A World Gone Social

A World Gone Social

How Companies Must Adapt to Survive Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt Copyright © 2014 AMACOM, a division of American Management Association 256 pages [@]

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7

7 Applicability 7 Innovation 8 Style

Focus Leadership & Management Strategy Sales & Marketing Finance Human Resources IT, Production & Logistics Career & Self-Development Small Business Economics & Politics Industries Global Business

Take-Aways • Social media platforms offer numerous benefits, including promotional and PR power.

• For those who do or say bad or stupid things, social media exposure can be a curse.

• Social media channels enable people all over the world to collaborate.

• Businesses should adopt the “OPEN” approach – “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Network” – to build social networks that can provide necessary group expertise.

• Some old-style executives have no real interest in the unfamiliar world of social media, though they may feel temporarily intrigued. And some become adept.

• The Social Age has replaced the Industrial Age, and “those unwilling to change will cease to exist.”

• Social media participation is a long-term investment; its ROI is tough to calculate.

• Using social media, firms that are small, nimble and creative can rival giant corporations.

• The formula for social age success is: “social + mobile + cloud + big data + analytics.”

• Ask yourself 10 important questions about your goals, methods and execution when mapping a social media plan.

Concepts & Trends

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getabstract What You Will Learn In this summary, you will learn:r1) How the business benefits of social media manifest, 2) Why the Social Age has replaced the Industrial Age, 3) Why financial ROI doesn’t apply to social media and 4) How to develop a social media plan for your firm. getabstract Review Companies and executives must adapt to social media to move ahead in today’s world. Internet entrepreneurs and social media experts Mark Babbitt and Ted Coiné provide both basic and sophisticated information about social media to meet the needs of traditional firms. The authors are refreshingly good-humored and passionate; they extol the people they like and castigate those they don’t. While they maintain that executives who fail to board the social media express are already playing catch-up, Babbitt and Coiné also help them level the field. getAbstract recommends their insights to executives, investors and entrepreneurs in every field. getabstract getabstract

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Summary

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getabstract “Post, Geico, Ford Motor Company and Google...invested heavily in social networking.” getabstract

The Power of Social Media Brandon Cook’s grandmother was dying of cancer. During a hospital visit, she told him she craved soup – but not the awful hospital variety. She wanted something special: clam chowder from Panera. The problem was that his local Panera made clam chowder only on Fridays. Cook knew this, but called the restaurant anyway. He explained the situation to the store manager, who agreed to make Cook’s grandmother clam chowder. When Cook went to pick up the soup, the store manager also gave him a free box of cookies as a gift for his grandmother.

In appreciation, Cook and his mother posted the story on Facebook. As a result, within a couple of days, Panera’s Facebook page received more than half a million “likes.”

Over time, the likes surpassed 800,000. The family’s Panera post received nearly 35,000 comments. The following quarter, sales at the local Panera store climbed 28%. The next quarter, its sales increased 34%.

This anecdote – courtesy of What’s Your Purple Goldfish? How to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth, by Stan Phelps – demonstrates the remarkable promotional and PR power of today’s social media.

getabstract “Social...is a monumental shift in how we think, work and live... It is how business is done.” getabstract

RIP, Industrial Age Many business leaders – particularly, traditionalists – see social media as a fad. Their shortsighted attitude often is, “If I don’t know it, it can’t be that big a deal.” These leaders are accustomed to doing things their way and they aren’t about to change. They come from the Industrial Age, and they seem to believe it will last forever. They may think of social media as a bright comet flashing through the sky. For them, however, social media will prove to be like the enormous asteroid that collided with Earth millions of years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. Today, these stuck-in-the-mud business leaders are dinosaurs. Unless they adapt, social media will render them extinct. Unwilling-to-change businesspeople are on their way out. They just don’t know it yet.

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getabstract “Welcome to the Social Age...where judge and jury come in the form of a Twitter handle.” getabstract

getabstract “Legacy enterprises that do not embrace social are in big trouble. They’re marching blithely off a cliff.” getabstract

getabstract “The number of employees fired for less-than-appropriate Facebook posts alone is already in the thousands.” getabstract

The Industrial Age suffered from onerous, inefficient command-and-control structures; unwieldy bureaucracies; excess management; silo thinking; a tendency for senior leaders to hoard power; dishonest marketing; insulting advertising; and disillusioned, cynical customers. The Industrial Age has morphed into a business approach that no longer competes or functions.

In contrast, the Social Age of social media offers openness and transparency. It embraces collaboration. This makes sense: Social media networks are, first and foremost, social.

Social media’s nature opens new vistas of opportunity for entrepreneurs, freelancers, small firms and customers. Social media websites put customers in charge of the buying process and put executives in charge of their own learning. Social media can connect businesspeople with experts all over the world who can help them solve just about any type of problem.

With almost no start-up cash and minimal monthly costs, businesspeople can use social media to position their organizations to exploit the marketplace more effectively. Thanks to social media, customers can easily confer about the best – and the worst – products, services and firms. Customers who ably adopt social media exert tremendous influence on business.

A Blessing? Or a Curse?

However, in addition to being a generous blessing, social media also can be a curse. “Social media isn’t all roses, rainbows and Disney princesses singing in perfect tune with their animal friends.” If you mess up even a little bit, social media can bury you – and quickly.

Consider this quote from Chip Wilson, a founder of Lululemon exercise clothing. When a reporter asked him about customer complaints concerning the quality of his company’s yoga pants, he answered, “Some women’s bodies just don’t work for it.” If Wilson had offered this insensitive, insulting reply prior to the advent of social media, it wouldn’t have gained much traction. But he spoke up in 2013, amid the advent of the Social Age. His foolishness went viral, eventually costing him his job and causing the company to lose more than $80 million.

Revolution Just as the Industrial Age replaced the Agrarian Age, the Social Age is now replacing the Industrial Age, though many vestiges of the Industrial Age remain strong. For example, physically big products and huge firms were a defining characteristic of the Industrial Age, and large size remains a dominant characteristic for leading corporations worldwide.

Today, certain questions apply to what has become emblematic for top corporations. Is bigness still efficient? Is scale still necessary? Perhaps small, creative, nimble firms that are fully a part of the social media sphere are now in the best position to seize promising market opportunities.

getabstract “Business in the Social Century is every bit as different from the methods of the Industrial Century as that period was from the Agrarian Millennia before it.” getabstract

Indeed, “something superior, something more modern, has replaced” the traditional enterprise. Look toward the emergence of “nano” entities, or “fluid, self-forming groups” – clusters that come together for specific projects and then disband until the next special opportunity. What does this mean for old-line, large, unwieldy firms that stay in the past?

The answer is simple: “Those unwilling to change will cease to exist.”

The handwriting is on the wall. In many cases, small, quick firms and groups that connect through social networks can now do the same work only giant corporations once could handle. This exemplifies the “OPEN” approach – “Ordinary People, Extraordinary

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getabstract “It isn’t...hard for something...to earn tens of thousands, even millions, of impressions in no time. And, in almost all cases, faster than your organization can react.” getabstract

getabstract “Too many of us are resistant to embrace the Social Age. Seemingly in direct proportion to the number of white hairs (or lack of hair) on our heads, we blow off social as a passing fad or ‘something for the kids’.” getabstract

getabstract “Your role...is to identify the most passionate members – the organic evangelists of your tribe – and then build healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with each.” getabstract

getabstract “When you open a branded Twitter account and trust employees to be 100% responsible for those accounts, there are huge risks.” getabstract

Network” – that summarizes the “benefits of living and working in the Social Age.” As the popularity of the OPEN approach grows, expect to see substantial “open collaboration,” as employees work with customers in the future through social media to improve products and services.

“Growth Hacker TV” Growth Hacker TV (GHTV), which produces educational programs, exemplifies the social media/Internet phenomenon. Co-founder Bronson Taylor and his brother, an engineer, are “nano entrepreneurs.” When a salesperson offered to hire Taylor for his technological expertise, Taylor suggested instead that they become partners. Along with Taylor’s brother, they started GHTV. The partners collaborate from their homes in Florida and Kentucky. They do not hire employees: They outsource. Thanks to the efficiency of connecting and collaborating through the web and social media and their cost-efficient business model, GHTV has a monthly minus-$1,000 break-even point. The partners did not have to go to a bank for startup funds. Nearly everything they needed to get their business up and running was online and free.

Traditional television networks spend millions of dollars and hire dozens of employees to create programming. GHTV became a viable television producer in less than seven weeks for almost no money. Now, because Taylor is a masterful interviewer, his guests often share their GHTV “episodes via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+, as well as on their blogs and company websites.” This wide-reaching free publicity illustrates some of the power of social media.

GHTV’s fast success raises an existential question for conventional corporations: “How can a large, bureaucratic...company afford to compete against nano” firms like GHTV, which leverage social media to compete against its rivals inside their own industry?

The ROI Dilemma Despite the state of the contemporary corporate battlefield, many traditional executives won’t embrace the power of social media until they know they can show a positive ROI. For most businesses, social media use is not geared to earn short-term results; it’s a longterm investment. Its ROI often can be tough to nail down. Marketing is also a long-term investment – something every executive can and will easily justify.

When old-line businesspeople asked Internet and social media superstar Gary Vaynerchuck about ROI, his irreverent response was simple: “What’s the ROI on your mother?” Today’s more relevant question is: “What’s the ROI on being relevant to your target consumers?”

Or, “What’s the ROI on still being in business 10 years from now?” The market now offers many social media management software (SMMS) tools to help firms assemble their metrics. These include “Google Analytics, HootSuite and Sprout Social,” plus “Marketing Cloud, Sprinklr and Argyle.”

The “Social Circle of Life” Unfortunately, since social media activity is long-term, SMMS cannot supply the metric executives love most: information on financial returns. Executives should instead focus on a “simple formula [that] expresses the Social Circle of Life” for today’s businesses: Social media plus “mobile + cloud + big data + analytics” equals achievement in the social age.

Mobile social media use is quickly becoming ubiquitous, as are cloud applications. Big

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data and analytics can satisfy those who insist on demonstrable ROI. These fields work with the “exponential growth and availability of data, both structured and unstructured, for anyone equipped to listen” – increasingly businesses – and with analytics, which use powerful computers to assess the meaning and impact of social media activities. getabstract “In the Social Age, good or bad, we are all judged by that portion of our private lives that ends up in the public domain.” getabstract

getabstract “The top five social networking sites now boast user numbers in the billions; 46% of the US population reports having accounts on three or more social networks.” getabstract

getabstract “Less-than-authentic business practices do not go unrevealed.” getabstract

The 10 Questions When you consider a social media plan for your company, ask 10 critical questions. Your answers will help you diagnose your firm’s social presence and determine what it must do to improve: 1. What is your social media strategy? – Wrong question. Instead, focus on your business strategy. Then make sure your social media activities align with it.

2. What is your ”policy regarding social media use at work?” – It should be full access, all the time.

3. Should you offer social media training for your employees? – Your employees will value social media training far more than “a paid day off or a plaque.”

4. “What collaboration technology” do you employ? – The more collaboration you support, the more work you will get done. People prefer Facebook for this purpose.

5. On which social media platform should you engage with your customers? – The best rule is to “Meet customers where they are now.” Usually, this will be on “Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn” and “Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and Reddit.” The answer is the same for the next two questions: 6. How do you “leverage social media to engage with...employees?”

7. How do you “use social media to engage with outside organizations?”

8. What is your CEO’s “social media presence”? – Your CEO should have an active, strong position. However, social media sites are “dangerous” for the CEO who doesn’t know how to handle being a public figure. The best rule for a leader – or anyone – seeking to establish a viable presence in the social media sphere: Go for “more social” and “less media.” Don’t make social media “just another broadcast arm of your PR or marketing department.” Connect sincerely with others online.

9. How do you present your top executives on social media? – They should be active and visible on the same sites as everyone else: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram and Reddit.

10.How do your thought leaders present themselves on social media? – Position them likewise to showcase their strengths.

Let’s Get Social Social media’s explosive growth unfolded less than a decade ago. Consider what has transpired during these few short years and imagine the future. The Social Age will be a “planet-sized OPEN community,” with everyone collaborating. If you aren’t sure how to start, “go into the trenches” and seek employees who are already busy in social media and who understand it well. Don’t worry about pecking order or someone’s rank on the organizational chart. Look for employees who know social media and are passionate about your firm. These will be your “internal advocates,” “your social superstars.”

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About the Authors

getabstract Mark Babbitt is CEO of YouTern, which helps those in career transition make employment connections. Ted Coiné is chairman and founder of SwitchandShift.com.

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