Mark Blevis

The transportation industry often talks about struggles with first mile (the mile between the commuter’s start and the connection to the transportation service) and the last mile (the mile between the end of the transportation service and the commuter’s destination) solutions. These are the challenges that cause people to grumble about public transportation or provide them with justification to keep using their cars.

Social media has a similar problem — at least for companies/organizations that are being encouraged or find themselves with significant market pressures to adopt social media as part of their communication plan. Getting to the point where they actually pick up with social media, or following through on the effort in reaching their audience will continue to stymie businesses and leave them with a bad impression about social media and its potential.

I’ve pulled together five thoughts that can help organizations overcome the first mile/last mile problem of social media adoption and success:

Take that first step. Yesterday I blogged about press releases being a tool for communication and social media releases being a tool for relationships. The same rules applies to traditional and digital PR. Organizations that are willing to change the way they think about marketing and communication will be more likely to take a chance that will pay off. You have to take the first step to get to where you want to be.

Bring real fare. I’ve never heard of a company spending $1000 to produce and publish a national television commercial or allocate only $5000 to do a national product launch. To be successful in social media, companies need to put real money into the campaign. Real money will help yield real results.

Have a skilled driver. A car is a technology that allows people to drive between two places; without a capable driver, it’s just a tool. The same goes with social media. Organizations need real people — real capable people — to navigate the tools and make good decisions on behalf of the company.

Create a flexible map. I advocate guidelines rather than policies because guidelines offer agility and flexibility in recognition of the ever evolving nature of digital culture and tools. Just as copyright laws haven’t been able to keep up with advancements in technology, policies are cumbersome and slow innovation. They require debate, decisions, senior management signatures, enforcement and regular committee meetings for review and revision. Where policies create barriers and imply sanctions, guidelines support informed decisions and imply solutions.

Keep up. Cars need gas and oil and routine checks on tire wear and breaks; drivers need to improve skills and stay alert and agile for all sorts of driving conditions and situations. The same applies for maintaining social media tools and the people that use them. Technology and content should be current and presented in a pleasing manner, and the people behind them should develop their networking and digital engagement skills, and constantly keep up with the community that grows.