social media strategy

Six Key Social Platforms for Busy Professionals

April 2, 2012 By Des Walsh 4 Comments

Too many platforms, too little time

Long ago I lost count of all the possible social media platforms and tools a business might reasonably use. And in my email and on various newsfeeds I see more new ones being announced or talked about every day.

That proliferation of possibilities probably helps explain why for many professionals the topic of social media brings on an immediate sense of overwhelm. There’s just too much going on, with too many different social platforms.

The temptation is to just put off or ignore the whole topic and maybe hope things will settle down enough one day to a point where some sense can be made of it all.

Let’s face it: that day is not going to come, not in the foreseeable future anyway. We have to make the best decisions we can in a sea of activity and uncertainty.

Or miss out on how business is increasingly being done.

I understand the sense of overwhelm and I experience it too in my own attempts to keep track of new developments so that I can better advise my clients.

Cutting through the sense of overwhelm

In this post I’m providing an overview of what I see as a basic suite of platforms for just about any business to consider, especially in the broad field of professional services.

Each of us needs to make sense of both the big picture of social media and the details of what technologies are right for us to employ in our business or professional practice.

Which is why, for a while now, I’ve been including in my presentations on the topic some discussion about basic platforms.

By the way, I’ve noticed each time that, even with a variety of audiences, this part of the presentation seems to get extra engagement from most or all present. That tells me it strikes a chord of interest.

A basic suite of social platforms

I’ve also noticed lately that even when I have reduced the list of basic platforms to six it’s still overwhelming for some. So I have been emphasizing that I don’t recommend trying to operate them all at once. That way would lie untold frustration and probably disillusion with the whole process. In fact, I’ve been saying that it makes better sense to develop understanding and skill with one platform at a time.

The six platforms I recommend are, not in any intrinsic order of priority:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Blog
YouTube

LinkedIn is indisputably the first platform of choice for professionals, whatever the industry. It’s more fundamentally a professional networking site than a “social” networking one, has over 150 million users and is still growing.

Twitter, the instant messaging and social networking site where your message can’t be more than 140 characters in length, is seriously underestimated by many, maybe most of the professionals I meet. Others make very effective use of it, as part of their social media strategy.

Facebook, the social networking phenomenon with somewhere over 850 million users, can’t be ignored by anyone in business – or should I say simply “by anyone”. Just how effective it will be for specific businesses is a subject that needs attention when developing a company-specific social strategy.

Google+ (or Google Plus) is a newer social networking platform but growing: launched in June 2011, by the end of the year it had 90 million users. There has been vigorous debate, via blogs and various online forums, about whether Google+ will be a success or whether, as one seminar participant asked me the other day, it is or is becoming a “deserted village”. I’m bullish about Google+, especially because of the launch in January this year of Google plus your world.

A Blog is often the missing element in a business’s social media setup, which in my view is a big mistake, especially for a solo professional wanting to be noticed above th din and wanting to do that economically in dollar terms.

YouTube, the video sharing site with some 60 hours of video being uploaded every minute, provides a very accessible way for any of us to get our message out and is a seriously underutilized resource for many businesses.

Social integration

Thinking strategically, it’s not enough to just build our presence on each of the basic platforms. We need to work out which ones we will put more or less emphasis on, depending on our initial and ongoing strategic assessment.

We also need to take care of social integration, the business of linking our various social presences to get a greater effect for our efforts. It’s something that is often overlooked by professionals who may have quite a good presence across specific platforms.

Username parking

One clarification is needed on the topic of getting used to one platform at a time, then moving on to the next, and that is the necessity to take care early on of some “username parking”. It’s a process similar to that of “domain parking”, in which you register domains (web addresses) for your business or specific brands so as to ensure someone else doesn’t have them, even if you don’t have any immediate plan to use them for a specific site. Basically you are establishing or refreshing an account on a specific platform so as to reserve your ideal username (provided someone else hasn’t got there first).

YMMV

As we used to say in forums, your mileage may vary. If you have a different list of basic platforms, I’d be interested to hear about that, including if you wish the reasons for your choice.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: basic social media platforms, blog, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, social media strategy, Twitter, YouTube

Managing Social Media Strategy In-house versus Outsourcing

March 6, 2012 By Des Walsh 7 Comments

In an online social media discussion group I belong to, a member asked the other day whether, in order to have an effective social media strategy, a company needs to have its own social media department or in-house staff.

A discussion followed about the comparative merits and limitations of in-house staff resourcing for social media, versus outsourcing.

Some argued for outsourcing the whole process to a company specializing in social media. Others felt that it made more sense to keep, variously, some or all of the process in-house.

My own view is that it doesn’t have to be an either/or decision.

But I’ve heard the full outsourcing pitch often enough from owners of outsourcing businesses to know that they can have a firmly held belief that the only sensible thing any business can do is to outsource the whole process to them, the self-proclaimed social media expert service providers.

And of course on the business owners’ side, there is no shortage of those who would rather write a check and have someone else handle the whole thing than get directly involved themselves.

Even if they have staff who might be able to develop and implement a social media strategy, they can probably adduce some very good reasons for not wanting to either divert those people from their existing responsibilities, or hire new staff for the purpose.

I understand that approach. We’re all busy and circumstances for many businesses these days are very challenging.

But what bothers me about this “outsource it all” approach is that companies which take that course of action never really learn, from day-to-day, “hands-on” practice, what is really involved in connecting via social media with the newly connected, newly empowered customer.

It is partly an age thing. Many older business owners and executives just don’t want to learn new tricks.

But there is a lot more at stake here than new tricks. There is a whole new environment in which business has to operate.

Missing an opportunity

No matter how practical the decision may seem, it seems to me self-evident that any company which outsources completely the social media function is choosing thereby to miss out on an irreplaceable opportunity to learn from practice, including mistakes, how it all works.

Not that I expect busy professionals in fields other than social media to invest the kind of time and money I and other colleagues have done into learning about social media, or to be anything like engaged as some of us are on a daily basis.

It’s a matter of balance.

Naturally I’m all for companies engaging social media strategists!

And I believe that in that role I can usually bring something of fresh value to the table, to help the company develop a strategy that is right for it, as well as being available to provide some other support services.

The key to my preferred approach, which I spell out to clients, is that I aim to “leave the tools behind“, so that the company can become effectively self-sufficient in developing and maintaining their presence on the social web.

What that means is that I help them build their basic strategy in house so they really own it and then if they wish help them with initial implementation. I can also help with training in-house staff to take up the responsibility for implementation.

I’m also happy to do what I can to help them choose outsourced resources, if the task and their approach make that appropriate.

My objective is simply that the company’s owners and key leaders own the strategy, know how to handle the tools and keep overall responsibility for implementation, even if they outsource some or most of the day-to-day implementation tasks.

Not everyone is going to buy that approach, particularly the part about keeping at least some of the core management of the process in-house: but those that do so, and take action to implement the approach, are putting themselves on a path of a more practical learning and enriched understanding about what is happening in the new business environment and how to ride the wave, not be swamped by it.

It’s about taking a long-term view of the business and investing in the future while at the same time engaging more effectively with today’s customers.

Let’s face it: the customer is not outsourcing her or his role as a consumer and in fact is becoming more and more directly connected on a daily basis and more directly engaged via the social web. So can any company afford to be heading in a different direction?

Which is why I believe that a full-scale outsourcing of social media engagement represents not only missed opportunity for capacity building, but a serious risk of becoming less, not more connected with the customer.

What do you think? Are the companies you know more likely to buy the “full outsourcing” pitch, or keep it all in-house, or choose a blend of both?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: manage social media in-house, outsourcing social media, social media strategy

Practical Social Media Strategy for Financial Advisers – Keynote

February 6, 2012 By Des Walsh Leave a Comment

When I stood up in Canberra a couple of weeks ago to deliver the keynote for the last day of the Hillross Financial Services annual conference 2012 I was a tad nervous. Not shaking nervous, but neither just the usual pre-presentation edginess I usually feel on the basis that I want to make sure I’m focused on my presentation being as helpful as possible.

The topic for my keynote was Practical Social Media Strategy and the bit of extra nervousness I put down to my being aware that some of the audience might see the whole idea of social media engagement as just one more reason to feel pressured, rather than representing a great opportunity for business growth.

And from talking to some of the participants beforehand, as well as my own reading about the current state of play in the financial services industry, I understood quite clearly how some could very reasonably hold that point of view.

It was not my goal or intention to try and convince the sceptics – and I said so: I was focuse primarily on helping those who were keen to get moving with social media and if some of those were being held back by concerns I could address effectively, I wanted to be sure I did my best on that score.

Because just as we know it’s not easy being green I had become very aware in my research for this keynote that it is definitely not easy being a financial adviser in 2012.

As well as the usual day to day pressures of running a business, there is a lot of relatively new pressure on people in the financial advising/wealth management/financial planning sector. It appears some of that comes from public disillusionment triggered or exacerbated by GFC fallout and some from the reality or threat of more stringent government regulation of the industry. There may well be other factors.

I wrote about this in an earlier post just before I gave the keynote in Canberra – see Social Media Not an Easy Call for Financial Advisors

So while my presentation highlighted the benefits social media engagement could bring to the businesses of conference participants, it also gave attention to a range of challenges facing anyone who wanted to train their attention and energies on becoming effective players in the world of social business, challenges which apply not just in financial advisory businesses but in a whole range of professional services businesses.

Tying all that together, the presentation was focused on providing a simple but powerful three-point takeaway:

social media provides an opportunity to get the edge on your competition
there is risk and it can be managed
each business needs a social media strategy aligned to its broader business strategy

The slide deck is here at Slideshare.

In future posts I will be going into more detail on specific items, such as the benefits of engaging with social media, the disincentives to doing so, issues of reputation management and other risk management aspects.

As mentioned in my previous post on this topic, I’m still keen to gather case studies of businesses in the financial services sector using social media effectively. So if you know of any I trust you will share, either by way of a comment here or via my Contact page.

Image credit: the very talented Simon Hewson

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Des Walsh, financial advisers, financial planners, financial services, Hillross Financial Services, keynote, social media strategy, wealth management

Why Some Companies are Wary of Investing in Strategic Social Media Engagement

March 30, 2011 By Des Walsh

Today, as part of my current course with the Social Media Academy, I’ve been working an exercise to develop a concept and framework for a consultancy business in the field of social media. In line with how the assignment was set, the first thing I did was to endeavor to define the problem my business would seek to address.

I framed that in terms of the area I would like to do more work in, mainly medium sized professional services companies.

After reading my screed through a couple of times I felt it was a fair representation of how I currently see the field and why some, maybe many companies in that sector might be reluctant or even resistant to investing in developing and implementing social media – or social business – strategies.

Then I wondered how others might judge what I’ve written. Which is why I’ve decided to stick my neck out and invite comment and critique here on the blog.

What I’ve written is frankly based not on detailed research so much as my sense of the current state of play. So it’s quite possible that my sweeping generalizations do not measure up to current business realities. On the other hand, my observations here are not completely subjective: I read what others write and I listen to what business owners and executives say.

I recognize too that what I’ve written is not what you would call revolutionary. I’m just endeavoring to set down a summary of how I see the situation.

So here goes.

The problem

Many business owners understand, at least at a basic level, that the all-pervasive adoption of social media has changed the business landscape dramatically and irrevocably. They see that their own company is not up to speed and they do not want to be left behind. Some even say they want to be at the leading edge of change. But they or their business partners, or their legal or other advisers, counsel caution and a wait-and-see attitude, often citing all the things that can go wrong via the social networks.

They want to act, but are afraid of getting it wrong:

they don’t know what is involved – cost, time, people, reputation
they don’t believe you can get an ROI calculation
they don’t know if their organization and/or their people are ready
they don’t know who to trust to show them

Companies in professional services and in heavily regulated industries, such as financial services, are especially wary. For most such companies, all or nearly all of the members of the board of directors and the C-suite executives will have spent their working professional lives in a culture and mindset of command and control, with hierarchical structures and chains of command. To them the social web can, understandably, look very much a place of anarchy, with social media engagement a recipe for serious, possibly terminal reputational damage and trashing of the brand.

If they decide that they want to “do something” about social media, their training and orientation to risk management through a command and control structure may make them susceptible to the advertising agency or other purveyor of social media services or “solutions” who offers to provide them with some semblance of social business. A social media tasting. Typically this can be along the lines of “why don’t we just set you up with a Facebook page and see how that goes?”.

Such a piecemeal approach is not likely to be based on anything like a comprehensive strategic assessment, much less a strategic plan of social media implementation: so the chances of success are slim at best. And because there is no strategic framework for identifying what “success” might look like, the company is unable to make an informed judgment later about the value of that particular experiment, or of the potential benefit of other social business initiatives that may be proposed.

Properly advised about precedents and procedures for risk management, even the most conservative of companies may be willing to invest some of their people’s time, some reputational and social capital and some money into socializing their business. But if the only ideas that are put to them are essentially tactical, not strategic, and do not address the financial controller’s concerns and those of other C-suite executives, the decision may be made, however reluctantly, to do nothing.

The fundamental problem then is that they have not had the benefit of being shown how they can move along the path of a holistic socializing of the business, sensibly, strategically and measurably.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Business, Social Media, social media strategy

Student Again with Social Media Academy

February 10, 2011 By Des Walsh

“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” Sir Claus Moser

Having done a lot of study, of different subjects and in different learning environments, I have to admit there have been times I’ve thought I’d done enough studying and learning.

But if ever there was an era when continuing education was not a luxury but an imperative, this 21st century surely wins the prize.

And I know from experience that, in this fast-moving world, with such a daily tsunami of information, opinions and general noise about social media as about many other topics, I can benefit professionally and personally by participating in a structured, disciplined learning process.

All of which is by way of saying I’ve just become a student once more, this time with the Social Media Academy, where I have enrolled for the Certified Social Media Strategist program.

I’m doing the Australian version, which started yesterday and I am under the gun to get on with the challenging program of lessons.

The Certified Social Media Strategist class is described by the Academy as follows:

The Strategist Class is the “Core Education Program” of the Social Media Academy, a comprehensive 6 weeks online education program with online workshops covering social media from a holistic point of view. Class includes methods, models and frameworks for social media assessments, strategies and execution plans for all industries.

We’ve already had our introductory webinar and I am excited about the way the course has been structured and the support being provided, not least the custom-built e-learning platform.

Do I need the Certificate?

I really don’t know. I am pretty sure it won’t hurt for clients and prospective clients to know that I have been through a process like this, have had to submit assignments for assessment and have some external validation.

But what attracted me more than the prospect of having another certificate were

the comprehensiveness of the course
the strategic conceptual framework (I like good tactics, but I like to know where they fit in the big picture)
the knowledge, experience and seriousness of purpose of the people running the Social Media Academy
the quality of graduates whom I know
the focus on providing guidance on how to help business from small to large corporate
the inclusion of course material on practice-building

It’s a big time-commitment over a couple of months. I figured out I have to spend a minimum of twelve hours a week and in practice probably a bit more, just to keep up. But I believe it is worth it.

I’m hoping to share here on the blog some insights and realizations as I go along. Some of those may well be somewhat embarrassing. I am quite prepared to find – and actually hope I will find – that there are a number of things I do in social media which I could do a lot better, and things I’m not doing that I should be doing, and so on.

And while I mightn’t need the certificate, I quite like the idea of having it!

If you are interested in knowing more about the Social Media Academy’s courses, they offer a free orientation session, with varying times to accommodate people around the globe in different time zones.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: certification, Social Media, Social Media Academy, social media strategy