No, it is not a strategy in and of itself.

It is, however, a useful collection of tools that can be used tactically as part of an overall brand strategy… one element or part of the whole, if you like.  To make social media work well you need to integrate it with more traditional approaches that capture the imagination and inspire people.

New (digital) toys on their own will not do much for your brand or ROR, return on relationships.  Adding value, will however, make a huge difference.  Deep down, we all know this intuitively, but it’s easy to get distracted by shiny lures and forget the basics of marketing.

Joe Chernov and Valerie Maltoni illustrate this conundrum perfectly (see link below for the cartoon source):

Picture 2

Source: Eloqua Blog

If a consultant or agency comes to see you Pharma folks touting “social media strategy” you instantly know they’re a fake and don’t know what they’re talking about ;-).

Isolated tactical execution without a strong focused brand strategy is doomed to failure from the start so avoid that trap.

Think differently.