Welcome to my new series of posts “Social Media Strategies” where I will try to clear up some taboos about social media strategies, tools and other buzz words of our social life which sometimes unnecessary confuse us in this industry. Today I will discuss the content strategy and the changing role of content strategist.

Content Strategy

I think it is always a good idea to look from the consumer’s perspective and answer the questions which drive the strategy. I’ve been browsing through my daily reads and thinking why I am reading the posts I am reading and I came up with a very simple answer: I am reading it because:

• The content adds knowledge (adds value) or entertains me;
• The content is supplied by trusted source;
• The content is accessible to me.

Adding value and the art of Curating

In order to add value the content strategist has to think like a scientist:

• Has to recognise the problem why he/she is doing the project and foresee the possible outcomes in order to monitor them. The content strategist has to understand the target audience and analyse what are the main objectives of the brand (provide knowledge or entertainment) and how does the company want to affect this target audience (stimulate action or spread brand awareness).
• Has to do the research and find a gap in the market. It is one of the most challenging tasks today – finding something new, interesting and engaging to write about and that is a problem that the most bloggers face at some point if they haven’t got a clear content strategy, but that’s Read the full story

I’ve been browsing through the lists of top social media case studies and I thought I am going to share  some of the top sites with you:

Casestudiesonline.com by Tod Maffin

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples by (http://www.beingpeterkim.com)

Social media case studies by  (http://theparallaxview.com/)

Social Brand Index by (http://www.socialbrandindex.com)

WOMMA’s Case Study Library by (http://www.womma.org/)

The Association Social Media Wiki’s List by (http://www.associationsocialmedia.com/)

Blog Well Case Studies by (http://gaspedal.com/)

Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki by (John Cass)

300+ Cases & Examples of Social Media Marketing by (http://blog.monty.de/)

30 SEO, Social Media & Marketing Case Studies that Prove the ROI of it All by (http://www.seoptimise.com/)

110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing by (http://www.getelastic.com)

A Collection of 50+ Enterprise 2.0 Case Studies and Examples by (http://www.jmorganmarketing.com/)

Case Study Crunch by Red Cube Marketing by (http://redcubemarketing-blog.com)

26 Social Media Marketing Examples by (http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com)

35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action by (http://mashable.com)

The Big Money Facebook 50 by  (http://www.thebigmoney.com)

5 fantastic digital branding campaigns from 2009 by (http://www.imediaconnection.com)

India Social – Case Studies by  (http://www.indiasocial.in)

I will update this post from time to time so if you have any other relevant links to add to this list, just post them as a comment. Thanks!

Social media is maturing. As many companies have successfully integrated social media in their communication/business strategies and as many more are planning to do so in very near future, it is no longer perceived as the risky investment but more as a necessity in order to keep a competitive edge in the market and maintain the dialogue with consumers. It actually seems that social media adoption is becoming a quality standard of a transparent, customer centric and accessible company. Actually, just like adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies has been representing very similar values for over 30 years now. It is quite interesting to compare these two trends and possibly build on the existing knowledge of CSR management when planning social media strategies as they ultimately both are driven by very similar ideas of building competitive advantage through transparency, advocacy, stakeholder’s engagement, adding value to the communities and the empowerment of communities.

A lot of large corporations have been enjoying the benefits of CSR strategy, but that’s the problem of CSR as it is often perceived as concept suitable only for larger organizations, because of the extra costs attached to these activities. Social media is changing this situation. It has reduced the cost of communication and provided an opportunity to every company to manage/address its stakeholders more efficiently. Read the full story