Presented by Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
The ease of posting anything on the Internet means that negative messages about your company may be higher in the search results than your own messages (ex. comcast technician sleeping on my couch – see YouTube). This gives individuals enormous power, but it also means individuals help each other.
What can companies do about this? Should this be something to fear? It’s important for companies to have clear objectives about what they’re trying to achieve by using social media. Think about relationships instead of technologies.
In the book, Groundswell, the following methodology is recommended:
- P – People – Who is your audience? What are they doing online? How do they do it and when?
- O – Objectives – What are you trying to accomplish for your business?
- S – Strategy – Plan for how relationships with your customers will change.
- T – Technology – Once all the other steps have been examined, take a look at what tools make sense to accomplish your goals.
People – Different types of people have different levels of online participation. You can profile your customers at groundswell.forrester.com to see where they are on the participation ladder: inactives, spectators, joiners, collectors, critics, creators. Age is a major driver of participation, but as more content becomes available online, there has been more participation.
Objectives – Different departments in your company will have different objectives for social media:
- Market Research – Listening
- Marketing – Talking (have open-ended conversations)
- Sales – Energizing (activating your most passionate customers)
- Support – Supporting (your customers can help support each other)
- Development – Embracing (customer ideas and feedback can speed up and provide higher quality development which better meets the market needs)
Strategy – Start small because you will make lots of mistakes. Think big about how this can transform your organization. Control is an illusion – the conversations about your brand will happen whether or not you participate. Understand what motivates people to participate – very rarely is monetary – they want to help, make a difference, be heard, and be part of a community.
Technology – This will depend on where the people you want to reach are already. It may make more sense to participate in an existing community than to start your own.
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