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Introducing Social Business
by Robert Kraai 09/29/2011
Working through our Social Business campaign is raising a lot of new marketing ideas and methodologies that the technology folks in our company were not plugged into before. We are getting a marketing education that enhances what we already knew about using the technology to support marketing activities. I have also been talking about Social Business with customers, prospects and fellow industry folks; and it seems that there is not a censuses out there for what Social Business on the web is. The definition of conducting Social Business is not a universal thought yet. I have my definition, and I will try to explain it below.
Social Business, Social Communities, Social Applications, and Social Collaboration all have meaning to me within the scope of doing business and interacting with people on the web. My focus is on the business aspects of this, and our site will be geared to putting into practice what we recommend to our customers and what we see our customers and others doing. This is not quite the same as the Social Business that Wikipedia defines as business that benefits the community and helps to reduce the world problems of poverty. I agree that all businesses have a responsibility to benefit the community where they operate. Social Business on the web is the use of Social Web Applications to build and maintain a community of people that benefit from the knowledge and products that your company and other community members provide; and in doing so increase the company exposure and raise the return on investment (ROI) of your online marketing.
It's the "benefiting the community" part that really makes my heart race. It's how I want to do business. I like to take care of the people around me (customers, employees, and the greater community of interest), and that is the culture of company that AceCP should become. It is why our sales and marketing is going through this iterative change process that I talk about in the site blog.
Many different communities come into existence on the web, and people come and go or lurk about until the community fades away (it might be reduced to occasional traffic or die altogether). One of my favorite TV Shows called "The Unit" had a decent little community of followers while it was in existence. Once it was cancelled, that community bumped up in members who were looking for information on why it was cancelled, and when it would be brought back. Over time, that interest has faded. You still see new posts from time to time as people have picked up the DVDs or seen syndicated reruns are looking for more.
While it was strong, the site provided episodes, interviews, and community forums to discuss the show. There were articles and background information that made watching the show more enjoyable. However, the adoption by viewers was not as strong as it could have been or perhaps the show would continue to grow. Would it have been possible for the producers of "The Unit" to grow ratings and advertisers for the show by growing awareness on the web? It's possible. I can't speculate as to the answer, but I can say for certain that any web community and in particular the information sharing and unique content can help to grow awareness of a company or product. You have to have a hook that makes it important for people to join, stay active, and invite others.
Everyone reading this should now turn their head and look at the Facebook page they have open behind all their other windows or on their phone. I'd wager most people reading this blog have it up or had it up before their boss walked by. That's a community that ebbs and flows and continues to grow. The content comes almost entirely from individuals and companies posting short snippets of information. People get tired of keeping up with Facebook, and close their account, only to reopen them 6 months later when they want to find out what everyone else is doing. The draw is the intimate social interaction. That is a broad audience. Everyone that knows someone that is on Facebook has a reason to visit Facebook. You could duplicate that with Google+ or the MySpace precursor, but a company is not going to have that same kind of draw for their products and services.
What a corporate entity needs to do is sell where the people are. A company needs to take advantage of Facebook and Google+ and Twitter and Linked In and etc to tie into their community. The people are there. Your company needs to be there too. You can't just "be there" either. You have to engage in a way that makes people want to read about you or partake in what you are offering. Advertising on Facebook and Google may get people exposure and generate site hits, but you still need the hook to get them and keep them engaged so that they will do business with you. What is the "content" or "application" that will make that happen?
Let me talk about what that is for a bit. Back in 1998 a company asked me to build them a web site for their pewter business. They had these nifty hand crafted pewter goblets and other assorted pewter castings. If you were looking for pewter dishes and goblets, then they probably had what you were looking for. However, there were not a lot of people looking specifically for Pewter-ware. The people coming to their site found them at Renaissance Fairs and though referrals and flyers.
I had this idea that they could get traffic by changing their site into an online game environment. I called it a "soap opera for the web" where people would get an online personality and be able to move through a game scenario and at the same time be able to shop. Maybe even shop for things that were not just pewter, but other renaissance type items. It was a good idea, and I still think it would be nifty. However, it had nothing to do with Pewter. It might have made money as an online game, but how was I helping them move their company forward? There was no budget for big development, and no real interest from the client. That site went up as a simple ecommerce web site that continued to service customers from the festivals and referrals. It was not a community, and it did not survive.
If I had not been the computer geek I was, and looked at their business, I would have seen that much of what they did was demonstrations of the techniques used to work with Pewter. They had old fashioned hand powered wheels and push sticks that they used to work the pewter and surround themselves at fairs with viewers of their demonstrations. That brought people into the physical booth which they then browsed and handled the end products before buying. The information and demonstrations of the "lost art" of crafting and spinning pewter by hand was what the community wanted. Besides the products, that information and demonstration was the hook of the business.
Revisiting that site today, I would create videos of the demonstrations. I would provide history articles and pictures and descriptions of the tools. I would ask the client to dig up a pedigree of artisans that worked with pewter this way, and provide some of the stories as online articles. For instance, why did eating tomatoes off pewter plates drive people insane? You just want to know that stuff, and you'd go to the site to find out. I would ask the business owners to blog about the fairs they were attending, and post photos of the customers that came into their store. It would bring people to the site, and bring in referrals to view the pictures and videos. I would build a Facebook page tied to the blog and article posts so that summaries are published and "friends" are kept in a running exposure to the business. The next time they think of buying something like that, the company would already have them as a follower and bring them in as a customer.
These are just some ideas, but it highlights what my message is. The knowledge and the people (that make up your business and customers) can mix it up to build the foundation that brings together a community and allow you to use the Social Web to build your business. That community might be small with few people actually engaged (maybe just the business owners with a growing number of followers), but it can plant the seeds that grow into potential customers.
In summary, Social Business is providing value to get people engaged with your company and thinking of you when they want to make a purchase. I started this article off by mentioning that our company was learning and growing into a Social Business driven company. Some people call what we are doing Agile Marketing. I find that none of what we are doing is new. We are just making use of the technologies that we preach about, and the advice we have been giving to our own customers to make mistakes, learn, grow, and measure the results.
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