Intelligence: Social Media Objectives

"Garbage in, garbage out" is a popular agency phrase for what happens when due diligence is not aptly applied to a marketing initiative, from branding to promotional executions. This acutely applies to social media, a venue where companies often throw social media tactics up against the proverbial wall of audience targeting, to see what "sticks". Not thinking through social media outreach in the context of an integrated cross/multi-channel plan can weaken brand impact or even reputation. This necessitates a coherent mapping of objectives, audience behaviors, sustainable infrastructure, measurement and optimization -- to audience value.

The Social Media Road Map, just out from Marketing Sherpa, shows how social media wisdom is a function of social media stage and "maturity". Brands that have been hazed through the initial trial and transition phases, are more likely in the seasoned strategic phase to map their measurement back to accurately defined objectives:

Social media can not be treated like a campaign. It is not an event-specific commodity. Social media, whether earned or owned, feeds off of reciprocal value between the company and their audience, not the advertiser and their customer. Starting with a "gut check" of what your social media objectives are and how you are going to go about them -- is worth the time investment both from an brand ROI, and an audience engagement perspective.