I’ve had the great opportunity to work with many different sized businesses around the topic of “social media” or as I like to refer to it as “The New Word-of-Mouth.”

On October 12, I’ll be teaming up with Gini Deitrich author of one of my favorite blogs Spin Sucks, Diane Rayfield of Harp Social and Marty Higgenbotham of The Stage Channel for an event with Crain’s Chicago Business called, “Mapping Social Marketing Strategies.”

In preparing for this discussion, I was thinking about how social engagement is different with big brands vs. small business (since our panel is for their “Small Business Forum”). What I’ve come to the conclusion on is that too many businesses (big & small) are getting way too caught up in the popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Don’t get me wrong, each are powerful tools or tactics in the scope of the larger strategy, but too many businesses haven’t taken the time to develop a plan or strategy before plunging into these new waters.

As a result, here are 2 Reasons Why Social Platforms Don’t Matter:

1 – Traditional Communications Habits Don’t Fly Socially – I recently wrote a post entitled, “Top 3 Reasons Traditional Marketing Will Fail” which summarizes that taking a traditional marketing/communications approach (one-way, distribution, push, marketing-speak) to social engagement just doesn’t work. Too many businesses see these platforms as just another distribution tool before putting their engagement hats on seeking two-way conversations, prepared to listen & learn, and genuinely solving problems for the audiences they serve.

2 – Popular Doesn’t Always Mean Better – How many times have you heard businesses say, “we need to get out there on Facebook and Twitter” without taking the time to truly understand their “customer persona” and benchmark how these audiences are currently engaging online? For me it has become a daily conversation that is very hard to explain in two minutes:). Businesses need to take the time to do a sound 360-degree analysis of their audiences before they make such platform (tactical) decisions. Better yet, keep it simple and just start asking your customers where they might like to engage with you further…

I could have probably listed 3, 5 or 10 reasons but would really like to hear back from YOU about how businesses need to be prepared and strategic with their approach before plunging into these social media waters.

Let’s talk!