Is Social Networking Worth It?

Many organizations spend a lot of time, resources and money trying to understand the social landscape and engaging externally with their customers and prospects. They are on a quest to become a social brand so they invest in Facebook applications, branded communities and blogs; and many are using online monitoring solutions to listen to what people are saying about them. And many companies are doing a decent job. 

Friends, fans and followers are important, yes. And brands increase a business's social equity by engaging in two-way dialogue with their constituency, yes. And transparency is key to these external engagements, yes. But while many organizations are trying desperately to humanize their brand, they are failing to understand that they need to humanize their business first.

What does this mean? With the expansion of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks; and as the influence of the social customer became apparent to everyone, companies of all sizes and in every vertical market joined the conversation." It was not only an expectation from customers that companies engaged with them but also from social influencers who enjoyed playing Monday morning quarterback and often criticized brands for every customer action or inaction.

And companies listened. In response, many businesses hired community managers and social strategists, allocated finances to social media, hired social media agencies, integrated said social media into other areas of paid media and did their best to engage their community. They are now doing everything a "good" social brand should be doing.

Unfortunately, a good social brand presents a number of challenges in the enterprise. The anarchy, conflict, confusion of roles and responsibilities, lack of communication and collaboration; and organizational silos that exist are not always visible. These challenges make the process of becoming an effective social brand more difficult. So for many organizations, this quest to becoming a social brand and a social business is a simultaneous effort.

But let's clarify. Social business is an organization's natural (sometimes forced) efforts to humanize its business operations. This deals with the internal transformation of an organization and addresses change management, organizational models, culture, internal communications, collaboration, governance, training, employee activation, global and technology expansion, team dynamics and the establishment of a measurement philosophy.

In order for companies to manage their social business, they must get smarter, acquire new technologies, intelligence, and talent, and become transparent. To make one's internal operations open, employees must learn to communicate across silos, share knowledge, and change the way they operate. These businesses must establish processes and governance models that protect the organization yet empower employees. This can involve changing everything from how a press release is written to how products are developed.

A social business is built upon three pillars people, process and technology, and all three must work independently yet be completely integrated into the organization's culture.

The foundation of a fully collaborative social business is its people. So organizational change should shift employee behavior. All technology, collaboration software and community applications deployed behind the firewall will not be effective unless there is a fundamental shift in the way employees think, interact with one another and communicate. These initiatives have to be driven by organizational leadership and practiced at every level in the organization from senior leadership all the way down to customer support agents. Otherwise, change will not occur. This means that executives must not only talk about changing the organization but exemplify the behaviors that  facilitate and practice change.

The end result is an increase in trust among all employees at every level; empowering employees to engage externally; an increase in budget for social business initiatives, collaboration, and more effective social organization models.

Process cuts right through the entire fabric of the organization. It ensures that every job function in every business unit and within every geography is consistent when performing certain tasks. For example, when a new employee joins a company and wants to start blogging or Tweeting on behalf of the company, a process should be in place that governs training, certification and social media policies. Another example is when marketing departments in other countries want to create a Facebook fan page specifically for their geography, a process should be in place to manage the creation of this new social media destination, and escalate requests to a governing body (i.e. Social Media Center of Excellence) to avoid duplicate pages and inconsistent messaging.  

Processes should help facilitate the chaos that exists from behind the firewall i.e. employees sharing sensitive material externally, social media ownership, crisis management and product feedback workflows; and ensuring there is one measurement philosophy that the entire organization is bought into and using for reporting. 

Additionally, training initiatives, social media policies and guidelines, moderation policies, global expansion must be documented, approved and then rolled up into a co-created governance model. This ensures that there is a singular message communicated globally, a legal documentation that protects the organization, empowers employees and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Finally, a social business needs technology in order to facilitate change and collaboration.

Organizations need to be smart and think long term before investing in applications that facilitate internal collaboration (Jive, Lithium, Yammer), social listening (Radian6, Meltwater), measurement (Rowfeeder, Argyle), social relationship management (Sprinklr, Syncapse Platform) and social CRM (Nimble, JitterJam, Pivotal). 

Companies need to first understand what it is they are trying to achieve before thinking about which technology vendor to deploy. Are they trying to streamline communication between business units or geographies? Are they looking to roll out a collaboration application that will eventually replace their intranet? Or, are they planning to use social CRM and weave it into their sales and marketing initiatives?  Whatever the case, it's important to understand the culture of the organization and its leadership. Technology will not change an organization's culture. However, having a strong understanding of it will have a huge impact on the technical requirements, choice of technology and how to implement and configure it.

The challenge with technology is that there are so many software vendors in the space to choose from. Organizations need to think strategically before purchasing technology; and consider scale, integration, support and maintenance costs, and the suite of applications already in use.

The foundation for social business transformation is culture and leadership. All the technology in the world and all the process/compliance documents created are useless if organizational behaviors aren't changed. Change starts from the top and business leaders are the ones responsible for facilitating change.

A tech veteran, Michael Brito is senior VP of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of the world's largest independently owned public relations firm. He is a sought after speaker, advisor and community activist on issues ranging from social business, fundraising, digital marketing, community engagement, customer advocacy and integrated brand marketing communications. Brito received a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Saint Mary's College and a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Golden Gate University. He also served eight years in the United States Marine Corps.