For me, it’s getting real old watching all these great companies get left behind because they’re too busy planning how to take action instead of just doing it. Every single day I’m encountering organizations that chew up days, weeks, and months talking about a strategy for their online presence.

I’m not sure how it got started, but I think it grew out of this concept that marketing is done in 30 second slots, and that great campaigns are built around a single idea that gets replicated over many different channels (posters, billboards, tv, magazines, etc.). Neither of those models make any sense on the web.

I see hours spent trying to determine the ROI on social media — if we spend $XXX,XXX what’s the return in real dollar amounts? User experience specialists hold long drawn out sessions to determine what button goes where, and may you die of lightning strikes if you make it the wrong color. What about SEO, don’t we need to make sure that our keywords are ‘optimized’? And chief among the complaints and strategizing–where do we find the resources to create content?

Starting today, all that kind of wheel spinning crap is dead to me.

It’s not that strategy isn’t important; it’s that it’s just not that complicated.

Here’s how the strategy for any organization online should go:
1) Determine who you want to connect with
2) Start talking to those people
3) Listen
4) Adapt

That’s it.

Go do.