Failure #3 – Lacking a Vision for Social Media

Is your vision blurry? Well, that’s OK, most visions for social media are a bit blurry at first (at best) but they clear up pretty quickly once your guiding coalition settles on principles, philosophy, follows social business fundamentals and puts that all into a guiding vision that people can get their head around and put their energy behind.

Failing to create a vision will send you into the ditch in a hurry.  You’ll never sell the concept, you won’t end up where you want to (but without vision, you don’t even know where that is anyway) and getting people to commit to the long-term strategy that’s required for social business success will be like pulling teeth…from an elephant.

In failed social media attempts (or any attempt to do something kick ass within an organization that falls outside the traditional bullshit) you’ll find a path littered with agendas, plans, memos, directives and other immature attempts at really taking the business into the social realm.  This isn’t something that just happens – you need vision, you need commitment and you need a team (see: coalition) of super-energized people who love what they do and don’t take “that’s the way we’ve always done it here” for an answer.

Let me put it to you this way. If you’re got a big ass think bind of data on social media at the ready to convince anyone who asks that your social media mission is a just one, well, you can just burn that binder and pull out a business card. If you can’t get your social media vision onto the back of a business card, when it’s not a vision, is it? (Hugh’s take on “quality is job one” comes to mind…)