Last weekend I decided to build something. So I went to Home Depot and asked a nice man in an orange apron to tell me what supplies I needed. “Okay, what are you building?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, something…maybe out of wood? Perhaps a birdhouse, or some furniture, or a planter,” I replied. “Don’t worry; I have lots of tools and I’ve seen other people build things, so I’m ready to go. Just tell me what I need to buy.”
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he replied.
Okay, so none of the above happened (call it poetic license). It’s a ridiculous scenario, right? Who would start building something without knowing what they needed, why they were building it, and what the finished product would be?
As ill-advised as it sounds, though, plenty of businesses are taking that approach to social media strategy. Our agency has seen clients ready to jump into tactics – channels, paid vs. organic, content creation – without developing the fundamentals of the strategy. They don’t know if they’re building a birdhouse or finishing a basement, but they’re powering up the table saw.
Before you start working on your social media presence, it’s vital to answer a few fundamental questions. Five questions, in fact:
#1: Who Are You?
If your brand was a person, would you want to hang out with them? It’s a vital question, because you’re asking people to do just that – to willingly interact on a social level with your brand.
So it’s vital to know how you will convey your brand’s values on social media (assuming you have your brand values firmly established). You’ll need to develop a personality that is consistent with your brand but fits with the level of discourse on each social media channel.
Here are a few considerations to get you started. There are no universally correct answers to these questions, of course; it’s all about what fits your brand.
Is your brand:
- Funny or serious?
- Knowledgeable or inquisitive?
- Smart like a scholar or sharp like a poker player?
- Formal or casual?
- Sincere or sarcastic?
Many of your answers may lie somewhere in the middle. In that case, determine where you fit on the continuum between each extreme.
At the end of the above exercise, you should have a list of four or five adjectives that…
