I had a couple of great conversations this week with some incredibly smart folks including my boss and John Della Volpe (@dellavolpe) of Socialsphere and the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics about how social media fits into an organizations overall public relations strategy. I am more convinced than ever that too many organizations are cutting straight to social media as a solution without figuring out what they are trying to solve.

 

John posted a very good take on his blog ( http://www.socialsphere.com/blogs/36-johns-blog/352-daylights-burning.html ) that while 2009 has been the year of social media exploration he hopes that 2010 will be the year of social media strategy.  I liked this post not just because he mentions me, which of course feeds my massive ego and innappropriately high self esteem, but because he cuts right to a regular theme I tell my colleagues and clients--Social media is a tool in the tool box and by jumping straight to the tool you are going straight to tactics without a strategy.

 

The start point isn't which platform you should be on or who should be tweeting.  The start point for an organization or business has to be what is our goal?  What is our mission?  What are the messages that we want people to know about us and how do we spark the conversations that allow us to convey those ideas?

 

I always fall back on my military experience as I make these plans.  The first thing you need to know as you begin planning a combat operation is what is the goal of the campaign?  From that flows the knowledge to apply the right military units, tactics and weapons systems to the mission.  Its no different in communications or marketing.

 

What is it we want to accomplish? 

 

Once you have answered that key question you can start looking at the resources available and look at the menu of choices of platforms and tools to tell your story.  Any organization that has a good story can excel with a good plan be it about an amazing non-profit like The Mission Continues (@missioncontinue) or the United States Army who recently launched a very cool iPhone app to bring news and useful information to a wider audience.

 

The old adage that we are too busy to plan is nothing more than a recipe for failure whether you are trying to seize a hill in combat or trying to roll out a cool new product.