Consider Your Intent

            A few things stood out to me as I read “Share This”. There was a brief mention of the popularity of Facebook and Twitter in comparison to other social media outlets. Then, I read that one in nine people have a Facebook. If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest.

            My mind was blown. I knew that social media, especially Facebook, was widespread and increasingly popular, but somehow that statistic really put it into perspective for me. What a powerful tool social media can be if you could reach out to that many people at one time.

            Chapter 2 went on to discuss six steps to building a social media plan. Of course these are most effective when taken as a whole, but I want to talk about one in particular: Choose your goal.

Too many companies and even campus organizations take to social media too quickly simply because they think it’s what they’re supposed to do. It’s a good idea to precise and acting with clear intent. It reminded me of the firm trip the ONU chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) took last spring.

On the trip we visited communications offices in a variety of industries in the Nashville, Tennessee area. When we visited the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (@nashvillesymph) their communications team spent some time talking about the creation of their social media policies. They had clear-cut minimums and maximum numbers for their daily posts based on each platform they used. The Facebook policy was different than the Twitter policy. The policy also included content guidelines to avoid bogging down timelines with useless posts.

            This seemed a perfect representation of the “Share This” idea of thinking before acting in the world of social media. I think it’s an important idea that too many campus organizations don’t consider.