Social Media/Social Business: Strategy and Management

Dr Jim Hamillwww.energise2-0.comwww.twitter.com/drjimhamillMay, 2013

A note on terminology….

Social Media (External) Social Business (Internal)

Course Overview

The Social Media Revolution……

• Key issues involved in developing, implementing and proactively managing an effective Social Media/Social Business Strategy for building sustained customer and competitive advantage

• A simplified Balanced Scorecard approach will be used to ensure that social media/social business actions and initiatives are fully aligned with and supportive of core business goals and objectives. A key focus will be the use of agreed KPIs and targets to measure on-going social media performance and business impact

Learning Outcomes

Subject specific knowledge and skills: • Opportunities and threats presented by the Social Media

Revolution (Internally/Externally)• Key issues involved in developing an effective Social Media/Social

Business Strategy• Steps involved in successful strategy implementation and

management• Key social media/social business success factors• Balanced Scorecard approach to measuring social media/social

business performance and business impact• Organisation, people and resource issues critical to social

media/social business success• Practical case examples of social media/social business in action

Learning Outcomes

Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills:• Undertake a social media/social business landscape analysis for

your organisation• Set up a Social Media Listening System• Develop an agreed Social Media/Social Business Strategy for your

organisation• Agree the core business objectives, goals and targets to be

achieved• Identify the key social media actions and initiatives to be

implemented and an ‘Action Plan’ for getting there• Agree the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), metrics and

analytics to be used in measuring social media performance, business impact and ROI

• Ensure that all key success factors have been considered

Teaching and Learning Methods

The four main teaching and learning methods used in the class will be: 

• Lectures and related support material• Open discussion and debate in class• Group work in developing an agreed Social Media Strategy for

an organisation of your own choice• Group presentation

Questions

If you have any questions, don’t bother asking because I don’t really care if you have any questions, what your opinion is or what you think. If you ask a question I will ignore

you

How many companies treat their customers that way? How ‘social’ is your organisation?

A conversation

not a broadcast

presentation

Assignment

• The assessment for this class will be a group assignment involving a class presentation and preparation of a Social Media Strategy Document for an organisation of the group’s own choice (Word limit: 3,000 words)

 • Students failing to pass the assignment with a mark of 50% or

more will be required to resubmit

Agenda

• Understanding the Basics - The Social Media Revolution; Social Media in Action – Examples; Key Things to Remember about Social Media; Social Media Listening System

• From Social Media to Social Business

• ‘Getting There’ – Social Media Planning Pays– Social Media/Social Business Strategy Development– Implementation– Performance Measurement and Business Impact

• Group Work

Timetable

Friday (all day) & Saturday (AM)– ‘Lectures’ and class discussion

Saturday (PM) & Sunday (AM)– Group work

Sunday (PM)– Group presentations

Assignment/Group Work

Groups of 4/5 students

Taking an organisation of your own choice, evaluate the progress made in adopting social media. Your evaluation should cover use of social mediaon the organisation’s own web site and the extent of their involvement in external social media sites.

Make strategic recommendations for improvement

Continue the conversation at

www.energise2-0.com

www.energise2-0.com

Social Media (External)

Let’s start with a few questions?

Social Media: The State of Play

Where are we in our use of social media?

What progress has been made?

Where are we going?

What road are we on?

Our View on Progress Made

Interest and enthusiasm has grown rapidly

Channels are being set up

But lack of strategic planning leads to problems down the line - resourcing, content, customers, performance measurement, business impact and ROI

A broadcast mentality prevails…….

Is there something fundamentally wrong with our

approach to Social Media?

Something Wrong…..

Are we using social media as just another PR/marketing channel for broadcasting messages AT customers telling them how good we are?

Is anyone listening anymore?

Have the rules of businesschanged?

Be Social

New ‘mindsets’ are required to be successful in social media

‘BE SOCIAL BEFORE

DOING SOCIAL’

Be ‘Customer Led’

Talking WITH rather than AT your customers is the core foundation of a successful social media strategy

The basis of a good conversation is to listen first

‘Social Media Planning Pays’

The Social Media Revolution

Social Media

An Overview

»Applications»Features and Characteristics»Implications

Social MediaApplications

Open sourceOnline Applications/ Web ServicesSocial/ Prof Network SitesSocial BookmarkingInternal Social TechnologiesBlogs or WeblogsWikisPodcasts/ VodcastsVirtual RealitiesMash UpsRSS FeedsMobile Web; Internet TelephonyTwitter

Characteristics

Communities and NetworksOpennessSharingPeeringHosted Services – online applications; the Internet as the platformInteractivitySocial ElementMass CollaborationEmpowermentGlobal

Impact – Wikibusiness

MindsetBusiness IntelligenceCustomer Insight and

UnderstandingCustomer InteractionEnhanced Customer Experience

– Rich Internet ApplicationsReputation ManagementSales and Marketing Product Development and R&D

e.g. engage and co-createIT/Software/ApplicationsOperations, Internal Processes

and HRM

Social Media in Plain English

How important has it become?

The Social Media Revolution

Potential Business Benefits of Social Media

Business Benefits

Market Knowledge

Customer Insight and Understanding

Customer Interaction/Service

Enhanced Customer Experience

Business Intelligence

Reputation Management

Business Benefits

Improved Sales and Marketing

Identify and network with high value, high growth prospects

Product Development and R&D e.g. engage and co-create

Internal cost savings

Improved Operations/Internal Process Efficiency/Collaboration

Increased ROI

Potential Business Benefits

5 main areas:

• Market/Customer Knowledge & Insight

• Engagement & Reputation Management

• Enhanced Customer Experience and Loyalty

• Sales/Marketing Effectiveness, Efficiency and ROI

• Internal – efficiency, knowledge exchange etc

Social Media in ActionQuick Examples

In a Web 2.0 Era, the Brand Becomes the Customer Experience of the

Brand

A quick ‘personal experience’

Dubai Hotel

From the web site

• This 5-star hotel and residence offers European hospitality with an unmistakable French touch. The hotel consists of 318 beautifully appointed guest rooms/suites, while the residence offers 112 fully furnished and equipped deluxe Studios and 1-3 bedroom apartments.

• The ultimate in comfort, we offer 318 luxuriously elegant rooms and suites.

• Take a trip. Escape. Go and visit somewhere new and see if we are there… Give in to that irresistible wanderlust. Discovering and staying in the most exceptional hotels in the world has become the modern-day Graal, a game, a quest…

The Customer Experience of the Brand

Tripadvisor

From Tripadvisor

• It's getting old, the rooms are unappealing and it will never be more than a business hotel

• Being a Sofitel hotel we expected something quite 'flashy' unfortunately we were let down. The rooms, although comfortable and clean, were not of the standard we expected and were definately not what we expected after looking at the photos on the hotel's website.

• Booking my stay via the Sofitel website after a pleasant experience at several other Sofitel locations over the past 2 years with my new job I was looking forward to a 5 star luxury stay after a stressful business trip. My expectations were reasonable, however certainly not met by this hotel

United Breaks Guitars

Crowdsourced NPD

www.skittles.com

The rules of the game have changed

The 5 key things to remember about Social

Media

1. It’s a Revolution

A fundamental and revolutionary changein online behaviour, expectations and the online customer experience. The end of the ‘read only’ internet

Content generated by the network for the network

We are no longer passive consumers of content/brand messages

2. It’s Social

A conversation not a broadcast platform

Conversations are taking place relevant to your brand – are you listening?

Social Media Monitoring

www.topsy.com

www.topsy.com

www.topsy.com

www.mention.net

www.mention.net

The Connected Consumer

3. Power Shift

Social media empowers customers, empowers the network

We no longer control the brand The brand becomes the customer

experience of the brand – experiences that are widely

shared online

4. Declining Effectiveness

Declining effectiveness of traditional approaches to sales and marketing Does anyone listen any more?

We are no longer passive sheep waiting to be ‘driven’ to your web site

If you treat us like sheep, we will tell youto ‘flock off’.

Do You Listen?

Source: The Future of Advertising, APA, 17/02/09 as published on Slideshare (www.slideshare.com)

Do You Listen?

5. The End of Business as Usual

New ‘mindsets’, new business approaches and new performance measures are required

NOT a broadcast medium. Its about listening to and engaging with customers, partners, your community, your tribe

This is something we are not very good at doing. We prefer telling people how good we are

The End of Business as Usual

‘Winners’ will be those organisations who fully utilise the interactive power of Web 2.0

technology for engaging with and energising customer and network relationships

New Performance Measures

• Business success depends on the quality of your customer base; the strength of the relationship you have with quality customers; and your ability to leverage that relationship

• In a social media era, business success depends on the

– Quality of your network– Relationship strength– Ability to leverage

The 6Is Approach

Performance Measurement

Involvement – network/community numbers/quality, time spent, frequency, geography

Interaction – actions they take – read, post, comment, reviews, recommendations

Intimacy – affection or aversion to the brand ; community sentiments, opinions expressed etc

Influence – advocacy, viral forwards, referrals and recommendations, social bookmarking

Insight – customer insight Impact – business impact

Social Media Monitoring Tools –Audit, Assess, Impact

The ‘6Is’ Approach

Insight and Impact

Involvement

InteractionIntimacy

Influence

Bob DylanCome gather 'round people

Wherever you roamAnd don’t criticise

What you can't understandYour sons and your daughters

Are beyond your commandYour old road is

Rapidly agin‘Then you better start swimmin’

Or you'll sink like a stoneFor the times they are a-changin’

A note on Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Spread your content as widely as possible to get found

Pull people to your web site, blog etc

Flood your ‘funnel’ with suspects

Analyse and Convert

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing

What’s wrong with this approach?

Drowning in an Sea of Noise

Our Response

The Customer Manifesto

We are not sales suspects, prospects or leads. We do not want to be converted

We are no longer an ‘audience’We are people. In fact, ‘We Are The People’

We are your customers and we are King! Social media empowers us. We control the Information Age.

Welcome to our world, not yours!

The Customer Manifesto

Don’t treat us like passive sheep waiting to be driven to your web site or blog

Use social media to deliver exceptional Customer Experiences

That way, we will become brand advocates and ‘spread the word’ for you

Our network will listen more to us than you

Customers are the Revolution

From Social Media to Social Business (Internal)

See Slides 2

‘Getting There’

Social Media/Social Business Strategy Development and Implementation

Practical Adviceand Next Steps to Avoid the Road to Nowhere

‘Social Media/Social Business Planning Pays’

Social Media/Social Business Strategy and Action Plans

Use a Simplified Balanced Scorecard

• Will ensure that the social media/social business actions and initiatives you take are fully aligned with and supportive of your overall business goals and objectives; that KPIs are agreed for monitoring and evaluating social media/social business performance, business impact and ROI; and all key success factors are considered, especially the organization, people and resource aspects critical to successful strategy implementation

• A Scorecard approach can also be very useful for internal and external communications – a simple framework to present social media/social business goals, objectives, key actions and initiatives to colleagues, partners and other stakeholders

Social Media/Social Business BSC

• Not ‘paralysis by analysis’. By providing an agreed framework to follow, the Balanced Scorecard considerably speeds up strategy development and implementation

• The steps involved can be captured in a Social Media/Social Business Strategy Map

• Five key questions to address……

Social Media/Social Business BSC

• What is the overall social media/social business vision for your organization?

• What are the key objectives and targets to be achieved?

• Who are your customers?

• Key Actions and Initiatives

• Organisation, Resource and People Issues

Social Media/Business Strategy Map

Key Questions to Address

• What is the overall social media/social business vision for your organisation?

• What are the key objectives and targets to be achieved from social media/social business? Are these fully aligned with and supportive of your overall business goals and objectives?

• Who are your customers? Where do you find them ‘hanging out’ on social media? How can you best engage with them?

• What are the main Social Media/Social Business Actions and Initiatives you need to take – short, medium and longer term?

• What generic social media/social business strategy should you follow (number of channels used/ depth of engagement in each channel)?

Key Questions to Address

• For each priority Social Media/Social Business Channel, what are your core objectives for that channel; what KPIs will be used for measuring on-going channel performance; what are your targets for each KPI; what key tasks are needed to achieve these targets?

• Do we have the right organisational ‘culture’ and ‘mindset’ for Social Media/Social Business? ‘Be social before doing social! Is the right organisational and decision-making structure in place?

• Has agreement been reached on resource allocation?• Who will be responsible for your social media/social business

activities? What balance has been agreed between internal and external roles and responsibilities?

Key Questions to Address

• Who is the Social Media/Social Business Champion?• Do you have agreed Social Media/Social Business Policies and

Guidelines in place covering ‘Proper Use’, ‘Content Management’, ‘Customer Response Times/Quality’ and ‘Legal’ aspects?

• Performance evaluation and business impact

‘Be Customer Led’

Be Customer Led

• Who are our customers, community, tribe?

• Where do they hang out in social media?

• How can we best use Social Media/Social Business to deliver an exceptional customer experience at all stages of the customer life cycle?

www.mashable.com

Implementation and Performance Measurement

– Channel Action Plans– Performance Measurement– Organisation, Resource, People

Channel Action Plans

• Once your Social Media/Social Business Strategy has been agreed, brief Action Plans should be developed for each priority SM channel

• Cascade the Balanced Scorecard approach to each priority channel e.g. Twitter, Blog, Facebook, Linkedin, Internal Community etc

• But not ‘Paralysis by Analysis’

• The Action Plan for each channel should include a clear statement of…..

Channel Action Plans

• Vision• Channel Objectives• KPIs and Targets• Customers• Key Channel Actions and Initiatives for ‘getting

there• Organisation, resource and people • Tools and applications• Performance measurement• Do’s and Don’t’s

Guidelines for Effective Social Media/Social

Business Management

1. Channel Vision and Objectives

• Agree the overall vision for each channel

• Agree the main objectives to be achieved? Ensure that these are closely aligned with and supportive of your core business objectives?

• Agree the KPIs and targets to be used in measuring on-going channel performance

KPIs and Targets

The 6Is Approach:• Involvement – numbers/quality• Interaction – level of two-way dialogue• Intimacy – positive/negative sentiments• Influence – word-of-mouth effect

• Insight – actionable market/customer insight• Impact – business impact

The ‘6Is’ Approach

Insight and Impact

Involvement

InteractionIntimacy

Influence

2. Customers

• Who? Agree the main customers groups for this channel – link back to your ‘Customer Mapping Exercise’

• Agree objectives for each customer group e.g. build brand awareness; engagement; loyalty; relationships; advocacy

• How will this impact on your Channel Content Strategy? How can you add value? Be ‘customer led’

• Include ‘Key Influencers’

3. Channel Basics

• Channel/Page Set Up • Profile Information• Design• Basic Layout• Terminology• Features/Functions• Integration

4. Key Success Factors

The ‘4Cs’ approach:

– Content– Customers– Conversations– Conversion

Content

• Quality is critical – add value

• Adopt an ‘outside-in’ rather than ‘inside-out’ approach

• Sales messages OK but subtle and in moderation

• Beware of gaffes

• Not just publishing content but also customer service

Content

Develop an agreed Content Plan– Frequency– Tone/Theme/Voice– Topics– Content Type e.g. text, infographic, video,

podcast etc– Own/Others Content– Sources of Inspiration– Channel Integration/Fit

Why People Unfollow

Why People Unfollow

Customers

Build the Community– Be strategic – size matters, but ‘who’ is just as

important– Use existing communications channels– Use the community building tools of each

channel– Start by following, engaging then be followed– Role of ‘Key Influencers’ is critical– Avoid ‘get follower fast’ schemes

Conversation

• Social media is ‘marketing as a conversation’ with your network. It is not about one way broadcasting

• Actively encourage interaction e.g. blog posts end with request for comments/feedback; on Twitter use Reply, RTs often; on Facebook/Linkedin – participate in groups/forums

• This has time and resource implications

Conversion

Agree and measure the main ‘call to actions’ you are aiming for

5. Organisation, People, Resources

• Build the right organisational ‘culture’ and ‘mindset’ for channel success

• Become a social organisation

• Ensure your channels are managed and resourced properly

• Agree what policies and guidelines are needed

6. Tools and Applications

• A very wide range of Social Media/Social Business Management Tools are available

7. Monitor and Measure

• To ensure that your SM strategy delivers a return on investment, it is important to monitor and evaluate on-going performance benchmarked against agreed objectives, KPIs and targets

• Performance evaluation should be undertaken at three main levels…

 

Performance Measurement

Should be undertaken at four main levels:

1. Individual social media channels

2. Overall ‘buzz’

3. Internal Social

4. Business Impact

Using the 6Is approach

Performance Measurement Tools

A range of tools are available at each level:

• Individual Channels – e.g. Facebook Insights; Klout; Kred

• Overall ‘Buzz’ e.g. Topsy Analytics; Viralheat, other paid SMM tools

• Business Impact e.g. Google (Social) Analytics; SCRM

Organization, Resource and People Issues

• Organization, resource and people issues sit at the bottom of your SM/SB Balanced Scorecard NOT because they are the least important issues to address. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The success of your Social Media/Social Business Strategy is very much dependent upon appropriate decisions being made in the areas listed:

Organization, Resource and People Issues

• Do we have the right organisational ‘culture’ and ‘mindset’ for Social Media/Social Business? ‘Be social before doing social!’ Is the right organisational and decision-making structure in place?

• Has agreement been reached on resource allocation?

• Who will be responsible for your social media/social business activities?

• Do you have agreed Social Media/Social Business Policies and Guidelines in place covering ‘Proper Use’, ‘Content Management’, ‘Customer Response Times/Quality’ and ‘Legal’ aspects?

Social Media Management Do’s and Dont’s

Do’s and Don’t’s

Don’t Be a Showoff– Your posts should add value to the ‘customer’ – it’s

not about ‘me,me,me’

Don’t Use Poor Grammar or Spelling– Don’t try to be too cool

Don’t Get Too Personal (business users)– Keep the conversations warm but professional; it’s

what business users expect and anything else comes off as creepy

Do’s and Don’t’s

Don’t Automate– It’s OK to schedule posts for specific times but don’t

automate everything. Social media is about personal/brand engagement not blatant promotion e.g. don’t automatically DM new twitter followers with a sales message - it’s seen as spam.

Don’t Leave Air in the Conversation– Respond as quickly as possible – within hours not

days.Don’t Overpost

– Don’t flood your followers’ timelines

Do’s and Don’t’s

Do Shout Out to Users Who Mention You– Thank those making favourable comments; be very

careful how you respond to any negative commentsDo Monitor Keywords and Sector Trends

– And respond when appropriateDo Make an Informative Profile

– It’s the first point of contact so critical. Tell what you will be posting about

Do Hang Out Where Your Customers Hang Out– Don’t always expect them to come to you

In Summary……..‘Social Media/Social Business

Planning Pays’

Thank YouQuestions

www.energise2-0.com