Useful Social Media have put together a list of the top 12 issues they think a social media marketer faces, which have been incorporated into the agenda for their Corporate Social Media Summit in December.  They have asked for feedback.  I like USM because I think they are tuned-in to what the market as a whole is thinking and therefore it may well be that these are the issues that social media marketers think are important – but this may reflect the fact that many social media marketers are not entirely in the right place at the moment.

Here are USM’s issues and my response. (Note – there are not 12, but I think USM mean they have incorporate 12 issues into a less than 12 point agenda).

Maintain customer engagement through a unified brand voice and effective conversation strategy

Unified brand voice – absolutely not.  This is an example of trying to make channel and message thinking from the world of the audience work in the world of the individual – where the challenge is all about behaviour identification and response. Just because in the social space there is now a multiplicity of channels and thus potential messages, does not mean that the challenge is creating consistency of message across all of these channels.  Unified brand voice was what creates efficiency in the world of restricted, audience-based channels and media.  It does not determine success in the social space – which is all about brand behaviour.

Conversation strategy – yes.  Continue reading →