Richard Abels

People always ask me “What should we be doing on social media?” Essentially, execs are afraid their organization is missing the boat if they aren’t posting and tweeting OR not sure if what they are doing is effective.

While many businesses believe social media is a strategy, it is actually a tactic to achieve an organization’s goals and desired outcomes.

Depending on your sector– consumer, B2B, government, non-profit – social media is not necessarily the first marketing tool to implement or possibly even use at all.

The question is not “what should we do on social media” but instead “which marketing tactics best achieve our goals and reach the most important target audiences?”

Here are some factors to evaluate whether social media is right for you.

Q:  What are our goals?

• What are our most important outcomes?
• What do we need to achieve?
  • Sales? Visit website? Stores? Awareness?

Q:  Is our target audience available and active on social media?

• You need to prioritize your key audiences to answer this.
• Will you really reach the CEO of your most important new business prospect on Facebook?

Q:  Do we dedicate resources (staff and $$$) to create, maintain and monitor our social media program?

• Yes, it is “free” to post / tweet but there is a tangible investment required.

Q:  What makes us stand out from our competitors?

• What do we provide which they don’t?
• How do we communicate it?

Q:  Why should people follow us?

• What’s in it for them?
• Why should they care?

So the next time you ask “What should we do on Facebook”, take a step back and think about these issues. As you review your marketing goals, you will see that social media is a tool/tactic – not a strategy – and therefore, use and evaluate it as part of your marketing mix.

Richard Abels

The Formula for Effective Marketing and Communications.

After all of the ups and downs in business last year, 2017 brings even greater communications challenges to organizations of all types. This is where strategic planning and message clarity earn their keep.

Every business, non-profit and governmental entity needs to solve problems, build awareness and clearly state how they best serve their stakeholders.

As you look at the year ahead, remember these important points:

1. Strategic Planning helps overcome barriers, bust through the clutter and increase visibility.
2. Be ready to respond to a crisis which could put the organization’s mission and reputation at risk.

Generating and maintaining awareness is harder than ever; whether in advertising, PR, social media, digital/web, community engagement, internal communications etc. While communications materials should differ for each audience, the end-benefits must always be concise and coordinated to have a lasting impact. It all starts with the strategic plan – understanding strengths, prioritizing audiences, developing crisp, clear messaging and implementing the right combination of tactics.

Ready to respond to a crisis? It’s not a question of IF there will be a business-affecting issue, it’s WHEN. Successfully informing employees, shareholders/investors, customers, vendors, the community, elected officials, the media and others takes advance planning and preparation. The measure of an organization is how it responds to a crisis. Is your team prepared?

Our logo says it all: “Strategy. Implementation. Counsel.” When you need to increase awareness and/or solve difficult problems, we help you succeed.

Richard Abels

In every organization, the time will come when an event occurs (or does not occur) which directly – and negatively – could impact customers, employees, financial partners, Board/shareholders/investors, suppliers/vendors, prospects, community residents, elected officials, policy makers and others.

Such an occurrence could drastically damage credibility, reputation, trust and retention (employee, customer) while wreaking havoc for months – or years – unless it is dealt with quickly, clearly and professionally.

In a crisis, who speaks for your organization? When communicating to the above stakeholders, the media, business/civic leaders etc., how do you address these problems or issues? What do you say, when do you say it and to whom?

Here are five steps to be able to respond to a potentially damaging issue or a crisis:

1. Know your weaknesses in advance. Identify where things could go wrong and be ready for them to do so.
2. Develop a communications response team and process by identifying the key individuals in advance.
3. Who is the primary person to speak to all relevant audiences in a clear, concise manner and field inquiries from the media, customers, employees, shareholders etc.?
4. Has leadership been professionally trained to deal with the media? In a crisis?
5. Clearly understand the situation and facts. Do not respond to speculation, rumor or innuendo.

Hope is not a strategy, Denial is not just a river in Egypt and “No Comment” implies you are “at fault.” Understand what can go wrong, be ready for it and have a clear plan to respond. You’ll sleep better knowing you’re ready when it does.

In the ‘60s, Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message” was game-changing. But today, your audiences drive the message.

McLuhan, a philosopher of communication theory, noted the medium through which a message is delivered (TV, newspaper, radio, magazine and now e-mail, on-line and now social) has a direct influence on the message. Hence, TV is different than newspaper, radio etc.

But today, audiences are what count.  It’s easy to think your target audience is “just” people who buy your product/service. After all, new “customers” are the life blood of all entities.

Yet, every business has multiple audiences – more than you might realize.  While new prospects are certainly important, other stakeholders must be included in an organization’s outreach:

All of these groups can impact your success – and their ranking depends on the organization’s specific goals and circumstances.

Furthermore, in this era of highly-segmented audiences (and media), each specific stakeholder has different needs – and “one (message) for all (audiences)” no longer applies.

I contend “the Audience” is now more important than the medium. It’s not what an organization wants to tell it key stakeholders …it’s what each audience needs to know about you based on their specific, prioritized needs. Once that’s accomplished, a conversation can begin – and business success will follow.

Given the explosion of media outlets, the Medium is still the Message. But always remember that today, your Audiences (all of them) Drive Your Message.