The Best Social Strategy: First Know Thyself

I've been asked a number of times (and most recently for one of my favorite SXSW content projects by Crystal Beasley) what I would recommend to people starting to blog, twitter, etc. I typically recommend that they first follow a group of people they find interesting through blog and Twitter directories and then jump in to the conversation. Other people recommend doing a lot of listening first and I don't disagree but I think to really understand the culture and find your 'voice' in a new medium you need to just start trying things, albeit slowly at first.

The corollary to "How did you get started" is "What is your strategy? which to be honest, always leaves me a bit at a loss for words. My first thought is always "Oh *^&^%, I should have a strategy!". After thinking about this topic however, I don't really need a strategy and here's why: I am an individual so my online presence is obviously scoped by that fact but more importantly, I know myself fairly well - and I know what I am comfortable sharing about myself with others and what will likely get me into uncomfortable situations.

However, companies are a very different beasts than individuals and therefore the advice has to be different. Just like individuals however, the better you know yourself the easier it will be to participate in all types of social media conversations. So my first piece of advice would be for companies to figure out who they are before they start down the social media path. In the majority of companies this is different from the brand. Brands are often an abstraction created by the marketing departments or agencies, not a personality based on the aggregate employee values. It's why Tony Hsieh is such a bellweather leader for the social age - he is leading the charge to hire on values and make those values the brand. I would bet it is a much easier process for Zappos to create new conversation channels than for other companies to do so. 

So how does a corporation understand who they are? Likely a bit of cultural anthropology would help. Understanding yourself as an organization includes understanding where fine lines exist between what is acceptable and what is not. Things like publicly apologizing to a customer - some companies will be OK with that idea and others will cringe at it. What about sharing booking numbers internally? What about externally? How transparent are you as an organization - is everything laid out and accessible? It it theoretically accessible but not easy to find? Is it controlled?

Understanding the boundaries of what is comfortable for the vast majority of people in your organization is critical to understand what you should be talking about and sharing in different online environments.

The second part to me is listening for what your customers, prospects, and influencers want to know. This likely doesn't line up with what the organizational culture is comfortable sharing. Identifying this gap and then negotiating how to respond to what people want to know is the critical key in navigating the online world. Ideally it is a dance between pushing people to share a little more than they typically would want to and not giving the audience everything they are asking for but enough to satisfy them. Navigating the gap takes a skilled facilitator - just another reason companies should not just go 'hire a blogger'.

How do you approach this exercise of really understanding the organization for which you work?

Comments

[Tyson]

Rachel- your last paragraph nails it right on the head. There's a balancing act that needs to take place, and of course, negotiating and facilitating within the organization is the tricky part.

Tyson @goodridge

[Rachel Happe]

Thanks for stopping by and commenting Tyson - it is the really tricky part and it takes a lot of experience, presence, intelligence and confidence to be a skilled facilitator.

[Chris Bailey]

Rachel, I'll try not to make a windy and shameless plug for employing business anthropologists...well okay, maybe just a short one :)

I'd heartily agree any organization that is considering how to employ a SM strategy should take the step to understand their unique identity and public brand. We anthropologists are trained to gather both qualitative and quantitative data, explore gaps between the words/jargon/marketing and actual activity, and generate a holistic set of actionables that connect organization with public audiences.

We can help executives figure out if their organizations are truly transparent and ready to engage with customers in social media or merely playing around online.

I think you've nailed the first question any organization should ask: Know Thyself. The next step is to work with that knowledge and cultivate relationships with customers that are uniquely tied to the organization's identity.

Sorry if that was too windy...

[Marc Vermut]

Rachel,

Timely piece and agree wholeheartedly. In fact, it came up when I was discussing someone's jewelry business and it was remarked that their community manager/evangelist/PR person was becoming a go-to fashion expert (beyond just the jewelry).

In this world of "conversations" and "relationship marketing", identifying the type of information that your customers value and providing it creates brand equity and increased sales.

Which is also why the type of work that people like Chris are performing is fundamentally important for really large corporations where there is often a large physical and digital distance between those doing the marketing, etc. and the customers. Smaller companies and startups are probably more attuned to their customers interests, needs and desires (witness how Twitter has been evolving it's service offering).

marc

[Rachel Happe]

Great comments - it's interesting per Marc's comments - PR & Marcomm have in some ways not had to be experts in the business as they were seen primarily as the people with communication skills (people who could write, listen, & speak). I think the skill set requirements for the role are changing quite a bit.