The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

One of the things that I find really difficult to overcome with clients is the tendency to focus in on tools. Some of the questions I often get:

• Do you think we should have a Facebook page?
• Can you walk us through some best practices for YouTube, Twitter, Ning, etc.?
• Whatever happened to MySpace, will that happen to the hot tools of the moment?

Not that these questions aren't good ones but they miss the point. I recommend starting with these questions instead:

The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

• WHO are you trying to reach?
• WHAT are your objectives, what are you trying to accomplish?
• WHERE do these people hang out online?
• WHEN and HOW is the best time and way to reach them?
• WHY will they care about what you have to say? What is the value that you bring to the table and the conversation?

What are some of the questions you think are important to start with when looking at formulating a social media strategy?

This presentation was originally given as a PRSA teleseminar.