October 28, 2009
Who Should Respond to Brand Mentions?
By: Lauren Vargas
You know social media is not a passing fad. The question facing your organization is not why we should listen and engage in social media, but how do we do this? Social media affects all areas of your business and different skill sets are necessary. The enterprise must socialize internally, but how do you determine who represents the organization externally?
Determine Capacity
To succeed, social media must be owned by the enterprise and not stashed in a silo or with a Gen Y intern. An organization may not have dedicated resources to communicating online (aka community response team). In this case, internal research may yield who in your organization is already using social media for business and personal efforts. Tap into their existing passion and voice. These folks may already feel comfortable in participating in social media and communicating on behalf of the company. Ensure all facets of your organization are represented on the social media frontlines or in the behind-the-scenes response workflow.
It is important to note, when a person becomes a voice for the organization, they are always on. Earlier this year, a customer service issue was elevated in Twitter to the Best Buy CMO, bringing to light that formal elevation of customer response does not necessarily exist in social media. Those who are representing your organization online must be prepared for this new reality and be able to field issues or know who to delegate issues to depending on the delicacy of the customer interaction.
Find your Voice(s)
The formal voice and legalese you may use in offline communications is not received well in social media. A more informal and approachable voice is better for response and relationship building. Remember, you are having a conversation. Would you rather have a conversation with a dry, faceless human or a person with identifiable characteristics and personality? No matter who is responding, don’t pretend to be anyone other than who you are. The human element can never be underestimated!
Develop Processes
The uncontrollability factor of social media gives the impression that the space is messy. Your action or response does not have to reflect the disorganized zig-zag of conversations across multiple channels. How can you ensure your organizational voice(s) convey the right information and messages, regardless of channel? Developing a listening grid is a step in the right direction, but to avoid visible disconnect, a comprehensive communication (to include social media) strategy is required. Mike Manuel outlines a six step plan to help develop engagement processes.
Avoid limiting yourself to a social media only strategy because you further a silo response. If social media requires enterprise wide support, an integrated strategy of on and offline engagement should be created and executed. Developing social media processes does not have to be like reinventing the wheel. Take a page from customer service and marketing communications…how are they already addressing customer response? What can you learn from their interactions? How can you incorporate social media response into an already existing CRM program so the customer profile reflects a true holistic experience?
Do you already have a team, voice and processes established? Please share how you implemented these listening and engagement necessities and the pros and cons upon execution.
Great points all round, Lauren.
I'd say at the very first, you need company buy-in. If you're not 100% committed to it from the top down, you've already lost.
An example is where I am at the moment, Maritz Canada. They approached me to come in-house as their social media strategist, to first socialize the company internally and train how that can then be extended externally (clients and customers).
We have in place a dedicated social media tema across all departments; the contact centre is undergoing socializing; HR is really on board with recruitment via social, internal improvements and open policies; and, most of all, there's a social policy in place that allows FULL use of social media with just some guidelines.
Maritz know it's a long-term investment; they know it's a culture, not a remedy; and they know that whether they like it or not, they're "always on". And they're embracing that head-on.
How many companies can say that?
I would add buy-in from bottom-up too. Top down does not always guarantee success…buy-in from the strategic thinkers and worker bees is ideal.
L
Excellent Lauren. Great follow up to put some meat on the bones. The question is two-fold, right? Its 'who' and 'how'.
A defined process can answer parts of both. The process includes several elements too: guidelines, workflow, audit trail, etc
The other component needed to fill in the blanks on the 'who' question is the organizational structure around social media. Many different silo'd functions in the organization need to be and should be listening (and potentially engaging) for different reasons. Brand management, new product development, sales, customer service all have a vested interest and have an ear for different topics. Jeremiah Owyan of Altimeter Group was the first I saw to propose a hub and spoke organiztional model that makes the most sense to me. That is, a multi-function hub that is coordinating listening and engagement across all the silo'd functions that are responsible for execution.
I'd be interested to hear thoughts on other organizational models.
Thanks again
Barry
Good point…structure is key. We will expand more on this next month as we delve into how to get started in social media.
L
Makes more sense than suggesting a reply to each brand mention. Assumptive responses can backfire. Just because a consumer mentions a brand in a blog post, does mean it’s a signal to engage in a conversation. Customers have their own preferences of engagement. In fact, consumers may find an intervention intrusive and offensive, whether or not they are brand loyalists, as it might be seen, for example, as a direct marketing ploy. At the extreme it will be perceived as an intrusion into one’s privacy, no matter how ‘social’ the conversation might appear. CRM has taught us that customer preferences must be respected especially for inboud contact. ‘Gaining permission’ to participate in the C2C conversation is the right, and polite, thing to do.
Ted,
Brilliant points…you must find out how your consumer wants to engage and not force or interrupt conversations.
L
Makes more sense than suggesting a reply to each brand mention. Assumptive responses can backfire. Just because a consumer mentions a brand in a blog post, does mean it’s a signal to engage in a conversation. Customers have their own preferences of engagement. In fact, consumers may find an intervention intrusive and offensive, whether or not they are brand loyalists, as it might be seen, for example, as a direct marketing ploy. At the extreme it will be perceived as an intrusion into one’s privacy, no matter how ‘social’ the conversation might appear. CRM has taught us that customer preferences must be respected especially for inboud contact. ‘Gaining permission’ to participate in the C2C conversation is the right, and polite, thing to do.
Ted,
Brilliant points…you must find out how your consumer wants to engage and not force or interrupt conversations.
L
Great points all round, Lauren.
I’d say at the very first, you need company buy-in. If you’re not 100% committed to it from the top down, you’ve already lost.
An example is where I am at the moment, Maritz Canada. They approached me to come in-house as their social media strategist, to first socialize the company internally and train how that can then be extended externally (clients and customers).
We have in place a dedicated social media tema across all departments; the contact centre is undergoing socializing; HR is really on board with recruitment via social, internal improvements and open policies; and, most of all, there’s a social policy in place that allows FULL use of social media with just some guidelines.
Maritz know it’s a long-term investment; they know it’s a culture, not a remedy; and they know that whether they like it or not, they’re “always on”. And they’re embracing that head-on.
How many companies can say that?
I would add buy-in from bottom-up too. Top down does not always guarantee success…buy-in from the strategic thinkers and worker bees is ideal.
L
Excellent Lauren. Great follow up to put some meat on the bones. The question is two-fold, right? Its ‘who’ and ‘how’.
A defined process can answer parts of both. The process includes several elements too: guidelines, workflow, audit trail, etc
The other component needed to fill in the blanks on the ‘who’ question is the organizational structure around social media. Many different silo’d functions in the organization need to be and should be listening (and potentially engaging) for different reasons. Brand management, new product development, sales, customer service all have a vested interest and have an ear for different topics. Jeremiah Owyan of Altimeter Group was the first I saw to propose a hub and spoke organiztional model that makes the most sense to me. That is, a multi-function hub that is coordinating listening and engagement across all the silo’d functions that are responsible for execution.
I’d be interested to hear thoughts on other organizational models.
Thanks again
Barry
Good point…structure is key. We will expand more on this next month as we delve into how to get started in social media.
L
Ted,
Brilliant points…you must find out how your consumer wants to engage and not force or interrupt conversations.
L
I would add buy-in from bottom-up too. Top down does not always guarantee success…buy-in from the strategic thinkers and worker bees is ideal.
L
Good point…structure is key. We will expand more on this next month as we delve into how to get started in social media.
L
Agreed, Lauren. Problem is though, without buy-in from the top the budgets don’t get allocated to do it properly, then you just waste time and energy on something that’s pretty much destined to fail.
I think it's interesting to see the dramatic impact of social media on marketing decisions. For example in the case of the Tropicana packaging redesign:
http://thestrategicfirm.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/…
Marketers tuned into the online chatter of disgruntled consumers and made a swift turn around. I think another component is "proactive listening."
Dionne,
Right on! Proactive listening is unfortunately the last thing one thinks about…it takes a shift in thinking to go from reacting to being proactive.
L
I think it's interesting to see the dramatic impact of social media on marketing decisions. For example in the case of the Tropicana packaging redesign:
http://thestrategicfirm.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/…
Marketers tuned into the online chatter of disgruntled consumers and made a swift turn around. I think another component is "proactive listening."
I think it's interesting to see the dramatic impact of social media on marketing decisions. For example in the case of the Tropicana packaging redesign:
http://thestrategicfirm.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/…
Marketers tuned into the online chatter of disgruntled consumers and made a swift turn around. I think another component is "proactive listening."
Dionne,
Right on! Proactive listening is unfortunately the last thing one thinks about…it takes a shift in thinking to go from reacting to being proactive.
L