Last Monday, I spoke on social media strategy for long-time reader Becky Johnston’s graduate level marketing class at UMKC. There were approximately 25 smart, early-career students in her marketing class.
We were talking about social media's pervasiveness across customer service touchpoints in a business. I shared Chris Brogan’s opinion on providing front line customer contact employees some mini-version of media relations to better prepare them to deal with customers using social media to broadcast the customer experience. I asked, as I frequently do, who had heard of Chris Brogan. And as frequently happens, not one student raised a hand.
Yes, nobody knew who Chris Brogan was.
For many of us heavily into social media, and Twitter especially, we could better tell you Chris Brogan’s strategic perspective on the topics of the day than we could those of a relatively close relative. I rarely interact with most of my cousins, but I’m checking in multiple times weekly, if not daily, to see what Chris is tweeting and writing about on social media, marketing, strategy, and any other topic he decides to cover.
But kids, we aren’t normal.
So beyond Chris Brogan, who is legitimately a social media rock star, there are lots of other lesser-known great thinkers whose strategic ideas may not be seeing the light of day among important business contacts you have.
There are a lot of people we do business with (peers, bosses, employees, clients) who never see the great strategic insights being shared online in what are common social media channels to some, but not common at all for many very intelligent, active, successful business people.
Which brings us to the question: Are you retweeting IRL?
By that I mean, beyond simply RTing great content you’re seeing via social media, are you:
- Referring to it in business conversations?
- Sharing it in staff meetings?
- Printing articles and posting them on bulletin boards or sending them to others?
- Emailing links to business associates?
- Incorporating these perspectives into presentations you’re doing?
Because while a retweet (or a Digg or a Like) is easy and provides the sense you’ve shared what you think is relevant with the world, there are many people who’d benefit from the content that are never seeing it.
So do them a favor, after you RT it online, RT it IRL too!
BTW, in case you're interested, you can take a look at the Prezi of the social media strategy overview below. – Mike Brown
The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at brainzooming@gmail.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can develop an integrated social media strategy for your brand.
