At the Beacon Marketing Group blog, they’ve recently posted six ways to start your new project. Change is not something that is always well received even if mandated, so when many corporations begin to think of a new media strategy, often discontent and disruption can occur. Therefore, if you’re tasked to create a social media strategy that will work for your organization, you may face more obstacles then you expect. These six steps offered by the Beacon Marketing Group seem intuitive:

1) Start With a vision
2) Improvise
3) Craft your message carefully
4) Embrace radical thinking
5) Be consistent
6) Be driven by the people

Each step is what you would expect, and what any innovator must do to move a strategy forward. But step 6 stands out to me. The very nature of social media is using technology to reach a wide breadth of people. But in a company when you have such diverse individuals its important to first gauge if and how people use social media already. I think it’s important that you spend time across the organization one on one showing folks the different technology, how they can use it personally and then professionally. It’s necessary for folks to see first hand how it works and how to use it before they’ll willingly support a strategy that brings the entire organization onto the social media world stage. Focus on the people just as much as the technology and chances are they'll help you move your plans forward.