Earlier this week, a client asked, “What part of your business relates to social media?”

My answer: “Everything we produce relates to social media.”

Blame the fad factor, which can make otherwise strategically minded people lose their bearings. Because of the hype around social media, some executives feel pressured to “do something” and push their organizations to be ahead of the curve. Thanks to the fad factor, we’ve seen companies organize marketing resources and budgets by tactic—and frequently, measurable results are hard to gauge. The “web marketing” group is in charge of generating unique visitors and downloads, while the “e-mail marketing” department is tasked with campaigns, conversions, and click-throughs. Another department is in charge of videos while another is in charge of podcasts. Lately, new groups have been established around “social media” to track tweets, blogs, and buzz.

But where, I wonder, is the commitment to the audience? Every post, blog, or tweet must be both relevant and helpful to your target audience. When the content truly serves the audience, customer interaction with your brand skyrockets. But when the medium is the message, the brand can suffer, particularly when companies scramble for subjects that a particular medium is capable of delivering. As I recently coached one client, “Your customers don’t really care what you had for lunch or where you had it.”

That’s why we create articles, blog posts, and tweets for our clients with a commitment to the audience—and then leverage the extraordinary power of social media. For example, one of our clients recently re-posted TDA-produced thought leadership articles on various online bulletin boards and with discussion groups. A few weeks later, this organization discovered these articles had generated more discussions and interactions with customers and partners than anything previously posted. The lesson? Customers and prospects are hungry for helpful information from authorities who are qualified to help, even when such authorities are vendors.

Or take the way celebrity can be leveraged. One of the online newsletters we produce recently featured an interview with a well-known outside subject-matter expert who was chosen for not just his expertise, but for his significant social media involvement. This expert blogged and tweeted about his interview, exposing thousands of his followers to our client’s publication, which boosted subscription rates.

When tactical groups get laser-focused on metrics used to measure their efforts (clicks, tweets, posts, visits, etc.), they can lose sight of the big picture. They generate tweets and blogs that are largely content-free at the expense of more productive efforts. A few months ago, TDA produced several issues of a very successful print publication. Readers (customers) loved the publication because of the content, and salespeople raved about how effective it was in helping them start conversations with prospects. Then, a reorganization transferred control of the publication to a group in charge of “interactive” marketing. A few weeks later, the effort was cancelled because it didn’t deliver enough click-through statistics. Our efforts to point out that it was actually working fell on deaf ears because of the online-only mentality.

Organizing budgets and resources by tactic is a bad idea when individuals control how and when they connect with your brand, and choose the touchpoints on their own schedule. Different audiences have different interests, different values, and different informational needs. You can’t organize by tactic. To be most effective, you have to organize around your audience. Then you can make social media—and other forms of enterprise media—begin to realize their vast potential.