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With
75% of businesses planning to increase social media spend this year, there is no
doubt that more and more companies understand the need to capitalize on what
has become an increasingly critical part of online marketing – becoming a
social business.
But what does
that actually mean?
Fresh Networks describes
‘social business’ as “the implementation of the
unique communicative properties of social media across all levels of a
business.”
This
means that it’s not just about one area of your company being prominent on
social networks, but about ensuring that every employee is educated in social
practices (communication, transparency, being responsive), and these are
practiced both internally and externally.
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Edelman
Digital created this fantastic graphic to show the internal/external areas of a
social business
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Here’s what that means for your company and a few
ways you can go about implementing best practices.
Implementing social
business
1.
Internally
Open
up the channels of communication and educate employees in the part they can
play to help you become a social business.
For
example, who at your company is responsible for Facebook? Is it marketing?
Sales? PR? Customer service? In truth, they all have a role. Lines of
communication internally need to be open and effective in order to collaborate
successfully.
A
great case study is Dell, who sends any employees who wants to engage – regardless of their role – through social media training. This
program, known as the Social Media And Community University (SMACU), teaches
that “it’s not about controlling the message, but making sure that everyone in
the organization…can be a part of the message which, in effect, controls it.”
Such
a program means that all employees are educated to go out and use social media
to represent the company. That could mean contributing to a blog, getting
involved in Twitter or using experience from their own role to improve the
overall strategy. Ensuring that everyone at your company truly understands what
social media is about, the benefits it can provide and the risks it entails
results in more valuable, collaborative and reliable social media efforts.
Educate,
communicate and collaborate internally. Consider how each department can be a part
of your online presence, and the effect they can have by interacting and
engaging with consumers. Also, think about how you could use social media
internally to communicate, train, educate, facilitate and share information
among your team.
2. Externally
Companies
are in the public eye on a daily basis, and conversation will happen about
their product, with or without them. So the question really, is how can you use
tailor this conversation to your advantage?
Social
channels are all about discussion, which provide the perfect environment to get feedback and listen. Use
social monitoring tools such as Twitter Advanced Search, Social Bro and
Radian6, to find out what people are saying, how they feel, and consider how
you can shape their attitudes towards your brand through your reactions.
JELL-O
pudding exemplified this back in 2011, when they ran a campaign
which cheered up unhappy Twitter users by giving away free pudding. They
monitored Twitter for happy and sad emoticons, using the JELL-O Pudding Face Mood Meter to gage the mood of the
country. When the mood dipped, they started to offer free pudding to users who
had included a sad emoticon in their tweet, to bring the collective mood back
up again.
JELL-O
listened to the public and responded appropriately, turning something bad (a
sad emoticon), into something positive (a happy emoticon). The popularity and
publicity they received from this campaign was incredible, and one of the most
successful social campaigns to-date, as measured by brand interaction and
social mentions. This huge benefit to them came from one simple process - listening,
socializing, providing value and driving engagement.
Becoming
a social business is not an easy transition, particularly for organizations that
have become comfortable in their traditional roots. Nonetheless, it’s an
important step to take and will drive considerable benefit in the long run as
online becomes a more and more important part of all of our day-to-day
activities as individuals and as businesses.
