"What am I missing? What is the insight I'm not seeing that could make our content marketing strategy make sense?"
An attendee at the 2018 Social Media Strategies Summit conference in San Francisco made that comment. She works for a major non-profit organization. She's trying to manage through three strategic expectations the senior management team and board have regarding a content marketing strategy:
- They want to keep everything on one Facebook page.
- They have two important audiences that are each interested in different types of content.
- She can't change either of the first two strategic expectations.
She's beating herself up for her inability to find an amazing branding strategy insight. The one that would allow her to get around the contradictions posed by her senior management team's decidedly non-social-first content marketing strategy expectations.
As we discussed her organization's situation, I suggested various ways to target content to the two audiences based on what they are interested in hearing about from the organization. While the ideas were sound strategically, each one directly challenged the expectations in a way she was certain she couldn't do.
After a few minutes, I assured her that she isn't missing any big branding strategy insight.
The problem is the management team’s decisions about the content marketing strategy. Their stipulations are all about brand-first, not social-first, content.
She told her management team that she would return from the conference and write the organization’s social media strategy. She didn't see that happening without the big insight.
I suggested she instead focus on creating a strategic conversation with her management team. Her first step is to address what they want to achieve as an organization with their two audiences. She can then start suggesting how social media contributes to realizing those business objectives. The more they want to push a brand-first content strategy, the less wedging in a few social-first content marketing tactics will successfully fix things.
Maybe THAT is the insight she was seeking: you can't pursue the smart thing (a social-first content marketing strategy) when management's every strategic expectation runs counter to doing so.
Not a great situation. As least now, though, she has a pathway to attempt to help them work their way out of it! – Mike Brown
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