What would happen if I adopted all of the Social Media and digital marketing BS I usually warn you about? Wonder no more. Welcome to Day 4 of the #StepfordTBB experiment.
Unveiling the secret awesome sauce for success in 2011:
Here is how the Social Media world is shaping up for 2011: Strategy will be the big play.
Last week, we talked about how Content Strategy was going to change everything. This week, I also introduced the emerging need for New Media strategy, digital conversation strategy, social engagement strategy, Social Media internal collaboration strategy, Facebook wall strategy and avatar strategy. Each, of course, being its very own unique discipline requiring specialists to… well, develop said strategies. The lesson here is this: You are going to need qualified strategists if you expect to have solid strategies next year.
I could have loaded a lot more into that post, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you with the deluge of exciting new strategic roles emerging from the booming Social Media and digital marketing world. Among them:
Traffic strategist, Audience Development Strategist, Content Marketing Necessity Strategist (sorry Jay, I couldn’t resist), Primary Domain Front Page Visibility Maximization Strategist, and… wait, do you really want me to go on? Yes? Okay, just checking. Here we go: Twitter Follower Maximization Strategist, Online Reputation Content Diversity Normalization Strategist… Wait. Hang on. There is no way I can list all new 3,976 strategy positions you are going to have to start staffing in just one post. (It would exceed the 5-10 paragraph max format suggested by my Content Strategist.)
What’s key here is really this: Don’t try to keep up with all the new strategic disciplines replacing outdated business functions. You can’t. It would take an expert to do that, and… oh wait. It just occurred to me that a good solution to this problem would be to hire a Strategic Function Proliferation Expert to handle this for you. Or a Digital Marketing/Social Media/New Media consultant. Either one. That’s step 1.
Step 2 is hiring a Strategy Strategist.
A what?
A Stra-te-gy stra-te-gist.
Never heard of it? To be fair, until this week, you had never heard of a Content Marketing Necessity Scale either. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Or shouldn’t.
Why Strategy Strategists will make the difference between winners and losers in 2011:
Let’s consider the world of business in general: How is a business, whose executives and managers are busy doing businessy things all day, supposed to adapt to this new evolution in strategic restrategization? With an Strategy Strategist to lead the way, that’s how.
Imagine that you’re a chef. You slave all day in a kitchen, trying to make sure that your restaurant continues to rock customers’ socks off. Now here comes this massive change in marketing, in business planning, in business management, in communications, etc. The only way you are going to be able to weather this change and remain competitive is to staff up on key strategic positions that will advise your tactical roles on how to best do their jobs.
The dishwasher, for example, is probably very inefficient. I know this, because I helped design the first water-conserving high efficiency pre-rinse spray valve for restaurants. (It’s true. Look it up.) Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in commercial kitchens, studying dish-washing, so I know how inefficient dish-washing stations can be. Based on this new paradigm of strategic strategery, if you don’t hire a dish-washing strategist to bring order to the back of your kitchen, your dish-washing operation will continue to hurt your overall business by spraying water all over the place and letting dishes pile up. It’s a given. Don’t believe me? Perform an audit. For $35,000 and change, the report will back up what I just told you.
Back to our example: Ever noticed how waiters come and go a lot? How they aren’t always super dependable? How the level of service and professionalism they deliver to your customers isn’t consistent? Here’s why: You don’t have a waitstaff strategy. Why? Because you don’t have a waitstaff strategist. Why? Because you don’t have someone working for you can anticipate these types of strategic needs. Enter the Strategy Strategist. I have heard them called Strategy Czars, but depending on what part of the country you are in, that terminology might not be in style at the moment, so Strategy Strategist it is.
“That’s great if you’re a restaurant,” I hear you cry, “but what about if you’re another kind of business? Like… a plumber?” Answer: Same thing. A Strategy Strategist can help a plumbing contractor create a toilet strategy, a plunger strategy, a scrubber strategy, etc. No matter what your business is, small or large, B2B or B2C, your best bet to start 2011 with a bang is to hire a Strategy Strategist to help you identify what strategies – beyond content strategy, engagement strategy, traffic strategy and Twitter Follower Maximization Strategy – will give your business the extra edge it deserves.
Why this works:
The problem with the business world today is obvious: Too many roles are tactical instead of being strategic. (How boring is that?) Too many soldiers, and not enough generals, in other words. All these people spending all day doing stuff, managing, responding and executing instead of strategizing. Is that really the most effective use of their time? How do we know that that what they are doing is even important? or that when they do it, they are doing it right? For all we know, 99% of workers (none of whom are in strategic positions) might be producing complete nonsense all day long.
I hadn’t realized that this was a possibility until I brought up the Content Strategy thing last week, but the ensuing conversations opened my eyes. I had no idea that so many copywriters, editors, designers, brand managers, product managers, project managers, webmasters, Marketing Managers, CMOs, PR professionals, internet marketing professionals and other communications professionals were so incapable of doing their jobs without a Content Strategist looking over their shoulders and guiding them through their day.
Scott Abel, a content strategist since 2002 kindly wrote this comment several days ago:
There are entire conferences dedicated to this subject matter, including, Intelligent Content 2011, which serves to help organizations deliver the right content to the right people in the right language (and in the right context) at the right time in the right format and on the device of their choosing. It takes some strategy to make this all happen — fully, orchestrated, as it were.
Until content strategists came along, nobody could figure out how to do this. Heck, most of us thought this kind of stuff was tactical. We had no idea any of it was strategic until content strategists came along and set us straight.
Here is a little secret that this new breed of Specialized Strategists (not traditional strategists like military generals, Business and Marketing Strategists or even Communications Strategists) have been sharing with me with ardent fervor since I wrote my piece on content strategy last week: People in tactical roles (like machine operators, copywriters, line supervisors, web designers, Marketing Directors, etc.) basically can’t find their way out of a paper bag unless a specialized strategist draws them a map first. Even baggers at the grocery store need a bagging strategy. Without it, they would just sit there and stare at empty bags all day, making a mess of things at the checkout. In other words, if a strategist weren’t there to plan, direct and supervise, we might all forget to breathe.
Which is weird, because as someone who works in the business and communications strategy field, I always looked to my tactical and execution folks to guide the way. Even as a military officer, I turned to my NCOs for guidance on a daily basis. All these years, I did it backwards! I should have been the one telling them how to do their jobs all along. (Doh! Why didn’t anyone tell me this sooner?)

How things got done before these specialized strategists started to take over tactical functions, I have no idea. Fire, the wheel, the light bulb, flying machines… How we invented these things without strategists telling us where to go, what to do and how to do it is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Oh well. Better late than never: Now that specialized strategists are finally taking over the business world, we should start seeing some real results. Judging by the state of the US economy, we could be in for some exciting times ahead. Less funding for execution and more for strategy sounds like a good plan to me.
So do yourselves a favor: Start looking for a Strategy Strategist immediately, and put him/her hard at work developing new strategies for ALL of your tactical functions. If by January 1, 2011 you don’t have a mail room strategy, a cafeteria strategy, a lobby strategy, a post-it note strategy, a cubicle decoration strategy, an email signature strategy, a bulb replacement strategy, a janitorial strategy and a Starbucks-before-getting-to-work strategy, you are already starting the year with a serious handicap.
Remember, success in this field isn’t about what you do. It’s about what you say you will do! Let accountability be someone else’s problem. (The strategy is never wrong. When something fails, it is always at the tactical level. That is because strategists are as smart as elephants on red Bull, and everyone else is just lucky to be there.) What a gig.
The best way to make sure that you don’t miss out on any of next year’s key strategies: Hire a Strategy Strategist asap. (Tip: Make sure it says that on their resume, or you might not be talking to a really real one.) You will be glad you did, and a whole new vibrant industry will thank you for it.
Bonus: When someone asks you a trick question at a conference like “what’s your sandwich strategy?” you will finally be able to answer it properly.
You know you like me better this way.
#StepfordTBB
This kind of talk is what used to get me in trouble at Microsoft. I used to tell people that “strategy” could be done in a few minutes, and that “tactics” took skill and experience and would go on for years and years.
Strategy: Sell low-cost goods in huge stores
Tactics: Build the world’s most efficient distribution chain in Bentonville, AK and beat the hell out of your suppliers for 20 years.
Strategy: Sell ok coffee in really nice stores with comfy chairs from people wearing green aprons.
Tactics: Spend years convincing emerging nations to sell you beans cheap, and spend years convincing yuppies to give you $5 a cup for flavored water.
I have always been proud to be a “tactician”, a “practitioner”, and a guy who knows how to actually take a messy battle plan and make things happen. And the Generals really like me, because they end up winning.
Dick Carlson
Pug Strategist
Thanks for being the first person to articulate it that way. You nailed it. The hard part isn’t coming up with the strategy. It is executing it. That is the tactical part, starting with a tactical plan – not a strategic plan – and ending in a minutiae of activity.
This isn’t to say that strategy is easy. To some, it is. Our brains are wired that way. We see plays other people don’t. It is not the result of hard work or long hours of study. I have to admit that it is an aptitude, like a talent for math or languages. You can get better at it by practicing it, but you cannot get good at it without the right brain architecture to begin with. (At least I don’t think so.)
Tactics are much harder. Doing something right takes work. It takes diligence. It takes discipline. It takes patience and nerves of steel. Tactics and execution are where the rubber meets the road, and THAT is what matters in the end.
Any idiot can formulate a strategy. The trick is to make sure it is the right one given your force’s capabilities, the obstacles ahead, and the desired outcome. Realizing that strategy though, that’s another story.
What we need is a) better strategy, not more of it, and b) less strategy and more execution.
Thanks, man. Great comment.
For the record, I didn’t advocate for a content marketing strategist, just content marketing – and especially when nobody is talking about your brand. I probably should have said “content creation” but there’s no search volume for that! 😉
Oh snap. I know. Peace, brother. 😉
LMAO Jay!!! At least you’re honest. Love your new title!! 😛
Two things:
1. But top managers say they want to hire strategic thinkers, but really want tacticians or practitioners like Mr. Carlson. Would these people be Tactical Strategists? Stratiticians? I know a few of these people and they’re always in need of dental work because their bosses like to kick them in the teeth for not being strategic. It’s a hazardous job, but maybe will become more mainstream with your white paper (above).
2. I’ve heard of Biscuits and Gravy but never Rolls and Sauce. Is this a new trend? Some people don’t make good biscuits or gravy but I’ve never really heard much about bad rolls or sauce. This could be the start of a HUGE shift in southern cooking.
I take great pride in the literally thousands of times I’ve been told that I’m “not strategic”. As Olivier says, there are a few people who have a real gift for seeing what the rest of us cannot — and I’ve had the good fortune to have worked with and for several of those people.
I’ve also had the misfortune for many douchebags who couldn’t have put a square peg in a square hole, so they deemed themselves “strategic”. (Well, if you can’t actually do anything at least you can stay out of the way of those of us making things happen.
And when one of those douchebags makes a strategic pronouncement, I’m the NCO that calmly tells him we have nowhere near the troops nor the tanks to take that hill. Not to mention the fact that he’s pointing at a valley, not a hill. And that the map he’s using is two years out of date.
Right about then comes the complaint that I’m “not strategic”. So be it. Most good strategists learn to talk with their tacticians about resources, conditions, staff and options before they dig their pit too deep. If I’ve got to tell you that you’re in a pit before you start, I’m just making sure that I’m not going to end up in there with you.
Tactically speaking, of course.
That Chico has to be a good strategist himself. He’s into everything! Since I work at a university, we can develop strategists to do mostly anything.
Currently I’m working as a ‘pondering strategist’ as I sit here and look out my window at work and try to figure out a new title for myself.
Don’t want to kill your buzz, but wouldn’t your strategists as you describe them be micromanagers? Just wondering.
In my career I’ve endured years of meetings — all with leaders doing all they can to create, shape and articulate strategy. All those hours and resources wasted with no one actually “doing” or executing anything with impact.
Apparently the organizations I work with are not alone — this series (or manifesto) has kicked over the mossy stone and all the critters run from the light.
Thank you. You have the makings of an outstanding book, can I pre-order now?
I think I have warned you about the Unicorn population diminishes every-time you’re particularly snarky. I d say about we have about 20 or so less now. sad really
Referring to your quote “Too many soldiers, and not enough generals, in other words.” Maybe it’s not the lack of Strategy Strategis, the real problem is the lack of true leaders.
Is it me or is this post is littered with new words, a new Social Media Dictionary needs to be organized STAT!
It’s so typical of human nature, we like to complicate the hell out of something meant to be simple.
Denial to Foresight…..think about that.
Or we could just ignore all the titles and wannabe important job spiel crud and just call it “good business” 😉
Good point, Danny, but without fancy titles, how would our leaders know who to hire? I mean, suppose Spark Mutton Worldwide was looking to hire a CMO… (wait – no titles anymore)…
What if Spark Mutton Worldwide was looking to hire someone to, like, tell people to buy their new, “Righteous Chops” app. They get a resume from you and some guy named Brian. No titles on either, so they’d have to read every line on both CVs to make an informed decision. Now we all know this NEVER happens in 21st century HR departments, so someone does a Google search and finds that I’m pretty much the biggest Spark Mutton fan in the world. I get the offer. You get the “Good luck with your future endeavors” blow off in the snail mail.
Day One arrives, and I show up with a tool box – literally – tools. Craftsman screwdrivers, SnapOn sockets, zip ties, Duck Tape, the whole nine yards.
Anarchy! We might see a return to backroom deals where friends and former frat buddies get the best paying jobs regardless of actual qualifications. All in the name of “good business.”
🙂
Spark Mutton For Life.
A busy week so didn’t get to read each of your posts this as they posted but it was interesting to sit down and read all 5 sequentially. BTW: liking the more frequent postings.
Re: The StepfordTBB Experiment: Snarky or not, your posts are always informative, probe beyond the surface, and are great fun to read. In a word, they keep us honest. But the whole ‘nice Olivier, bad Olivier’ theme — dissent and directness can make people uncomfortable. And when you back it up with knowledge and professional experience, well that will definitely stir things up. But how else do things evolve, improve, and innovate without intelligent debate and dialogue?
We all rely upon and respect your debunking of the snake oil and hype that seems to surround this industry, but believe you do it with the intent to educate and contribute to the greater conversation. Your blog fosters many debates that need to be had. Understand how some may be coaching you to be a bit more the cheerleader, but TIMTOWTDI. I’m all for pom poms and pep rallies but through your analysis and writings I regularly see one rooting for the highest standards, professionalism, and great work.
Recently read an interview with Stephen Pressfield about his book ‘The War of Art.’ When asked about advice he had for those trying to create something remarkable he answered: “…this s__t is HARD. That’s all there is to it. There’s no royal road, no short cut, no way we can trick, cajole, pay or sleep with anyone else to get them to do our work for us.”
Snark on, French Guy!
Anyone who interviews Stephen is a friend of mine. Best writer on the planet. Cheers.
I think that is one of the such a lot significant information for me. And i am happy reading your article. But want to remark on few general things, The web site style is ideal, the articles is really great : D. Just right activity, cheers