Despite their (often) vast resources, it’s sometimes nearly as difficult for large brands to develop a coherent social media strategy as it is for a small mom-and-pop company.
Making social scale can be difficult, with different divisions owning different pieces of the pie and having different ideas of the role of social media in the enterprise.
With that in mind, Sprinklr reached out to about 30 people with different social media backgrounds and asked our thoughts on what #SocialAtScale actually means and what it takes to get there.
For me, the answer was simple: You have to care.
I said it was simple, not easy.
As I read other chapters in the ebook, I was impressed with all the different aspects the writers addressed.
David Meerman Scott takes the word “social” out of the equation entirely and substitutes “real-time.” That puts the focus not on chit-chatting, but on seeing what your customers/clients/partners are doing in the here and now. What are their needs? And how fast can you meet them?
Mack Collier posits that not every enterprise is even ready for Social@Scale. If they’re not ready to create both a “continuous feedback loop” and an internal structure that will properly gather and distribute the data gleaned, they’re not going to succeed.
Nilofer Merchant says the big companies can no longer afford to be 800-pound gorillas, but rather 800-pound gazelles: Big, but agile. Difficult to knock down, fast-moving.
Renee Blodgett wants to knock down companies’ internal silos. Making communication across networks and divisions seamless is vital, she says.
Ted Rubin invokes his mantra, #ReturnOnRelationship, and says brands need to stop thinking about “social media” and instead think about “social business.” Entire enterprises need to communicate with their customers, not just customer service.
Sarah Evans reminds us “we no longer ‘own’ our corporate messages.” Some team at an enterprise needs to oversee the social strategy, but not everyone involved in social needs to be ON that team. Liaisons to customer service or other departments can be vital to help spread practices throughout the company.
Ann Handley points out that at the cornerstone of any social strategy, no matter the company size, is their story. But their story, she says, is not what they do, but rather what they do for others.
And Jeff Bullas beseeches you to not leave Social@Scale to the interns. Social is an extremely important part of a company’s overall customer service / communications / public relations / marketing / branding strategy now that it needs to have some level of involvement from on high. It’s not just posting things on Facebook, you know.
There were many other posts in the book – 30 in all, including my post, “You Have to Care” (p. 52 of the book, but the 57th page of the PDF).
To give you more of a sense of what I had to say, here’s the pull quote Sprinkler snagged from my piece:
“You won’t always gain the love and approval of your audience, but if you respond when they have problems, you’ll earn their respect.”
You can download the ebook here.
Amy Vernon is general manager of social marketing for NYC tech startup Internet Media Labs. She’s an inaugural inductee of the New Jersey Social Media Hall of Fame and top female submitter of all time on the social news site Digg.com. Her background includes nearly 20 years as a professional daily newspaper journalist at The Miami Herald and other papers, and she has written for Esquire.com, Network World, and The Next Web. You can find her blog here and stalk her on Twitter @AmyVernon.
Image via Sprinklr
