Social Media Is Not a Strategy

 If it isn't obvious, it really, really should be.

Have you ever been asked what your social media strategy is? The question really is a bit more nuanced:

• Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.
• Goals are best defined by specific, measurable objectives.
• The strategy (or strategies) of a plan describe the various endeavors pursued to accomplish these objectives.
• Tactics (or tools)  are the actual "hands-on" or "in the field" methods or manners by which the strategic plan operates.

The tool. For the public relations and communications professional, that is where social media comes in. Like all the communication tools which came before, social media is a means to an end.  And what is that end?  

Strategic communication.  

There's a reason why I like to quote the social media advice of renowned newsman Edward R. Murrow (simply replace the word computer with "social media app"): 


"The newest computer can merely compound…the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it."

• Determine what your message is, and why. 
• Develop specific measurable objectives in pursuit of communicating that message.
• Decide how these objectives can be best accomplished. 
• Use the communications tools most ideally suited to convey your message. 

If it isn't obvious, it really, really should be. But please don't take offense - I don't consider myself a social media expert, and at a certain level, I'm not sure there really is such a thing. 

But I can say with complete confidence I am a professional communicator. And that really is where it starts.