{"id":4015,"date":"2012-05-07T23:50:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T23:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=4015"},"modified":"2012-05-07T23:50:46","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T23:50:46","slug":"the-path-from-a-social-brand-to-a-social-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/the-path-from-a-social-brand-to-a-social-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Path from a Social Brand to a Social Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019ve been a long-time supporter of MediaTemple\u2019s (MT)Residence<\/a> program along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, and many others <\/a>whom I respect. I wanted to share my \u201c7 questions to answer to become a social business\u201d with you here..<\/em><\/p>\n

Social Media is pervasive and is becoming the new normal in corporate marketing. Brands who get this right are starting to build their own media networks rich with customer connections numbering in the millions. Right now, Coca-Cola has over 34 million fans on Facebook, but they\u2019re hardly alone. Disney follows just behind with 29 million fans, Starbucks boasts 25 million, and Oreo, Red Bull, and Converse play host to over 20 million fans. If we were to look at other networks such as Twitter and Youtube, we would see a recurring theme. People are connecting en masse with the businesses they support and new media represents the ability to cultivate consumer relationships in ways not possible with traditional earned or paid media.<\/p>\n

Sounds great right? This might sound abrupt, but the truth is that we\u2019re hardly realizing the potential of what lies before us. Everything begins with understanding not just how other brands are marketing themselves in social media, but also seeing what they\u2019re not doing and envisioning what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re already approaching the first of many crossroads that new media will present. Do we take the path of a social brand or that of a social business? What\u2019s the difference? A social brand is just that, a business that is remodeling or retrofitting its existing marketing practices to new media. A social business is something altogether different as it embraces introspection and extrospection to reevaluate internal and external processes, systems, and opportunities to transform into a living, breathing entity that adapts to market conditions and opportunities.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a tough decision to make right now especially at a time when all we read about is how much success many businesses are finding without having to answer this very question. With all of the newfound success in social networks, the truth is that we\u2019re only just beginning to learn what\u2019s possible and that\u2019s where you come in. When compared to the investment in time and resources across the board, social media represents only a small part of the mix. But with your help, that\u2019s all about to change.<\/p>\n

The CMO Survey<\/a>, an organization that disseminates the opinions of top marketers in order to predict the future of markets, recently published a report that gave credence to the fact that social media is taking off. One of the most profound takeaways from the report was this gem; \u201cThe \u201clike button\u201d [in Facebook] packs more customer-acquisition punch than other demand-generating activities.\u201d With insights like this, it\u2019s easy to see why the race to social is becoming heated.<\/p>\n

The report also highlighted exactly where social fits in the marketing mix today and as you can see, despite all of the hype, it\u2019s not a dominant focus yet. As of August 2011, the percentage of overall marketing budgets dedicated to social media hovered at around 7%. However, in 2012 the investment in social media will climb to 10%. And, in five years, social media is expected to represent almost 18% of the total marketing budget. Think about that for a moment. In 2016, social media will only represent 18%?<\/p>\n

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Queue the sound of a record scratching here. With businesses finding success in social networks, why are businesses failing to realize the true opportunity brought forth by the ability to listen to, connect with, and engage with customers? While there\u2019s value in earning views, driving traffic, and building connections through the 3F\u2019s (friends, fans and followers), success isn\u2019t just defined simply by what really amounts to low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n

The truth is that businesses cannot measure<\/a> what it is they don\u2019t know to value. As a result, innovation in new engagement initiatives is stifled because we\u2019re applying dated or inflexible frameworks to new paradigms. Social media isn\u2019t owned by marketing, but instead the entire organization. This changes everything and makes your role so much more important. It\u2019s up to you to learn how to think outside of the proverbial social media box to see what others don\u2019t, the ability to improve customers experiences through the evolution of a social brand into a social business. Doing so will translate customer insights from what they do and don\u2019t share in social networks into better products, services, and processes.<\/p>\n

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See, customers want something more from their favorite businesses than creative campaigns, viral content, and everyday dialogue in social networks. Customers want to be heard and they want to know that you\u2019re listening. How businesses use social media must remind them that they\u2019re more than just an audience, consumer, or a conduit to \u201ctrigger\u201d a desired social effect.<\/p>\n

Herein lies both the challenge and opportunity of social media. It\u2019s bigger than marketing. It\u2019s also bigger than customer service. It\u2019s about building relationships with customers that improve experiences and more importantly, teaches businesses how to re-imagine products and internal processes to better adapt to potential crises and seize new opportunities.<\/p>\n

When it comes down to it, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Foursquare, are all channels for listening, learning, and engaging. It\u2019s what you do within each channel that builds a community around your brand. And, at the end of the day, the value of the community you build counts for everything. It\u2019s important to understand that we cannot assume that these networks simply exist for people to lineup for our marketing messages or promotional campaigns. Nor can we assume that they\u2019re reeling in anticipation for simple dialogue. They want value. They want recognition. They want access to exclusive information and offers. They need direction, answers and resolution.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re talking about here is the multidimensional makeup of consumers and how a one-sided approach to social media forces the needs for social media to expand beyond traditional marketing to socialize the various departments, lines of business, and functions to engage based on the nature of the situation or opportunity.<\/p>\n

In the same CMO study<\/a>, it was revealed that marketers believe that social media has a long way to go toward integrating into the overall company strategy. On a scale of 1-7, with one being \u201cnot integrated at all\u201d and seven being \u201cvery integrated,\u201d 22% chose \u201cone.\u201d Critical functions such as service, HR, sales, R&D, product marketing and development, IR, CSR, etc. are either not engaged or are operating social media within a silo disconnected from other efforts or possibilities. The problem is that customers don\u2019t view a company by silo, instead they see one company, one brand, and their experience in social media forms an impression that eventually contributes to their view of your brand.<\/p>\n

The first step here is to understand business priorities and objectives to assess how social media can be additive in achieving these goals. Additionally, surveying the landscape to determine other areas of interest as its specifically related to your business.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are customers seeking help or direction?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Who are your most valuable customers and what are they sharing?<\/p>\n

\u2022 How can you use social media to acquire and retain customers?<\/p>\n

– What ideas are circulating and how can you harness user generated activity and content to innovate or adapt to better meet the needs of customers?<\/p>\n

– How can you broaden a single customer view to recognize the varying needs of customers and how your organization can organize around each circumstance?<\/p>\n

– What insights exist based on how consumers are interacting with one another? How can this intelligence inform marketing, service, products and other important business initiatives?<\/p>\n

– How can your business extend their current efforts to deliver better customer experiences and in turn more effectively unit internal collaboration and communication?<\/p>\n

Customer demands far exceed the capabilities of the marketing department. While creating a social brand is a necessary endeavor, building a social business is an investment in customer relevance now and over time. Beyond relevance, a social business fosters a culture of change that unites employees and customers and sets a foundation for meaningful and beneficial relationships. Innovation, communication, and creativity are the natural byproducts of engagement and transformation. As a social brand, we are competing for the moment. As a social business, we are competing the future in all that we do today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brian Solis<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Connect with me: Twitter<\/a> | LinkedIn<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been a long-time supporter of MediaTemple\u2019s (MT)Residence program along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, and many others whom I respect. I wanted to share my \u201c7 questions to answer to become a social business\u201d with you here.. Social Media is pervasive and is becoming the new normal in corporate marketing. Brands who get this … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,964],"tags":[25,362,394,1641,67,1642,1643,1644,1645,247,945,1646,1647,896],"class_list":["post-4015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-briansolis","tag-brand","tag-branding","tag-business","tag-business-marketing","tag-culture","tag-holistic","tag-mediatemple","tag-mt","tag-mt-residence","tag-path","tag-questions","tag-residence","tag-social-brand","tag-social-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4015"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4020,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4015\/revisions\/4020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}