You NEED To! You HAVE To! Or Do You?

You see it all the time: Blog posts, newsletters and LinkedIn discussions that say you MUST do something, or else!

“Five Things Every Business MUST Do to Succeed in 2012!”

Or…

“Twenty Social Media Tactics You NEED to Employ – or Your Abject Failure Is a Foregone Conclusion!”

Or…

“Ten Things You MUST Do to Build Your Personal Brand – or Risk Career Suicide!”

You know who talks the most about how you NEED to brand yourself? Career coaches and personal branding “experts.” I can count on one hand, with fingers left over, the number of professionals who have ever mentioned their “personal brand” to me.

And it’s true that some businesses need a fully developed social media strategy. Others succeed with only the basics, or none at all.

The point is this: There’s no pre-baked, accurate list of things every brand or business MUST do. Strategy is situational. So are tactics. Your business has its own history, objectives, strengths and challenges. What works for another may not work for you.

When you come across an article with this kind of tone, check the motivations of its source. What do they have to gain by telling you what you HAVE to do?

Until we’ve spent some serious time together, I don’t know enough about your business to tell you what it needs. Nor does any other stranger. Anyone who opens the conversation with an uninformed imperative is setting you up for a sales pitch.