As the world and his dog shepherds businesses into the digital space before they ‘miss out’ (on what exactly? it’s not going anywhere), it seems some have lost site of the fundamentals.

Ok, so we know that the likes of social media has been fantastic for connecting and engaging with people, but in the gold rush a few seem to be forgetting the basics that seasoned marketing and pr professionals insist on. What about the research? The strategy? The planning? The measurement? The holy grail – ROI? We’re seeing a lot of delivery, but not much else.

Ahead of any marketing or pr activity, we’ve always spent a bit of time understanding what the strategic objectives were. What did the client need to get out of it? What were the timeframes? What was achievable (and what was absolutely not)? Once those were understood, we’d then do the research. Understand how people feel about the brand now. Research which activities would work best to meet the objectives. Find where the people were that we wanted to connect with. How they think and feel. What they need and want to hear. Only once that was done could we recommend how to do it and how to measure it.

In the case of social media, we’re seeing something else. Twitter, Facebook, Linked In profiles and blogs are popping up all over the place with little, or no, strategic thinking behind them. The danger here, of course, is that if you open these doors the people on the other side are waiting for you to deliver. And if you don’t? Well you’ve lost them. Those clients, customers, brand advocates are no longer advocates. In fact if you’re doing any online reputation monitoring (which of course you should be) you’ll probably find out what they think of you pretty soon after.

Whatever a company’s reason for jumping into the digital space, and it is a great space to be in, the fundamentals still apply. Perhaps more so as it’s far easier to mess up (Habitat anyone?). Companies that do it well, from SME’s to the big brands, do very well indeed. I very much doubt they jumped in feet first. There’s no one-size-fits-all either as there are a whole bunch other things to consider. Who will manage it? Are they equipped to handle negative responses? What is the tone of voice? How can you be as relevant as you can to ensure you engage with your audience and how do you turn that engagement into meaningful relationships? How does this activity link with other marketing and pr activity, including offline (of course it should all be perfectly integrated)?

There’s no arguing the importance and power of social media to businesses and, yes, it is something they should seriously consider. But don’t lose site of the important stuff. The stuff that really makes it work.

Gemma is Director of Red Cube Marketing