SOCIAL MEDIA:HOW TO GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL?The essence, according to Squarewise*

*Beta-version; always being adapted according to evolving knowledge

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There are about 1.000.001 definitions for social mediaTheoretically, one can define social media as a combination of three important building blocks:

Tools/ Platformsonline softwarecommon interest communitiessocial networksmash-upsinstant messagingsocial commerceRSS aggregatorsoffice collaboration tools(and others.. )

Media/ Contentdynamic content (two-way interaction) text audio images video

Behaviorsuser rolescreatingsharingcommentingconsuming joinwatchsellingplaying

Mostly

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But still, that is not really helpful. What really is the purpose? Why bother?

TIPPING POINT

In an era..

- of information overload, Social Media offer context

(location, opinion, usage, etc.)

- in which today’s ‘hot issues’ are old news tomorrow, Social Media create

speed and viral movement (flashmobs, GreenPeace against Nestlé, etc.)

- in which consumers demand customization, Social Media facilitate

personalized service and communication

- of large scale societal challenges Social Media suddenly enable me and

you and many others, to converse effectively in large groups, mobilize

and tip off change

- in which my opinion, is merely one of many, Social Media help me decide

- in which the end of Fordist anglo-saxon, pyramidal factories is in sight;

Social Media enforce democratization and transparency; the power shifts

back to consumers, civilians, students, etc.

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In our view social media create social power shifts that...

AwarenessConsideration

PreferencePurchase

SupportedEmpowered

DelightedFan

Broadcaster

# of Influence ImpressionsTraditional

Marketing funnel

Awareness

Consideration

Preference

Purchase

After Sales

# of Eyeballs

Source New Marketing Funnel: Empowered, by Bernoff and Schadler

New Marketing

funnel

All in all, it is fair to say that Social Media will transform (y)our current day and future reality (e.g. if you are in marketing)...

# of Eyeballs

Influence

...solve information related challenges...create information related opportunities

...cause information related (serious) challenges

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Given that reality is changing, why would a company or non-profit organisation want to go social?

1. I WANT CONTROL

2. Lack of understanding

3. Fear of it being a fadSource: PSFK.com

Top 3 reasons why executives hate social media:

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Usage 1 Ability to ‘listen’ to what people are saying about you (even if you’re not part of the conversation)

Gap Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowd sourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.

+

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Usage 2Ability to have a conversation with your current (and future) clients...

...but also with critics, suppliers or people with ideas

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Shared via: Posterous

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Usage 3

Ability to mobilize

For example to find a new name for this photocamera (Zi8)

Result: millions of free PR impressions, thousands of participants and one winning name: PlaySport.

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Usage 4Ability to facilitate interaction between your customers (so they can help each other make better use of your products)

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Usage 5Ability to structurally involve ‘bright or creative people’ in your organization

http://www.legoclick.com/

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Or, to put it differently, going social allows you to get closer to your customer. Really close!

Your customer as part of your sales team Zappos

Your customer as part of your product or service Nike+

Your customer as investor Sellaband

Your customer as designer LEGO

Your customer as part of customer service Intuit

Your customer as a trusted advisor Dell

Your customer as part of your marketing team Ford

Your customer as a structural part of your operations NFL

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Which aspects of my existing Business Model can I reinforce using social strategies? And how?

Source: Osterwalder, Pigneur et al.

Engage relevant partners to facilitate your Social Strategy, e.g.for Tooling, together create enough Mass or simply develop something unique, e.g. Nike & Apple that developed Nike+

Realize you need new kinds of resources (creativity, mass, authentic voice, etc. ) Therefore: empower your employees and use your customers as resource.

Reconsider your key activities: do you sell products, or are you a service provider?

Acknowledge your customer is always at the centre. Then:

Make them your FAN, salesman, part of the operation, investor..

Channels are no longer what matters - it is the message. Make it stick and facilitate sharing!

Rethink customer segmenting.

Your customers group themselves around shared interests, values and beliefs.

Social Media can have significant consequences for your underlying cost structure - especially cost of servicing - e.g. when existing customers become part of your customer service through effective care communities

Socialize your product or service to create new and additional value: allow for context (e.g. location, friends who bought the product, network), easy access (mobile applications), top notch service, and 24/7 complementary information

Facilitate ‘gratis’ - align with attitude of users: Give it to me or I’ll take it’ (earn your revenue in a different way). Innovate with currency (e.g. offer discounts for top influencers). Be prepared for dynamic and flexible models (e.g. freemium).

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1  |  Listen,  experience  and  determine  social  needs  and  habits    customers  

3  |  Develop  a  prac9cal  Social  Media  Strategy    

8  |  Evaluate  and  plan  to  evolve  >    

2  |  Review  your    social  incen4ve:    which  part  of  your  strategy  will  it  support  /  enforce?  

4  |  Determine  the  impact  on  your    current  organiza9on  –  where  do  you  need  to  improve?  

5  |  Pick  controlled  experiments  that  can  enforce  improvement  of  the  organiza9on  

6  |  Staff  and  organize  for  the  experiments  and  general  service  issues  

7  |  Concentrate  on  the  customer  experience  –  make  it  work!  

Follow this stepped continuous approach to go social

Key question (step 2):

Why do you want to go Social? Higher revenuesHigher loyaltyBetter insight in your clientsWork closer with your clients Develop new business models etc.

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1. Listen, experience and determine social needs and habits customersUntil you know what your customers or others are saying about you, you won‘t know where to start, nor how big of a deal

going social will be. Use the right tools to do this.

2. Review your social incentive: which part of your strategy will it support / enforce?Going social should be a conscious choice: not something you do because everybody is doing it. It should support your core

strategy and you should make strategic choices. Determine why you are going social: e.g. to increase customer loyalty, to

increase revenues or to be able to deliver products that really matter to your customers?

3. Develop a practical Social Media StrategyFor a successful Social Media Strategy you need to be clear about your ambitions and make some strategic choices. What

follows is the determination of a path to bridge the delta from ambitions to reality. Realize that especially when it comes

to going Social, you will need to update your strategy at least every 6 months. Developments are going too fast. Your

customer and its needs are evolving too.

4. Determine the impact on your current organization – where do you need to improve?When you have defined your strategy you need to determine which areas of your business need improvement. Most

logically this will involve bottom-line processes, that have an impact on customer service effectiveness, but it may also

concern the skillset of your employees and management. The way your IT department functions, etc (also see page 18).

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5. Pick controlled experiments that can enforce improvement of the organizationConsequently, develop controlled experiments that can improve precisely those areas which need serious improvement.

You need to become a learning organization. And you should do this in a controlled way.

6. Staff and organize for the experiments and general service issuesTo be able to make the experiments work, staff them in the right way and organize yourself. You might need a Webcare

team, or a cross-functional council that can make your experiments fly by breaking organizational barriers.

7. Concentrate on the customer experience – make it work!Too often, organizations engage in Social Media but keep thinking in the old way. They see customer service as a cost,

while the degree of customer service that is needed to create the kind of experiences that make customers into your fans,

and become part of your sales force, is of a different nature. Every happy customer is a potential ‘employee‘, in the non-

traditional sense. This is an enormous process challenge.

8. Evaluate and plan to evolveAs stated before, social media and associated technology is changing our reality rapidly, and it keeps evolving. As you

learn about the benefits and start experimenting, your efforst will grow and evolve. Your customers demands will also keep

evolving. You need to be prepared for this. This is why you should think of Social Strategy development as a continuous

process.

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Becoming Social implies putting your customer firstIs your organization ready?

Structure

Management

Resources

Skills

Strategy

People

•Install cross-functional teams to deal together with customer needs and related challenges•Allocate responsibility as low as possible(and help your people feel responsible)

•As a leader, have the guts to stimulate experimentation and learning from mistakes•Stimulate your people to put the customer at the centre•Participate: give the example! Show that it’s okay and important!•Actively manage ideas from customers, employees, etc. (use idea mgt systems)

• Make sure the ICT department shifts focus to customer needs - IT should become a partner rather than a policing unit

• Smartly use cloud services

• Open up your organization: stop blocking (fix legal problems and start trusting employees)

• Become a learning organization• Develop and stimulate creativity and innovation• Let your people experiment with Social Media so

they can develop the necessary skills• Develop new ways of measuring• Learn to listen, converse, mobilize, engage with

your customers

• Listen first, get a feeling for the social needs of your customers and partners, only then develop a strategy

• Don’t forget Social Media can also serve internal ambitions to share knowledge, collaborate, etc.

•Empower, train and facilitate your people: they have to act, they have contact with customers•Hire more creative, energetic, resourceful employees, that have the guts to act (and the morality to correct their mistakes)

Values

• Customers are key!• Trial => error• Make sure employees know

what the company stands for• Collaboratively develop

Social Media ethics that fit the firm and your people

Is your management empowering your people and customers with the necessary resources to act?

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1. Success revolves around genuine, compelling content

2.Every day is election day

3. Fish where the fish are (and focus more on the message than the channel)

4. You don’t own your brands

Inspite of all challenges involved in going social, the good thing is that some lessons have already been learned....

1. Revenue model should be clear and logical

2. A Critical Mass is needed

3. Benefits to participants should be cristal clear

4. Trust and authenticity should always be secured

5. Don’t put technology first; focus on creating opportunities for your employees and customers to become and behave social

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Questions we would love to work on with youCustomer centric innovation Co-created product and service development: unleash the power of the mass to develop “the next big thing”

Become your customer’ favorite by reinventing your business model through the power of cloud based social services

Make the customer part of your operations, customer services, marketing and communications, design function or strategy development

Use the crowd to finance and fund your venture, research or projects (crowd funding)

Improving the innovative capacity of your organization Become an innovation leader by empowering your employees and providing them with the resources to innovate

Tap into the unique innovation potential of different generations of employees, especially Generation Y

Make Generation Y your force for innovation

From Pyramid to Pancake: become a break-through and sustainable innovator through radical flattening

Bottom-up change strategy: break-through corporate inertia through empowered employees

Growth strategy Vision 2020: ‘successfully prepare your business for the expectations of the new consumer’

Co-created strategy development: with your customers, employees and the mass – reinvent your business

Develop new business models through strategic social collaborations

Would you like to continue this discussion on your way to the next level?

Martine Verweij @Martine_Verweij verweij@squarewise.com

René Heunen @ReneHeunen heunen@squarewise.com

Sjoerd de Jager @srdejager dejager@squarewise.com

Jeroen Koot @jnmkoot koot@squarewise.com

www.squarewise.com