Social media strategy. Really?

Since the pandemic, every single organisation we’ve worked with across Southeast Asia has dedicated a large portion of their marketing efforts towards social media – and for good reason. 

Because let’s face it, every single one of us is on at least one social media platform. Yes, you. And your colleague sitting next to you. And your boss. And your partner. And your friends.

But the same can’t be said of watching traditional TV, reading print newspapers and magazines, or going to the cinemas. I no longer read print newspapers and magazines. My wife no longer watches traditional TV. But we’re both active on Facebook and Instagram. And I have a Twitter account as well. So social media makes sense.

It comes as no surprise then that in almost every campaign, organisations will ask for a social media strategy. And for me, the starting point is always defining what social media means to them. Social media is not just “social media”. It has two distinct parts: organic social media and paid social media. Both are just as important. And both work synergistically to make social media strategies work.

The unfortunate thing is a large majority of marketing departments within organisations don’t care – or perhaps even realise – about organic social media. When I look at a lot of social media strategies that are being adopted, they aren’t social media strategies. They are just paid advertising campaigns on social media platforms.

If you’re spending money, eating up manhours and going through countless revisions to create posts for your brand’s social media feed only to get half a dozen interactions and engagements, then having to spend more money to run the post as a paid ad to get 0.1% engagement rate, you don’t have a social media strategy.

Yet countless marketing departments are doing just that. It’s at best, inefficient use of budgets, and at worst, financial mismanagement.

Yet, when I broach the subject, the common pushback I receive is “organic social media doesn’t help me achieve my marketing KPIs” which is typically measured in reach, views and likes. And that’s often the disconnect between corporate marketing and social media. They don’t care about the “social” in social media. They only care about utilising the “media” to drive the marketing. Which misses the point – and the potential opportunities – completely.

You know who are some of the best adopters of social media? Small businesses. When you don’t have money and resources to splurge on marketing like large corporates, you learn to be innovative and creative with your social media to gain maximum impact for minimal cost and time. You focus on creating content that harnesses the value organic social media, rather than creating social media posts that people don’t really care about.

If corporate marketing teams are willing to leave their egos at the door, they could learn a thing or two about social media marketing from small business.