Social is not about marketing, it is a business strategy

I did not bang my head this morning, neither am I in the middle of a delirium. With this post I do not want to undermine marketing budgets or put hundred of consultants at risk of losing their jobs. I only want to state the obvious, if your social strategy is only about using social media as a new marketing channel, then you are doing something wrong.

Social media is more about social than being about media, as such it needs to be integrated in all customer facing activities.

With social media the customer is at the heart of the organisation and this should not be feared, it must be embraced.

When I randomly ask, friends or contacts working for other companies, the notion of “Social Media” is associated with Facebook and to many Facebook is Social Media. Many companies believe that a winning social media presence is about having an active Facebook page and a twitter account.

Limiting “Social Media” to these two platforms alone is a good start but it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Social Media is about listening and engaging with current and future customers wherever they are, whether it is blog, forums, twitter, youtube, Facebook… and build relationships every steps on the way.

The winners of tomorrow will not be the one to so called master social media marketing campaigns, but the ones that will be influenced by what customers want and understand the new meaning of “the customer is King”

Now back to my original point, Social media must not only be a marketing exercices, it must influence all the layers of the organisation. To illustrate my point, I have chosen three departments in an organisation and ways for each to leverage Social media (including the marketing department of course )

The Sales department / teams:

• Use social media to create and nurture a prospect list. Linkedin, Xing, Viadeo have opportunities no cold lists or canvassers will ever have. With these social media professional networks, the sales team can not only become more intimate with their customers and prospective customers, but also get many information about them than any other media. These networks encourage a one to one communication and takes of the “cold” sales element increasing chances to close a sale.
• Actively participate in groups on the likes of Linkedin, will help anyone in the sales department become an expert in their field and an ambassador for the brand.  Also most of senior sales people are trained Expert on the brand, incentivising them to write a blog. This will not only strengthen the position and reputation of the sales team in the customers’ or prospective customers’ eyes but also be a good way to generate qualified leads.
• Be active on social media and networks (not limited to Twitter and Facebook ) , will also help the sales department identify influencers (favorable or not) and use the relationship they need to build with them to create Brand ambassadors or to overcome criticism.
• Let the sales team open the company to the community’s feedback, can only help in the sales process, by letting the customers or prospects speak freely about the brand and monitoring feedback will only strengthen the brand position, increasing the value of positive and hindering the weight of less favourable feedbacks.
• Social networks also gives many reasons to re-connect with customers and prospective customers. Any posts, updates, changes in career, birthdays, interesting tweets are all the more reasons to drop a line and engage.

Product development and management:

• Followers, fans, customers and prospective customers love to give their 2 cents on brands or products. They are an effective way to get truly engaged focus groups discussing products before a product launch or when product is still a prototype.
• Product management, shall always be in the know of direct customers feedback, product sentiment. Monitoring product sentiment is not limited to Twitter, or Facebook, product sentiment monitoring starts with a company’s own ratings and reviews.
• Social Media provides a unique channel to converse with customers, the Product Management team should make time for live interview on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and this to increase customers engagement. If customers feel part of the brand they are more likely to become Brand advocate. The power of  listening to customers will always give better results than any expensive marketing campaigns.
• Use Social media in product development process.  The best examples to illustrate this point would be Dell through Ideastorm, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia play, Dominoes’ Pizza Turnaround campaign…

Marketing teams: 

• Build / Increase brand awareness. With the social web the marketing teams now have access to a wealth of information that can then be used to build or increase Brand awareness. By identifying key influencers in their field, following the right blogs, tweeting or re-tweeting content, the marketing team increases the brand share of voice and positive brand sentiment.
• Grow customer loyalty: give your customers, fan, followers, influencers a little bit extra for their time or engagement with the brand by giving them something they will only get through the social web. It does not have to be in the form of a discount or an offer, make it fun and creative like access to unique content, get them to chose the content of a next newsletter, allow them to become brand ambassadors at special events. Make your audience part of your extended marketing team by giving them a sense of belonging.
• Encourage user generated content, social media web is about being creative and fun, user generated content is always a great idea to expand reach in a non commercial and cost effective manner, whether it is on You tube through a video contest, on Flicker through a photo sharing initiative, on Twitter through a “share your love in 140 characters”…
• Syndicates own content to increase reach, the marketing team shall be encouraged to blog regularly, so blog post can be favorited, shared, digged…
• Integrate social as an extra layer that connects all marketing campaigns not as a separate channel
• Keep an eye on competition, ease market research, just like social media web is a great way to keep an eye on your own brand, it is also a fantastic way to better understand what competition is up to and get inspired from their successes and learn from their mistakes.
• Understand true reach of promotions and targeted campaigns, analytics can go a long way but they will only give you part of the picture. Social media monitoring, will give the marketing team information on how a promotion or campaign affected the brand and how it was received by your core audience.

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