When it comes to the social media, one of the themes I have consistently written is that you just can't have a policy of throwing things against the wall and hoping that some, if not all, of it sticks.
Your social media presence needs to be a real strategy, one (which like every other marketing effort you make) can have its success or failure measured in tangible terms.
Randall Craig, an expert in the online and social media areas, said if your social media efforts are not strategic, all you are doing is wasting your time.
For your social media marketing not to be a time-waster, Craig has four suggestions. First, survey your customers and your prospects to find out where they spend their time while they are online. If most of them do not visit YouTube, he said, why spend your time there.
The follow-up is to ask them what they are doing while they are line. Craig said this could provide clues for you in terms of providing content they are interested in.
For example, if they are looking for product support, he said, your blog posting could focus on this topic.
Third is to find out what information they are looking to obtain through social media. In our product support example, Craig suggests creating YouTube how-to videos or operating a moderated customer support forum.
To extend another one of his examples into a mortgage context, when rates fall, originators can start a twitter feed or text message to notify clients.
Finally, you must set specific objectives and measure and monitor the impact of the investment of your social media marketing against them.
"To get a higher social media return on investment, use the very medium to make sure that this happens and stop doing things that don't yield results," he said, adding you will find some activities are not worth doing.
