Progressive organizations are grappling with what could be
the most effective strategy on social media. While consultants and
practitioners draw up framework and present compelling case studies to persuade
organizations into increasing their spend on this fast evolving and critical
customer touch point, the perceived lack of appropriate metrics and limited
understanding of potential outcomes appears to be constraints for in-house
marketers and communicators. After a session on social media with John Bell, the following factors came to my mind as essentials for any
organization’s success in social media.
Be convivial: It is common to see organizations making themselves present
in a plethora of social platforms without actively engaging themselves in any
initiatives. Most often, the decision to be present is a result of the
marketer’s reticent attitude; after all she should tick against that present in
her to-do list. In a customer-centric platform, one cannot play a docile role,
especially after marking your entry. Such a restrained approach also implies
lack of appropriate investments in resources to ‘man’ the platform. In effect,
the organization forcefully adopts a ‘mute’ strategy. No better case than what
consulting giant McKinsey went through in 2011 when it
struggled to appease media and others who questioned one of its reports. When you plan to adopt social – be social.
Transparent
processes – Marketing and communication experts
often ensure that the social media and brand guidelines are so exhaustive and
stringent that proactive and enthusiastic bloggers within the company doze off
after two pages or else are petrified of contributing. Organizations can
instead create broad points which will ensure that social media ambassadors
adopt a self-regulating approach when they venture into social media. The
processes of marketing and communication in today’s ‘social’ era cannot be
restraining. An increasing number of organizations are working towards
personalization (knowing customers as individuals), creating a system of
engagement; maximizing value creation at each touch point and finally, ensuring
a standard culture (including brand promises). Well, it is safe to assume that
such a move would start internally; understanding their own employees who are
also potential customers.
An organization with such advanced systems in place can
certainly create a transparent process wherein every employee can actively
engage in social media and contribute substantially.
Feedforward – Change in behaviour could potentially transform one’s
life, let alone social media initiatives. A friend of mine, while trying to
improve his firms social media initiatives, informed his content creator,’ let
us build more such compelling Q&A’s as you did in the last month – they
seemed to be engaging. By the way, we need to focus a bit more on improving the
quality. Let me know what we can do.’ He had told me that the content creator
was focused on increasing the number of articles and hence overlooked
‘attention to detail.’
Feedback focuses on the past and can be
limited and static while Feedforward can make any initiative more fun and
enjoyable.
