BE YOUR BRAND

August 2, 2009

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

How to strengthen your brand through employee and customer engagement

WHO WE ARE

OUR LATEST ADDITION

Brand strategies and execution that bring your entire online presence into

alignment with your brand.

WHO WE WORK WITH

4

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

• The threat and the opportunity• The role of social media in your brand

strategy • The advantages of using social media for

employee engagement and the bottom line

• Practical how-to’s for creating and executing your own social media brand strategy

YOUR BRAND IS UNDER THREAT

• The number and velocity of marketing messages has increased exponentially

• Central authority figures are no longer authoritative

• Brand relationships are based more on cultural phenomena than quality or reliability

GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES ARE A CONTRIBUTOR

Social influences Characteristics

Greatest generation Direct me

Great Depression Recovery through public works World War II and Korean War Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima

Loyal Patriotic Faith in institutions

Baby boomersEngage me

Economic prosperity Vietnam War Civil rights movementSexual revolution Protest marches and sit-ins

IdealisticCompetitive Question authority Workaholic

Gen Xers Educate me

Watergate Corporate raiders Fall of the Berlin WallGulf War/high tech warfare PC boomEnvironmentalism

Self-reliant Skeptical/distrust institutions Adaptive

MillennialsConnect with me

Terrorist attacks (Oklahoma City, 9/11, Columbine)Internet boomWorld without boundaries

Tolerant Cyber-literate SocialConfident

“Decoding Generational Differences: Fact, Fiction or Should we Just go Back to Work?” Deloitte Development 2008

THE MODEL FOR BRAND IS SHIFTING

OLD BRAND MODEL

brand messaging

• Rather than a monologue to the masses, it’s engagement among managers, employees and customers

• That seeks to build sustainable relationships with all brand stakeholders in part by energizing employees

THE NEW BRAND MODEL

• Deeper brand-based relationships • Based on connected and shared

employee/customer experiences

TODAY’S BRANDS ARE COMMUNITIES

BRAND COMMUNITY MODEL

Management

Staff

Customers

Branded events

Branded social

media

Bra

nded

web

site

Branded

product

experience

Branded customer service

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vert

isin

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1. Defining your brand promise2. Developing company-wide

strategies that deliver on that promise

3. Integrating brand-driven messages into all communications

BUILDING YOUR BRAND

ONE TOOL FOR CREATING A BRAND COMMUNITY

Management

Staff

Customers

Branded events Branded so

cial

media

Bra

nded

web

site

Branded

product

experience

Branded customer service

Bra

nded

ad

vert

isin

g

THE MORE YOU ENGAGE, THE STRONGER YOUR BRAND

• Companies that were deeply and broadly engaged in social media last year recognized an 18% growth in revenue

• Those who sat by the sidelines saw a 6% decline –Engagement db’s

ranking of the top 100 Global Brands, July 2009

IN THIS NEW MODEL AUTHENTICITY IS KEY

• Direct • Instant• Expressive • Democratic/equalizes individual

voices • Easy • Dialogue based • Occurs throughout our lives,

anywhere, anytime

WHAT MAKES SOCIAL MEDIA AN IDEAL TOOL?

Social media has seeped into the broader culture, not just with tweens and not just with consumers

EVEN MARTHA’S DOING IT

AND SO IS EVERYONE ELSE

• 60% of Americans use social media

• 85% of users believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media

• 56% of users feel they have a stronger connection with and are better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment

93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media

The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study

ADVANTAGES OF BRAND-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA

EMPOWERS WORKFORCE

PROMOTES CONNECTEDNESS

BREAKS DOWN SILOS

FACILITATES INNOVATION

BUILDS COMPANY CULTURE

INCREASES STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

Non-Millenials Millenials

Intranet 65% 72%

Text messaging 25% 38%

Instant messaging 46% 48%

Social network sites

13% 20%

Blogs 8% 13%

Use of social media to do one’s job

Aon Consulting Web 2.0 and Employee Communications Survey March 2009

CREATES CHAMPIONS

DEVELOPING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND STRATEGY

•Track

•Listen

•Change

YOUR PLAN TAKES TLC

• Work with departments like marketing, product development, account management to determine shared company goals

• Prioritize goals for those most easily achieved through the medium

• Work with senior leadership to ensure goals reinforce strategic objectives

• Include goals around building community, communicating your message and getting feedback from customers

To track, you must first identify your goals

Community

Communication

Feedback

• What are you currently using to engage customers and employees?

• What tools are out there that might improve upon these methods?

• What problem have you always wanted to solve that you haven’t been able to so far?

TRACKING IS ALSO ABOUT INVENTORY

• Identify, if you can, who in your company is already using social media

• What are they saying?• What are your customers saying?• What are your competitor’s customers

saying?

THEN, LISTEN

TO CHANGE, LET YOUR BRAND BE YOUR GUIDE

• Use your brand promise • Identify the cultural

norms and other aspects of your brand that will either inhibit or promote your objectives

• Ask yourself, “how does a company who promises x communicate with employees and customers?

BUILDING THEIR BRAND COMMUNITY

TIPS FOR CHANGE

1. Start small and focused2. Act with purpose 3. Be transparent 4. Let the community moderate itself first5. Monitor heavily 6. Leverage your Gen X and Millennial employees

EXERCISE

TAKE 15 MINUTES TO IDENTIFY YOUR SOCIAL

MEDIA GOALS

EXECUTING A SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND PRESENCE

Brand-based social-media strategy use is in its infancy. One of the best examples out there is Zappos.com whose primary strategy is:

Training employees on and using Twitter to demonstrate transparency, happiness and passion for customer service. (Bethsblog)

CREATE BRAND-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES

1. Will you allow employees to be socially online at work?

2. Will you let them speak on behalf of the company?

3. Will you train them?4. Will you establish guidelines? At what level?5. Will you make clear what are career

damaging actions?

ESTABLISH BASIC POLICIES

Don’t: Use objectionable language; demonstrate a disrespect of an employee, employee group

or customer; or threaten violence--Best Buy intranet guidelines

EMPOWERING GUIDELINES ARE SIMPLE

• We don’t believe there is a conflict between authenticity, employee expression and brand guidelines

• The idea that culture should only grow from the bottom up ignores the importance of leadership and management—brand is both bottom up and top down

• A little brand leavening is a very good thing—because employees are your core brand champions whether online or out in the world

BRAND IS OFTEN MISSING IN SOCIAL MEDIA

“Zappos has a customer obsession which is so easy for me to admire. It is the starting point for Zappos. It is the place where Zappos begins and ends. And that is a very

key factor for me. I get all weak-kneed when I see a customer-obsessed company, and Zappos certainly is

that. Zappos also has a totally unique culture. I’ve seen a lot of companies, and I have never seen a company with a culture like Zappos’. And I think that kind of unique culture

is a very significant asset.”--Mashable’s Ben Parr

“Here’s Why Amazon Bought Zappos,” 7/22/09

AND YET BUILDING YOUR BRAND IS THE ULTIMATE GOAL

“Create some excitement. As a business and as a corporate citizen, Intel is making important

contributions to the world, to the future of technology, and to public dialogue on a broad range of issues. Our business activities are increasingly focused on high-value innovation. Let's share with the world the exciting things we're learning and doing—and open

up the channels to learn from others.”--Intel corporate blog guidelines

INTEL ENCOURAGES BRAND DISCUSSION

“One of IBMers' core values is ‘trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.’ As a company, IBM

trusts—and expects—IBMers to exercise personal responsibility whenever they participate in social media. This includes not violating the trust of those with whom they are

engaging. IBMers should not use these media for covert marketing or public relations. What does an IBMer's personal responsibility mean in online social media activities? Online

social media enables individuals to share their insights, express their opinions and share information within the

context of a globally distributed conversation.”--IBM corporate social media guidelines

AN IBM GUIDELINE

What will you do to encourage brand-based social media?

???

Take 15 minutes and create a strategy or strategies that would help

employees, customers or other audiences through social media

Extra credit: Build brand into your existing social media policies

EXERCISE