Now that the term ‘social media strategy‘ is about as mainstream as semi-secret Justin Bieber fetishes, it’s time to address something:

Simply put, there is no “easy button” for social media.

Strategy

Social media engagement for businesses should always be coupled with strategy, and none of that comes cheap. It is a huge investment in time and resources.

Anyone can monitor social media. There are a ton of free tools out there and each of them will do one specific thing. But first you must set up measurable and actionable goals. As long as the use of these tools is tied into a bigger social media strategy, you will be able to see results.

Listening

The first step, of course, is listening. As Robert Patterson, Director of Social Media and Web Analytics at MMG Worldwide, said in a Twitter conversation with us the other day, “How can you set objective goals without understanding the space and opportunities?”

Stephen Johnson, Regional Head of Digital Innovation at DraftFCB Australia, agrees: “I’d go as far as saying that listening is the single most important message for businesses seeking to engage with consumers online. Firstly, by talking less and listening more to the opinions people voice online–for example in social networks, blogs, and forums–a business is able to adapt using the anecdotal insights so that when they do engage, a heightened sense of affinity and relevance already exists between them. By listening we are also better equipped to foster and maintain meaningful dialogue with potential customers, thus creating further opportunity and leverage. It’s common sense really, yet so many businesses fail to understand this vital interplay. Whilst a myriad of listening tools exist to choose from, only a select few provide tangible depth and true insight.”

Depth

Depth. A good word; not used often enough in the “social media space.” That said, is monitoring social media enough?

Should you limit the breadth of your tracking to social media-based sites alone? Wouldn’t it make more sense to get depth of data from the entirety of the Internet to help you narrow your focus, gather business intelligence, and develop strategies?

Obviously these questions are rhetorical, but they bring up a good point:

Yes, there is a need out there for “real-time” updates and quickie brand monitoring. I realize that a nice graph showing the daily growth of online chatter about a product or brand is something that many CMOs may require. But there should be more to gathering business intelligence than that.

Why Gather Research Data?

The online space is a perfect place to gather all kinds of transparent intelligence for your company. Here are just some of the ways that Internet data gathering can benefit your business:

• Identify influencers/engagement targets
• Identify/qualify strategic partnerships
• Measure campaign success
• Measure product launch
• Measure consumer sentiment
• Discover trends
• Gather competitive intelligence
• Crisis management
• Engage in social media customer service
• Create communities/brand evangelists
• Plan new product development
• Identify sales prospects
• Prepare sales presentations
• Monitor corporate/brand identity
• Monitor executive/personality brand identity

With all that at stake, do you really want to half-ass it? It’s time to drilldown and dig in, folks.

Tagged as: Business Intelligence, depth of data, easy button, internet data, monitoring, social media engagement, social media listening, social media resources, social media services, social media solution, social media strategy, tracking