Interrelated

I just read an excellent post by Geoff Livingston (posted on Social Media Explorer) on the importance of tactical brilliance in social media marketing. I agree – executing the details well and with intent is important in any marketing context, social or otherwise. But where should this fit in the progression of a successful campaign?

We know that strategy is critical, and while I always recommend that a well-defined and agreed upon strategy proceed a tactical plan (and by tactics I mean anything from creating a press release to executing on a website), often it happens (usually because of timing or budget) that we have to start executing right away and somehow the strategy evolves out of this.

Similarly, we know that meaningful and valuable content is the essential foundation of any tactical execution, but does the content exist before the marketing strategy or does it inform and inspire the strategy? And is creating content tactical or strategic? Well, all of it is true.

I realize that there is a somewhat confusing logic in what I’m writing, and that is how I want to illustrate my point. Marketing strategy, content, design planning and tactical execution do not always flow in a clean, logical, linear progression, nor do they always have to, however all of them are equally important and shouldn’t be isolated.  We have to accept that they are interrelated – reciprocally connected – feeding into and from each other. While I’ll still never propose a plan that begins with a launch and ends with strategy, I’m happy working in parallel or allowing this interrelatedness to get a bit messy. In my mind, it allows for possibilities that rigid plans exclude.