Taking A Strategic Approach to Social Media

The State of Play

Smell the Hype

The Only Way is Up When was the last time someone made a film about

Rupert Murdoch?

Answering Every Commercial Problem?

Track sentiment & provide advance warning

Rally supporters & mobilise/inspire internal audience

Engage critics

Facilitate stakeholder involvement in product, policy or service development

Drive SEO performance

Measure effectiveness of/response to other comms

Supercharge customer relations

Numbers are Compelling

• 70% of companies regularly create value through use of web-based communities

• Using customer communities to solve customer problems costs 10% of traditional call centres

* McKinsey 2010

Reinventing Democracy?

Get ready for the backlash

Gartner Hype Cycle

Peak of Inflated Expectations

Trough of Disillusionment

Slope of Enlightenment

Plateau of Productivity

Changing Patterns of Behaviour & New Expectations

Supercharged Activism

Supercharged Consumerism

Heightened Expectations

• Speed & responsiveness

“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”

Instant access, instant response, instant gratification“living life through shortcuts” MTV

“Amplifying the Volume of Moaning”

Amplifying the Damage Caused by Internal Moaning

• “Rude, smelly and stupid”

• “Pikey skanks”

• “Chavs” “Poor safety standards”

Placing a Premium on Judgement

• The crowd isn’t always wise or right

• Mobs of misinformed zealots are no more legitimate when they appear online

• Should you always give people what they say they want?

• Populism is a weakness… whereas taking a stand on unpopular or controversial issues can be a sign of strength

Being Strategic

The value of being strategic

• Solving real problems e.g. trust deficit

• Moving up the value chain

Becoming central to your company’s future

Following the serious money

Safeguarding your future

The danger of staying tactical

• Irrelevance/insignificance

• Senior management disinterest

• Lack of influence

• Low budgets

Being Strategic

1.Avoid fixation with tech, tactics & trivia

2.Understandsocio-culturalcontext

3.Empathise withorganisation’schallenges

4.Understandmarketingcontext

Boring is good

"Tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.“Clay Shirky

Short-term triumph of the trivial

Don’t get so carried away by unlimited possibilities of social media

… that you lose sight of real business objectives

Being Strategic





Socio cultural shifts

Trust deficitDeath of deference

+

Cynicism is our default settingHow much do you trust to do what is right (Informed adults in UK)?

Authority Dispersed

• “End of the expert”

• Traditional authority figures no longer credible

• Continued rise of ‘regular’ people (employees, friends, peers) as sources of trusted authority


Self expression

Art for Facebook generation


Self expression

+

Collective action

The spirit of collective action

When self expression meets collective action

Economic altruism

“people like to create & wish to share. A surprising amount of useful, creative or expressive activity is generated without any financial incentive at all”

Organisation without Organisation

• No permanent office

• No paid employees

• Armed with a sophisticated understanding of new technology& an army of enthusiasts

Organisation without Organisation

Loose, informal alliances

Evolution of Crowdsourcing

Customising

Contributing

Creating

Solving

Collaborating

Collaborative Journalism

“mutualisation” = “getting readers to care about, inform and enhance our coverage” Meg Pickard


Self expression

+

Collective action

+

Subversion

The Age of Subversion

Subverting Business

Powered by new technology

Being Strategic





Social Media Success Built On

• Being responsive

• Being human

• Being open

Social Media Success Built On

• Being responsive

• Being human

• Being open/transparent

What is typical

Slow & bureaucratic

Faceless

Opaque

Why many institutions struggle• Not configured to work in real time, in terms of

speed or resources

• Uncomfortable in a world where judgement more important that fixed rules & processes

• Nervous about letting real people on the inside talk to people on the outside … lack of trust

• Don’t like criticism

• Struggle to define what success looks like

• Feel out of control

Organisational Challenge

Disconnected Organisation

Connected Customer

meets

Connected Customers

• Expect to be able to scrutinise, debate issues & share ideas

• Expect institutions to be able to respond in real time

Social media dramatises the disconnection

• Reveals silos• Highlights trust deficit• Underlines structural/

operational weaknesses– Decision making– Speed– Legal constraints

Need to address fundamental structural, organisational & cultural weaknesses

Ignorance is no excuse

“We would love to go on Facebook and we have been having a discussion around that, but it is uncharted territory” (HSBC Executive)

… but empathy is needed

• Structures & operational procedures need to be transformed

• Roles need to be re-invented• Business models need to evolve• Legal guidelines need to change

• … all of which will take time

Being Strategic





“People don't want to buy a quarter-inch

drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School

Clients don’t need a Facebook strategyThey don’t even need a social media strategy

… they need communications strategy… or customer engagement strategy… with social media at its heart

Being Strategic





www.crowdsurfing.net#crowdsurfing

Taking A Strategic Approach to Social Media

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