It’s Called ‘Social’ Media

When working with clients on social media projects, it seems we always start in “Marketing Land” and over some time I educate my clients about the importance of developing their Social Media Plans and Policies. It is paramount that they understand their own goals and define their rules of engagement before they start participating. Otherwise how will they know if it is worth their time and energy? Once we get to planning activities they begin to expand their thinking, as it’s almost always more than just Marketing that can be served by Social Media depending on the organization’s goals.

To me Social Media is more like “Operations”. It’s called Social Media because it is about the social interaction between people. It’s about who we recommend. Who inspires us. Who we inspire. What we value, crave, trust. It’s not a single task that can be executed and tied to a dollar bill, it’s really more holistic than that.

I’ve only had two engagements in the past three plus years where I feel I wasn’t … successful. Both involved organizations who felt they wanted and needed social media marketing but were not prepared to support the activities. They still had a very “traditional marketing” mindset and they were in a corporate cultures that were still very “top-down” and somewhat oppressive. AJ of MFG.com really nailed it when he talked about manufactures coming to grips to with social media, as he said “Many are trying it out with the ‘Broccoli Mentality’ – ‘I don’t really like it, but I’m eating it because I’ve heard it’s good for me.’”

They’re probably right. It is “good-for-you”, unless… its not … good for you. Then you get your nutrients from other green leafy substances, or a dietary supplement. If your environment doesn’t promote social activity then social media may not be the right choice for you. Forrester Research predicts 54 billion dollars in the US for B2B Social Media Marketing spending by 2014, but you can bet that plenty of those dollars are being spent on unsuccessful social media efforts.

If you think of your organization and the words, “people centric”, “transparent”, “inclusive”, spring to mind then you’re probably in good shape. But if words like “control”, “exclusive”, or “formal”, are what comes to your lips, then you may have some cultural challenges that social media will only exacerbate.

Things to consider: Do you promote each employee’s education and encourage their interaction with each other to educate and propel their careers? Do you showcase your Sales representatives for their thought leadership, command of the domain and contribution to the company? Do you talk about more than your product and/or service? Do you focus on something other than the bottom line? Do you practice listening to customers and employees regularly? If you answered “yes”, or “we try”, to most of these questions then social media can be a great asset to your organization. If you answered no to most of these questions then you may want to consider more traditional advertising initiatives. You may want to try advertising on social media sites.