The Ready, Fire, Aim, Reload Strategy for Social Media Success

The Ready, Fire, Aim, Reload Strategy for Social Media Success

Reader Comments (41)

  1. I think this is right on, and as time goes on it’s going to become the only way to create any kind of project that depends on any kind of content.

    It used to be that people who made books, articles, moving pictures, music, etc. had very limited ways to distribute those things (and distributing them was difficult and expensive), so the “edit first” model was natural and necessary.

    The social media model makes the whole thing more evolutionary. You put your individual content into the great stream of stuff and see if it lives or dies–and if it lives, how it evolves.

  2. Those questions at the end are key. Designing a product that’s independently useful while still making it give back value to the current project, and then having it be useful to future projects is the trick. The “swivel” effect of your media cannons.

    But then, you know that. : )

  3. So, when speaking of social media, are we talking about blogs, videos on blogs, and just plain old videos?

    Since relaunches are based upon feedback, blogs that allow comments seem like a good way to get the feedback and give the people what they want.

    At some point the content has to be finalized though, NO?

    Thanks,

    Dan

  4. At some point the content has to be finalized though, NO?

    Hi Daniel. I’m referring to changing content strategies, not editing past content. But the answer to even that is no, it doesn’t necessarily have to be finalized.

    As far as social media, I’m talking about blogs or sites built on a blog CMS, plus the reaction to content you get from subscribers, the reaction you get from social media news sites and social networking, plus the many avenues that you can solicit direct feedback by simply asking people what they want.

  5. Ok, I think I can relate, since anyone who puts out an infoproduct should at the very least keep it current, so no content ever gets finalized.

    I think a good content blog like this one is a good example of marketing as content.

    Thanks,

    Dan
    http;//danielmcgonagle.name

  6. Masterson says a business will never devise an ideal selling strategy until the company launches and starts trying to sell. So, prepare carefully, but then simply launch and see what works. Once you hit that sweet spot between your offer and what the crowd wants, then it’s time to accelerate the growth of the company with additional products or services.

    It’s amazing how frequently that simple strategy keeps appearing. I know we have gone through the launch, get feedback, adjust, launch, repeat process a number of times. While I couldn’t agree more with Masterson, it’s important to really keep track of and analyze what works. If not, its easy to fall into the trap of working off of invalid assumptions!

  7. That’s a fair point. It’s very easy, in the chaos and the energy that this stuff generates–to let measurement fall by the wayside. V. bad idea.

  8. Insightful, informative post, Brian.
    Though I wish you’d stop telling “hope” marketers what we’re doing. One of these days they might get it.:)
    Sean
    FranchisePick.Com

  9. Brian this is a great post. I think that planning plays a critical part in any strategy but working on the execution through the launch helps dial in the best results.

  10. Hi Brian,

    Most of us are still in the print-based mindset. You “finalize” the copy, and send it to the printers, and it is put down on paper forever. But in the cyberworld, you are right: it doesn’t have to be that way. Content can be an ever-changing thing, a truly “living document”. You already see this on things like Wikipedia.

    However, there are downsides as well. Today, we can go back to old books and find out what people were thinking in the 1950s, the 1850s, the 1750s, etc. But what happens in a society where the “social record” is an ever-changing thing? We know longer use Walkmans, so we simply CTRL+F Walkmans and replace with iPods. Soon, there will be no records of Walkmans at all.

    This is extreme, and meant only for effect. But you see where I’m going here.

    Over the years, more and more of George Orwell’s “1984” seems to be coming to pass. The “double-plus good” invasion of text messaging using reduced vocabulary and spelling, the “Ministry of War” changing to the “Ministry of Defence”, cameras everywhere tracking our movements… And now the rewriting of what has gone before.

    Now in terms of marketing, agile content is a very useful thing. My fear is that everything produced in the near future will be agile content, will no real record left behind.

    Great post — obviously thought-provoking!

    ~Graham

  11. Seriously Brian, I would have thought Jeff and his program was all hype, except you’ve mentioned him a number of times now.

    My head keeps telling me PLF is going to be worth the money, but, my heart fears it would be money burned.

  12. I love that last point “Every company is a media company”.

    I think it relates back to the entire mission statement of that company, you need to turn your company into a movement that you can contribute to and remain at the forefront of.

    The difference being that a movement is not solely your movement, it’s about changing/fixing something in the world. There’s space enough for more companies and individuals to do it. This would also focus the content your company produces.

  13. Brian this is a great post. I think that planning plays a critical part in any strategy but working on the execution through the launch helps dial in the best results.

  14. Excellent content here– I really think that, yes, while mistakes (what old-school companies are afraid of) might become more public, the change to redeem, and share in, the experience of stellar content in the social media community is nothing short of fantastic.

    We are becoming less aware of our individual faults and at the same time, becoming hyper-aware of the wisdom, and genius of crowds.

    Two heads are better than one. And 200,000 heads are better than one 🙂

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