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Guest Post

Include Customers & Partners in Framing Social Media Strategy

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One of my most significant social media mentors has been Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeesm Corp and Social Media Academy, who was one of the first New Media notables to speak to my SFSU marketing students early in 2009.

Axel has experience in a wide number of industries which you can check out on his LinkedIn profile that begins with this quote:

“You can’t make a difference while protecting your status quo.”

I had the great fortune to attend social media leadership training with entrepreneurs around the globe at Social Media Academy. We learned how NOT to protect the status quo and HOW TO take best advantage of the developing technology and changing world of commerce.

Here is a primer on the way to succeed in this Brave New world:

The Social Media Strategy Framework

a Guest Post by Axel Schultze

In times where 60-80% of purchase decisions are based on recommendations, the best leverage of social media is making sure you are part of the recommendation chain. And that requires a sound business strategy.

There have been quite some discussions about social media strategies recently. So I thought I’d share what we have developed over the course of the past three years — and is today in practice by some 40+ social media managers and consultants in many parts of the world and vetted by some 20+ mostly corporate social media strategy projects.

Admittedly this framework may not apply to a small business below 20 people. But even there it may be helpful to see the components.

The Strategy Hexagon (six components) is based on two assumptions:

#1 A thorough social media assessment was conducted and uncovered where customers are, their major issues and topics, the actual current presence of the brand in the social web, the company’s partners’ presence, and the completion landscape. We developed a specific four-quadrant assessment model to do that.

#2 The strategy is really a strategy and not, like so often, an execution plan. We developed a social media planning framework to actually plan the execution of the strategy.

The Strategy Hexagon is built on six major components, which some are very traditional business strategy models and some are rather unique. The content of those six components however is entirely focused on social media — beginning with the composition of the strategy team. It is part of the Social Media Masters Class, where attendees actually create a strategy to get hands-on experience.

Strategy Team Composition

Let me start with this as it is the first OMG (yes, Oh my god). Unlike a traditional business strategy which is developed in some marble towers board room under exclusion of anybody not part of the executive team, a social media strategy requires you include customer and partner representatives from the get go. You will fail if you ignore this first major requirement for a successful strategy

The six core components

Goals

What is the strategy’s goal, i.e., what is completion?

As a sound and well run social media strategy is executed WITH the market and not a promotion AT the market, make sure that the goal includes objectives that resonate with your customers, partners and other strategic market constituencies. Increasing brand value may be YOUR goal, but who else cares?

Example:
Creating a better customer experience measured by reaching 1,000 positive public feedbacks from customers by end of the year.

The above example is in the interest of the customer as well as the interest of the company. It is measurable (sentiment analysis) and has a definitive timeline.

Mission

What are you going to do to achieve this goals?

Now you will want to describe in easy-to-understand sentences what you want and need to do to achieve the above goal. Already here it is of outmost important that you have market representatives with you in the strategy development as they will be part of the execution. It is equally important that you’ve done your homework on the audit/assessment, so you know what the wants and need of your market is.

Example:
The mission is to engage in the social web across departments and company boundaries. We want to learn from the market to build better products and return better services to the market. We want to ease administration to reduce cost and make it easier to work with us as an organization. We want to augment our support efforts with highly experienced customers to provide better support at a lower average cost.

As you can read in this example the mission again is beneficial for both, the company and the customer.

Benefits

How will your ecosystem and the company benefit from that strategy?

What are the actual improvements?

In order to be very clear in the strategy execution we will now want to mark the main benefits for both, company and customer and also show very clearly the improvements.

Example:
Customers will get more influence in the product design work and new product development to better serve their needs.

The company will get faster and more direct market feedback and reduce the risk of product failure and market research cost.

Unlike in the past where the company explored customer needs through surveys to design next generation products, we will actively work with interested customers on product co-creation and leverage the collaborative effort to get support from those customers to launch the new product.

Customers will get better support by having a support community where not only product specialists answer questions but also engaged customers. Unlike in the past where there was only customer driven forums, the company will build a support community and honor the support of active customers to get a wider support for all customers in one place.

We always used “Unlike…. Now we…” to very clearly describe the difference and improvements as this helps people who are not part of the strategy development to know what they need to do to actually create the difference.

Resources

Participants, influencer & Leadership

This is basically a list of key resources by name and social web presence. This is NOT a list of companies or departments but people. Other resources may be locations to do certain things (physical or virtual). We also want to recognize leadership to make it very clear that customer representatives are part of the leadership of this strategy in certain capacities both in contribution and oversight of the project.

Actions / Methods

What are the actionable items of your strategy?

What are you really going to do to make it happen?

What will change (before – after analysis)?

Now once it comes to “Actions” we don’t want to develop the actual programs. This is what we want to leave to the respective departments, customers and partners. But we want to define what programs we need to execute the strategy. Those programs must all lead to the goal and be in alignment with our mission. Everything else would need to go in the “nice to have box”.

Examples:
Support Community Program
In this program we will need to build an online support community, motivate customer to help customers, recognize the most supportive customers with a rewards and reputation program and help the professional service organization understand that this is not cutting into the paid support business. The program will be supported by … from … (customers) to ensure that it works for most customers.

Product Co-Creation Program
In this program we will want to have a direct feedback mechanism from selected customers to product management, build a product design community, with customer and market influencer help testing the first prototypes.

Product Launch Program
In this program we want to develop a general framework that we can use to launch a product. We will want to include customer advocates, the co-creation participants and market influencer to help introduce new products the social media way.

Customer Administration Program
In this program we will want an ongoing process where customers help through feedback uncover administration insufficiencies. The program shall help to make it easier to do business with us (specific complains will be uncovered in the assessment).

Customer Advocacy Program
In this program we will need to both monitor and encourage customers to advocate for the company’s products / services etc.

Reporting

How do we measure progress and success

Last but not least we define the key performance indicator and as result select tools and methods to report on progress and results. And while we are all in this for business reasons, revenue is NOT part of the reporting. Not that we don’t care – NOT AT ALL – but revenue is an after the fact control measure.

If it is not coming, it is too late. One of the unparalleled advantages of social media is our ability to track and measure instant impact – long before revenue stream is affected. A recommendation of one customer to another is long before the other customer may purchase. If that recommendation isn’t happening or we ignore it, all we have is a negative result in the future.

Examples:

  • We want to track how many customers (users of products from the firms we sell to) are actually talking about our products.
  • We want to know how much more doing this over time.
  • We want to know what the sentiment of the discussion is and how this improves over time.
  • We want to know how many suggestions are made and how this improves over time.

The majority of the KPIs are again driven by the result of the audit, which indicates best what customers want and need.

Don’t select tools and see what kind of interesting charts they can create. You will get tons of charts and reports that are all interesting. Instead be clear on what you need to know to maneuver the execution of your strategy and reach your goal.

In our particular example we want to see 1,000 positive feedbacks from customers, written publicly.

Summary

I guess you get a good idea that a social media strategy is not a marketing gig to fire up a fan page and hope that people will like it. In times where 60-80% of purchase decisions are based on recommendations, the best leverage of social media is making sure you are part of the recommendation chain. And that requires a sound business strategy.

Guest Post, LinkedIn, Sharisax Is Out There

Which Side of Digital Divide Will Your Company Be On in 2 Years?

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Social Media Academy is an online learning experience for an online world, and I was fortunate to have recently completed their leadership training for social media consultants — where many of the classes were conducted by one of my first mentors SMACAD CEO Axel Schultze.

SMACAD sponsors a LinkedIn group, and member Morris Pentel asked:

What do you think the role of social media will be in 2 years time?

Here was Morris’s answer to his own question:

“Customer Partnerships rather than Customer Management will become the new way to deal with customers moving forward as we start to recognize the power that customers have.”

Axel responded with a not-quite-so-optimistic answer, which he has allowed me to use as a Guest Post.

Lack of Relevant Curriculum Will Hamper Majority of Today’s Business Students — and the companies that hire them

by Axel Schultze

As a customer experience fanatic, I understand Social Media to be the single most powerful mechanism to improve customer experience. But social media is not something you “install” and then have it.

Unfortunately, I see the “social divide” widening in two years.

Social Graph Factor

It takes approximately six months to establish a decent social graph. Within those six months many people will give up, make mistakes, and start all over in another six months. In other words, somebody who starts in the social web today can be savvy and have a valuable social graph by end of the year.

Organization Factor

The democratization of knowledge is another current dilemma. The established experts make way to whoever communicates fastest, loudest and with the largest number of followers (not twitter followers, but followers of their direction).

  • Today more people say “You have to grow the number of followers” than those who say “Focus on relevant people in your network.”
  • More people say “Social Media is the new marketing channel” than those who say “Social Media is most successful as a cross-functional customer engagement model.”

The challenge is to identify the most successful way for an organization to create a sustainable success model.

Role Model Factor

In the past, if a company installed CRM, SAP, Local Area Networks, the company or their vendor heavily advertised that fact.

Not so in Social Media. Social Media is a powerful competitive advantage and those who figured it out won’t advertise it. The majority of leadership teams are followers — following the market leader.

But if the market leaders do not promote what they do, the followers will fall back more than ever before.

Educational Factor

The vast majority of business education still teaches traditional techniques. Many of the instructors are business consultants who were pretty successful 10+ years ago and are now teaching their success model to others.

There are only a microscopically small number of business-relevant social media training institutes or consultants with both — sound business experience AND a profound social media background. Look at the major sales training institutes: You won’t find them in the social web; some even require their trainers to NOT use social media at all.

As such – the “social divide” will widen and the distance between market leaders and followers will get bigger in the next two years. In most industries the market leaders are heavily engaged in the social web while their B-Class competitors are still busy wondering if “the economy is coming back.”

Which side of the Digital Divide do you want to be on, and what will you be doing about it?

Social Media Academy’s next Leadership Class begins June 9.

Sharisax Is Out There

Social Media Strategy Best Practice: Think BIG, Start small

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There’s lots of confusion out there about How To Do Social Media RIGHT, according to Axel Schultze, founder of Social Media Academy.

In several of the Leadership classes I recently took with Axel and other #smacad instructors, we discussed a very structured way to help organizations plan for social media engagement.

“You can NOT  have an agency do “The Social Media Thing” and let the rest of the company do business as usual. Social Media must be a mindset for the entire company.” —Axel Schultze

Humans are built to be social; they’ve been trained to be automated — and accepted it.

So organizational structure needs to help us get back to relationships. Then we can collaborate with customers to build:

  • better products and services
  • loyal customers and employees
  • a community of people who are so enthusiastic that they recommend your company to their friends and family.

Over 80% of people stop buying products from companies when their trustworthiness comes into question. People spread distrust to friends and associates. Over 33% who lose trust in a company openly campaign against that company on the Internet.  Edelman Trust Barometer

Step by step approach to Social Media Participation

STEP ONE: Assessment – include customers, partners, competitors, and your own team. The more you know in the beginning, the clearer your path. Old Chinese Wisdom: “The First Step Lays the Whole Journey.”

STEP TWO: S-W-O-T Analysis – your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, i.e., based on your initial assessment. Most plans fail if there is no initial data from which to analyze progress.

STEP THREE: Team – Put together a group that includes customers and other representatives from your ecosystem. Customers will get better products and services by having more influence in the future directions of a company.

STEP FOUR: Actions – Plan precise and detailed programs to create awareness, change behaviors, and make things happen. A clear framework will outline who is responsible, what resources are available, how each program fits into the overall strategy, and what changes and rewards are made after a program is completed.

STEP FIVE: Reporting – Initial and ongoing assessment is critical. Select monitoring tools: know how to use them and what to do with the information. Observe  conversations and sentiments. Correlate community engagements with revenue streams.

What are you aiming for?

#1 Objective: Be part of the recommendation chain.
#1 Change: Create a better customer service experience.
#1 Implication: Shifting organizational gears in product development, customer support, human resources, sales, and marketing.
#1 Realization: Social media changes are a cross functional business initiative, more than just a marketing campaign.
#1 Result: Business growth through advocacy.

BEST PRACTICE TIP: Develop and gradually grow your engagement without a big bang, splash, or mega event. Just be active — one activity after another.

Understand that programs need to be compelling, fun, and unique. Creativity reigns. See what others have done, but take those ideas and make them your own.

If you’d like to contribute to a brainstorming session, tell us what “brainy” ideas you’ve had — whether you’ve tried them or not. Who knows what we can dream up together.

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Sharisax Is Out There

Your HR Department Can & Should Help You Become a Human Talent Organization

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The Buzz about our world’s Big Shift [i.e. the New Normal in business] is filtering through to some company executives who are now looking to their marketing departments for guidance and appropriate strategies using Social Media.

Hold on a minute . . .

Many of you are missing an even more important benefit of the technological improvements available through this “thing” called Social Media:

The Ability to Recruit & Retain Top Talent

or the Human Relations Identity Crisis

Today’s workplace environments are extremely complex, but most Human Resources departments are sticking to a “business as usual” mindset, according to Adrienne Corn who discussed “Social Media & The New Human Resource Department: Leveraging Human Talent with Web 2.0” with the current Leadership Class group at Social Media Academy.

Factors like globalization, technology, and a tough economy all contribute to today’s challenges — and organizational structure needs to adapt to 21rst century demands.

“We need to let go of the Efficiency Model that took us through the last century where people were ‘assets.’ Today, however, we need to realize that People are People. Processes must change. Human resource departments must stop focusing on filling cogs in a wheel.”

“People are not cogs. They need a sense of purpose in an organization. They need to feel invested. Research shows that when people lack engagement, productivity suffers.” — Adrienne Corn

Human Resource Departments need to become Human Talent Departments

Here are are the six key functions of HR — or HT, as we should begin to call it:

  1. Finding Talent
  2. Attracting Talent
  3. Training Talent
  4. Benefits Management
  5. Retaining Talent
  6. Refreshing Talent [exit mitigation]

Social media tools can be used to help companies perform all these functions to bring in the right people for the right places.

“Everyone brings strengths to an organization, but they are not always utilized. When you bring the right people ‘on the bus’ and identify their key strengths, you can put them in the right place and you will get ‘default’ productivity.”

“The purpose for compensation should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people. Companies need to look for people to FIT inside their community — whose values reflect what the organization stands for and whose participation will contribute to building the brand.” — Adrienne Corn

Younger generation is making a huge impact on the Future for all of us

The new workforce is more tech savvy, has different work ideals & priorities, and less automatic respect for authority. They have more choices concerning Where, When, and Whom to work for. They have “social capital” and value networking and building community. Companies need to “get with the program,” according to Adrienne. They can do this only by letting go of static, linear, impersonal processes that set the company/HR department apart as an adversary. Trust needs to replace control and suspicion

Social Media tools can gather real information and build trust

Here are some of the strategies successful HT managers will be using to find and hire talent:

  1. Create community spaces
  2. Cull & Comb those spaces for talent
  3. Communicate with talent interactively and transparently
  4. Convince talent to join through value-matching (birds of a feather)
  5. Interactive interviews through social media conversations

Training via manuals will be replaced with interactive learning communities like Employee Wikis with Q&A’s. These same communities can offer engaging and motivating process that build trust in the people and the organization, increasing the likelihood of staying at the job and being engaged and productive on the job.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Good to Great by Jim Collins

NOW, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton

The Living Company by Arie de Geus

Therefore, to cope with a changing world, any entity must develop the capability of shifting and changing, of developing new skills and attitudes: in short, the capability of learning — Arie de Geus, The Living Company

Adrienne Corn is an instructor/founding faculty member at the Social Media Academy where she lectures on the intersection between social media/web 2.0 and Human Resources/Human Talent.

Adrienne founded VENTUS, a career development, education and research company that provides career pathing for individuals, career education for organizations and research in these areas for the industry at large.

Sharisax Is Out There

Marketing Should Be the LAST Department to Be in Social Media

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Social Media Marketing is the BUZZ these days, and that IS what this article is all about: However, according to Axel Schultze. Chairman of the Social Media Academy, and my instructor for the first Leadership Class of 2010:

“Marketing is only ONE component. We must shift in all departments. Social Media initiatives cannot work without a buy-in from all areas of an organization.”

That being said, the Marketing and PR people in an organization are those responsible for the communication functions, and as such need to be aware that what’s worked in the past just isn’t working anymore:

  • For one thing, Advertising isn’t working because there’s just too much of it.
  • People no longer believe the glitzy productions that advertisers are throwing in our faces. We may be entertained, but we don’t “buy it.”
  • Ads no longer stick with us. Marketers “assume” that consumers are listening.
  • The Push Era is over: Broadcasting one-way messages leaves us out. Marketers today must listen to us, bring us in, and then we will listen to them.

Here are more of my take-aways from our last class session on

“The Changing Face of a Marketing and PR department”

1. Brand “attitude” has changed. It is all about PEOPLE identifying and associating themselves with brands. We are drawn to the people we see in ads.

2. We need to forget distinguishing between B2B and B2C: we are all customers of someone else.

3. When we market today, it is an US to US.

4. Beware of simply adding social media as a new “tool”; you may find you are simply making noise.

5. Companies cannot outsource social media and expect the best results; an agency cannot discuss topics in a forum without involvement of the sales, procurement, and support teams.

6. Planning is critical and should begin with ASSESSMENT, i.e. who your customers are, where they hang out, what they talk about, and what they need.

7. Biggest mistake is jumping in without knowing what you are doing; you need to strategize before you go too far: Goal, Mission, Benefits, Action Programs, Reporting — all need to go into developing strategy.

8. Social media plans must include ongoing research: monitoring, lead generation, internal escalation [responsiveness to leads].

9. Traditional “roll-outs” no longer work. Customers need to be part of the planning and implementation process. Customer Advisory Boards have always been powerful, but today they are HUGE, i.e. your entire customer base can play this role.

10. The distinctions between PR and Marketing are dissolving; the social media marketing team must build relationships with bloggers, traditional press, industry associations, educators, users and key influencers wherever they are to be found.

In this New Era of New Media, if a company does not have a Vision and a Strategy, the tools do not matter. Working with and through the consumer community is the path to success in the New Future.

Anyone hear of any valuable social media planning tools that have worked for your organization?

Sharisax Is Out There

Everyone Is Someone’s Customer: Use Social Media to Reach Them, Listen to Them, and Learn from Them

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Too often companies forget the second part of this scenario:

Firms are in business (1) to make profits by offering products and services

(2) to satisfy the unmet needs of their customers.

Too often they are so immersed in organization-centric thinking, that they don’t even realize their products or services may no longer be in sync with the marketplace, i.e., no one really likes their offerings/brand/support anymore.

This is where Social Media fits into Modern Business:

We are all customers. Everyone is a customer of someone else.

“Social media is important for business because the discussions between so many people bring information to us. We want people to talk and we want them to listen to us.” — [all quotes from Axel Schultze]

In the second meeting of the Social Media Academy Leadership class, Axel discussed how various social media “tools” [ i.e., sites/ platforms] enable businesses to grow their networks.

“If you have products or services, you can have conversations with people who use them. People may not be looking at your advertising, but if you ask someone what they think of your product, you will probably get an answer.”

WHERE DO YOU HAVE THESE DISCUSSIONS

or

Which sites do you use?

The common wisdom is that you go where your customers are. These days, the most popular hangouts are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Business people need profiles on each of these sites, and businesses can have them as well.

“The demarcation between personal selves and business selves doesn’t really make sense any more. We need to take down these walls.”

The key to online presence building is to be deliberate, thoughtful, and very careful about everything you post online – no matter what the site or platform.

Four Social Media Objectives:

1)    Extend reach with tools
2)    Intensify the depth of your relationships
3)    Broaden your knowledge
4)    Revitalize your influennce

“When you do a survey, you get certain types of people who choose to respond. When you make telephone calls, if you have 20 effective conversations in one day, that is a good day. But with social media, you could easily have 200 interactions in a day.”

LEARN FROM YOUR MARKET: Get your hands around the Concepts. The tools may change, but you will be able to navigate the waves of innovation and continue to build on your experience to get the most from each new communication opportunity.

Sharisax Is Out There

Social Media Enables Companies to Become Part of the Recommendation Chain

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Social Media is all about seeing what others are saying


“The snowstorm is over. Everything is white. So now what?”

How do we make social media relevant to company executives? Everyone hears the buzz, but many companies do not understand today’s marketing environment, and they don’t know where to start.

That’s where programs like Social Media Academy fill the void — teaching business leaders all over the world to look, listen, and learn how to implement successful social media strategies.

I’m enrolled in this year’s first 7-week Social Media Academy Leadership session and will be sharing regular reports on what I’m learning.

Social Media: not about its tools, but its implication for business

Company leaders must rise above the “local noise” and buzz about social media, so they can take a global view. Different types of companies have different needs. Whatever the company, though, it is important to understand that Social Media is not a campaign, but it is a State of Mind. It is about empowering employees, not just about having everyone Tweeting all day.

Customers have changed, but sales/marketing has not

Thirty-forty years ago, people had different levels of trust. They’d go to vendors and take their word for it — and their products. People no longer ask experts; they ask their friends.

“I want to see what others say: that is Social Media.”

Now 60-80% of purchases are made because of recommendations. Businesses need to be part of the Recommendation Chain. Social Media is where customers meet customers for experience, skill development, and failure prevention. When a company builds a product or service that people are asking for . . . How COOL is that!

Create a better customer experience

Lay the foundation for your social media strategy– plan by understanding the dynamics of the market before diving in. There is no rush: Look, Listen, and Think before acting.

Social media is personally empowering. It is not just for the elite; anyone can do this. Take care of your connections and leverage them.

If you don’t follow the road your customers are taking, you will lose them.

Sharisax Is Out There

Social Media Tools Week begins: 11 tips to get you started

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The newest and most compelling Social Media tools from around the world — sponsored by Social Media Academy.

Social Media Tools Week – New Date 11/16 – 11/21

Highlights from the Welcome Keynote

Axel Schultze, Founder Social Media Academy

November 16, 2009

Educated purchasing decisions are changing business

  • Networks provide trusted sources of information.
  • Social media is where customers meet customers to share experience, to develop skills, to prevent failures.
  • 80% of purchases are based on recommendations, and social media is the Number One Recommendation Engine.

Two objectives: Be a part of the Recommendation Chain and Create a better Customer Experience

The best salespeople don’t sell — they build relationships

No opportunity is ever lost: someone will always take it.

CHECKLIST for what to do to get started:

  1. Look up your top 50 business contacts and find out where they have a presence in the social media landscape.
  2. Create your own accounts where you find your customers, prospects, partners, and influencers.
  3. Visit your sites regularly, at least every other day, if possible: Read posts; Comment; Care.
  4. LISTEN to what’s on top of their minds and think beyond your product sale.
  5. Be approachable and let your contacts connect with you.
  6. Share your thoughts and interests . . . and get Social.
  7. Take one of the reporting tools and begin to measure sentiments around your brand.
  8. Tell your colleagues what you learn from customers and prospects. Encourage them to listen and learn as well.
  9. Help customers with links; introduce them to existing customers and experts for your products and services.
  10. Stay focused on people who are relevant to you — otherwise you get distracted and will be spending all your time browsing.
  11. FINAL CAUTION: Do not waste time growing followers, editing videos, chatting with everyone who invites you. Rather, follow YOUR OWN business objectives.

. . . and tune in for more news and reports from Social Media Tools Week.