Heidi Allen Digital Strategy

Companies wanting to develop an online presence and form a Social Media policy face significant challenges.  Some of the most immediate challenges include

• who will implement the strategy
• how much control should they have
• how does it integrate in our existing marketing strategy
• how much time will this take. do we need extra staff
• do we need an additional system to deliver content online
• what return are we going to get for our investment
• how do we measure that return
• what happens if we don’t implement a digital strategy

Individual Employee use of Social media on behalf of the company

This is a big issue for many organisations.  Participation in social media is social and often done by individuals on behalf of the company who may well also have their own personal online presence. This is a difficult as the face of an individual may come to represent the company who may then leave or whose personal life is then viewed as representing the company.

Expected investment

Development of a Social Media policy will be influenced by the type of investment your company wants to make — additional time, staff, looking at developing new systems to incorporate new strategies, all need careful thought and there are some key questions that can be asked to help guide these decisions (these will be covered in ‘Developing a Digital Strategy 006 – Practicalities, Questions to ask)

What return on our investment in social media can we expect?

Social Media, if used strategically, can bring many different returns on your investment depending on company aims, which can range from increased traffic, link revenue, exposure, sales, influence, unique page views.  Whatever your company has decided upon, each use of social media can be viewed as an additional touch point to the company and potentially new opportunities.

Measure outcomes can include

• Direct sales and leads as a result of engagement
• Increased engagement (content viewed, commented on, retweets, followers, listings)
• Quality versus quantity
• Old measures vs. new measures (eg sales vs building a community)

Touch points and revenue streams

Your company website and online presence may be a standalone product which may or may not be found due to low search engine ranking, or it can be an intersection with different touch points into ‘Web 2.0′ and therefore many different opportunities once you have found where your audience is.
Organisations often make the mistake of believing increased revenue will be made by persuading people to want something they don’t yet have, rather than finding their audience’s as yet unmet need.  These can often only be found by engaging with networks and hearing first hand what it is that people are looking for.
Touch points = increased opportunities to be found online (SEO) = increased potential business opportunities

TheConversationPrism.com

The next few articles will look at these issues and how some companies have addressed them

The development of ‘Web 2.0’ has changed the way products and information can be delivered with the result that there are many new startup organizations serving an overlapping customer need, whose organizational architecture is radically different to the conventional approach and a threat to existing business and revenue streams (Michael Nielsen, 2009). Often new startups have a cheaper and quicker route to market than more established organizations in the market.

Loss of Brand Control

Connecting with your audience in Web 2.0 terms, an online environment characterized by facilitated communication and communities, inevitably means loss of control from a company branding perspective.  In order to engage, individuals no longer give pre-screened press releases, but engage in an unrehearsed often conversational way. Comments are not vetted at board level. Issues facing companies are

• Control and obscurity vs perceived loss of control and online presence
• Company and products praised or complained about publicly in social media
• Local digital strategies at department level needing approval at board level
• Employee use of social media at work, for work and personal use
• Merging of Company and Personal online identities

Nevertheless a strategic use of Social Media can bring increased traffic and returns on investment.

adapted from TheJordanRules, giving up control.

Six Social Media trends

Harvard Business Publishing (David Armano) predicted six social media trends for 2010:

‘In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive’

1. Social media begins to look less social

With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more ‘exclusive’. Not everyone can fit on someone’s newly created Twitter list and as networks begin to fill with noise, it’s likely that user behavior such as ‘hiding’ the hyperactive updaters that appear in your Facebook news feed may become more common. Perhaps it’s not actually less social, but it might seem that way as we all come to terms with getting value out of our networks — while filtering out the clutter.

2. Corporations look to scale

At the moment there are few large companies that have scaled social initiatives beyond one-off marketing or communications initiatives. Custom built systems are beginning to develop as more companies look for cost savings or to serve customers more effectively through using social technology (The WoodWing system being used in publishing is an example). This is a sign of things to come over the next year.

3. Social business becomes serious play

Networked activity is becoming local and mobile, often using game-like qualities.  As businesses look to incentivize activity within their internal or external networks, they may include carrots that encourage a bit of friendly competition with other users.

4. Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced)

If the company you work for doesn’t already have a social media policy in place with specific rules of engagement across multiple networks, it just might in the next year. From how to conduct yourself as an employee to what’s considered competition, it’s likely that you’ll see something formalized about how the company views social media and your participation in it.

5. Mobile becomes a social media lifeline

With approximately 70 percent of organizations banning social networks and, simultaneously, sales of smartphones on the rise, it’s likely that employees will seek to feed their social media addictions on their mobile devices. What used to be cigarette breaks could turn into “social media breaks” as long as there is a clear signal and IT isn’t looking. As a result, we may see more and/or better mobile versions of our favorite social drug of choice.

6. Sharing no longer means e-mail

The New York Times iPhone application recently added sharing functionality which allows a user to easily broadcast an article across networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many websites already support this functionality, but it’s likely that we will see an increase in user behavior as it becomes more mainstream for people to share with networks what they used to do with e-mail lists. And content providers will be all too happy to help them distribute any way they choose.

Reference:

Michael Nielsen, Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted (2009)

Using Social Media on Behalf of Individuals or Companies

Many companies now want to develop an online presence and find a social media strategy tailored to them.  As the boundaries between personal and corporate online personas blur, there are significant challenges to overcome, some of the most immediate include

• Who will implement the strategy
• How much control should they have
• How will it integrate into our current marketing
• What are the additional requirements to current jobs or additional staff
• What is our return on investment of the time put in (traffic, revenue, exposure…)
• How do you measure return on investment

The next series of posts will look at how to start to develop a strategy based on underlying principles and some practical ‘how to’ including some key sites to use, using expertise that is developing on the web.

Guidelines on how to develop Social Media Policies from Harvard Business Publishing, Alexandra Samuel, are among the best I’ve found.

Companies that adopt [a] risk-management approach constrain the contributions of forward-looking, web-savvy employees who are already making effective use of social media tools. So if you need to create a social media policy, think of it as enabling effective use rather than simply preventing problems. Here’s what a policy should convey:

1. We want you to use social media. Make it clear that your company, your key teams (like marketing, sales and customer support) and your executive are supportive of employee social media use. Senior managers need to lead by example, so that employees know what effective social media use looks like.

1. We need you to follow best practices. It’s emergent technology, so best practices vary. You need to define the best practices for your brand, culture and customers. Offer employees training, how-to guides and web sites that will help them understand the most essential principles in your policy.
   
   
2. We expect you to distinguish between personal, professional and corporate social media. Respect your employees’ desire to use social media for personal communication and expression, and ask them to exercise simple good judgment around how their personal activities or comments online could reflect on your company or brand. Encourage employees to attend to developing their own professional networks and reputations online, since this will make them more effective and valuable to you. And be clear about who is mandated to represent your corporate brand in social media (it could be your whole company!), and when and how it’s appropriate for other employees to speak out on your behalf.
   
   
3. We share risk management responsibility. Stressing all the things that employees shouldn’t do puts the burden of responsibility on the employee. Particularly in the current economy, many employees will conclude that the safest course of action is disengagement. Let employees know that you’ll help them manage the risks of engagement by offering constructive guidelines, real-time advice when requested, and assistance resolving issues.
   
   
4. We reward the effective use of social media. Be clear that making smart use of social media is part of the path to career advancement. Acknowledge, thank, and reward employees who have been early standard-bearers. Encourage employees to build social media into their workday, and provide guidelines on how much online time is appropriate in different roles or departments. Reward results–like great customer feedback or usable insights–rather than volume of activity.
   

You’ll know you’ve gotten your policy right if you see your employees’ social media activity increase – because they now have a clear mandate and direction for engaging online. And you’ll know that you’ve gotten it terribly wrong if all those lively bloggers, tweeters and Facebookers suddenly clam up.

“Oh, you’re so definitely a techie! You make me look and feel like something from the stone age. Maybe you’re not so hot on the actual operational stuff, but on the systems, the principles, the potentialities … you are.” He’s got it  – I’m hopeless on the ‘actual operational stuff’ – so with these words of encouragement I would like to write about a book that was put into my hands recently by Gavin Heaton, ‘The Dial Up Guide to Blogging’. I wish I had this book when I started out. It beings like this:

“A couple of years ago I moved house.. [and] needed to transfer my high speed broadband account to my new address.  There was a long silence before I was informed that there was no broadband option available for my new street address.
What?
The best offer available was a dialup connection.  I was astounded.  After all, I lived in Sydney…”

(- and if you aren’t a Sydneysider, the situation is still pretty pants out here as regard internet access). All he had was dial up and had to keep it really simple.  If you feel that others know  much more than you and you the only one on the planet who doesn’t get this stuff — this book has some simple gems written for non-techie people.

While I’m figuring out how to add a link of the book to the sidebar here is some more on what it’s about.  My copy has more highlights than white space.  Some tasters:

“My new reality made me re-think the entire way that I used the internet. It made me change the way that I write and read blogs and use social media sites.  It made me think about what I value and how I prioritise it….

Blogging can be surprisingly addictive.  It can draw you out from behind your computer into real world ‘meetups’, it can change the way you think, write and behave. And it can take an inordinate amount of time away from the daily activities of life.

Chapters

1. Knowing your objectives
Chapter one is one page with 13 points — if you can answer them you’re well on your way to a successful blog and it will save you a lot of time.

2. Welcome to your domain
What is .org .com. edu, subdomains, how to register your name, hosting..

3. Setting Up your blog/website
Pros and cons of using a blog service like WordPress, Tumblr, or a separate hosting site, how to install WordPress

4. Setting up your social web identity
Google, analytics, Technorati, Feedburner (Excellent chapter)

5. Writing your first posts
Types of posts, objectives, how to write

6. Making blogging easier
Finding ideas

7. Out and about in the blogosphere
RSS feeds, being part of a community

Here’s how to get it – cheap as ($10), 42 practical pages from Lulu.com (*)

*I have no vested interest in sales of the book – but have included the link in case you would like to know how you can get hold of a copy