Stop Looking At The Trees, Start Looking At The Forest

Ask any CMO how they’re doing in social media, and they’ll likely point to a few glowing examples of success. It might be a corporate Facebook Page with a thousand likes, an article link with dozens of retweets or a stellar sales rep who leveraged his or her social presence to meet and exceed quota.

Unfortunately, these examples are often nothing more than islands of success.

Many marketing teams ignore the fact that most of their social media activity has resulted in lackluster presences that simply aren’t being leveraged very well. They could even be harming their brand’s reputation.

Looking at each social Page or Account throughout a company one at a time can create an array of myopic, unrelated views. To get a true, clear picture of your company’s social presence, you need to take a broad, honest view. Then, you must be able to “shift” from broad views to narrower, focused views as needed. This flexibility lets you see general trends and engagement across the company, then lets you delve into pockets of success or failure to varying levels.

Looking at each Social Page or Account throughout a company one at a time can create an array of myopic, unrelated views. Additionally, your company needs tools that can provide a true perspective on the many aspects of social success and engagement. A large group of followers doesn’t mean much if they don’t engage with, take action on and share your message. You must be able to track the regions, products and people that are producing the most effective content. Content that’s driving shares, clicks and retweets. Then you can learn from and duplicate these strategies and best practices elsewhere.

Understand what success means, because it’s not just likes and follows. Then look all around to see where those activities are actually happening. Don’t become too enamored of your favorite, beautiful tree…while the forest dies around you.