What do I mean when I say “We’re Technology and Platform Agnostic”? It means that we don’t give preference to any particular social media (or online) tool or platform. In fact we don’t approach problems or projects from a technology standpoint at all.
What We Believe
Our belief is in the power of great ideas to solve problems. For an idea to be great it has to be strategic (carefully designed or planned to serve a particular purpose or advantage). In order for us to apply strategic thinking to a problem we have to understand the issues the environment and the problem and the audience inside and out; aka research.
Once we understand the issues, the environment, the competition, the audience and anything else we need to know given the client’s problem, we are able to develop a strategy and come up with great and often simple, ideas. Do you see where I’m going with this? There has been no mention yet of any tools, no Twitter, no Facebook, no blog, no video, no Instagram, no MySpace – wait a minute, what?
The tools come last. Just like when a developer builds a house. They don’t show up at the client’s door, sit down at the dining room table with them, pull out a hammer and say, you should use 2×4’s and 6″ nails. They find out who the clients are, what they like, how big their family is, how they live, what they like to do, etc, etc… Then the start planning and eventually draw up some ideas, blue prints, a project plan.
Otherwise there would be some pretty funny looking houses with some pretty unhappy families. Funny thing is, that’s exactly what I’m seeing a lot of these days when it comes to the way businesses large and small approach social media. Shoot first, ask questions later. Why?
Find out what platforms your customers and prospects are using, where they like to engage and communicate, what they would like to hear from you, before you start creating accounts and spitting out content. It’s not that hard to do. You remember what Grandpa used to say right – measure twice, cut once.
What Grandpa Used to Say
Here’s how you measure twice:
- Conduct a survey. Ask questions like; which social networks do you use, how often, at home or at work, etc.
- Post a link to the survey on your website, in your email signature. Email it to your subscriber list. Put it in your newsletter.
- Ask your customers – in the store, restaurant, font counter (depending on your business).
- Analyze your website stats. Check your Referring sites report; what sites are visitors coming from. Many may already be coming from Facebook or Twitter. Check to see what organic search terms they are using to find you.
- Research your category and/or competitors. What are they doing. Where are they enjoying the most robust customer engagement. What sort of comments are they getting on their blog (assuming they have one).
Pretty simple stuff really. It will save you a ton of time and headaches down the road. Of course if you don’t have the time or inclination to do any of that you can always call us… 🙂
1 thought on “Why We’re Technology and Platform Agnostic”
I think the shooting first ideology is what has created a lot of the misnomers for the usage of social media. When I talk to people about social, they typically will say that they do not have the time to keep up a Twitter, Facebook, and all the other accounts. That is where the problem is.
These shoot first type of people recommend to their clients that they have to get on every platform and start interacting and generating content. It's like a "Social Media Shotgun" – just shoot in the general direction and hope to hit something.
As always, proper planning and strategy are key ingredients to being successful.