Definition
The social media strategy evaluation describes the evaluation of social media strategies and strategy drafts in terms of their performance for the company and the competitive performance of the strategy in its competitive situation.
The aim of the social media strategy evaluation is
- to filter out the less effective strategies from a series of strategy drafts.
- to check the quality of strategy drafts before deciding on a final strategy.
Type of evaluation
We decide on the further use of strategy drafts through individual evaluation and by comparing strategy drafts.
In the individual evaluation, we evaluate the strategy draft on its own. In the comparison, we compare the performance characteristics of strategies.
Importance of the social media strategy evaluation
With the social media strategy evaluation, we also decide which strategy approaches we will not pursue. This makes the strategy evaluation part of the strategy development.
Criteria for the strategy evaluation
We decide based on the performance quality of a strategy draft and its competitive quality whether this strategy is recommendable or not. The actual decision on the use of the strategy lies with the company management.
Performance quality of the strategy
Criteria for the performance quality of a draft strategy are
- the company benefit that can be achieved through the strategy.
- the resource requirements associated with the strategy.
- the identifiable risks associated with the draft strategy and its implementation.
- the compatibility of the individual strategy components.
- the dependencies from the strategy.
Competitive quality of the social media strategy
- the quality of the competitive positions that are achieved or secured with the strategy.
Notes on the criteria for social media strategy evaluation
Company benefit: the company benefit that can be achieved with a strategy is an easy-to-understand criterion for strategy evaluation. How far this company benefit supports the entire business model and how much of the possible company benefit is covered by it is another criterion for evaluating social media strategies. The goals of a broad-based company benefit and the goal of a focused strategy are often diametrically opposed. This shows that you can recognize a strategy primarily by what is not done. Resource requirements: Here we can take into account not only the quantitative resource requirements but also their qualitative side when evaluating the strategy. If we can cover a strategy quantitatively, but this requires a completely new quality in the skills, this has different requirements than a strategy that can be implemented straight away. If the skills are not often available, this is another possible criterion. Recognizable risks: Recognizable risks can result from the content of a strategy, from its implementation or from the competition’s reaction. Another criterion besides the mere existence of risks is how these risks can be dealt with.
- If we are dealing with risks that are present but solvable, the strategy must be evaluated differently than if we are dealing with risks for which we do not have a solid answer.
- The probability of the risks occurring is also an issue for the evaluation. If the occurrence of risks is certain, probable or rather unlikely, this not only distinguishes the risks but also the quality of the strategy.
Compatibility of the strategy components: here we take into account at least the category of interactions, for which we check the contents of the individual strategy components. In doing so, we ensure that we take into account the interactions of a positive and negative nature and, at least for the strategy components that are decisive for the market impact, we take into account not only the bilateral interactions but also the multilateral interactions between these strategy components. For the social media strategy evaluation, it is important to what extent we can balance out or exclude negative interactions, but also how comprehensively we have been able to create positive interactions between the core strategy components.
Dependencies: the social media strategy evaluation should take into account the dependencies from the respective strategy or strategy version. Does the strategy make us more dependent on third parties such as social media platforms, or does the strategy ensure us the greatest possible independence with access to all important data and freedom of design?
Competitive positions: which competitive positions are achieved or secured by the respective strategy and what significance and quality do these competitive positions have for the business model directly or the success of the strategy.
Social media strategy evaluation in the potential-based strategy model
As the following table shows, the strategy evaluation comes at the end of the strategy development. This does not necessarily mean that the strategy development is completely finished. If the evaluation does not produce an acceptable result or the strategy drafts are rejected by the company management, we are at least faced with a new start.
Social media strategy excellence
Social media strategy is extremely important and at the same time extremely rare.
The majority of strategies that companies practice are not strategies but more or less arbitrary measures.
It is all the more important to build up real strategic competence. As a competitive advantage for the company as well as a personal competitive advantage.
The potential-based strategy model pbsm gives you the right tool for this.
There is a free strategy course to learn about and use this method.
The free social media strategy course
Training offer
The strategy training of social media managers is not sufficient in terms of scope and quality. To change this, I developed the potential-based strategy model pbsm, which enables even beginners to develop high-performance and, above all, competitive social media strategies. This method is taught in a free social media strategy course.
The free social media strategy course
Course content
Social media strategy requires not only competence in social media but also in strategy. And you can’t just acquire both in a relaxed afternoon. You lay the foundations for this competence with a compact course that is reduced to the essentials and that you complete online on your own. (If necessary, you can rely on support.)
- The course includes more than 70 learning units. The pure reading time for the learning units is – depending on your reading speed – 20 to 25 hours. You should hardly allow more than 2 hours of reading time per day.
- The course includes more than 200 practical exercises. The time required for this is much longer than the time spent reading the course content.
The course is therefore more of a course lasting several weeks – which you complete more or less independently – than a typical online course for the afternoon.
Completion
You can take the strategy course for free – without proof of qualification and support – or for a fee with the pbsm.strategist qualification. You can find out more about the pbsm.strategist qualification here.
Support
There are various ways to support your learning success in the course. You can find out more here.