HOW TO AVOID
BECOMING A DINOSAUR…
Or What Every Leader Should Know About Social Media
by Chris Lewis Chief Executive Officer, LEWIS PR Follow on twitter @largeburrito
Executive Summary Revolutions are misleading. Seldom are they about a single event. Instead, they are more about a series of events with each triggered by its predecessor. The social media revolution is no different. Making sense of the social media revolution is hard because the revolution seems piecemeal to many people. It only seems to make sense in hindsight because the new tools are being picked up and used by challenger brands almost experimentally. At any stage, there’s a lot of work in progress. When something works, it’s not unsurprising that people keep quiet about it, but it catches on nevertheless. In every respect, it conforms to Everett Roger’s famous Adoption Curve of Innovation, later developed into the theory of market evolution.
The Social Media Revolution Begins
Speed versus Truth
Let’s start our journey with Google - the Alpha and
Although Twitter appears to be an odd-one out, the sheer
mega of the Internet. In the beginning, there was search.
speed of Twitter is worth a special mention. Whereas
One of the very first things people needed when the
Google updates every 90 minutes, Twitter cycles in 45
Internet started to gain popularity was a way of finding
seconds, which means that news travels exceptionally fast.
information. Eventually, Google emerged as the search
Such speed has a profound impact on the amount of truth
leader because the engine found things quickly through
we have in our news.
a simple interface that it maintains today. This type of search worked well until the growth of Internet users
The relationship was always an inverse one with faster
dictated using more sophisticated methods. It became
speeds indicating less truth. Twitter made the inverse
clear that people would congregate in groups around shared experiences such as videos and music. Search, though, had moved on. It was now looking for something in. This is where Facebook came in because it could suggest the products these groups used and allow you
Twitterers Bloggers
to advertise to them. This use of tailored ads created the phenomenon of ”Social Search.” A similar sort of service, LinkedIn, grew up at the same time for the business world to help people who wanted to use social networking in a commercial context. Layered on top of these social
Journalists
Speed
that told you more about the groups people connected
Media is less concerned with fact, more with a ‘good’ story eg the fall of Arthur Andersen, climate change, WMD, etc
Accountants Lawyers
networks were micro-blogging services like Twitter. These networks can be linked to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yammer, a sort of corporate Twitter.
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Historians Time
relationship steeper. Now, we routinely see stories circulating
a rosette of social channels has grown up to surround
that turn out later to be completely untrue, which can create
brands which, taken collectively, can also affect the web’s
fear, uncertainty, and immediate ‘certainties’. Think Lehman
ability to locate those brands.
Brothers or WMD or Arthur Andersen. In the latter case, it was comprehensively shown that the firm did not shred documents for its client, Enron, but by the time the traditional
Reputation Management and Social Media
system of justice - the law - caught up, it was too late. This has profound consequences for the make-up of boards.
Now let’s pause for an experiment. Take your name, your
Our two greatest protectors of shareholder values are the
organization, or your favourite charity and Google it. Of the
General Counsel and CFO. Social media can profoundly
first fifty returns, how many have originated from you? Is it
affect value and perception (truth) in the time it takes counsel
more than half? If so, you’re in good shape. You still control
to put pen to paper. Yet social media responsibility remains
your brand. If it’s less than half, someone else is controlling
suborned deep in the bowels of the corporation.
your brand. If searchers can’t find your material, then by
Mobile Applications and the Future of Social Media
definition they find someone else’s information about your brand. Let’s be clear – these channels will be used, so you’d better
Just when corporate professionals thought you understood
be sure it’s you that’s using them. Brand journalism is not
social media, mobile arrived with software like Foursquare
going away, and the demand for fast-moving and short-
(a geo-tagged twitter service) to bring a new dimension to
lived but high-quality digital assets is only going to grow.
connecting with others. Now we have the phenomenon of
Some of these assets will belong to you. Some will belong
Mobile, Social, Search. Companies are just beginning to
to others. These brand journalists will become curators of
develop propositions to address the blending of these
these assets. Obviously, this content will need to interpret
three concepts.
the brand creatively and support it. This was recognized early by the phrase ‘Content is King’. If this is true, then
Clearly, there’s been a land grab going on in social media.
its Queen will be imperative. More than half of the social
When Google was unable to agree to a deal with Facebook,
content that circulates is comment on news events. So the
it meant that it wouldn’t have access to its Social graph.
Creative and Imperative will need to work closely together.
Google executives responded by creating their own social service - Google Plus. Although this has not been widely
If we accept that one of the defining characteristics of
taken up yet, companies that use it can affect their SEO
leaders is their ability to understand what will be, then
disproportionately because Google designed it that way.
leaders have responsibilities here. You can try to understand
They also decided that they would no longer take the stream
the future on issues, but it’s confusing. It’s better to try and
of social data from Twitter, rendering the micro-blogging
understand a point of view, which is essential for getting
platform an inefficient way of improving organic SEO.
the right tone, style and channel for recruitment as well as community engagement. “Getting it right” can save massive
So now we have an overall picture. All of these media are
amounts of costs as well. Generation C is one of the easiest
reflexive. They can be linked and feed off each other.
and cheapest to communicate with ever.
The net result is that like homesteaders in the Wild West,
To get your message out, whether it is to attract future
brands, companies, people, institutions, and ideas are
customers, find employees, or lure stakeholders, you have
surrounded sometimes by quite a hostile audience. The only
to use their channels of communication. In any case, the
difference is that there is no Seventh Cavalry. So in summary,
right social media can increase the surface area of contact
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that people have with their leader. Importantly, this is not
An entire generation needed to learn how to use the
invested in one person but an entire group of leaders. For
personal computer to be successful, but many failed.
this reason, then, social media needs policy, procedures,
The boardroom generation grew up on this technology
and planning. Get this right and you give your team
but in some cases is even more luddite than the general
the confidence to use the channels. Get it wrong and it
oncernhcan’t population. isLeadership afford this self-indulgence but less c wit a
ed
Mediah fact, more the fall wit ry eg challenging instead should keep itself. One of the easiest rsen, ’ sto ‘good rthur Andeange, A f ch o te a tc m e ways to demonstrate complacency is by choosing outdated , cli WMD itterers
becomes a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Tw
methods of communication.
rs
e Blogg
d Spee
CEO Responsibility with Social Media
alists The
Journ
use of social media for communication can lead to
some odd effects. When a company begins to use social As a CEO, you may now be saying, “well, I can leave all this ntants Accou media, the leadership team can be seen and heard much to marketing.” You can, of course, but there’s something rs
else. The ability to triage these imperative creative assets gives you the ability to assess a conversation and hence,
Lawye
more clearly and in real-time, which is in some ways akin to
rians Histotearing
Time away the shower curtain. It can precipitate the rapid
the mood. Tools likes Radian 6 and Sysomos allow you
covering of sensitive areas. Equally, it can also encourage
to gauge what people are talking about online. Think of
an over-exaggerated sense of pride, where leaders start to
it like being at a dinner party where you’d like to join in
hog the limelight and primp and pose. Either is undesirable
the conversation but need to listen before you start. This
because the challenge is to use social media in a way that
understanding allows CEOs to do two things: 1) to use an
feels natural for your company.
audit trail as to the precise timing of an action and 2) to be able to assess what a competitor is doing.
the opportunity for greater situational fluency or the
’ ow
The ability to look over the other side of the hill to provides
mmand e co of h T ‘n
‘Command of Now.’ In military terms, first it was hills, then balloons, then aircraft, then satellites that allowed the commander to see further. Now social media can provide new intelligence about what people are thinking. Companies also have the option to float ideas with their communities and to involve them actively in research. In the jargon of social media, this type of social media focus group is called ‘crowd sourcing.’ This type of diurnal engagement can be useful when trying to address customers’ real concerns.
Learning to Leverage Social Media Think of the early days of the arrival of the personal computer. The use of guidelines, security, and policy was what turned an initially chaotic technology into the corporate essential it became. Social media will do to communications what the personal computer did to data processing.
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Social Media in the Workplace Leveraging social media can send powerful messages, however. A CEO that decides to present casually dressed is saying it’s OK to dress like me. The use of social media can send the message that it’s OK to be informal. Judging what tone the organization has and importantly should have in the future is the CEO’s job. Telling employees that you want the company to be dynamic and innovative in a round robin
email won’t work. It’s a show, not a tell. If you want people to listen to your updates, record them and then distribute on corporate social media systems like Yammer. You can also use groups on LinkedIn, hang outs on Google Plus, and YouTube for messages you want to go external. A warning here! Some companies feel so threatened by the loss of control that they have tried to ban social media from the office. These executives are worried about the sheer time suck it causes on their staff and can take the form of device confiscation at reception or tracking and recording what people say. Sure enough, these methods stop social media use during work time, but they increase it dramatically elsewhere and sometimes with unpleasant consequences for the brand. I’ve heard social media be referred to a sense of entitlement by older generations. It is. They’re quite right. Generation C is entitled to your trust. Judge them on their output not their methods. Supply them with the content to be brand evangelists. This new generation is one where text and reading are less important than knowledge of how to convey a message. They are growing up multilingual in an environment where the languages are video, graphics, and short bursts of truncated text. In one respect, though, they are similar to every other generation. They do not always make the right decisions about what is appropriate behaviour. In fairness, when some employers monitor social media, before and after interview, the boundaries can become blurred. This blurring is where well thought out planning and procedures can make a big difference. ALL of your employees are potential brand advocates. As a young colleague told me, “control is so very Twentieth century.” The problem is, of course, that most of us in business at the current time are a bit Twentieth Century. The procedures are never more important than when a social media firestorm breaks out. You cannot allow policy and judgment to be dictated solely by those who understand the medium. That’s why YOU have to understand. Think of the three R’s – systems have to be Ready 24/7. They have to be Rehearsed with regular fire drills. They also have to be Reliant
Role Assignment in Social Media One of the questions often asked about this type of marketing engagement is who is doing this role in the traditional establishment. Within marketing outreach, the function that normally engages with outside audience every day of the week and twice on Sunday is the PR department. Especially so when dealing with a crisis. Many times an overly sensitive company has put out a statement on a problem only to find they didn’t have one – until they put out the statement. Perhaps if BP had used that type of listening technique it would have seen the brand adhesion that the Transocean rig fire was having. Social media can be a vital tool in allowing the CEO to use their best judgment with information from the company’s customers. The ‘J-word’ is, after all, the only thing senior leaders have. It’s critical to investors, shareholders, staff, customers and peers. Most of the time senior leaders have been exposed for poor judgment, it relates to a misjudgment or misreading of mood, which applies as much to Tony Hayward at BP as it does to Dick Fuld at Lehmans. The recession adds poignancy to the messages that leadership emanates. Frequent, unfortunate juxtapositions, such as hefty senior bonuses alongside group redundancies, bring this issue to the fore. The need for joined up communications has never been greater. This is as true personally as it is corporately. In recession, the wealthy and powerful need to tread sensitively. At present, it’s like the senior people are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Social media showers 1,000 sparks a year on it. They need to spot which spark can set off the gunpowder. You cannot have the presence of positivity in communications, without first ensuring the absence of negativity.
Using Social Media to Brand a Company It’s not all about the shield. Social media can be an effective sword as well. Leadership has never been under as much scrutiny as it is now. Some elements of the generation coming through see their leaders as having damaged the
on a team of people organized into a chain of command.
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economy, their retirement, the planet, their trust, and their
Because of this propensity toward creating firestorms from
prospects for the future. Groups like the Occupy Movement
simple statements, the first stage of every company’s social
are themselves a social media phenomenon. They also
media monitoring should be to determine what to do in the
provide an insight into understanding a mindset that wants
event of a problem escalating. Most problems, if spotted
less consumption, more sustainability, and more quality.
early enough, will be dealt with at low levels. Part of this
Make no mistake if you thought there was a generation
work is science and requires looking back at comparable
gap in the Sixties, this one is a chasm. The youngest
historic traffic. The first part of the planning process is to
generation of adults has long turned its back on email as a
work out which words and issues you want to track. Then
communication medium; instead this generation is the child
you’re able to work out what a routine level of mentions is.
of social media. They are quite possibly the most connected
The first sign of crisis is when a brand goes out of limits,
young group ever in the history of mankind.
which also is where science gives way to art. Only you will know what issues you want your brand associated with and
If we accept that one of the defining characteristics of
those you do not. In any case, this should be known to the
leaders is their ability to understand what will be, then
people running your SEO policy.
leaders have responsibilities here. You can try to understand the future on issues, but it’s confusing. It’s better to try and
Social media will never replace the above-the-line brand
understand a point of view, which is essential for getting
building that sustained advertising brings. But then rapidly
the right tone, style and channel for recruitment as well as
deployed airborne troops never do the job of an armored
community engagement. “Getting it right” can save massive
brigade. They have different purposes. The latter is powerful
amounts of costs as well. Generation C is one of the easiest
but takes time and planning to assemble. The gestation
and cheapest to communicate with ever.
period involved sometimes means that the market the advertising was to address has changed or moved. Social
To get your message out, whether it is to attract future
media’s job is to hold and defend a position. Getting there
customers, find employees, or lure stakeholders, you have
with 10% of your force immediately is better than arriving
to use their channels of communication. In any case, the
too late with 100%.
right social media can increase the surface area of contact that people have with their leader. Importantly, this is not
The concept of being able to exploit fleeting markets is an
invested in one person but an entire group of leaders. For
important one. The cycle time now between innovation and
this reason, then, social media needs policy, procedures,
obsolescence is shorter than it’s ever been. To wait for the
and planning. Get this right and you give your team
advertising resources to craft a campaign, deploy, and
the confidence to use the channels. Get it wrong and it
measure the results can sometimes result is missing first
becomes a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
mover advantage. If you multiply this into all markets globally, it’s now dangerous to address opportunities
Handling Social Media Crises
sequentially. They need to be done in parallel.
The very nature of social media means that leaders will
For this reason, social media is synonymous with
be caught in a crisis at some point because social media
international operations. Don’t kid yourself that this is only
produces a natural tendency toward providing a ‘crisis du
about English speaking markets either. Graphics and video
jour,’ which can result from events or from dialogue that
travel further faster than text in non-English speaking areas.
develops. A constant consideration is with whom to engage
Remember Generation C is either unwilling or unable to
and when. The systems need to be able to differentiate
read tracts of text, as we’ve discussed above.
between those with influence and those with less.
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Facing the Learning Curve of Social Media One of the great barriers to older people getting involved in social media is that they feel out of their depth. Or sometimes they make judgments about social media before they know what it can do. All I can say is that if you’ve stopped feeling silly, then you’ve stopped learning. Conscious incompetence is a vital stage that encompasses all learning. You can’t avoid it. Others will say the technology is all about kids. Well, yes, do you remember those kids who invented PCs? They went from bedroom to boardroom in twenty years. These kids will do that in ten. In any case, the average Twitter and LinkedIn user is their mid-30s. Of course, in a business context – and especially a recession – there tends to be a focus on the short-term and ROI. People may say, “I just don’t get Facebook and Twitter.” These people may not understand how to monetise the networks, but would you try to monetise handlebars and a wheel? No, you need to see how they fit together and get a bigger picture. Yet all around are significant beneficiaries of changing habits (e.g. Amazon). What is clear is that social media is going Corporate. A recent survey showed as high as 94 percent of corporations using social media with 85 percent saying that it’s given their business more exposure. Visit an information graphic on the topic here: http://bit.ly/OQHgfN
First Steps in Implementing Social Media Perhaps one of the biggest questions of all is how companies can implement social media because the landscape looks so all encompassing. The answer to this dilemma is simple. Look at systems that can be overlaid to start. Yammer is a good example. Most organizations don’t rely upon it alone to get out message, however. They use it in conjunction with other tools.
These tools become basic building blocks. For instance, forward-thinking hotels ask guests to tweet to a hash tag so they can monitor comments. An unhappy guest normally lets people know on Twitter within an hour of the problem. Pick up the problem in this golden hour, and you’re likely to be effective and turn it into a positive point of referral. Try to address it after several hours and complaints and…well, good luck. Social media is about culture and not cost. It is cheap and quick to implement. The cost comes in applying corporate standards and procedures around it. In any case, its justification can be had from savings made in above-theline brand building. In a fully integrated campaign the Paid, Earned and Owned media start to overlap with massive impacts on organic SEO. These are just the quantitative effects. When this comes together, something magical happens. Media starts to synergize and you get momentum from the audience you’re addressing. This branding is a bit like the way a good rock band puts on a show. The more it puts into its audience, the more it gets reflected and the more the performance is elevated. It’s no accident that rock stars perform for a crowd. When people are looking, it matters. Just like your children want you to see and applaud when they’re giving their best. The qualitative effects on a culture that feels that it is encouraged to refer ideas can be transformative. Let’s be clear. When senior people pick up and use social media, they risk ridicule. When senior people don’t pick up and use social media, they risk ridicule. None of the above stops people believing they’ll never get it. Like all new things, if you think you’re a dinosaur and you refuse to make the effort, then you probably are. I’ve seen the way social media has developed in the corporation over the last ten years. It isn’t the Permian Mass Extinction boundary that some people portray. Social media networks are still evolving. If social media were the car, it would be 1930. The revolution is not even halfway through. There remain huge opportunities to create smaller global propositions that can
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address multiple markets if Social Media is used effectively.
time. These brand marketers assume everyone can hear
Leaders can be more visible. A greater proportion of
because they can hear. Social media allows you access to
resource can be customer facing.
greater collaboration if you want it, and even the illusion of this collaboration can be helpful. Broadening the audience
This is where you come in. Just because something can
through more diverse channels can only help widen the
be done, it doesn’t necessarily mean it should be done.
understanding and trust your audiences have in you, your
The knowledge of what has gone before, is essential
organisation and your brand.
to arriving at what could be. Too often have evangelists promoted the solution without any understanding of the problem. You know what can and should be improved. That’s why you need to understand and use it yourself. There is an experimental element of this. Not everything you do will work. That should not strike fear into you because Social Media is by its natural an ephemeral media. If you’re consistent over time, the ephemera can build into an enduring brand support.
Summary Too many people worry about social media ‘getting away from them.’ They worry that a piece of embarrassing comment will be cached forever. It’s unlikely that this will keep coming back to haunt you, because if the momentum is maintained, the following material will replace it. Companies are still reorganizing for social media because many are unsure whether social media is marketing, human resources, or public relations’ responsibility. In actual fact, it’s a meta discipline. Just like the onset of IT, everyone will grow to use it. That’s why the leadership needs to embrace and radiate it. Like many changes for the business community, often the challenges get noticed rather than the opportunities. Sometimes the arguments against change are made simply to preserve the status quo. What we like about some brands is that they don’t change, but advancing the way they communicate is a different matter. The biggest danger is that brands believe themselves to be communicating when they use the channels they have always used. Without evolution, they can find in an echo chamber progressively more over
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LEWIS PR is a global PR and digital communications agency. In addition to traditional media and analyst relations, LEWIS specialises in social media, digital marketing and creative services. It works with companies to implement integrated communications programs on an international scale. LEWIS works with leading and emerging brands across multiple sectors, including automotive, consumer, government, healthcare, insurance, legal, non-profit, technology and telecom. LEWIS has more than 24 wholly-owned offices across the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific, with regional headquarters in London, San Francisco and Singapore. Chris Lewis is Chief Executive Officer, at a global PR firm. He is a former journalist and speechwriter. He is author of The Unemployables, a profile a 40 high achievers. http://amzn.to/gRJOIT. He is a Freeman of the City of London, but sadly, remains trapped in his own office.
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