Do You Need Goals in Social Media?

I hear it all the time: When you jump in to social media you need goals. 

But goals in social media may be overstated – much like the nagging concern with ROI.  I even wonder if the preoccupation with goals might hold some people back.

You may not know what potential a platform holds for your organization until you’ve dabbled in the space.  Get in, listen, contribute and see what happens.  Keep an open mind and you’ll see how it dovetails with your operation.

I see excessive planning as a roadblock for my physician colleagues considering entrée into the social world.  They wonder what precisely they should do, what’s in it for them and how much of what they’ll get when (“I sent a tweet, now what?”).  On a broader scale Lee Aase encourages healthcare organizations to jump in without having it all figured out from the beginning (“Don’t let strategy become an excuse for inaction”).

For most starting out in the social media, less calculation and more open-minded experimentation will carry us further than our goals.

Comments

[Daphne Swancutt]

Hey, doc. There's something to this. I think it's fine for individuals to jump in, listen, contribute, etc., but for organizations to do the same without a clear idea of why they're doing it in the first place is a bad idea.

It's not necessary--as Lee says--to have it all figured out. Who does? Clear objectives are a good thing, though. At least define what's going to make jumping in to social media a success for you (or your organization). Seems to me without some understanding of what you want out of it and how you're going to get there, you're not going to make a difference or have much organizational success--at anything.

Just my humble two cents :-)

Daphne

[DrV]

Yes, Daphne, you're right. The post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and only intended to get folks to try it without alot of anxiety. Of course individuals are different from Fortune 500 companies. Measurable objectives ultimately become an important part of the picture.