Connor BrookeImagine for a moment you are about to embark on an endeavour that is both unknown and unpredictable. You’ve refined and developed a strategy that you or your company has deemed promising. Resources are adapted and positioned. Your organization has set certain goals and benchmarks that should provide some insight into your progress. This may seem remarkably astute and managed for risk. Preparation for the unknown is important, is it not? 
Strategic planning is akin to an intricate and detailed roadmap. Often times these plans are deliberated, calculated and lengthy. Strategy is a necessary function within any industry, especially brand, marketing and PR. What isn’t common is testing. At times it can be perceived as a tactic that isn’t suited for larger companies or creative campaigns. However, the assumptions that one holds should not be perceived as definite—that is until proven to be more than mere hypotheses.
The benefits of social media are vast, but what many forget is that they are not guaranteed—nor are they static. They are malleable, fluid and never the same. Many companies perceive social media to be a sales tool; to others it may be used for listening or thought leadership. While each strategy may be appropriate, they are all initiated on assumptions.
What Assumptions is Your Company Holding?
Whether we consciously identify with them or not, each one of us holds certain assumptions that influence our decisions. These assumptions—or hypotheses—are necessary for innovation. For instance, if your company is about to launch a social media campaign that seeks to build its thought leadership profile through LinkedIn and a blog, your team is taking action on a wide variety of assumptions, which include:
- Your company has content that adds value to the conversation,
- People want to learn about your insights, views and ideas,
- LinkedIn/blog is a better source than Twitter, Youtube and Facebook,
- A robust thought leadership profile will yield benefits that matter to your company,
- Your stakeholders, audience and employees operate on those channels, and;
- Social media is a better platform than other means.
While this list is not finite, it presents a picture that identifies how a simple decision (using LinkedIn and a blog to boost thought leadership) is based on a number of integral assumptions that, if incorrect, would be a waste of resources.
Approaching Assumptions
Many, if not all, decisions are formed on an assumption. In the past, there have been ideas and decisions that have revolutionized industries, markets and products. However, in order to limit waste (capital, human and time) success hinges on whether that assumption was correct in the first place.
In order to reduce waste and increase the chance of success we need to test our assumptions in a way that allows us to learn. If our tests indicate that our assumption (or idea) is correct, we know that we can proceed in a way that may in fact yield sizeable benefits across an organization. However, if our tests indicate that our initial assumption is wrong, we can absorb that data in an effort to either reconstruct our model or abandon our initial idea and shift towards a new objective.
Testing
Conceptualization is an advantageous process. Take for instance that initial company who wanted to increase their thought leadership through LinkedIn and a blog. Their assumptions can be tested in a way that reveals significant insight, but only requires a minimum level of implementation (i.e. rather than running the entire strategy on that assumption, we can build a limited version to generate data).
- Gather competitor content and run a simple, yet objective comparison. Identify where your thought leadership content is better and where it isn’t. From here you can identify areas of opportunities and weakness.
- Utilize different methods of listening to see if competitive content is being shared, viewed and discussed. If this isn’t happening within your industry, perhaps your strategy will not bear any fruit. At the same time, determine why and you could monopolize that space.
- Compare Twitter/Facebook to LinkedIn/blogs. It would be fairly simple to see which option contains areas of opportunity and risk.
- Employ a weeklong LinkedIn strategy (perhaps focusing on answering questions) and write a guest blog for a digital portal. This allows you to test content, receptiveness and your value-add index.
- Conduct some simple research about your audience and stakeholders. This shouldn’t be difficult. If they are active on these channels, great. If not, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
- Consolidate your data/insight from pervious thought leadership marketing strategies and compare them to your limited offering from point 4. If there is only one choice, why are your choosing social media—remember, you should be creating value for your company.
Strategy Development
It is counterintuitive to deploy a multichannel content strategy that is based solely on an assumption. We wouldn’t invest in a company without performing due diligence, so why don’t we take the same precautions with social media? It’s because social media seems simple and the benefits easily obtainable. This view causes a company to waste significant amounts human capital, time and financial resources on campaigns that fail to achieve anything substantial.
Before delving into social media, take the time to break down your strategy into its assumptions. Then, test those hypotheses through quantitative and empirical research. The insight gained through the testing process is invaluable in more ways than one.
How does the saying go…measure twice, cut once? Seems appropriate here.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Great article! I just hosted a workshop for #SMWChicago all about How to Use Social Media to Attract Quality Leads. One of the biggest mistakes I identified in the #SMWFixYourFunnel workshop is that small businesses often fail to test their strategies! You’re so right that strategies are completely based on assumptions until concepts and ideas are proven by testing. Even once proven, strategies may need to change and evolve over time to continue meeting the needs of your target market. http://bitly.com/BookFreeNow