What do you want to say today?

I hear time and time again from potential clients that they just need to be involved in social media. Twitter and Facebook are where it’s at. Everybody’s there. “We need to be there, too.”

And I always ask the same question. If you were going to build a house, would you go buy a bunch of wood and nails and start banging them together? Probably not. You would start by thinking about what kind of house you want. You’d likely look around at other houses and pictures in magazines to see what features and styles most appeal to you. You might talk to some friends, an architect, a builder. Finally, you’d draw up a plan. A blueprint to guide your building.

In all likelihood, that’s probably how you built a successful business.

So why, when somebody mentions social media, does all that wisdom fly out the window? We grab our hammer, wood and nails and jump into the social media pool with both feet. And then we wonder why it’s not working.

Ironically, that’s not what most clients want to hear. They want to hear, “Sure. We can do that.” Worse yet, they hear they can’t wait another minute from people who a) have had success in personal branding in the social media environment and are convinced it’s a panacea for all business or b) are technical experts who are great at execution but come up a little short on strategy.

From my perspective, the first questions that must be asked are: Where are my customers? Where are there conversations happening about me? What are my goals in engaging with my customers?

From this foundation, you can begin to develop a strategy in the environments where it most makes sense.

If your market is converging at networking meetings, then that’s where you need to be. If you don’t want to engage (which I don’t ever recommend), you need to be in a one-way push medium like newspapers. If your buyers are heavily involved in charitable organizations, you should be involved in those communities. And, by all means, if they are talking on Facebook, then join in the conversation.

Meet your market where they are. And, please, lay that hammer down until you know what you are going to do with it.