Introducing social media as a new marketing channel is quite an ambitious task. The bigger the organization the harder it may seem. Perhaps it’s useful to make it simpler by looking at different levels of organization and seeing how on each level the SM may be treated differently. I will use SM as an example, but this very simple competency-based framework can be used for any initiative that is to be introduced into an organization.
A corporation is made up of individuals with expertise spread across three layers:
Technical know-how:can I type?
Process management ability:can I coordinate work on this project?
People development skills:can I build an environment in which others can learn?
Usually the higher you are in an organization the more you SHOULD know about the second and third one. Introducing and leading any change has more chances of success if it addresses each of these three different layers of content.
There’s enough guides about social medial that help you with number one. However, like all technical skills, the ability to use social media tools is quickly becoming a commodity. Relatively speaking, it’s not hard to create a marketing strategy in which SM is used to acquire new clients. Given a good enough product, any monkey will be able to do it (and I speak from my monkey experience). So this is not something to build your competitive advantage on, however it’s necessary to your operational needs.
Number two is the process-management skill. I am sure someone came up with a more savvy name for it, but let’s just agree that it’s the ability to coordinate and control interactions in a complex environment (and by the way it’s complex because we make it so and therefore we need this skill). And here comes recently popular question: How do I implement a social media strategy, and NOT loose control over my brand? It’s a wrong question to ask, and usually reflects the inherent drive towards control which characterizes most big corporations. A better question would be: How do I redesign my organization so it participates in long-term relationships with my brand? Hang-on, I’ve heard that somewhere already… yep that’s right: how about the relationship marketing theory from the 80′s? Hmmm…. it’s actually comforting that we are starting to see that some things change slower than others.
And the last layer is people development skills. You gained zillions of followers, your corporate blog is busting with comments, and you can show statistics so CxOs can sleep soundly, because Drucker told them that thay can’t manage if thay can’t measure. So what now?
Prepare for change. Seriously. By the time your company figures it all out it will probably be already behind of what’s going on. There’s really no kudos for you, if you are the only one up-to-speed of what’s going on on your corporate Facebook page. Frankly, if you don’t actually start here, you will not create a team that can lead in your market.
What’s the point then? Do yourself a favor: rather than focusing on the new media tools, try to spend some time on thinking how to make an environment in which people can learn, experiment, and fail. And don’t create that environment only in some new, separate department. If you really are set on using SM than perhaps do it internally first, and you will be rewarded with more ideas and employee engagement. And who knows, if this dialogue becomes contagious maybe the rest of the company will start taking part. And maybe even, heaven forbids, the clients…
Introducing social media in all layers of the organization.
Introducing social media as a new marketing channel is quite an ambitious task. The bigger the organization the harder it may seem. Perhaps it’s useful to make it simpler by looking at different levels of organization and seeing how on each level the SM may be treated differently. I will use SM as an example, but this very simple competency-based framework can be used for any initiative that is to be introduced into an organization.
A corporation is made up of individuals with expertise spread across three layers:
Usually the higher you are in an organization the more you SHOULD know about the second and third one. Introducing and leading any change has more chances of success if it addresses each of these three different layers of content.
There’s enough guides about social medial that help you with number one. However, like all technical skills, the ability to use social media tools is quickly becoming a commodity. Relatively speaking, it’s not hard to create a marketing strategy in which SM is used to acquire new clients. Given a good enough product, any monkey will be able to do it (and I speak from my monkey experience). So this is not something to build your competitive advantage on, however it’s necessary to your operational needs.
Number two is the process-management skill. I am sure someone came up with a more savvy name for it, but let’s just agree that it’s the ability to coordinate and control interactions in a complex environment (and by the way it’s complex because we make it so and therefore we need this skill). And here comes recently popular question: How do I implement a social media strategy, and NOT loose control over my brand? It’s a wrong question to ask, and usually reflects the inherent drive towards control which characterizes most big corporations. A better question would be: How do I redesign my organization so it participates in long-term relationships with my brand? Hang-on, I’ve heard that somewhere already… yep that’s right: how about the relationship marketing theory from the 80′s? Hmmm…. it’s actually comforting that we are starting to see that some things change slower than others.
And the last layer is people development skills. You gained zillions of followers, your corporate blog is busting with comments, and you can show statistics so CxOs can sleep soundly, because Drucker told them that thay can’t manage if thay can’t measure. So what now?
Prepare for change. Seriously. By the time your company figures it all out it will probably be already behind of what’s going on. There’s really no kudos for you, if you are the only one up-to-speed of what’s going on on your corporate Facebook page. Frankly, if you don’t actually start here, you will not create a team that can lead in your market.
What’s the point then? Do yourself a favor: rather than focusing on the new media tools, try to spend some time on thinking how to make an environment in which people can learn, experiment, and fail. And don’t create that environment only in some new, separate department. If you really are set on using SM than perhaps do it internally first, and you will be rewarded with more ideas and employee engagement. And who knows, if this dialogue becomes contagious maybe the rest of the company will start taking part. And maybe even, heaven forbids, the clients…