Social Media Strategy

The book that we are using for this course is the Social Media Bible by Lon Safko and David K. Brake. I can say the that my biggest critique of this book is that there is a lot of vague discussion and very little depth (relatively speaking). I mean the world moves to fast for a all encompassing book on social media to remain relevant...and for the cost of nothing one can read a blog that dives deep into a given topic...

However I have tried to stay on track and have attempted to let the readings from this book and other sources inform my blog...As this is the final post I am going to make a concentrated effort to explicitly refer to the book rather than doing so in passing...

Consistent to the theme that has been preached in earlier posts is "Every business can benefit from a carefully crafted social media strategy, but every business begins at a different starting point"...In short it is the nature and resources of a business that informs the social media strategy...

In the case of the my social media case we are essentially starting from scratch...if one does not include high search engine ranking for location specific home health care stores (thanks to Yellow Pages) and a website that leaves a lot to be desired...

Starting from scratch the high level goal is to provide information to the middle-age children of potential customers...in doing so we hope to increase their awareness of Doks Home Health Centre, so that when it comes time to make a purchase they are familiar with Doks and understand the companies competence...

Because the nature of the industry ensures that one individual will likely need a whole host of products and services...there is excellent opportunity to cross market and cross educate via social media initiatives...for example occupational therapists can prescribe assisted living devices...and are likely willing and able to inform the customer on the sources of government subsidies...but they are not responsible for the actual sale...just as the retailer is not responsible to living arrangements...In short the home health industry involves many players who rely on one another in terms of providing their customers with the goods and services that they need...

In short the strategy will be one of promoted education and information sessions via social media...as this is to be submitted in the very near future I will spare the details...

Heres the SWOT
Strengths - Agile, owner cares, strong reputation in the industry
Weaknesses - Limited staffing, limited budget, limited tech savvyness
Opportunities - A few bodies willing and able to donate their time and skill sets, a unique positioning strategy in terms of targeting baby boomers
Threats - Intense competition, long waiting period between a sale and payment

Based on the above and the nature of the industry the 3 pillars to be used are:

Communication: Informing the target market of seminars and presentations

Collaboration: As mentioned earlier there are a lot of co or interdependence amongst businesses in this field...by collaborating across the board it is very realistic that value can be brought to the general public by these information sessions, as the alternative is for a customer to navigate their way through the processes by going person to person or company to company...it should also be noted that once the initial info sessions occur it is then possible to collaborate with the customers to optimize the content of future sessions...

Education: Seminars and Presentations...enough said ;)

So best practice...start with the business and then create the strategy...not the other way around...take some small steps if your a small business...no point in breaking the bank for an ineffective campaign...and finally always be on the look out for areas to improve...take advantage of the ability to change on dime...cause once the business grows thats no longer gonna be possible...