can say only as individuals. Then they have to use their judgement. It helps to make to guidelines as simple as possible, but then the lawyers walk in the room.
  • Yes, but what if an employee just says, "Another boring day at Microsoft..." Not grounds for legal action, but could impact the brand.

    Social media, because it's search-able, permanent and viewable by all, is forcing companies to re-examine their HR strategy. "How can we create an environment that fosters happiness?"
  • dianeasyre
    No matter what role you have in the organization as an employee, lowest to highest in authority, doing what you can to create a mentally healthy workplace will incubate trust and happiness.

    Whatever your media of choice may be for broadcasting your thoughts about your company, colleagues, customers or suppliers I think that it is best to remember what your mom may have told you as a child: If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all. To that I would add, if you don't have something nice to say and it needs to be said in order to reach business goals, maintain legal, ethical or moral standards then say it to someone who is in a position to help make things change.

    Broadcasting your thoughts to anyone and everyone is not as effective as talking to the person(s) who can make things better.
  • Diane - great points. It is hard to tell employees, "If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all." This puts the onus on the HR leaders, doesn't it?
  • dianeasyre
    It does indeed. FIrst, the HR leaders need to lead by example. Secondly, they need to do what's necessary to ensure employees know who to approach and how best to reach that person with their questions, comments and suggestions. That's the easy part. The difficult part is ensuring a response. Without that, employees will stop talking or go elsewhere - to someone else or to some other company that appears more willing to engage them in conversation.
  • How cute - I LOVE the kite analogy. Well done.
  • Thanks, Andy. How have you aligned some of these factors in your business?
  • Having the right people in the right seats on the bus helps. A lot of my clients are in the financial services and/or philanthropy business — highly regulated, lots of lawyers. Social media generally isn't opened up to the entirety of the organization at first. There is a small crew that volunteers for the opportunity because they are truly social creatures. Building a nucleus that is fully functional helps everyone else to learn by example and gives the compliance and legal folks time to watch, listen, evaluate, and make rational use policies. 'Crawl, walk, run' works better than 'everyone into the pool!'
  • David - excellent points. Thank you!

    Two things I like:

    1. Using social creatures. If a company moves to Germany, would you depend more on your German-speaking employees?
    2. Building a fully functional nucleus. This also is key in scalability.

    Again - thanks.

    John
  • You touch on it in point one, but i think it's key to have owners and stakeholders. If you don't getting alignment and knowing what success looks like is going to be challenging. Having many people in a company participate is a great way to spread your reach and show your human side. Couple that with someone or a group owning the overall plan, program, initiative and an organization has the potential to go pretty far with it.
  • Good post and agree with all. I'm not sure if it is realistic to expect everyone in an organisation to be passionate about the mission. I think in terms of 3Cs for alignment - Clarity of vision, Consistency of execution, and mutual Commitment between all the parties. It's the latter - commitment - I would use instead of passion.
    Walter Adamson @g2m
    http://xeesm.com/walter
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