Social Media Roadmaps
This is a guest post by Kapil Apshankar, an innovative social media strategist. He writes about tips, tricks and techniques that help his readers score higher in social media at Social Media Notebook.
Kapil also maintains a personal blog, Spring Rainbow, which captures his life away from social media.
He can be reached via Twitter @KapilApshankar – or by email from his blogs’ contact pages.
Social media is one of the most misunderstood – and underused/abused – concepts of our times.
To borrow a term from Michael Stelzner’s lexicon, social media is indeed a jungle – where it’s very easy to get lost or get (b)eaten! We all need a roadmap for success here.
Chris Brogan had a wonderful post a few days ago – Sharpen Your Pencil – that talked about making success happen. The original post is a worthy read by itself – but one of the comments (by SocialSteve) really rocked:
This sounds similar to what Emmet Smith said at the induction of the Football Hall of Fame. He said something like he had dreams. And the next step after a dream was writing it down on paper. And then turning that into a plan. Maybe there will be a social media hall of fame some day.
Social media success strategies need to be customized and tailor fit. A one size fits all approach just doesn’t work.
Here are four key steps to build a custom social media roadmap – one that works for you.
Establish Your Base Camp
Your base camp isn’t Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Your base camp has to be your blog. Take it anywhere else, and you’re at the mercy of external forces to keep your camp alive. It just doesn’t work that way.
There is also the About Me page – the center piece of any base camp – that needs attention. To recap the wisdom of Darren Rowse,
Setting up an about page is really important – it’s one of those pages that a new reader will head to in order to help them work out what your blog is about, who is behind it and to decide whether they’ll keep reading it.
Fortify (And Diversify) Your Primary Social Media Channels
The next step is to focus on your primary social media channels. In all likelihood, they will be Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn.
One rule to remember here is something I learned from Tamar Weinberg. Every baby is different, so also every social media channel is different.
Play to the strengths of each channel. Danny had written a wonderful post right here on the topic, How to Use Blog Lists for Your Social Media Strategy. And then, take them to the next level. For starters, answer questions on LinkedIn and get on Twitter chats. You want to get more from your primary channels.
Establish Secondary and Tertiary Channels
Social media without interactions is a monologue at best. Think about ways to make your social media interactions rich – both in content and semantics. Encourage comments, cross-comments and discussions. Healthy debates are good for everyone involved.
Also to think about are mechanisms for your audience to share more than just text – how about images, audio and video?
That’s also what I would refer to as your secondary and tertiary channels of the social web.
Think beyond the conventional channels – think YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, UStream, Vokle et al.
Keep The Big Picture Perspective
Social media is all about real connections that thrive on the foundation of trust, empathy and authenticity. Anytime we violate the Golden Rule, we dent our reputation and credibility. Everything that we do with social media should fit into our big picture perspectives.
It might help to define your big picture using the framework I laid down at Social Media Success – One Day At A Time!
What do you think? What other strategies are helping you build your own successful social media roadmaps?
Image Credit: nullalux
17 Responses to “Social Media Roadmaps”
Hey there Christine,
Glad you enjoyed Kapil’s post, delighted to have him over here – he’s fast growing into one of my regular reads.
Agree 100% about the need to stay dynamic. The tools are changing all the time (Friendster who?), so the ability to be fluid with them is crucial.
Thanks for the comments Christine – and glad you liked the post.
You’re bang on with the dynamic part of social media roadmaps. Social media works best when it can embrace change in real time.
The ability to “ring out the old, ring in the new” in an agile, dynamic fashion is exactly what gives social media the teeth of make a difference. Unfortunately, when our own roadmaps can can’t embrace change, we pretty much become obsolete – and irrelevant.
That doesn’t work too well, does it?
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. 5 Social Sharing Buttons That Help Your Thoughts Go Viral
Hi Kapil,
Thanks for this post! I really enjoyed reading it and agree with your points. The one size does not fit all approach is really important in my opinion. Not all businesses are the same which is something that needs to be remembered. I wrote a similar post a while ago, called “One size does not fit all” You can check it out here, if you are interested: http://www.socialglitz.com/one-size-does-not-fit-all/
Thanks again for this great read
AntoniaNice post, Antonia.
There’s no way anyone can believe that one size fits all in business full stop, never mind just social media.
Do folks think that what works for Sony will also work for Joe’s Corner Shop Electronics? Hope not
Hey Antonia – Thanks for the comment!
The retail industry understands the one size does not fit all approach very well. They call it multi-SKU (pronounced as multi-skew) products.
For every product they create, there are multiple combinations manufactured – color, size, design specifics et.al.
Our social media roadmaps too need to be tailored and personalized. That’s when they work best. Tylenol doesn’t work on everything – there are day’s when Motrin needs to be called in. And we need to have both medicines in our social media arsenals
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. Response cached until Sun 22 @ 8:11 GMT (Refreshes in 57 Minutes)
Thanks for a great post, Kapil – but then, no less than I was expecting from you, sir.
I like the fact that you highlight the importance of secondary and tertiary channels. So many folks concentrate on the Big Three – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – when there are so many others doing just as much (if not more) for businesses.
Like you say, keep your eye on the bigger picture and the bigger picture will start to switch its eye to you.
Thanks for the note, Danny – and thanks for having me around here as a guest.
I am both honored – and humbled. My heartfelt thanks to you – and the readers that I could connect with
You summed it up perfect – the big pictures are what are important. We just need to keep following our big pictures in social media – and the jigsaw puzzles will fall into place by themselves – creating the perfect picture we’ve always dreamed of!
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. Response cached until Sun 22 @ 8:11 GMT (Refreshes in 52 Minutes)
Excellent stuff from Kapil, as ever.
He’s a wise guy who practices what he preaches, and has certainly been a huge source of encouragement for me.
Thanks for having him Guest for you, Danny.
J
Johnny Laird recently posted…. FF ExpandedIt’s indeed a small world, Johnny! Glad to see you here – and thanks for the kind words.
The feelings are mutual, I assure you – and every time I head over to your blog, I learn something new.
Danny – Johnny’s concept of an Expanded #FollowFriday for Twitter is cool. I’ll be doing a writeup on that soon, but it’s one thing that could become the next Twitter Standard we all follow
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. Response cached until Sun 22 @ 8:11 GMT (Refreshes in 50 Minutes)
So many great pieces of advice in there Kapil. Also fantastic to see Danny featuring you as a guest poster because your comments are always well thought out.
You really hit the right note with your comment about adapting social strategies to your business. This type of post always makes me question the difference between potential and experience. Which tends to reign supreme in this new age we find ourselves in?
Which employee is the more beneficial to the business? The employee that comes with past success that worked for an old business, or the employee coming with potential in the form of many new ideas and enthusiasm to try new things?
JayTurn recently posted…. Getting Click HappinessThanks, Jason!
So very often, businesses get hung up on just one of the two – experience or potential. My take is they are not mutually exclusive.
We need both to succeed – and unlike what the retirement age norms tell us – some of most intelligent people I have met in my social world are those who combined years of wisdom (that comes with experience) with a passion for embracing change.
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. 3 Reasons To Use The New Twitter Buttons On Your BlogWell said Kapil.
JayTurn recently posted…. Hide And Seek With Kids Is Fun On Your Website It Sucks
Glad you liked my comments.
Best,
Social Steve
SocialSteve recently posted…. The Web–Internet Growth Debate
Hi Kapil,
Thanks for a provocative and informative post. The point you make about social media strategies avoiding the one size fits all approach is really important.
I’d also add that it needs to stay dynamic. Social media is an emerging “thing” (I’m avoiding calling it a discipline or using any of these typical business words) and as a result I think businesses need to keep a dynamic and opportunistic approach to it.
One place I see this being particularly true right now is at the marketing/customer service/employee interface. So far in many businesses social media has been seen as a marketing tool on the one hand; something that needs to be policed by HR on the other. Actually, I think there’s a real opportunity for a positive, fresh, innovative approach to using social media that cuts across all of this, by companies ready to turn old logic on its head.
Christine Livingston recently posted…. 4 Reframes To Get Your Career Groove Back