Trio of Experts on Social Media
April 1st, 2009
The powerhouse panel @peterkim (Dachis Corporation) @charleneli (Altimeter) and @jowyang (Forrester Research) packed the house (SRO) at the early morning 830AM session at @w2e. A reflection of how many are tuning into social media and making sense of it. The official Twitter hashtag is #smfail if you’d like to hear what everyone is saying about the session.
The key opinion leaders highlighted four failure points in social media and engagingly discussed how brands can address each.
- How do I get my culture to adopt? The trio pointed out as the biggest gap that needs to be addressed in any organization. Convincing top executive management to buy into social media as part of the corporate strategy is not as easy as cooking a three-minute soft-boiled egg. Sounds very Six Sigma to me. The tenets of Six Sigma implementation rests on the belief that for a new idea to be implemented effectively specially in large Fortune 500 corporations executives must be onboard. An idea champion must have a sponsor. In very few cases, Jeremiah pointed out that the executives are the first to adopt. Should you be one of those social media champions in an organization that still rejects the idea look for the “sweet spots” according to Charlene. Sweet spots could include aligning your social media ideas with the corporate strategy or the brand strategy if you are working within the brand level. Charlene added that the implementation and progression of social media as a practice in your organization shouldn’t be championed by one person alone. Ideally each person in your organization should engage in social media. We all have to act like social media agents for social media to be effective.
- How can I make my campaigns work? All three chimed in that marketers who treat social media as a “campaign” will continue to fail. Peter pointed out that social media is all about “relationship building” not marketing. He also asked the question “should we get rid of the marketing department?” Charlene added that marketing is all about PR and advertising whereas social media is about elevating marketing to a higher degree. Social media is evolving the roles of the marketers according to Peter. The conversation veered toward experience vs. certification. Charlene suggests that certification should be required for social media practitioners while Jeremiah is of the mindset that experience is a far greater asset for an organization when hiring someone champion social media in an organization.
- What am I supposed to measure? Peter mentioned traditional measurement tools like dashboards, clickthroughs, open-rates do not offer the color of detail that social media can offer. Jeremiah recommends creating your GPS measurement system that is related to your business metrics. The idea: when social media is closely tied into your corporate goals or brand goals then measure the effectiveness of social media against those metrics.
- Does social media matter? Social media as a practice is not a new thing. A few brands have been dabbling into social media as early as 2006 with less than remarkable results. The secret to a brand’s success in the social media space is fueled by experimentation that comes with many failures. Charlene pointed out that failure in social media matters. She further added that if you’re not failing enough that means you’re not doing enough and not learning in the process.
It was a truly interesting and engaging conversation to listen in on. In my opinion, social media is a fresh approach and by far the most intimate tool to connect with your consumers yet it is very much grounded on the core principles of marketing and relies heavily on business management strategy to be implemented with success.
Tags: Six Sigma, Social Media, Web 2.0 Expo
