Why you don’t need a Facebook strategy

Developing a strategy for any single platform is misguided, and a waste of your organization’s or client’s resources.

Advertisers used to know better (and many still do). Nobody had an ABC, New York Times or Redbook strategy. They had strategies for TV, newspaper and magazine advertising. They selected the platforms for those ads based on demographics and other criteria. If audiences stopped watching one show and started watching another, they didn’t wring their hands and lament the hours spent strategizing ads for that program.

If a magazine changed its focus, nobody directed ire at the publisher, complaining that all that energy spent on crafting content for the magazine was wasted.

The mentality that leads to a full-blown strategy for Facebook is the same one that causes angst among communicators when a new platform gains popularity. I’ve actually heard professionals say they have enough bandwidth for only three platforms (like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter). If a Pinterest or Instagram becomes a hot social channel, they just can’t make time for it.