Cancel the ‘What are we going to do in social media?’ meeting and start blogging

I’ve worked with many organizations that have meetings upon meetings about “What’s our social media strategy?” or “What are we going to do in social media?”

These meetings are a colossal waste of time.

Absolutely nothing gets accomplished. If you’re not doing anything in social media, what do you have to talk about? Social media engagement is all about experimentation; it’s not about weeks of planning until you’ve planned out everything perfectly. It’s about doing, adjusting and iterating. And doing that again and again.

During the meeting, the decision makers—usually people who have zero social media experience—demand evidence that social media works. This just stalls the process.

Next, some low level person has to search the Web for an article about a company doing something similar to your company in social media. Once he finds the article he presents it to the C-level executive who finally says, “OK, go ahead and do it.”

What a waste of time.

No social media gets accomplished in a “What are we going to do in social media?” meeting. Say there are a half dozen people sitting around the table discussing what you should and shouldn’t do online. Nobody’s producing anything. It’s often the blind leading the blind.