There are plenty of look alike social media strategies and packages of measures that claim to be a strategy. To get a quick impression of the real strategy quality – on a strategic level – the following 3 questions are helpful.
1 – Is this strategy designed to support the entire business model or just one area?
What is the significance of this question?
If a social media strategy is only aimed at supporting one corporate function or one area of the business model, the strategy contributes far less to the company’s success. The opportunities from social media are only partially used. If this is not a conscious decision in knowledge of the alternatives, it is an unintentional capital structural underperformance of the strategy and a competitive disadvantage for the company. Strategies without this quality are also a sign of deficits in strategic competence.
How can I check whether this is the case?
A strategy that achieves this is based on an analysis of the potential benefits of social media for the business model.
If this analysis does not exist, the strategy will certainly not benefit the entire business model (company).
What can I do if my strategy does not provide this?
If the company as a whole is to benefit from social media, new development is inevitable.
2 Does this strategy take into account all relevant options for action and their competitive situation and resource requirements?
Why is this significant?
Only if we know all of our options we are able to decide which of them to use. A strategy without knowledge of the actual options for action and their benefits, competitive situations and requirements lacks its foundation. Strategies without this quality are also a sign of deficits in strategic competence.
How can I check whether this is the case?
In a qualitatively valuable strategy, the relevant options for action for the use of social media are known and have been evaluated. If this assessment does not exist, the strategy was created without taking the options for action into account and thus has fundamental qualitative deficiencies.
What can I do if my strategy does not provide this?
If the strategy has no weaknesses in its basic orientation (like question 1), an attempt can be made to review the strategy process at this point and, if necessary, to restart it. With luck, the adjustments will be minor. More likely, the corrections will be larger. The positive aspect is that the larger the corrections, the fewer bad investments will continue to be made.
3 Are the assumptions, prerequisites and risks of the strategy defined?
Why ist this important?
No strategy remains unchanged by reality. Experienced strategists know this all too well. Social media is a highly dynamic environment. In order to recognize changes and the need for adaptation as early as possible, it is crucial to be able to keep an eye on the assumptions and prerequisites on which a strategy is built. To do this, it is indispensable to know them. Strategies without this quality are also a sign of deficits in strategic competence.
How can I check whether this is the case in my strategy?
A strategy that provides this is based on an analysis of the potential benefits of social media for the business model.
If this analysis does not exist, the strategy will certainly not benefit the entire business model (company).
What can I do if my strategy does not provide this?
If the strategy has no other fundamental weaknesses, its assumptions and premises should be examined and kept in mind.
If there are question marks on questions 1 and 2 as well, only a comprehensive update of the strategy or a complete redefinition will work.
More informations about social media strategy
Internal resources on strategy (Social Media Strategy)
Individual posts about social media strategy
- Competition as a criterion in social media strategy
- Social media strategy competence explained in 9 areas
- Knowledge of usage formats as part of social media competence
- Using strategy competence as a professional competition advantage
- The strategic social media perspective or how much success would you like
- 3 questions about the quality of social media strategies
- Business models and social media strategy
- Social Media Strategist – Master of Strategy
- Strategy or tactics
- Action options – foundation of the strategy definition
- Strategy models: the pbsm.strategy model for social media
- Strategy models in social media
- The basis of a social media strategy
- Social media strategy or bundle of measures?
- Why it’s time to rethink social media strategy.
External resources on strategy
- Harvard Business Review Must Reads on Strategy
- Competitive strategy: how to design a winning business model
- From strategy to business models onto tactics
- Choosing How to Compete: Strategies and Tactics in Standardization
- The Origin of Strategy
For your questions
Strategy is a vast and complex field. This is especially true on social media.
If you have any questions about this, I would be pleased and I will try to answer them as best as I can. You can reach me via the form for strategy questions, by email or via LinkedIn.
If you want to delve deeper into the topic and take your social media strategy skills to a new level, I recommend my course on social media strategy development with pbsm.
The pbsm.strategy course
https://pbsm.info/en/informations-about-the-online-course-pbsm-user/