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FROM: NOV-DEC 2009 ISSUE | BY WALTER SCHWABE
What is social media? How do we develop a social media strategy, and how do we generate a return on our investment are perhaps the most common questions being asked by businesspeople. Even if you’re already a social media participant, you may still be left with the last question.
Let’s take a moment to start with the basics. Most social media strategies consist of launching blogs, wikis, flickr photo streams, Facebook groups, MySpace profiles, LinkedIn profiles, and the like. Unfortunately, social media is not an exact science, and many companies are struggling with their strategies. But a growing amount of research suggests that with the right plan, you can generate a return on your efforts; however, the return may not be what you would commonly expect.
Social media is, in many ways, experimental; it’s not however, completely unproven and it actually can be a waste of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s essential to understand that social media is simultaneously a great opportunity and a battlefield littered with land mines; it is for many an enigma and one of the top strategic issues before companies today.
Most will tell you that the world of business is ever changing, always in a state of flux. But if you dig under the surface of many organizations, you’ll hear the “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” mantra. That statement suggests an unwillingness to take risks, change, or fail, especially fail publicly. This is at the crux of the social media problem for many organizations – an inability to accept scrutiny after a failure or misstep is indeed a recipe for failure in the context of a social media strategy.
Social media may be defined as a representation, display, and distribution method of the collective consciousness of the Net generations. Sure, the boomers are participating too, just to a lesser extent. Herein lies the big disconnect between the “way we’ve always done it,” thinkers and the fluid, conversing, highly mobile “need to engage me or enrage me” plugged-in savvy generation that demands transparency. Social media, networking, and Web 2.0 technologies are typically built with these cultural fundamentals in mind.
In the context of social media, a brand is now defined by the number of conversations being had about it. How can one tell if an organization’s brain trust understands today’s online culture? In part, by the conversations they’re having or, in many cases, not having.
What organizations are finding out is that social media success is not that simple. There isn’t one secret formula. Rather, there is a set of engaging elements that should be a part of your strategy. Key elements, such as the ability to share content, communicate with others, scrutinize the content or brand openly, and a way for the participants to take ownership of the brand are just a few. Scrutiny, as well as brand ownership, is what often has organizations running scared. Taking left hooks online or giving up control of their brand typically isn’t in their DNA. But being brave is a necessity for success.
Moving target aside, there is evidence that the business community is advancing past the “early adopter” stage, and into a more mainstream application of these Web 2.0 tools. The McKinsey Quarterly has this to say as part of the results from a recent survey: “The companies that are deriving business value from these tools are now shifting from using them experimentally to adopting them as part of a broader business practice.”
Ultimately social media is flawed, imperfect, and unique, just like all of us. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
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