“Picture yourself at sea, a hostile ship bearing…

“Picture yourself at sea, a hostile ship bearing down on you. You have a limited amount of gunpowder. You take all your gunpowder and use it to fire a big cannonball. The cannonball flies out over the ocean … and misses the target, off by 40 degrees. You turn to your stockpile and discover that you’re out of gunpowder. You die.”

It’s obvious that in this new world of online media, businesses are making Facebook and Twitter (as well as many other social platforms) top priority in marketing agendas. The challenge is clarity. How can you make the most informed decisions, knowing exactly what you’re going to get out of it as business trying to grow online?

Consider firing bullets before cannonballs.

BULLETS

Bullets are small social media campaigns (or concepts) that can be measured. They don’t cost very much, if anything at all. They include content on your Facebook, Twitter, etc. within a specific goal.

Example Joe’s Pizzeria placed a sign in their restaurant lobby telling customers to Check-In and “Like” their Facebook page. It was simple and easy and allowed their customers the chance to become part of the Joe’s Facebook community.

CANNONBALLS

Cannonballs are relatively large social media campaigns that can be measured by investment. These campaigns build upon the success where bullets hit target. They are modeled as a result of a campaign that worked on a small scale, in other words.

Example Joe’s Pizzeria saw that after they placed their sign in the lobby, more than 3,000 fans Checked-In on Facebook during October. They also noticed that not only was loyalty growing as a result, but “viral” growth (or content that reached non-fans) grew as a result as well. In order to build more viral growth, they decided to give a buy one, get one free large pizza to every first-time Facebook Check-In to incentivize being a Facebook fan. They knew it would build their loyalty on Facebook and enlarge their viral audience.

The best start you can make as a company on social media is to measure your campaigns correctly. Start small; fire bullets. Once you see a concept stick, fire a cannonball (make a large investment).

In other words, test each marketing campaign on a small scale. Once you see its relative success, scale it; expand it. By firing bullets before cannonballs, you’ll never invest in an unproven campaign. Challenge yourself to invest on a large scale on concepts that stick. It’s worth the investment.