Strategies for Social Media Richard Bailey, 12 November 2011 www.prstudies.com | @behindthespin

Issues and questions Is social media a strategy or a tactic? Who owns digital? What is social CRM? How can we measure results?

New communications model 'Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect' (Lasswell) becomes  'Who says what, in which channel, to what effect; then ascertain who hears what, shares what, with what intent, where, and to what effect.' (Solis and Breakenridge 2009)

7 Cs Compass model Shimizu 2003

Four Cs for social operating system (Heuer 2009) Context: how we frame our stories Communications: the practice of sharing our stories; listening, responding, growing Collaboration: working together to make things better Connections: the relationships we forge and maintain 

Social media principles Be human  Be aware Be honest Be respectful Be a participant Be open Be courageous Heuer 2009

Four Cs of Social Media Mishra 2009 Content: social media transforms consumers into creators Collaboration: aggregation of individual actions into meaningful collective results Community: social media enables sustained collaboration around shared ideas Collective intelligence: the Social Web empowers us to aggregate individual actions  "People don't build relationships with each other in a vacuum. A vibrant community is built around a social object that is meaningful to its members. The social object can be a person, a place, a thing or an idea." 

Creating a social media plan ‘A compass is a device for determining orientation and serves as a true indicator of physical direction.’ ‘The Social Marketing Compass points a brand in a physical and experiential direction to genuinely and effectively connect customers, peers and influencers, where they interact and seek guidance online.’ Solis 2010: 269

Social marketing compass The brand: at the centre of the compass The players: these determine how, when, why and to what extent our activity is intermediated across the social web. They include: advocates/stakeholders traditional media new influencers / trust agents champions  Platform: every initiative requires a platform upon which to connect, communicate and congregate. They include: Mobile; social dashboards; apps; forums and groups; blogs; social networks Channels: search engine optimisation (SEO); syndication; user generated content Emotions: the socialization of the web is powered by people. Successful branding is made possible when individuals can establish a human and emotional connection. Solis 2010

Building teams A person or group does not own socially rooted conversations; they simply map to them. The simple truth is that everyone owns socalized media, including you. Jazz improvisation: decentralised control Within a business or brand it’s impossible to scale and perform harmoniously without leadership, instruction, and administration. Solis 2010

New media board ‘The charter of the New Media Board of Advisors is to establish inbound and outbound processes and management protocol, answer questions, encourage inventiveness, educate and assemble the teams responsible for engagement.’ Solis 2010: 287

CRM 2.0 ‘CRM 2.0 is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules and processes, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation to improve human interactions and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.’ Paul Greenberg

Social CRM A social environment: Customers must be able to create an identity and be able to interact in a social environment Customer participation mechanisms: Social CRM becomes more strategic when there are participation mechanisms. Shared collective intelligence: Web 2.0 applications are most successful when they create a shared repository of information Mechanisms to deal with conversational scale: There is a fear of the cost involved Dion Hinchcliffe

Evolving relationships ‘The true shift represented by the social and real-time Web is not simply the ability to learn from public sentiment and the indicators that they signal to create a more aware, responsive, and adaptive organization that proactively leads communities through action. ‘It’s not what you say about the brand, it’s about what they say about it the counts.’ Solis 2010: 311

Measuring social media Exposure: to what degree have we created exposure to content and message? Engagement: Who, how, and where are people interacting/engaging with our content? Influence: The degree to which exposure and engagement have influenced perceptions and attituds Action: As a result of the effort, what actions, if any, has the target taken? Don Bartholomew

Measure what matters Some possible measures: Process improvement Time to market Number of new product ideas Number of suggestions Time to find solutions to problems Efficiency with which a product is launched Level of social capital Churn rates among customers / employees Cost of recruitment KD Paine

Recommended reading Scott, D (2nd ed 2010) The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasts, Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, Wiley  Solis, B (2010) Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web, Wiley Shirky, C (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations Thomas, M and Brain, D (2008) Crowd Surfing: Surviving and thriving in the age of consumer empowerment, A & C Black