CGM blog: Get onside with online

03 Oct CGM blog: Get onside with online

CGM managing partner Chris Green. Photo by Jonathan Hipkiss.

Hands up if you reached for your phone before getting dressed this morning.

And, be honest, do you usually have a last gasp glance at inbound emails before going to bed?

So here’s the rub – if it is so important to keep tabs on instant communications what wrong with drafting a strategy to deal with managing online media?

For starters, let’s not confuse ‘online’ for ‘social media’.

Social media is doing Facebook, Twitter et al. Online covers the whole gamut of digital communications.

For example, you may be reading this blog on a social media platform such as Pulse or on the CGM website. If it’s the former, you may choose to click through to our website for further information or to read more blogs.

Or you may have been signposted to this blog from an e-newsletter, an email or having searched for relevant key words. Web, social media, newsletters, email, video blogs – it is all online.

To me, ‘digital marketing’ sells it short, suggesting it’s all a bit technical and a numbers game.

Online media marketing hints at choice. We choose to go online or stay offline. We make conscious decisions about how we wish to communicate, when we want to do it, how often and which platforms we choose to use.

That’s why the time and money we spend needs to be measured, scheduled and prioritised – otherwise it is all a bit random and aimless.

Small wonder members at our Birmingham and Worcester Business Media Club clubs chose ‘how to devise an online media marketing strategy’ as their communications strategy meeting theme for October 2016.

Shaping an online strategy is more than opting for, say, pay per click and hoping for the best in lead generation, or pinning faith on a single form of social media.

It takes things in the round. Receiving leads is well and good – but won’t work if your website sends out the wrong message so potential business slips through your fingers or worse, attracts the wrong type of leads which means you constantly have to field confusing enquiries for business you don’t really want.

It is about linking up, not just being LinkedIn. Making sure each online element connects together for consistent messaging and effect online communication.

And there are some basics to nail in place.  Do you have a policy to manage the time spent online by people in your organisation. If you’re into after-business-hours emailing and using social media what wider message may you send out?

At CGM we discourage evening emailing among our team, unless it is absolutely necessary. Tired minds often lead to offhand messages that can miss the point, cause confusion, irritation or even offence.

Depending on the nature of your business, it may sound great to say you’re open 24/7, but do you really want to encourage business interaction during your own down time? What happened to that work-life balance you promised yourself and your family?

That’s why a proper thought through online strategy needs to set clear policies and procedures so you control your business communications.

Then you can schedule activity so it is coordinated, interconnected between differing online forms and designed to achieve your pre-set goals.

Crucially, you can prioritise so important things get done first, foremost and, if needed, frequently.

And here’s the big thing – you connect with people who constantly offer your business the most value not just those who are most vocal and shouty online and win by sheer pester power.

We’ll discuss all these matters and more at this October’s Business Media Club meetings in Birmingham and Worcester.

To book your seat visit Business Media Clubs, or call 01905 453908 or email info@chrisgreenmedia.co.uk for further details

Chris Green is managing partner of Chris Green Media.