Tumbling Along With Me

“You don’t need a social media strategy - You need a brand strategy that leverages social media.  Don’t get off the brand strategy just because there’s a new communications channel, that’s how you lose the plot as a brand.  Technology is the tail, not the dog.” 

Wow.  He’s spot on.  I saw this back in ‘97 when companies had to quickly create an “internet strategy,” often wasting tons of money on agencies, consultants and painful meetings.  What they eventually realized, was that they needed to integrate this new communications channel in their brand promise/fulfillment approach to their customers.  Those that did, succeeded wildly in the coming years.  

So here’s the takeaway: Don’t let social media glam you out, causing you to waste time and money on ‘keeping up’ - Confirm your brand promise and how you fulfill it, and find ways that social media can complement it.

I don’t have much to add to Tim Sanders’ points about not getting distracted by Social Media, but rather figuring out how to leverage these tools to help you meet your current goals. The only thing you may want to consider is if you are implementing Social Media before you’ve created the brand strategy.

Right now, I know that many of us in the jewelry industry are scrambling to figure out how Social Media is going to affect the way we handle marketing. Tim suggestion is an important reminder to ensure that these efforts are not taking us away from our goals, but that they are helping us meet them.

I’ve said it before, but I am a big Tim Sanders fan and wanted to share a key point from one of his recent posts. His book http://www.amazon.com/Love-Killer-App-Business-Influence/dp/1400046831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277817337&sr=8-1 is one of my favorites and shows you some of the best ways to help yourself in business by doing more to help others. You can read more of Tim’s posts on his blog, Sanders Says or click the link above to read full post.

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