The book Influence:
The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini is white hot on my Kindle
right now, and I can’t stop thinking about the passage early on in the book
which insists that commitments that are written down are far more likely to be
kept than verbal promises.
If everyone wrote down their own wedding vows, would less
people get divorced?
One thing’s for certain in the workplace though; setting
bold goals and being willing to put yourself out to achieve them bears more
fruit than not planning how you’re going to do what you’ve decided to
accomplish.
Here are three “vows’ I wrote down a long time ago on how to
get the most from my social media and digital communications efforts:
Be Disciplined
It’s too easy to rush things, not plan ahead, and spend too
much time on executing tactics instead of thinking about strategy. When putting
a press release or blog post together, really thinking about how the title
might appear on Twitter or Facebook is just as important as how it might
resonate and spark interest in a journalist’s inbox.
Spending time with your developers to make sure your site is
optimized for the latest quirks the social networks and search engines throw at
us is often more important as the content you create. If your infrastructure is
shoddy, your content will go nowhere.
Taking an extra 30 seconds to label that image or PDF with a
keyword-rich title can mean the difference between ultimate discoverability and
all-out obscurity.
Be Agile
I know, I know!
I’ve just told you to be slow and methodical in making sure
you have optimized your work for maximum amplification, and now it looks like
I’m saying hurry up!
I’m not!
I’m just suggesting that if some parts of your work are
spinning at a slightly higher cadence so that you have the resources to act
quickly to outside influences. Think about the Oreo “Dunk in the Dark” stunt at
the Super Bowl. Everyone was all gaga over that, but having a team on hand to
create content and capitalize on opportunities like that should be the norm
now.
We live in a real-time world of multiple devices and
contexts in which your brand message can be consumed. Being timely and relevant
is now more important than ever, so having decision acceleration processes set
up to push an idea through quickly without too much committee can help you
stand head and shoulders above your competitors, who I bet are gearing up to do
just the same!
Be Testing
I think it’s fine to be cautious and need evidence for a
certain approach, but you won’t know unless you try it. Attempting different
ways of doing things freshens up your digital outreach, keeps your competition
guessing and gives you real, hard data you can use to improve on those
strategies or ditch them and move on.
ROI is all about return on investment, but what about the
return on in-action?
As Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist
says, we now have the “magnificent opportunity” we call the web and the
“ability to fail fast.” Let’s vow to marry PR and social media, so they live in
harmony forever going forth and ROI!
