Cultural obstacles to social media success: Cast your vote!

In this post: Blue Door wants to hear your opinion regarding your organization's cultural obstacles to using social media for business ...

The deeper we dive into the world of social media for business here at Blue Door, the more we recognize the huge impact an organization's internal culture can have on the success (or, failure) of its social media endeavors. In fact, a resistant culture can even inhibit a social media program from taking flight, let alone fly high.

That's why we thought this area would be a great one to pursue in an upcoming Webinar we're presenting for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). More details on the Webinar will come within the next week or so, but for now, we're turning to YOU for your input.

We've put together a handy-dandy poll to get your feedback on this topic. Then, when we're presenting the Webinar, we plan on sharing your opinions with our listeners. You can access the one-question poll, and cast your vote here:

http://twtpoll.com/2dtz3q

As you can see, it's also in a convenient TwtPoll format, so feel free to tweet it to your friends as well, or share it on your Facebook page. The more responses the better! The poll closes on Sept. 11, 2009.

Thanks for your help and feedback. Stay tuned for more details on the Webinar!

Hopping on the Bandwagon to Nowhere

In this post: Jaimy discusses why strategy and goal-setting must come before any use of social media tools ...

"Me, too" is not a strategy.

When something's hot, talked about constantly and all the buzz in an industry, it can be easy to think it is a necessary addition to a business's marketing mix.

"Me, too" will not achieve business goals.

Creating a Facebook page, Twitter account, online community, etc. just because everyone else is doing it won't bring in business.

"Me, too" is painfully obvious to customers.

If you're not offering true value and engaging your customers, it's just more noise - noise that will readily be ignored.

Before hoppping on the social media bandwagon, stop and assess the "why." What do you hope to achieve in your efforts? How will you fulfill a current void in your customer relationships? Start with the goals and strategy before getting your hands on the tools.

Because, "Me, too" gets you nowhere. It allocates precious internal resources for what is often little to no result. (Well, unless you're only shooting for one more inbound link to your site or blog. Then, you've achieved your goal, but not much more.)

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've realized how much it gets under my skin. I think it's because I hate to see great, successful organizations throw strategy out the window in exchange for being part of the "cutting-edge crowd."

What do you think? Am I the only one who notices this trend?