Social Media Boots Are Made For Running
02/25/2010
These boots were made for walkin' and that's just what they'll do .. It's funny the songs that get stuck in our heads. As I prep for a trip to San Antonio boots and cowgirl hats spin in my mind. And girlfriend, those Texas boots are red and sassy! Wondering if Nettie will be wearing a pair ..
Social media is walkin' and some might say runnin' through our business practices. Sadly, it's barely crawling in terms of an integrated process through out most enterprises.
As our understanding of
how our customers, the media, prospective employees, current employees,
share holders and more use the social web it becomes evident that BBF Shel Israel was right. Social media does not
live only in the world of marketing. Public relations, customer service,
operations and human resources are exploring ways to incorporate online digital
conversational tools.
Comcast is using Twitter as a customer service channe; while the business-to-business company
Indium has tapped its engineers and scientists to create twelve niche topic
blogs. Small local businesses like Atlanta restaurant Pizzeria Venti are on Twitter, Facebook and including blogger relations outreach to
build relations with neighborhood patrons through special offers and
conversations.
Isipho, a small nonprofit that’s
mission is to improve the lives of the children in Nzinga, South
Africa, has raised its awareness
and brought in funding through its Facebook page, blog and tweets. Dell is a marketer's dream selling millions of dollars of computers through special Twitter offerings.
All too often, enterprise social conversations are grassroots efforts .. which might seem like it would dovetail with the social media culture. And perhaps it does. However, with so many areas of the enterprise joining digital
conversational exchanges With customers and stakeholders we inadvertently created a set of expectations.
Limited planning and neglect in creating a comprehensive enterprise social media direction results in disappointing customers and in the disconnect of the brand promise. Why? Because we can't sustain the same level of engagement since too frequently no one knows what all of those social media experiences entail.
A few questions for you to consider at your next department meeting:
Is service better on the Twitter channel than in your call
center?
Does a blog or Facebook post provide more relevant information than
your website or brochures or trade shows?
Do your enterprise bloggers or twitters understand
the needs of your customers better than your traditional sales force?
Is the HR
specialist bringing in more qualified candidates through LinkedIn than ads or
recruiters?
Please, please, please .. keep in mind: Every time a customer or
client interacts with your employees (or -gulp- agency .. you are transparent about that I hope!) within your social media assets (Twitter, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, etc. You do consider then assets and not resource drains?) it creates not
only a new experience for that One person but it is viewed by hundreds if
not hundreds of thousands of people. That secondary audience
also experiences your brand and builds expectations of how they assume you will treat them.
More questions:
From the customer perspective: If my friend receives a comment from you on her blog post or my neighbor gets his problem resolved from a tweet But I do not .. how is the disconnect in service and the brand promise resolved? Not to mention the "feeling badly" emotions that may occur.
From the enterprise point of view: How in the world do you scale this stuff without hiring a cast of zillions?
One of the benefits that
social media brings to the enterprise is ... a we can not wait any longer .. critical need to ensure cross functional
communication systems are in place.
Processes should be developed to capture the
learnings and information occurring from each social media touch point.
Ideally, that information should be analyzed and placed in a common, let’s call
it digital repository. In addition,
critical information should be directed to people who can quickly provided a
response and begin a solution process.
“Un-soloing” an organization, whether it is a Fortune 100 enterprise with global
divisions or a small business with three employees with distinct
responsibilities, takes time, commitment, often a change in culture and team work.
These boots are made for walkin' .. or perhaps we should change the song to these shoes were made for runnin'!
