Social Media in Business: You can’t be a little bit pregnant!

I doubt there could be any more hype or anxiety around the use of Social Media in business today than we are currently experiencing.

Many businesses look at social media with trepidation and fear as they contemplate lifting the corporate veil of secrecy and to expose themselves (usually not literally) to their customers.  Others agonise over the big commercial question, “How much will it cost and how much profit will it make?” with little consideration to the strategic or functional benefits to the business.    

Some businesses create a Twitter account and set up a Facebook page and shout out “Tada!” and proudly boast that they are active in social media.  Then of course, there are the businesses that invest the time, energy and resources to do it properly and successfully lift the value and profile of their brand with their customers and prospects.

Now I’m not saying that every business needs to participate in social media.  But every business must have a social media strategy and understand its role in the marketing mix or its customer engagement strategy.  Even choosing not to participate is a strategy, if it is informed and the rational conclusion is that it will not significantly assist your business.

Whether we like it or not, social media is not going away.  It has been with us always in the form of word of mouth marketing, only now its amplification is so much greater through the use of social networks.  Ignoring it would be a folly.

And for every social media evangelist there is a naysayer.  For every social media success story there is a very public failure.  With these extremes in views and results, it is no wonder that businesses are confused or wary about how they should approach there participation in social media.

Social Strategies That Work

I was reading the November 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review and came across an article titled “Social Strategies That Work”, by Mikołaj Jan Piskorski (@mpiskorski) an associate professor in the strategy unit at Harvard Business School.  Piskorski raises some key points that businesses should consider when developing a social media strategy.

Piskorski claims that the primary advantage of a social strategy over a purely digital strategy is how it leverages the true reason that people want to connect, and that is with other people, not companies.   It is a key point that Piskorski raises – social media creates the opportunity for a conversation between people - it is not a vehicle for businesses to broadcast their marketing communications.  However, this seems to be the approach adopted by most businesses when embarking into this realm.

Another observation of Piskorski is that businesses that have failed to build successful social strategies tend to focus more on their business goals and less on the customer’s unmet social needs.  He suggests “First think through how to address customers’ unmet social needs; then connect the proposed solutions to business goals.”

In brief, a social media strategy requires the business to think about the needs of the customer first. 

Piskorski’s closing statement is compelling and one I will use often when talking to business developing a social media strategy.  He states:

“As most businesses are accustomed to helping people meet their economic rather than their social needs, creating social strategies will require fundamental changes in the way companies approach strategy development.  As social platforms become even more central to consumers’ lives, companies that don’t figure out how to appropriate their value and create true social strategies will find it harder and harder to compete with those that do.  Starting this process soon, even in small steps, is both a critical defensive and offensive move.”

“Socialnomics” versus “Social Media Truth”

Anyone familiar with social media has most probably heard of Erik Qualman (@equalman) founder of Socialnomics, and author of the number one Best Selling International Book “Socialnomics”.  Qualman is an MBA Professor at the Hult International Business School and has played a key role in education and growing the digital capabilities of many companies.

The video created to explain “Socialnomics” became one of the biggest viral videos of 2010.  Now up to version three, the collective versions have had well over 5 million views on YouTube. 

The video, as does the book, provides both interesting and startling statistics on the growth and impact of the digital revolution and in particular the emergence and power of social media.  Qualman’s book and video raises provocative statements such as:

·         “The ROI of Social Media is Your Business Will Still Exist in 5 Years.” And

·         “We don’t have a choice whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”

Needless to say, such confronting statements supported by reams of statistics on social media take-up and digital channel preference over traditional forms of media awoke many from complacency and start to question what their business was doing.  Qualman’s book remains one of the best you will find on the digital revolution and what it means to society and business.

More recently a colleague showed me a video response to the Qualman “Socialnomics” video prepared by the Masters of Marketing Seminars ( http://www.mastersofmarketing.com.au ) titled “Social Media Truth”.  The video was well constructed and set to the same format and music as the original Socialnomics video.

The Masters of Marketing Seminars presents some of the most recognisable and distinguished marketers who all have a track record of success that gives them the right to question and challenge the way we market.  In producing this video, I feel the desire to lambast the digital revolution and social media, including Qualman’s “Socialnomics”, has overridden the true message of the video – which I think is traditional marketing still works and if done well has a reach as good as social media and can be even more effective.

Now the “Social Media Truth” video has only had around five thousand views, but it’s still reasonably new and it also makes some rather startling and provocative claims, in much the same way Qualman did in “Socialnomics”.  Here are a few to whet your appetite (with the occasional comment by me).

·         “6.2 billion people on earth do not use Facebook.”  This is more users than Facebook has.

The total amount of the population participating on social networking sites is irrelevant.  The percentage of your customers and your prospects participating on social networks sites is.  You fish where the fish are; you engage your customers where your customers are.

·         Points out the low participation on Twitter and that 30% of Twitter users churn within 30 days.

A good point and I’m sure a challenge for Twitter.  The same applies to syndicated TV shows, magazine subscriptions and one I’m sure we can all relate to, gym memberships.  Sustaining customers’ interest is not just a challenge for on-line businesses.

·         Questions the value or perception of the “Like” button and states research indicated consumers do not think business should infer “Like” means they are loyal to a brand.

·         Reminds us of the demise or deterioration of social media platforms such as Second Life and MySpace.

Couldn’t agree more with this.  Some social media sites have been over invested in and over valued.  Also, they have failed to remain relevant – and subsequently paid the price.  But haven’t we seen non on-line businesses fail equally as spectacularly?  Remember Ansett? Atari? HIH Insurance? Lehman’s Brothers?  

·         Suggest falling literacy levels are a consequence of the growth in digital channels and points to the quality of content on blogs and social media sites as proof (I’m assuming I’m the exception.)

Whilst the digital channels have changed the syntax and method of communication between us, I’m not sure it is fair to imply the blame is with the medium.  The education system still carries the responsibility of lifting the literacy levels of our children, but I accept the medium could be a contributing factor.

·         Refers to Twitterers as “Twits”.

Ouch.  Being active on Twitter and having been fortunate enough to meet some amazing, intelligent, insightful and inspirational people I think this statement is ill informed.  True, you can waste a lot of time on Twitter and there will be information of little or no relevance that comes to you, but that is why there are filtering systems and methods you can apply to ensure you what you get is what you get.  Surely not every article in the newspaper or magazine you read is with the same intensity, if at all – tweets are no different.

·         Implies a correlation between the growing amount of wasting time on-line and the decline in global economic performance.

Hmmm… I think this one would be interesting to test.  I don’t doubt there could be a relationship between the two!

·         “The internet is making us intellectually lazy.”

If this was worded that “The internet has the potential of making us intellectually lazy” I could probably accept it.  Having access to a world of resources at your fingertips can be empowering and informative…. But you have to want to use it and like any source it can be exploited.

One of the claim’s in the “Social Media Truth” video I found very interesting was that “the fastest growing segments of ‘experts’ in the world is the self proclaimed social media expert.  Their growth rate is unprecedented in marketing history… even more than the SEO black hats and their mission is to make $$$ for themselves not for you.”

Isn’t the growth in “experts” simply just a direct correlation with the growth in the medium?  After all, with each new business methodology or new practice there has been an explosion of “experts” eager to help.  Remember Lean Manufacturing?  Total Quality Management?  Six Sigma?  Balanced Scorecard? Just to name a few that have either been and gone, or are still in place today.   And I don’t know of any consultant that has gone into business without the aim of making an income.

The good “experts” are the ones that have the customer first and foremost in their minds and know that a job done well will not only result in financial reward for them, but repeat business and referrals.  Yes there maybe some dodgy operators out there, but there are some true “experts” out there who are worth their weight in gold.  Believe me, I’ve seen my fair share of uneducated, ill informed and overly self opinionated consultants passing themselves off as “experts” in areas outside social media!

All in all, I enjoyed the video and saw both merits in challenging the “Socialnomics” video by Qualman.  Both were thought provoking and both raised good points.  In essence they presented to extremes of views that businesses are trying to grapple with when designing their own social media strategy.

One point for the team at The Masters of Marketing to consider: if the video was an anti-social media piece, it seems odd that you would be promoting it on YouTube, your website and that you are active on Twitter and Facebook in promoting your services.  It seems somewhat incongruent with the message of the video – IMHO ;-)    

Are you trying to be a little bit pregnant?

Social media on its own is not an adequate marketing vehicle to promote your business.  Traditional forms of marketing work and will continue to work – if done well.  However, they will work better when your marketing strategy incorporates all channels, off-line and on-line including social media. 

The mix you choose and the method of application will be dependent on who your customers are, the markets you play in and the importance of engagement with your customers – particularly consumers.

Of growing concern to me is the number of businesses I see who insist on separating off-line marketing from digital marketing and then again separate social media.  Marketing represents the face of the business to the market and therefore, there seems no benefit in fragmenting the approach by channel. 

Separating the channels creates high risk of producing inconsistent or conflicting messages to market and increases the potential of confusing the brand in the mind of the customer.  Leveraging marketing and communications to engage with your customer is the goal – the channel is incidental and will most probably be different for each customer segment. 

There are a myriad of case studies now available describing progressive businesses out there who are actively embracing social media as a means for connecting and engaging with their customers in a way they have never been able to before.  Despite this, there are many businesses doing absolutely nothing with the view that; when you don’t know what you should do, do nothing.

Despite the second approach being a potentially retrograde approach, it is better to do nothing than make some half-arsed attempt that could potentially damage the brand and derail the business.

Feeble attempts to create a social media presence that is not engaging, maintained, updated, promoted, listened to or adding value to customers and the business is pointless.  When it comes to your business participating in social media, it’s a black and white question – either you’re in, or your out.  There is no middle ground.

This philosophy reminds me of a favourite saying of a senior manager I worked with many years ago when discussing business strategies.  At the end of the debate or robust discussion he would stamp his authority by saying “You can’t be a little bit pregnant”, in other words do it and do it properly, other wise not at all.   The same goes for social media in business. 

So when you review your social media strategy and its role in the marketing program ask yourself if you are really committed to it, or are you just trying to be a “little bit pregnant”.