I am part of a Linekd In group called Business Strategy and Competitive Strategy Forum.

Within that group there was a link to a post that tried to define which social media platform was the right one for your business based on a broad brush definition of your business sector or type: Social Media Marketing: which platform is right for your business

This article is somewhat different to the plethora of thin articles which will hail social media as the coming messiah, but still misses some of the fundamental strategic business issues and planning that needs to be undertaken before you can get anywhere near answering this question. Here is the response that I posted in the forum:

This is an interesting topic for a business strategy and competitive strategy forum.

Social media is without doubt POTENTIALLY one of the most powerful influences and tools for business of recent times. However, also one of the biggest bandwagons and the current proliferation of social media experts/specialists/consultants/gurus often fail to fit the social media strategy into the business strategy.

For me a business doesn’t need a social media strategy, it needs a comms strategy as part of a marketing strategy, and that comms strategy should consider social media.

I also believe though that a marketing strategy and the business’s business strategy are inherently linked – no business can produce a business strategy, not define business competitive advantage without undertaking the strategic marketing thinking and defining among other things – markets, customers, competitors, key customer insight.

Businesses need to be careful that they spend their scarce resources of time and money on making sure they choose wisely and strategically not just jump on the latest bandwagon – that tends to go where everyone wants it to go – no where!

I am a great fan of social media, but just not a fan of bandwagons, short-cuts and half-hearted work when peoples’ businesses and livelihoods are at stake. If you want to discuss social media within the context of your business and as part of your strategy let me show your exactly at which point we can make an educated and informed choice about the right platform.

Give me a call or drop me an email.