The Best Thing You Can Do TODAY
Recently I posted on the desirability of CEOs becoming active Tweetie Birds on Twitter. It was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but the point was that as social media becomes more and more embroidered into the fabric of how we do business, leaders are going to want to understand what the heck it’s all about.
Beyond understanding, leaders will want to lead. To do so, they will need to fully embrace social media in a big picture, strategic way. It’s time to finally make social media about people, rather than technology. David F. Giannettorecently posted onTop Four Enterprise Changes Driven by Social Media, suggesting we’ve focused too much simply on the mechanics of making it work inside our organizations: facebook pages twitter accounts, YouTube channels, and the like. He encourages a step back to consider the purpose of the technology and the context within which we’re now operating.
1. What we once considered an exception will be the rule. Those first few Yelp reviews that made us so proud, for example, will soon multiply like bunnies and come to define us and our brand. Leadership must embrace the fact that branding is not just a marketing exercise. We’re building a social business that requires us to define customer service processes in a way that penetrates the entire organization; the discipline to follow through must come from the top.
2. We can’t hide from our mistakes. As the social world becomes more interconnected, we won’t be able to delete bad reviews. Everything will be moving too fast. The time to prepare to deal with future threats is now, rather than adopting a laissez faire attitude towards our critics; top-down planning to mitigate against complaints is essential.
3. Social media practitioners must become analysts. We can no longer simply hire college grads to implement techniques. Our social media pros must also be steeped in everything that drives our business — operations, finance, information technology and customer relations – and leaders must provide the opportunity for staff to acquire holistic skills.
4. Social media will be at the table when leadership strategy is on the agenda. As previously noted, leadership will want to know what’s going on. How does social media lead to ROI? How does it drive competitive advantage? We will no longer have two separate businesses: one on the ground and ‘real’; one in the clouds and ‘virtual’. There is no more distinction between external and internal. It’s all one business.
Leading the transition to social businesses necessitates listening to the customer’s voice. Some may think they can get away without this, simply imposing their will on the masses. For most of us, however, social engagement is critical. As one marketing executive notes in Whatever Happened to the ‘Brand Experience’, A Social Perspective:
If you can be the next Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, or Albert Einstein, maybe you do not need social play. Maybe you are so extremely brilliant that you do not need to listen to the customer’s voice and learn from them. Jobs has said “the customer doesn’t know what they what,” and “did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” (Source: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson). But you know what … I have no shame in saying I learn so much from engaging with my customers and it makes me a mu
ch better marketing executive because I do so. As a marketer, I have interpreted the voice of the customer to drive a product roadmap.
ch better marketing executive because I do so. As a marketer, I have interpreted the voice of the customer to drive a product roadmap.
Truly successful social businesses listen; then make connections between ideas and people, stimulating responses to create action potential. Social businesses make things happen, powered by affinities and the connective tissue of networked technology. Thus, all social media tactics must be connected to core social values, and they must do so in a holistic, big picture way that embraces the values of both the business and the business’ audiences.
It will take transformative leadership to make the paradigm shift that’s required. Social media will move not only to the head of the class, but to the heart of every strategic plan. Leaders can no longer to afford to stick their heads in the sand, ignoring the growing social dimensions of their brand. Their constituents will not allow it.
Remember when websites were essentially brochures? Now they are platforms for constituent engagement. How do you incorporate interactive touchpoints into your ‘home base’? What are you doing to make social media more than just a tool employed by a limited number of staff? What’s the connective tissue that unifies all your communication and engagement strategies? How are you evolving towards social business?
2 Comments
It strikes me that right now while social media is still the "hot new thing," we tend to view it in its own silo. That's a mistake. It ought to be viewed as part of an organization's overall communications media mix.
I don't really agree with the headline that social media is moving to the head of the class. It may SEEM so, because it's got all the buzz and we're still enamored with the new technology.
But is it really effective in a fundraising context for generating major and transformational gifts? That's the world I live in. It comes back to spending time where it's most efficient and productive for reaching and cultivating those donors who will make those large gifts over the long term.
Sure, the use of social media can generate thousands, even millions, of dollars when it comes to raising funds in a short period following a high profile natural disaster. But then, how many of those donors become long-term, committed donors? That's a conversion that I'm hearing is happening very little.
Really, rather than viewing social media in its own silo, it ought to become part of an organization's total communication media mix. And I believe eventually it will for more and more organizations, just as the web/internet has.
Should we spend time leading the charge for the use of social media in fundraising? Depends. For annual giving? Maybe. For major and transformational giving? No. That's still an area that requires the personal relationship. That's not going to change.
Social media has to be viewed in the proper context. Just because it's got all the buzz and is the hot new thing doesn't mean we need to jump on the bandwagon. Too often that's a decision that's not weighed very carefully.
Thanks for the comment Sam. I agree we don't want to chase every shiny new object. That being said, as you note, social media will pretty soon just be known as "media". It's becoming that engrained in how we do business, how we communicate, and how we connect. Because that's true, it provides a real opportunity for us to get to know our donors, and prospects, better. So we all need to at least be on the bandwagon, or our donors will leave us behind.
When I posited that it's moving to the 'Head of the Class', I meant to imply that leaders need to embrace it. They need to understand how it permeates everything we do today. It's not just something to ask a junior staff member to work on part-time. It needs to be incorporated into strategy.
Before we get to fundraising, we need to create awareness, interest and involvement. That's why fundraisers need to care about social media. It's a way to engage with folks who share the values our organization enacts. Once they do this, they're primed to support us once we send an appeal — through whatever channel we choose to do so. Major donors use FB and twitter too. They'll see us there. They'll form opinions about us there. We're not going to ASK for a major give there, but the way they feel about us is certainly going to be affected by how we use the space.