Understand Social media and drive transformation

Research shows that trust and transparency has become equally important to corporate reputation as quality of products & services.

Nobody argues about the importance of Social Media to the success of business. But many companies struggle with the how.

This text explains first need of companies to change and then explains what to do and how to do it.

Need for change & change

A new organizational structure is required to accommodate and benefit from the sharing culture created by social media. Organizational functions need to move from collaborating separately with customers and become fully interconnected inside the organization (overcoming of silos) and communicating with customers in an integrated, systematic fashion.

Companies need to drive key initiatives such as community management (form teams and communities), crowdsourcing, campaigns, advocacy, crisis management in addition to traditional customer service and communication.

What companies can do practically

Companies must drive a culture where their employees not only interact with their customers, but become fully networked internally and externally. It should measure the extent of socio-technology usage and drive continuous improvement through organizational models, training, policies & guidelines, incentives, etc.

In order to have customer truly caring for employees, companies need to start by caring about their own employees first. Much has been neglected in previous decades…

It means to truly learn about co-workers personally and professionally, collaborate and discuss on work products, give people the information, knowledge, tools, freedom and empowerment to do their jobs well.

Further companies must provide their employees with practical support and guidance: Help each mine their own contacts (for information, advice, reference, referrals, relationship building),

How to get started in the right way

It requires to think about People, Process and Platforms while driving digital strategies & programs focusing on engagement, collaboration, content and communication.  

Extend Social media beyond the marketing function, but include Advertising & Promotions, Public Relations, Customer Service, Marketing Research, Sales & commerce, Product Development, Internal Communications, Recruitment and other functions. Multiple functions across the organization need to work closely together to maximize outcome.

Think strategically and plan systematically

1)      Develop a social media & business strategy with core objectives, roadmap, process and technology integration, measurements based on target customers, stakeholders…

2)      Align the organization

3)      Engage with each stakeholder group (prospects, customer, Web influencers, Ecosystem partners, vendors, suppliers, employees, media, etc.) through social media

4)      Measure and incorporate feedback to adapt and optimize planning and operational execution

5)      Assure a continuous improvement journey. Social media is not a campaign!

Overall planning & implementation philosophy

-          While planning is important do not just direct efforts centrally from the top, but allow people to experiment and do improvement in their individual areas.

-          Run test pilots, validate outcome and refine planning & implementation

Drive transformation & progress as part of a systematic roadmap

1)      Establish policy, process and procedure

a.       Internal activities

                                                               i.      Form Steering Committee, put governance model in place, establish listening tools & process, establish KPIs & measurement framework, form Social Media Center of Excellence

b.      External activities

                                                               i.      Determine public moderation policy, community coordination, content development, paid media in social

2)      Shape capabilities

a.       Internal activities

                                                               i.      Build social enterprise architecture, communicate rule of engagement, train early adopters, implement community management plan

b.      External activities

                                                               i.      Establish your social media voice and tone, identify influencers, launch test & learn pilots, publish content across multiple properties & channels

3)      Develop ecosystem

a.       Internal activities

                                                               i.      Connect and coordinate partners through internal lead, formalize social CMS and internal staffing, extend steering committee to regions, roll out training across entire organization

b.      External activities

                                                               i.      Strengthen platform partnerships, form partnerships with influencers, scale engagements; coordinate across mainstream, owned and hybrid properties; formalize standardization, measurements and KPIs

4)      Drive innovation & integration

a.       Internal activities

                                                               i.      Integrate systems on back end, connect customers, employees and partners; achieve people, processes and platform maturity

b.      External activities

                                                               i.      Establish global ambassador programs, integrate systems on front end, integrate social layer across all business functions, achieve consistent product & service innovations

Align any other open individual activities with your new strategy

Examples:

-          Improve internal intelligence though listening, learning and knowledge sharing.

-          Optimize sales cycle (demand and lead generation, conversion)

-          Maximize awareness (word of mouth,  engagement data, brand awareness)

-          Maximize retention (brand engagement, customer loyalty)

Adapt your organizational structure and roles

-          Social Media is gaining strategic importance

-          New tasks, responsibilities and thus roles are emerging (Chief digital officer, social media strategist, Content strategist, Community Manager, Data analyst)

-          Form a multi-departmental Social Media Committee to bridge silos and accelerate integration

-          Each brand should be managed by a brand team or business units and cover/ manage all traditional, digital and social responsibilities.

-          The individual brands may be managed centrally through corporate hierarchy or organized around a Center of Excellence that supports and coaches each brand, but leaves them mostly room for self-management and innovation.

-          For each brand involve Agency and Technology partners, brand team and run pilots.

Suggested measurements and KPIs

-          Brand advocacy: Loyalty (members re/share), brand mentions,…

-          Dialog: Share of Voice, Engagement Duration,…

-          Company support: Resolution rate and time,…

-          Innovation: Capture trends, generate innovation,…

-          Share of voice: own brand mention divided by total mentions (own brand and competitors’)

New rules for engaging on the Web

-          Monitor, listen, discover and learn

-          Solicit and gather feedback

-          Participate

-          Share (company perspective,

-          Actively involve audience, co-create

-          DO NOT push information, sell or manipulate

This article has incorporated thoughts and expertise of Edelman Consulting, the world leading Public relations firm. Special thanks for their insights and best practices.

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