Top 3 Social Media Strategies

The top 3 social media strategies are best demonstrated using the following 3 party negotiation analogy. The first person is you. The second person is just one social media user. The third person is the software agent that represents one software system (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). The objective of the negotiation is to co-author and sign a 3-party agreement that is better than each individual’s BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement). An alternative is what each party can do independent of the other parties. An alternative does NOT require agreement with the other parties.

You have the lead and the greatest challenge at the table. The social media user’s BATNA is extremely powerful. They will have their social media experience with or without you. Your only chance at an agreement is to put an option on the table that is more desirable than their BATNAs.

The software agent can be your best friend or worst enemy at the table. The table belongs to the software. The table only exists inside the software. The agent works for the software company. Its first allegiance is always to the user. The agent will create hundreds of billions of experiences for billions of users today (in just one day). She has plenty of content to create and manage these experiences for its users. She does not need you. Again, your only chance at an agreement is to put an option on the negotiation table that is more desirable than their BATNAs.

With your humble attitude in check, you lead the other 2 parties to a 3-party agreement. As we learned in the first few paragraphs, both the user and the agent have very powerful BATNAs.

The following are the top 3 social media strategies to achieve a 3-party agreement:

1. Ads – pay the agent to place your content in the user’s stream.
2. Great Content – create or share great content that is worthy of the user’s attention.
3. Comments – comment on the user’s posts. Participate in their conversation instead of trying to get them to participate in yours.

To become a world-class professional negotiator that co-authors great 3-party agreements consistently is the objective and the challenge. I consider it fun. Most consider it humiliating work. It requires focus, critical thinking, empathy, etiquette, humility, intellect and a continuous improvement mentality (aka lots of failures).

Here is my list of things to educate yourself on for each of the 3 strategies:

• Ads
  • Audience
    • Pixels
    • Custom and Lookalike
  • Buyer Experience
    • FUD Factor
    • Compelling Reason to Act NOW
    • Conversion vs. Click Copy
  • Campaign Management
    • Bid Strategy
    • Placement
    • Rapid Learning/Adjusting
• Great Content
  • Creator approach
  • Brand approach
  • Audience approach
• Comments
  • Empathy
  • Etiquette
  • Humility

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