Social media? What do I know?

I once used social media to deliver growth for a company I was working with.

That doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? And it certainly doesn’t sound unusual. But this was ten years ago. The campaign helped that business double its order values, drive new business enquiries and positioned the company to launch other, new and profitable ventures that have gone on to make millions in subsequent years. 

And I quickly became known as Mr. Social Media, which is odd because what I should have become known as was Mr. Business Strategist. 

You see, I don’t know a great deal about social media and I never did. What I do, and did, understand is that business advantage comes from a robust analysis of that business and the environment it operates in. If you can move in a direction that makes use of a company’s strengths and grasps the opportunities open to it - while others focus on what everyone else is doing and replicating that approach for themselves – you can take the advantage and the success that comes with it. 

In 2008 social media was the most efficient means to that end but it seems to me that in 2019 social media marketing has simply become an end in itself and that is wrong.

What we should be doing - and it’s an approach I’ve sought to replicate throughout my career - is to forget trying to follow the ball as it nears the ground and instead to focus on the second bounce and help clients take advantage of that yet unseen trajectory. 

Being strategic is about focusing on the challenge not the channel. 

Too often businesses approach their marketing planning from the wrong end – the how do I use X to achieve Y results - rather than what result would really drive us forward, and what activity might help realise that.

This is exasperated by a narrative that puts channels and tactics ahead of understanding and consideration, an environment that values the new, simply because of its newness.

We need less social media consultants, influencer marketing agencies and other tactically focused providers and we need more generalists. Marketing strategists or directors who seek to understand the challenge facing a business, who can ideate new approaches and deliver on them. That can benchmark and track results, unlocking marginal gains throughout the journey and over the lifetime of that approach. 

Or you might choose a VR headset with machine learning to go.

I know which route I’d recommend but hey, what do I know?