You need a social media strategy.

Not a presence. Not a fan page. Not a Twitter account. Not just a blog. You need a strategy. Start with a strategy first… ALWAYS.

You want people to see your people as the experts. You want engaged customers. You want to grow awareness. You want better customer service. You need a social media strategy.

Today, a friend asked me: What part comes first: the “thinking about it” or the going out and just “doing it”? We all know how important it is to Just Do It, but even Phil Knight would agree that you can’t do a damn thing if you don’t know what you’re doing to begin with.

I realize that you don’t have any real limits here. You’re absolutely free to go out and register for a Twitter account and a Facebook profile right now and you’ll be gangbusters in the social spaces in no time. You might even pay someone to help you put that all together. But, you’d be wrong to do any of that. What you need is to sit down and ask yourself: “Where do I need my brand to be and what do I ultimately want to have happen?”

The best tip I can give on anything slightly related to social media is to NOT focus on the social media tools. Focus on the reason for why you want to engage in social media.

If you’ve already jumped out of the gates or onto the ‘follow me’ bandwagon and you’re seeing that you’ve got multiple active conversation venues without any ‘real’ conversations, then you’re also probably already out of blog topics and ideas to generate great content. You’re also probably scrambling to figure out what you’re even doing there and how it’s even going to help grow your business. Don’t worry because it’s never too late to strategize. Ask yourself the simple questions like: “What kind of customers do I have and what can I do better to communicate with them?” Social media is all about common sense, so no question is too simple - in fact, those are the smart questions.

So, don’t get a blog and start posting. Get a strategy and let that help guide your blog. After you’ve developed a great social media strategy, then you can decide on the infinite number of social media tactics and the many wonderful tools that will help you execute your strategy.