Developing a Social Media Strategy

1. Developing aSocial Media Strategy 21 April 2012 Richard Bailey | @behindthespin

2. Issues and questions • Does social media require new theory? • Is social media a strategy or a tactic? • Who owns digital? • Who are the new influencers? • How can we measure results?

3. Strategy primer • Strategy is ‘a continuous and adaptive response to external opportunies and threats that may confront an organization’. Argyris 1985 cited in Moss and De Santo 2012 • Strategy as a plan, position, perspective, ploy and pattern (Mintzberg 1987)

4. Strategy primer • Operational management: the routine, day-to-day decisions, controls and actions that enable an organisation to continue to function effectively • Strategic management: the key decisions and actions that determine the overall intended positioning and direction of an organisation, and the allocation of all the necessary resources to pursue the chosen strategies. Moss and De Santo 2012

5. Links to comms strategy • Communication strategies should link to business or corporate goals • ‘Communication strategy defines the purpose and direction for the organisation’s communication activities.’ Moss and De Santo 2012

6. C-MACIE Feedback CommnicationManagement Analysis CommnicationManagement Choice CommnicationManagement Implementation CommnicationManagement Evaluation Communication management process Moss and DeSanto 2012: 42

7. Intermediaries Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955 ‘The media most relevant to public relations are the mass media – newspapers and magazines, radio and television and, above all, the internet’ (Fawkes in Theaker 2012 p. 23) Westley and Maclean 1973

8. New communications model • 'Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect' (Lasswell) becomes  • 'Who says what, in which channel, to what effect; then ascertain who hears what, shares what, with what intent, where, and to what effect.' (Solis and Breakenridge 2009)

9. The new influentials • ‘Everyone, it seems, has the power to be an influencer.’ Hoang in Holloman 2012 • Call for a Chief Influence Officer: 'the incumbent... charged with making the art and science of influencing and being influenced a core organizational discipline... Ideally, the Chief Influence Officer will have a varied background covering marketing, PR, customer service, HR, product development and operations.’ Sheldrake 2011

10. Influencers • 'In the good old days, influencers were recognized leaders in business, media, Wall Street, or academia. Today, an influencer can be anyone who knows something about your product, your market, or your business. It can be someone with 10,000 followers on Twitter or 500 friends on Facebook...’

11. Influencers • ‘It used to be that a good communications program functioned like a food chain. You would educate key spokespeople and influencers on your message, and, assuming it was a credible message, it flowed down through the chain of media and ultimately reached your publics through a variety of credible sources. This top-down process of message control seemed reasonable, but was probably only a convenient illusion. Social media has proved it wrong and officially signed its death certificate' (Paine 2011 p.123).

12. Four Cs for social operating system (Heuer 2009) • Context: how we frame our stories • Communications: the practice of sharing our stories; listening, responding, growing • Collaboration: working together to make things better • Connections: the relationships we forge and maintain 

13. Social media principles • Be human  • Be aware • Be honest • Be respectful • Be a participant • Be open • Be courageous Heuer 2009

15. Four Cs of Social Media Mishra 2009 • Content: social media transforms consumers into creators • Collaboration: aggregation of individual actions into meaningful collective results • Community: social media enables sustained collaboration around shared ideas • Collective intelligence: the Social Web empowers us to aggregate individual actions  • "People don't build relationships with each other in a vacuum. A vibrant community is built around a social object that is meaningful to its members. The social object can be a person, a place, a thing or an idea." 

16. Creating a social media plan • ‘A compass is a device for determining orientation and serves as a true indicator of physical direction.’ • ‘The Social Marketing Compass points a brand in a physical and experiential direction to genuinely and effectively connect customers, peers and influencers, where they interact and seek guidance online.’ Solis 2010: 269

17. Social marketing compass The brand: at the centre of the compass The players: these determine how, when, why and to what extent our activity is intermediated across the social web. They include: • advocates/stakeholders • traditional media • new influencers / trust agents • champions  Platform: every initiative requires a platform upon which to connect, communicate and congregate. They include: • Mobile; social dashboards; apps; forums and groups; blogs; social networks Channels: • search engine optimisation (SEO); syndication; user generated content Emotions: the socialization of the web is powered by people. Successful branding is made possible when individuals can establish a human and emotional connection. Solis 2010

19. Building teams • A person or group does not own socially rooted conversations; they simply map to them. • The simple truth is that everyone owns socalized media, including you. • Jazz improvisation: decentralised control • Within a business or brand it’s impossible to scale and perform harmoniously without leadership, instruction, and administration. Solis 2010

20. Evolving relationships • ‘The true shift represented by the social and real-time Web is not simply the ability to learn from public sentiment and the indicators that they signal to create a more aware, responsive, and adaptive organization that proactively leads communities through action. • ‘It’s not what you say about the brand, it’s about what they say about it the counts.’ Solis 2010: 311

21. Measuring social media • Exposure: to what degree have we created exposure to content and message? • Engagement: Who, how, and where are people interacting/engaging with our content? • Influence: The degree to which exposure and engagement have influenced perceptions and attituds • Action: As a result of the effort, what actions, if any, has the target taken? Don Bartholomew

22. Measure what matters • Some possible measures: • Process improvement • Time to market • Number of new product ideas • Number of suggestions • Time to find solutions to problems • Efficiency with which a product is launched • Level of social capital • Churn rates among customers / employees • Cost of recruitment Paine 2011

23. Recommended reading Holloman, C (2012) The Social Media MBA, Wiley Moss, D and De Santo, B (2012) Public Relations: A Managerial Perspective, Sage Paine, K (2011) Measure What Matters,Wiley Scott, D (2nded 2010) The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasts, Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, Wiley  Solis, B (2010) Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web, Wiley Sheldrake, P (2011) The Business of Influence, Wiley Shirky, C (2008) Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations Thomas, M and Brain, D (2008) Crowd Surfing: Surviving and thriving in the age of consumer empowerment, A & C Black