John S. Wolfe

Our company needs a Facebook page.”

“We should be on Twitter.”

“Does anyone know how to use YouTube?”

Those are not “social media strategies,” a panel of Valley consultants told a crowd of 40 at the Oct. 14 Social Media Club of Phoenix event at Jobing.com’s headquarters. Those are tactics.

Before a business gets started in social media, it needs a strategy, said Chris Sietsema, owner of Teach to Fish Digital.

Is it to improve customer service? Make sales? Engage an audience? That decision will affect how you use social media, he said.

Jennifer Maggiore, founder and president of Maggiore Consulting & Marketing, believes a firm needs to identify an objective and plan accordingly.

“You may be able to hone in on a target audience or segments of that audience,” she said.

The panel discussed ideas behind building relationships. (The panel comprised, from left, moderator Jeff Moriarty, director of social media strategy for Sitewire; Maggiore, Feitlinger, Sietsma, Michael Barber, strategist for Lucid Agency; and Katie Van Domelen, social media manager for Off Madison Ave.)

Jay Feitlinger, president of StringCan Interactive, said firms need to be realistic.

“Companies want to connect with everyone,” he said. “But they need to know their target audience and where they are.”

“You don’t use Twitter if your customers aren’t comfortable there,” he said.

He added that it’s important to pick an objective that you can measure and quantify.

Van Domelen emphasized that the company’s social media strategy needs to be written down. That allows everyone to know the direction and the tone, while also providing some responses if a topic or post becomes controversial.

Sietsma added that it’s important that the owner of the company be involved in the planning and messaging, to assure that he or she is comfortable with how the marketing will affect the brand.

Another key step is to see what competitors are doing in social media. This is the “listening” that should occur before a strategy is finalized.

Are all companies capable of employing a social media strategy?

That was put to the test in a question from an audience member whose company sells parts for RVs.

The initial perception was that seniors may not be online and RV parts are a dull topic.

But then panelists explored possibilities.

Feitlinger suggested the business could produce “how to” videos on RV use and post them on YouTube. “Become an authority in the space,” he said.

Perhaps the business could look to engage the children of the seniors, to address safety and cost issues, he added.

Barber agreed, noting that nursing homes have used that approach.

He also expressed that the company could engage customers – and secure content – by asking them to share videos of their travels and experiences.

Maggiore addressed the issue that the business may simply have a small, local clientele. In that case, the RV store could be a conduit to local media outlets, pitching stories on RV topics using their customers as sources.