Good Communication Takes Planning

“We wanna blog!” was the cattle cry from brands and businesses in 2007. Then it was a Facebook page. Now it’s Twitter. If that was you and your social media advisor’s reaction was to go launch your blog/Facebook/Twitter, you’re probably wondering why you haven’t gotten anywhere with it yet.

Part of a social media consultant’s job is to listen to the brand or company’s desires and ask, “Why?” You don’t just blog. You don’t just start Facebook-ing or Twittering. If you do, you won’t get anywhere with them. Why? Because you don’t know where you’re going.

What will you use Twitter for? What part of your audience is on Twitter? What would they expect out of you on Twitter they couldn’t get elsewhere? What does success in using Twitter look like?

Good communication takes planning.

It’s not enough to just participate. Especially if you want to measure and justify the time and resources you’ve spent doing so. You must establish goals and objectives, strategies, tactics and tasks. You must plan.

Watch this video from Diageo and BBH which communicates the story of Johnnie Walker Scotch and you’ll see what it means to plan effective communication. If you’re like me, you’ll start to watch the video less for the story and more to see the plan come together.

Hat tip to Doug at The Pegu Blog for the find.

Related articles by Zemanta and Jason Falls

• Johnnie Walker on Facebook
• Following the strategic planning process (brianna.modernthings.org)
• Business Theory in Process – The Uncertaintly Paradox (wordsellinc.com)
• Seven Articles about Strategic Planning and Social Media (socialmediatoday.com)
• What is Account Planning? English version (slideshare.net)