First of all, I am not talking about Networks in terms of routers and switches. I am talking about your networks. You as an individual have networks. Family, work associates, neighbors, classmates, people you volunteer with and beyond are all common networks we have. You can expand it out to a greater network being a member of a certain religion, tribe, or perhaps you are a vegan? These are different networks that overlap in increasing strange and wonderful ways.
Now, please take this to the business level. You as a company are made up of all different networks: Employees, Customers, Prospects, Partners, Resellers, Vendors, and you are a corporate citizen to the community in which you do business. Every individual member of your network drags along their own networks. Let’s take the most basic of these. Many companies declare their most valuable resource is their people or employees. Each employee brings with them their family unit and you have a direct impact on these other individuals’ lives. In the Facebook world think also of the “Friends of Friends” They in turn can potentially be customers, prospects, vendors and citizens of the same community. The question comes back to: How you INgaging your networks to drive results within your corporation? Remember this is a two way street! In turn, how are you providing value to continue to have the right to continue to INgage these people in a positive way?
Companies that are successful with a social strategy have answered these value proposition questions. They understand what deploying a community or social networking program is going to hopefully impact within their business. They also can jump into the shoes of the customer (and they do this continually in a successful deployment) and see the Raison D’Etre for INaging with them as a company in a conversation. If you as a company, can’t articulate both of these spend some time thinking about them. Simply ask yourself:
1) What can this organization learn and impact by listening and having a conversation that is archived with its constituents (employees, customers, partners…)?
2) What value will I provide this audience and what is the content that will incentivize them to spend time and effort to contribute?
Once these primary social science questions have been answered you can move on to discussing the finer aspects of a successful social INgagement strategy. Personally, this willness is a prime indictator I have a Social Buyer on the line. You noticed I haven’t mentioned a technology platform yet. These and other questions must be vetted and agreed upon from a cultural perspective to ensure your success as an organization. Otherwise your social effort is veering towards a disaster. I am calling them social science questions because a “social strategy” deploys technology to support the interaction of humans for a given purpose. From a business perspective, you are connecting like minded individuals to drive INgagement with a 360 degree value proposition. Does a friend that never helps you, provides you with any value and only takes from you and depletes your resources remain in your network? Will a customer, employee, or vendor? Social technology facilitates an INgagement with your intended audience to drive results for all involved. I have said it before… a social platform without a strategy and people to drive it is the same as a car without a knowledgeable driver and gas. It might as well be a garden gnome! They are quirky and cute but provide no measurable value to the lawn and in some cases detract from the overall curb appeal and hence value.
I am interested to hear your thoughts and want to thank Kim again for such an insightful discussion…
