Afraid of Social Media? Take smaller steps and scale up.
Get moving. Evolve or get run over.
Marketing Sherpa reports that close to 50% of business executives reported that the lack of knowledgeable staff was the biggest barrier to adopting social media for business purposes. With so much information at your fingertips, there is no excuse. The new frontier requires knowledgable navigation – so Hire a Guide. What are you afraid of?
Even though the idea and practice of online social media has been around since well before the beginning of the internet in the form of electronic billboards (remember BBS?) and forums, new technologies, platforms and rules of Word of Mouth social engagement have companies and marketers confused. Look, the paradigm has shifted, so put on your adaptation armor and dive right in. Its not changing back, and those who embrace are less likely to receive a Darwin Award. Get help, move forward and get out of the herd of bleating, scared and perplexed sheep.
As for ROI not being measureable? That’s an excuse used by the sheep. Social Media is not only measurable, there are MORE relevent metrics and data sources available now than in the entire history of our planet.
Fundamentally, the new paradigm requires new math, old measurements and linear thinking do not apply to a geometric environment. Social Media is definately and amazingly measureable. You just have to use geometric thinking.
Know where you are today.
If you dont have a grasp of where you are at this moment and what environmental factors you need to consider – go back two squares. Seriously, even a GPS is smarter than that. The first thing it does when you turn it on is say YOU ARE HERE. You cant figure out where you are going unless you know all the details about where you are today, and what touchpoints exist. Go hire an expert to get a Social Media Assessment or audit, conduct a competitive intelligence sweep. If any of your so called “advisors” miss this step – fire them immediately and find another.
Know what Social Media is, and what it isnt.
Social Media refers to an online environment, not a strategy or a tool. If your advisors claim that it is either – then they dont understand the new paradigm and you are better off finding someone who understands the new frontier. A Digital Strategy can contain a Social Media Strategy- which is a set of methods with which to engage and interact with the environment. A Digital strategy is simply a planning process to help companies design strategies and create a roadmap for meeting tactical objectives. A common mistake many companies make is to think Social Media is a separate channel. A Social Media policy and strategy is a component of each and every functional or operational component of a business. Social Media affects ALL aspects of a business. This needs to be understood at all levels of an organization, and across all silos.
The Social Media environment and the effects on a company are NOT just marketing/marcom, PR or sales issues.
If you need some examples – go to www.clearwiresucks.com, www.glenntilton.com, read how Dominos was impacted by a YouTube video, and PAY ATTENTION. Ignorance has cost these companies MILLIONS of dollars and lost goodwill.
The perception of your company online IS reality.
Define your objective. Define how you will measure success.
Many companies spend countless wasted dollars by not knowing what it is that they are trying to accomplish. Because of this, naysayers will tell you that Social Media ROI is not measureable. If you dont know what you are trying to do and what represents success, how can you possible apply measurement metrics?
There are many possible objectives – usually stated at a functional level. These may include:
Increase brand awareness
Reputation management- Improve trust and brand perception
Improve customer service
Sell products or services
Obtain market trending and competitive intelligence
Identify new markets and addressable niches, and quantify the opportunity
Defend against encroachment by competitors
Improve investor confidence
Generate dialogue and feedback for product development
Improve inter-company communications and collaboration
Improve communications and collaboration with supply chain partners
Recruit new employees
Defend against legal liabilities
Improve operational management
Stack rank your objectives by their probable contribution to Increased revenues/margins, decreased costs or improved brand. Don’t try this all at once. Start with the top 3 and work your way down the list. Scale up as you become more proficient. Hire proxies where necessary. What you may find is that your idea of prioritization and the marketplaces ideas of what they want from your company are radically different. Be flexible and adaptable. Cost savings in one area can be used to fund others.
Develop an Online Strategy.
<If you dont know the difference between a digital strategy and an online strategy (they are not interchangeable) please contact us.>
What conversations do you want to have? With whom? Why those? On what platforms? Why those platforms? Are you wanting to be on Facebook because of the hype, or do you have a measureable objective? What are you going to give in return for the dialogue- what are your contributions? What will those conversations do for your defined objectives? Who are the most influential people in those conversation areas? How will you approach those people and develop trust? Enter into a relationship for a reason.
Listen to what people are saying about you.
Conversations are happening right now about your company, your products, and your brand. Not all of them are positive. Make sure you fully understand the subjects being discussed and the tone of the conversations. If you enter into the conversation, do so for the purpose of answering questions and providing clarity. There are good free tools, but the best ones require subscriptions – often expensive.
Learn the tools and use them.
There are thousands of resources available online. Just search for Social Media tools or go to Mashable.com. Dont be fooled, not all tools are useful, and not all of them do what they claim to do. Case in point is Visible Technologies and their claim of “semantic” monitoring. The fact is that there is no way to absolutely tell of semantics or tone from counting keywords, locations and phrases, and Google and Microsoft have spent billions of dollars on R&D without success- and they own the search engines. Beware the “freebies” such as Millions of Twitter Folloers for $29.95. These are automated, and usually trigger a blackballing from the Social Network administrators.
Find experts.
Dont be fooled by the gadget sellers or tools vendors with “cures for whatever ails” Social Media is about approaching a problem with a solution, not trying to force a tool to be a solution that defines a business problem. If someone tries to sell you a tool first- run away. Find experts who do their homework and analysis first. “If you were trying to build a house and your “architect” told you you didnt need a blueprint, just buy a chainsaw and start building – what sort of house do you think you would get?” If YOU are accountable for results, find experts who can objectively analyze your marketing spends and validate your metrics and assumptions. Make sure that they use MULTIPLE methods of validation, not just Google Analytics. (Whose interest is it in for Google to sell you the message that only their analytics are necessary? How do you think they got so big?) Check your experts out – do they walk the talk? Are they present on various mediums? Or is this a case of synthetic fame on twitter through use of automated “followers”. Just because they have followers does not make them credible. Be smart.
This is NOT push marketing.
You will alienate entire groups of potential customers if you try to use those transparently self serving message and advertising techniques in the new world. You are but a heartbeat from a delete key. Social Media interaction is about contributing, not taking. You will receive back to the extent that you put in. If your campaigns are old school, they are already obsolete. If you think you are going to broadcast ads on twitter and get responses, think again. Let your competitors fall into this trap and damage their own efforts and waste money, but don’t do it yourself.
The people and firms that abuse Social Media are destined to be punished by the same, not only be ignored but actually ostracized. Word of Mouth is VERY powerful and the lashbacks can be severe.
Allocate resources to do it right.
Engaging with people in conversations doesn’t have to be a full time job, and can be shared among many people. The workload is proportional to the objective, so don’t short change yourself. Staff up accordingly, and delegate. Some “authorities” will tell you that to be successful at least one person should spend 40 hours per week. That’s bunk. The resources required depends entirely on the scope of the job. You should however try to source the role with someone who has experience. And just because they can blog, doesn’t mean they know how to set a digital strategy or function in social media. It simply means that they can create and hold appropriate conversations. There are many expert resources that can provide these interim resources for you. CLS Global can, so ask us.
Create GOOD, FRESH content.Create content that is thought provoking and stimulates online discussion or conversation, and not just volume. Repurpose content you already have invested in, as long as it isnt too dated. Create a plan to develop the content and let people know when and where it will be available. Dont hide it behind myriads of signins or questionnaires either. You have about 5 seconds when they decide whether to click or leave. Once you have optimized searches to get them to your content – dont blow it. Seek out conversion experts.
Content is King. Content is critical to add value to the community being engaged. And by add value, we mean real true transparent contribution. If you lie online and are caught, it cannot be reversed. Your content should be truthful, transparent, and represent your values and ideals.
Find expert content managers.
They will be able to help you ascertain the right size, positioning, and relevant content strategies so that you can be sure your content maximizes your positive messages and encourages sharing. If you need resources or need to know how to identify these people, tweet us or send us a mail. Many of the CLS Global staff members were online content managers or directors of content management teams at some point in their career.
The good news is that content does not need to be an expensive proposition. User generated content is free. Blog posts do not cost much. Even online video can be had for significantly less than broadcast. Because the stakes are not nearly as high as content developed for traditional media, you can create a lot more of it, for the same money or much less. Frequency is one of the most important aspects of social media so make sure you are loaded with content on an ongoing basis.
CRITICAL : Establish your policies and procedures.
From C level on down to the lowest on the totem pole, and across all departments in your organization. This is brain dead basic business 101. The environment and ecosystem you are in has radically changed, and you need to change with it. Determine who is being represented when an employee blogs on their personal time, set rules and create disclaimers if necessary.
While some companies will literally recoil from perceived risk and not allow employees to access this amazing wealth of interaction and information from work – DEMAND that the authorities allow you to do so. An isolationist strategy is just that. It spells a death knell for a company. Fear is not a corporate strategy, its an absolute GUARANTEE that investors will quickly seek other vehicles and potential customers will deem you obsolete.
Select your most diplomatic and conversant people to be your interface with this new world, calm composed and quality ombudsmen/women. Engaging with customers should not put you off from doing so. You may find the one customer created nugget that saves your bacon in a recession, or opens up opportunities that you never would have thought of in house. If you are asking questions like – What if people say bad things about us? How do I make sure employees don’t share proprietary information? Won’t competitors check us out and steal our ideas and thinking? ….you really need help to get over this phobia. Hire an expert like CLSGlobal to show you how to set policies and remove these blocks from growth. After all – the entire world is in on this – you should be too.
Bottom line here is to force your company to EVOLVE. If you don’t, the market will decide on your identoty and do it for you. You may not like the direction.
If you don’t have the knowledge, hire trainers. (yes, we do that too.)
Those of us who have evolved and embraced the global change will simply look to do businesses with companies who have, and the companies that dont will become chagrined owners of a Darwin Award. The speed of the internet and Social Media means rapid change, so paying attention DAILY and evolving with the trends is critical for corporate success and survival.
How to Kick Start A Community – an adaptation list
I was involved in communities from the beginning of my long tenure at Microsoft, and helped launch a myriad of tech consultant and developer communities and marketing mechanisms that included the MVP program, the developer marketing program, TechEd Developer Conferences, and a slew of community and beta/co-development programs for a variety of technology and non-tech firms. I’ve run hundreds of technical beta programs and feedback loops, and learned a few things about creation and use of electronic communities for business. Some of the comments below came out of an internal whitepaper I wrote regarding online community development around 1996-1997 when I joined Microsoft’s web server product development team.
Do your homework!
If you have not had a recent online audit or competitive intelligence report done, do so BEFORE initiating any community planning. Then check your homework at every review milestone. Change is constant – so factor it into your plan phases. If your core is solid, you can manage exceptions more easily and proactively. Plus, you will be fiscally more accurate as a result.
If you are relying on ad hoc research or basing your efforts on information that is older than 6 months, you are handicapping your own efforts. Your audience and the mediums they prefer are fluid and extremely dynamic, so you need to use a professional resource to stay on top of recent movements and developments. Knowing how your audience communicates and where they move is critical to designing a successful community site and outreach campaign.
Social Media touches all functional aspects of your company.
If you need help designing a comprehensive cross silo approach, we’re here to help. From establishing corporate policy to coordinating functional campaigns, never lose sight of the fact that Social Media is not a standalone, rather it represents a portion of each of your companies organizations and functional budgets.
Conversations between companies and customers will be the name of the game going forward. One way exchanges will quickly become a thing of the past. Finally, we’ll get to an ecnomy where business becomes personal again.
1. Create compelling content on a recurring basis. Brands sometimes create videos, podcasts, or stories on a daily or weekly basis that encourages members to come back. The web is all about participation, so you will need to understand the workload and frequencies, so that you can budget or hire correctly.
2. Reward users who fill out their profile. Folks like to see other friendly faces, so giving them access to premium features or recognition of those who have the most complete profiles should recognized. Recognize contributions – no matter how small. It takes time, but is worth it.
3. Invite community influencers and advocates to the community first –giving them first right of testing the system and then inviting others. By all means engage them in helping you improve, by giving them credibility and by honestly listening to feedback. Learn to weight opinions accurately, and act on the ones that benefit the most people the heaviest.
4. Invite detractors. Risk being snubbed. (Bet you aren’t going to hear this very often, however a large part of our success with clients comes from advocating participation from all types of participants.) Antagonism is healthy and can create wonderful streams of idea sharing. One detractor turned neutral or positive in public is worth several thousand advocates. Of course this takes finesse, so don’t leave these relationships to your rookies to handle. Give respect, earn respect. Invite a competitors top influencer to “represent” (but never the competitor themselves unless you are confident they can be managed. Remember – shoot-outs in public tend to be messy in front of an audience. Avoid the tempatation.)
5. Encourage interaction through conversations. Ask questions, talk about controversial topics, or host a contest that encourages participation. Don’t survey people to death or ask canned questions, just be human and get into a discussion. One way questions NEVER work, so be prepared to reciprocate.
6. Reward top contributors. Notice this is different than “recognize contribution” above. Seriously – give something to these people for fueling the community energy. If they bail – so will others. Those that participate the most, or perhaps, are the most helpful should be recognized on a leader board, and thanked in public. Unexpectedly, send them something nice as a thank you, or reward them with premium services –never money. Some are motivated by challenges, others recognition. If you don’t know why they do what they do so prolifically – ask.
7. Give participants in the community a chance to showcase their knowledge and perspective. This means ALL of them. Great ideas come from collaboration. so encourage and nurture it. Clip any abusive behavior instantly, and rotate the soapbox. I’ve had absolute beginners come up with some stunning ideas – because they aren’t mired in the burden of minutea. Kids do this to parents all the time. Embrace it.
8. Use the community as a bi-directional information exchange, not a one way mechanism. At Microsoft, I specialized in large community development projects built around iterative participation in product design and development. The practice of conversing became a corporate standardization, much to Bill and Steve’s chagrin. After all, it’s one thing to claim customer listening and be able to actually deliver, yet quite another to implement enterprise processes and systems with their money to support listening and participating as a divisional initiative, and then point to the success metrics and demand it be mandated corporate wide – both internally and externally. (For those of you who remember the “Eat our own Dogfood” policy – this was the genesis.) Product quality and sales spiked. Not bad, especially when original ROI was deemed ”schmoozing or goofing off”.
9. Centralize your community around your real world events. People want to find each other before events, talk about the event during the duration, and then afterwards are key. Use the community in your physical events. Do a build up befoire the event, and a post mortem afterwards. Get content contributrions and ideas of what went well, what didn’t and what could be better. People love giving opinions about “what happened”. (just avoid the gossip please…and be kind to people, not cruel)
10. Use virtual events to integrate community. Create engaging events and participate in others. This is the model of the mjultiplayer online games —tackle a quest together around a core subject –communicate, interact, generate dialogue.
11. Integrate with your website –other customer touchpoints and communication mediums. If you don’t know what these associative linkages might be, hire an expert to help you find them. Always remember, aggregations of human discussion ARE the corporate sites of the future. Make sure your call center, email marketing, and external newsletters all integrate community. (don’t forget email signatures)
12. Encourage employees to get active. A party isn’t much fun if there’s no one there, so encourage the hosts (often employees) to kickstart discussions by talking, debating, and arguing about the news, updates, or even relevant YouTube videos will trigger discussion. Represent your company well, and stay within your corporate Social Media Policy guidelines. (Don’t have any? Have your CEO give us a call)
Of course, you have a community manager on staff, right? If not – we can supply interim managers for you until you get up to speed.
