Major strategic mistakes in social media - part 2

This newsletter deals with important and common strategic mistakes.

The next newsletters will only be published on the pbsm website - pbsm.info. LinkedIn will then only provide information about the contents of the respective newsletter.?

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Benefits of the newsletter

The aim of this newsletter is to support social media managers in their work on strategies and to sensitize CEOs to existing need for action and provide them with recommendations.

Awareness for major strategy mistakes.

Mistakes you know are much more easy to avoid as mistakes you don’t. It is quite better to know mistaktes to be able to avoid mistakes as to have to make them to know them.

Recognizing a mistake does not make it go away.

The newsletter recommends ways to avoid mistakes as well as ways to correct mistakes that have occurred - both for those responsible for social media and for company managers.

Concise information and links to further content.

Books could be written about these problems. A brief general view of the problems and practical recommendations for action will lead to success more quickly.

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The mistakes covered in all parts

The strategy mistakes covered in this an the following newsletters:

1. Lack of or no understanding of strategy
2. Having no strategy at all
3. A would-be strategy
4. A strategy without including the competition
5. A strategy without the resources part
6. Strategy development without focus on the business model
7. A strategy without a userbenefit
8. Strategy development without assuptions and prerequisites
9. Strategy development without the use of options
10. Incomplete strategy
11. Strategy without strategy management
12. Missing strategy competence
13. Insufficient social media channels
14. Strategy development without positions of competition
15. Strategy without documentation
16. Strategy development without the big picture

This newsletter covers the parts 6 - 9

6. Strategy development without focus on the business model

Situation

Social Media has a great influence on the way we communicate and on the way we inform ourselves. This obviously is changing also the way businesses are communicating with their customers and prospectives.?

Social Media itself becomes a major business and has a great influence on other businesses based on its change in communication and based on its potential as a business.

Therefor we should not be surprised that social media has influenced business models. Sometimes social media supports the success of a business model, sometimes it hinders or prevents this success. In some cases, it completely or partially destroys business models. Only in a few cases is social media likely to have no influence on a business model. At best, this could be the case in industries where communication is not important or where it is not possible to communicate via social media.?

If we think about the importance of social media for leisure industries, gastronomy or traditional media, this influence becomes clear. But social media is also becoming increasingly important for recruiting employees or as a communication channel to or between employees.?

Problems and chances

Even though social media has an impact on the entire business model, companies view and use this world primarily or exclusively as a communication tool for marketing.?

This means that we use far less of social media for the success of the business model than would be possible.?

We have the impact of social media on the whole business model, but we don't use social media to support the success of the whole business model.?

An in-depth analysis of the opportunities and risks of social media for the business model should take place in order to ensure the success of the business model.?

On the one hand, we are missing out on opportunities to strengthen our own success. On the other hand, because we are not looking at the possibilities of social media for the business model as a whole, we are also overlooking the risks of social media for the individual areas of our business model. Irrespective of this, foregoing the benefits of social media is also a competitive disadvantage compared to competitors with a better understanding of social media.?

Moreover, supporting the entire business model through social media does not necessarily lead to a proportional increase in social media expenditure. For example, because topics overlap and complement each other and the social media infrastructure can be shared.?

A more economical use of social media investments is likely - if only because of the greater benefits.?

Unfortunately, supporting the business model as a task for social media is largely ignored in the training of social media managers. Like strategy, it takes place marginally or not at all.

It is therefore realistic to assume that most social media strategies in companies neither meet the requirements of a strategy nor do they fully exploit the benefits of social media for the company.?

If we want to develop a well-founded social media strategy that benefits the company as a whole, we should know the potential of social media for the business model. Without this knowledge, we cannot tap into this potential and a social media strategy without this knowledge would at best result in underperformance.?

Solutions

To solve these problems and utilize the potential of social media for the success of the business model as a whole, it is first necessary for corporate management such as social media management to be aware of the problem.?

Where company management is aware of the importance of its own business model, this cannot be assumed for social media management.?

We therefore have at least a perception and competence problem at this level.?

The situation is very easy for to check. Ask social media management to explain the effects of social media in terms of the potential benefits and risks for the company's business model - both as a whole and in its individual components. The widely used business canvas is a suitable tool for visualizing the effects of social media.?

• If social media management is not in a position to do this, we at least already know the additional skills required.?
• If your company has a ?social media strategy“ that is not based on the benefits of social media for your business modell you could assume that it is an underperforming strategy.?

To get an competitive strategy that uses all available social medias benefits you have to update the strategy competence of your social media management first.?

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7 A strategy without a userbenefit

Situation

The userbenefit is a benefit an user gets from participating in your social media activities.

A userbenefit is not the benefit from a enterprises product and services. It is social media based.?

A social media strategy without user benefit is - from the users point of view - more or less useless. Therefor we must include a competitive userbenefit in our social media strategy.?

Understand the useerbenefit as a kind of honoring for partizipation in social media activities. We offer this userbenefit, other offers other benefits. The one that is more relevant and important get the attention and user activity. Userbenefits are therefor in competetion with others.

Problem

The use of userbenefits as a key component of a strategy is not a standard. A lot of information on social media strategies does not include this crucial element. Nor is it always taught as part of strategy development. If we google the components of a social media strategy, we very often get recommendations that do not include this crucial strategy component.?

So if our social media strategy does not utilize any user benefit or a far less attractive user benefit, this impairs the chances of success of this strategy.?

Solution / Recommendation

The problem is solved if we use a method such as the pbsm, in which the userbenefit is weighted according to its importance. This ensures a competitive userbenefit and, building on this, a competitive social media strategy.?

For existing social media strategies, it is highly recommended to check whether they have a user benefit as part of the strategy and how attractive this is in direct comparison with the competition.?

It is also helpful for the success of a strategy if userbenefit and the topics of the strategy are closely linked. If this also applies to the company's services, this is a further advantage.?

Social media strategies without a competitive userbenefit should be revised or renewed as soon as possible.?

The userbenefit is a central part of the pbsm strategy process.

8 Strategy development without assumptions and prerequisites

Situation

Every strategy depends on prerequisites and assumptions. We set a certain behaviour of markets and competition for sure or we bet on effects we generate with our activities. This is quite normal. But it can become a strategic problem.?

Problem

Every strategy is build on assumptions and prerequisites. If we not notice and watch them we will easily be surprised by changes. Changes that affect our assumptions and prerequisites also affect the chances of success of our strategy.? If the success of a strategy is based on assumptions that are not certain to materialize, we should pay more attention to whether our assumptions become reality or not in order to be able to react as quickly as necessary if assumptions do not materialize. Same is for prerequisites.?

Not knowing and watching assumptions and prerequisites produces an additional risk to every strategy.

Solution / Recommendation

Determining the assumptions and prerequisites in existing social media strategies and in the development of new strategies. Regular and systematic monitoring of the assumptions and prerequisites of social media strategies as part of strategy management.?

Assumptions and prerequisites are part of the pbsm strategy process.

9 Strategy development without the use of options

Situation

Options are the possibilities a company has for using social media within the framework of its business model, resources and competition.?

Strategy is the decision for certain options and against others.?

Problem

A social media strategy that has not been developed on the basis of a company's options has systematic, structural deficits. Simply put, it does not take into account all the advantages, opportunities and possibilities that social media offers this company.? A strategy that has not been developed on the basis of all the company's options can therefore not be as powerful and useful as strategies that have been developed on the basis of all options.?

Solution / Recommendation

In the pbsm, a company's social media options demonstrate not only the potential benefits but also the content and resource requirements of the strategy needed to realize those benefits.?

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Links to support building strategy competence for social media managers

pbsm.wiki

Definition of social media strategy

Strategy and tactics

pbsm.strategycourse