Does your strategy actually have a strategy

I am not a fan at all of people, organizations or companies that think they should use Social Media as their communications strategy.  Social Media is a communications tool, plain and simple.  I’m sure that you don’t have a policy or procedure on the use of a fax machine as your communications strategy.

Every business or organization that uses Social Media as a form of communication needs to understand and recognize that it should be part of your greater communications strategy and a tool to advance your overall strategy to engage your community, customers, clients, etc.  This includes Law Enforcement.

Having said all that, you do need to determine what platforms you are going to use in Social Media and what your intent is for using them.  Since one of the major resources you will commit to Social Media use is time, you must have clear direction and intent so that you maximize the benefit.

You need to decide if you are going to be fully engaged with any feedback that comes in or if you will pick and chose to respond, or if you will have two-way communication at all. (If that is your choice, you are missing the point of Social Media).

Will you allow uncensored open dialogue, or will you put in place a mechanism for vetting comments that are defamatory or hateful in nature?

Beyond conversation, you need to define what your purpose is.  Are you going to concentrate on community safety, crime prevention, traffic awareness, education?  Or are you going to promote your service as a great employer, pillar of your community and trusted source for information?

Without some defined direction you could end up spinning your wheels throwing tons of information at a well-intentioned Facebook page but having very little traction because it is so scattered.  You could be so busy monitoring conversations that you miss content.

The easiest way to define your strategy is to look no further than your agency’s mission statement, values and vision. Design your strategy around those.  Make sure that Social Media and how you intend to use it fits into your agencies overall communication strategy.

When I went down the road of Social Media, I looked at the platforms, the tools and took the plunge, but it was always with a clear strategy in mind.

Every tweet, status update, video favorite, blog post, etc is always geared to the strategy of finding ways to meet that goal, which is governed by the mandate and mission.

The Social Media strategy is to compliment the overall communications strategy.

So tell us what your strategy is. Do you have one? Do you shoot it all against the wall and hope some will stick? We would love to hear your feedback.