Tag Archives: social media strategy

October 2, 2013 · 10:29 am

Who Runs Social?

Any time I’m working with a client and the subject of social media comes up, there’s usually a pretty good discussion of how social is seen within the organization.  More specifically, there’s generally an internal tug of war of sorts over messaging and ownership.  I thought maybe my keyhole into this issue was sort of unique but as it turns out it’s actually very common.TCG_0913_SocialMedia

The folks at The Creative Group did a survey of more than 400 advertising and marketing executives about who should own social media and that internecine battle was evident from the results:

Overall 39% of advertising and marketing executives said they think social media belongs in the public relations/communications wheelhouse, compared to 35% who said it should be the responsibility of the marketing department. Meanwhile 15% said it should be delegated to customer service, and 5% said it should be the direct responsibility of the company’s CEO (6% said they don’t know).

Of course, this sort of misses the point.  As I discuss with clients, social media isn’t focused on the brand or on the company – it needs to be focused on the customer.  Figuring out who “owns” it is about you.  Instead focus on the customer’s needs and decide who is best equipped to serve them in the social channel.   The answer may not be tied to one department.  Hmm – working together as a team – what a concept!

The other thing the survey raises is that with multiple internal stakeholders there is bound to be multiplicity of thought on messaging.  The entire organization needs to be aligned on that –  it can’t come with a constant PR or Marketing or Customer Service point of view.  As with many things in the business world, often the politics supersede the thought process.  This is usually the biggest hurdle to an effective social plan.  Once the politics get sorted, the messaging can flow as a customer-focused stream.  Resolving customer issues and carrying on a conversation that engages the customer (and NO they’re not only wanting to know about your latest and greatest product) is social’s role.

Who runs social?  Your customers do.  Any questions?

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July 18, 2013 · 8:15 am

Meet HAL, Our CMO

Anyone remember HAL? Or more specifically, the HAL 9000, one of the great screen villains of all time? Sure you do – it’s the computer in 2001. Throughout the course of the film the computer runs almost everything, including the humans. When the humans rebel, it murders them (trust me, that’s not a spoiler and you MUST see the film if you haven’t).

Hal 9000 D - Chrome

(Photo credit: K!T)

HAL is on my mind this morning because of something I read in Media Post:

Adobe Systems released an updated version of its social media platform Thursday allowing marketers to predict the effectiveness of posts before they are published.  Using predictive analytics, the feature in Adobe Social learns as it goes, refining recommendations and increasing intelligence with each action. The platform pulls in historic data from similar posts and integrates it with image data on Flickr, check-ins on Foursquare and videos from Instagram, to determine the outcome for sharing, comments, and likes.

I’m well aware that many companies use testing to plan advertising.  Focus groups are a tried and true method and I’ve used them myself.  Copy testing is part of that.  What I find creepy, however, is when this moves over to social media and it points out a flaw in many companies’ thinking.  Part of using social is being real.  It’s why I have an issue with any sort of programmatic content in general.  There needs to be a human on the other end, and not just a human running an algorithm.

Another problem is in the last sentence, above.  Programming to generate likes and sharing is specious reasoning.  That’s the sort of goal that someone looking to impress a boss who has no understanding of social media would have.  After all – things can go “viral” and generate a ton of comments when they’re used as the butt of a joke or as something negative.  Nice metrics, horrible outcome.

I don’t know about you but I can feel when it’s a computer on the other end.  It’s the digital equivalent of those nested phone menus where you type or say a response to a series of questions.  Those infuriate me .  Maybe they do you as well.  As marketers we need to have the courage to be human in social media.  Auto responders aren’t as good as human responders (properly trained, of course).  Letting a computer dictate what does or doesn’t get posted over the nuanced judgement of humans is not going to be as effective in the long run.

What do you think?

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March 18, 2013 · 10:02 am

Social Is As Social Does

Let’s start the week with a little food for thought.  I came across a great report from the Altimeter Group concerning how businesses evolve around social.  The report makes a distinction between companies implementing a social media strategy and those that are building a social business.  It’s really an eye-opener, especially the finding that just 34% say there are clear metrics used throughout the organization that associate social activities with business outcomes.  Then again, given how too many businesses are always chasing the next shiny object without considering how or if it works for their enterprise, maybe it isn’t.

Here is how they made the distinction between social strategy ad social business:

A social media strategy lays out the channels, platforms, and tactics to support publishing, listening, and engagement. A social business strategy is the integration of social technologies and processes into business values, processes, and practices to build relationships and spark conversations inside and outside the organization, creating value and optimizing impact for customers and the business alike. The most important criteria for a successful social business strategy are twofold: clear alignment with the strategic business goals of an organization AND organizational alignment and support that enables execution of that strategy. However, in a survey conducted by Altimeter of social strategists and executives, only 34% felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes.

Yes, I said that last point a second time – I think it’s that important!  It gets to the first of the success factors of a successful social business strategy:

The biggest cause of social strategy failure was the lack of alignment around business objectives. Businesses that uncover the gap between business objectives, social media strategies, and internal challenges and opportunities will open dialogue that both closes the gaps and creates alignment in the process.

The report goes on to list six others:  Having a Long-term vision for becoming a social business, key executive support, having a roadmap in place for all your initiatives along with a timeline, process discipline and ongoing education, staffing properly, and choosing technology only after strategy is set.  Each one of those points would make a fine topic for a longer post but it’s a pretty good checklist from which to work.

I encourage you to read the report a couple of times and let me know what you think.

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