Social Media is Like Whack-a-Mole

Social media is a world of open doors. Wherever you look, you will see opportunity, challenge and a rush to fill the empty space. Sure you can plug the gap with a Facebook page, a Twitter account or even a blog. But in reality, social media shifts and changes with a surprising velocity. No sooner do you get a fix on the latest suite of applications, tools or approaches than something new pops its shiny head up, grabbing your attention. Meanwhile your recent favourite disappears from view. How quickly can you move? How do you respond? And where do you focus your attention?

In this way, social media is like a game of Whack-a-Mole.

The thing is, when it comes to business, you are approaching social media with a certain agenda. No matter whether your goals or objectives and business strategy direct your focus towards sales, brand building, HR or customer service (or many other touchpoints), you will want to be investing your precious time in a way that delivers against these objectives. This is true – even if one of your objectives is to experiment.

For me, even experimentation is foreplay for a form of operationalisation. I am always thinking, “where does this go next”, or “how can we make this work beyond me – and how do we transfer it to a team”.

But what do you need to consider when it comes to operationalising social media? Well, as promised, Valeria Maltoni has made available her eBook looking through the year ahead. Called Marketing in 2010, this free eBook brings a bunch of leading social media thinkers together to think through what it takes to go from idea to making social media work over and over again. Download the free Marketing in 2010 eBook here.

My chapter is entitled “Social Media is Like Water”, but there is plenty of great thinking, advice and detailed instruction from Jason Baer, Olivier Blanchard, Danny Brown, Mark Earls, Rachel Happe, Jackie Huba, Jonathan MacDonald, Amber Naslund and Shannon Paul. Hope you enjoy it!