Your biggest fans and advocates are out there waiting for an invitation. Find them and inspire them to join you!

"We need to Tweet!" "Should we get a Facebook page?" "Things will finally click for us if we create an outpost in Second Life."

sound familiar?

Maybe you've heard one of these comments or something similar around the watercooler or even in the boardroom. But asking why we need to do these things is less seldom considered. Social media is an extremely powerful medium, but unfortunately, a lot of organizations pour resources into an "If we build it, they will come" approach to applications like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and others. Like any other communications channel, social media requires strategy to accomplish your goals.

For many of us who can remember the days before constant and continuous Internet access, the whirl of social media can feel like falling down the rabbit hole. Too many tools to choose from, and too little information about what they can do. But as the Cheshire Cat reminds Alice: "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

great tools, but what are you building?

At hesketh.com, we work with organizations to identify unique and fruitful opportunities in the social media space by answering some key questions:

• Where are your target audiences active and how can you engage them where they are?
• What channels will be most effective for further outreach to target demographics?
• What is your social media voice and how does it relate to your core organizational identity?
• How can we cut through the social media "noise" to create compelling interactions?
• In what ways can you enhance your brand or messaging through the two-way conversations of social media?
• How does your social media strategy fit into your larger communications efforts for outreach and engagement?
• How will we measure success?

By focusing on these questions, we work to fulfill organizational goals and deliver a measurable return on the precious time that goes into building a solid social media presence. Whether creating a simple Twitter strategy or amplifying capacity by building networks of online communities, hesketh.com can steer you through the social media clutter to arrive at real outcomes.