Introduction: Why social media?
Today the agreement is nearly universal that organizations avoid establishing a social media presence at their own peril. “Social media”, as used within this article, is defined as those peer-to-peer, inherently collaborative and generally open media sources that are differentiated from the traditional “industrial media” such as print newspapers and television broadcasts, that have high capital costs and limited availability due to prohibitively high economies of scale. Virtually all of the Fortune 1000 currently employ a myriad of social media, whether it be internally for knowledge collaboration (i.e. SharePoint, employee wikis) and externally (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn) to provide differentiated information to increasingly knowledge-hungry and specialized customer segments (most business scholars acknowledge that the era of “mass production” has now given way to an era of “mass customization/mass specialization”, and social media is a key enabler of this trend.) While social media may have emerged in the early 2000’s as a teenager/young adult-driven socialization and entertainment venue, it has unquestionably now arrived as one of the premier conduits for corporate knowledge sharing, marketing, and customer outreach. Indeed, an aggressive social media presence today is less of a strategic differentiator than a mere requisite for continued competitiveness, similar to the transformation of the role of an Internet presence between 1990 and 1999.
However, the pervasive nature of social media usage by large corporations today does not necessarily suggest that IT management has optimally designed the organization’s social media presence. In fact, it has been my experience that many competent IT and marketing managers within some of the world’s largest corporations fall into the same social media pitfalls which reduce the efficacy of operational (and occasionally, capital) spend in these areas. At the very best, falling into these pitfalls – all of them generally emanating from a lack of a holistic social media strategy - results in wasted effort and wasted dollars, with no benefits flowing to the organization. At the worst, committing these “social media sins” can actually have a deleterious impact on brand equity and drive away customers.
Designing a social media strategy
It is surprisingly frequent to observe corporations approach the implementation of social media with no cohesive, comprehensive strategy. In speaking with one Partner-level executive at a midsized consulting firm, I encountered a precise example of this viewpoint. “My teenage son,” the Partner proclaimed, “is an expert at using his Facebook account, so how difficult can this stuff be to use?” Such a viewpoint – and it is a frequently expressed viewpoint – fails to acknowledge the rich diversity of social media (Facebook is but one element), and it also fails to acknowledge that communicating with personal friends via social media is a radically different endeavor than attempting to capture market share and drive sales.
Unlike individuals, profit-oriented organizations utilize social media primarily as a marketing mechanism, with the end intent of driving an increase to the bottom line. It is imperative that organizations conceptualize and implement a holistic social media strategy prior to launching their electronic presence; simply putting up a LinkedIn company page and a blog without any understanding of the purpose that those tools will serve is analogous to PepsiCo launching a new soft drink brand without any type of market research or demand planning. While there are many possible variants of a social media strategy, my recommended approach is below and includes the following four areas:
1. Purpose – While the ultimate purpose of your social media presence will be to drive sales (with few exceptions), what is the more proximate goal of the social media approach? Does your company wish to expand overall name recognition or target increased market share for a few emerging brands? Perhaps you are a consulting firm wishing to establish your role in thought leadership by publishing innovative content on a blog, or a software as a service (SaaS) firm that will utilize a prospective client portal to provide a demonstration of your software utility’s capabilities. In yet another situation, perhaps you are a burgeoning small enterprise wishing to attract and recruit top-notch talent by utilizing the targeted recruitment functionalities on LinkedIn. Regardless of the case, the overall purpose of your social media strategy must be established before any content is delivered. Otherwise, your company may be delivering the wrong message to the right clients, or wasting money in giving a strong value proposition to clients with absolutely no interest in your services (i.e., I cringe when I see companies such as SAP advertising on Facebook; while there are undoubtedly SAP experts and SAP consultants on Facebook, those dollars would be far more effectively utilized on another social media milieu.)
2. Media – Social media comprises a vast universe, ranging from sites such as Facebook and Linked, to blogs, to external and internal wikis, to video-sharing sites such as Youtube, demonstration portals/extranets, SharePoint, and more. It is potentially dangerous naiveté to assume that the process of selecting which of these media to utilize is a simple matter. For one example, there are significant demographic differences between sites such as Facebook (younger, diverse, more socially conscious, less affluent) and LinkedIn (older, more homogeneous, more educated, more affluent), and your company’s social media purpose may necessitate a mixture of various milieus in this regard. Additionally, while some social media options will constitute mere operational spend (i.e., the fees required for a premium LinkedIn account, along with necessary labor FTE costs for the maintenance of the presence), other social media may actually involve capital spend (i.e., server costs if implementing a dedicated WordPress blog or a prospective client demonstration portal.) The determination of which social media best correlates to your organization’s goals should be the end result of a cross-functional discussion between IT management, marketing, and product/service managers.
3. Consumers – With an overall purpose and specific types of media established, organizations can proceed to decide which consumers to target. The key here is to recognize that there is almost never a “one size fits all” approach to social media. In other words, unless your organization is one of the incredibly few with a highly monolithic customer base, you will have to convey a variety of messages through a variety of social media approaches. A company such as Coca-Cola, for example, might choose to utilize Facebook games to target legacy soda products to an 18-29 year-old demographic, while creating a themed health-conscious blog to tout the benefits of Dasani bottled water or Minute Maid fruit juice to an older, wealthier, more health-conscious demographic.
4. Continuous Monitoring/Improvement – The first three pillars of the social media strategy – Purpose, Media, and Consumers – are key to effectively establishing your company’s presence and producing the desired message. However, a fatal mistake is committed by organizations who believe that a relevant social media strategy in 2010 will continue to maintain the same effectiveness in 2011 and beyond. In the 21st Century, not only do technologies continue to evolve at a breakneck pace; our era of mass specialization/mass customization has produced consumers who continue to demand products and solutions that are ever more pertinent to their preferences and lives. Leading organizations must continuously monitor and evaluate their social media implementation to ensure that it remains an effective strategic element. Key points here include ensuring that content is frequently updated (static months-old content may actually push customers away by presenting a staid, reactive image of your company), and ensuring that the correct tools are being utilized (for example, the demographics of social networks sometimes change – while MySpace was an early leader in social networking, today it is in decline and is primarily frequented by younger, lower-educated citizens in the Southern and Midwestern United States.) As a general rule, social media elements should be evaluated at least once per quarter to ensure their continuing relevance.
Conclusion
Social media presents tremendous opportunities for companies today to deliver the highly-targeted messages that are critical to attracting and maintaining dedicated customer bases in the 21st Century’s paradigm of mass customization/mass specialization. However, haphazardly approaching the establishment of a social media presence can result in wasted spend or even deleteriously impact your company’s marketplace image. A successful social media implementation based on a sound and holistic strategy – such as the one outlined in this article – can have a remarkably long-lasting positive impact on your company’s market position and competitive advantage.
Note: The opinions expressed in this and all Bizteck articles are exclusively those of the author and do not express any implicit or explicit endorsement by any of his current or previous employers.
Note: The opinions expressed in this and all Bizteck articles are exclusively those of the author and do not express any implicit or explicit endorsement by any of his current or previous employers.
