One of my favorite quotes I use in presentations about social media is from Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group. It's a tweet he made, so it fits nicely on one slide: "Just reviewed a customer's social strategy. Solid work: Focused on business goals, organizational readiness --not a "Twitter strategy" He has it right; so often people want the shiny new thing without asking why, or asking a number of questions for that matter.
In my early web days a client said "We want Java on our home page." Not "We want certain functionality or user experience on our home page," but they wanted Java, specifically because it was novel. "Why?" we asked, which led us to a better solution. Or even worse "We want our logo done in VRML." OK, maybe that was my idea, so we can all be susceptible to answering questions nobody asked.
Yogi Berra had it right, "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."
The other day we were brainstorming the opportunities to use QR codes to connect the dots between people seeing various sorts of media and an online experience. Of course, the QR code was the shiny object that caught our creative attention; and for a while they will continue to attract the curious visitors because of their novelty. And of course we always came back to the goals, the destination, the user experience. Why would someone scan the QR code, and what would they expect to find and do at the other end? It always comes back to the right questions.
This is why we published our AP42 Social Media Workbook in the form of six questions you should answer before setting off on your social media plans and programs. We start with Why? and move on to two forms of Who? (as in "Who are you?" and "Who are your customers?"), and on to the What? When? Where? and How? that give you insight into your business goals and organizational readiness that Jeremiah reminds you to keep focused on.
The AP42 Social Media Workbook is the first step. Following that, you'll develop a Playbook that is your bible that directs your activities - who is doing what, where, how, and on what timeline. The next step is to do it, measure it, refine it, and keep doing it all again. Check it out - head over to our website and download the AP42 Social Media Workbook for free, or, if you're so inclined, concentrate on this shiny new QR code:
