Look to your Bad Habits to Foster Your Goals

When helping many enterprises wrap their arms around a social strategy, I always try to get them to circle back to their business drivers or goals for embarking on a social roadmap.   If these aren’t in place it will be virtually impossible to arrive at results never mind deploy the correct social technology to succeed!

A blog post on Workshifting.com regarding “7 Habits That Derail Your Goals” by David Baeza really pushed me rethink goal setting process.   The definition of a goal by the Oxford Dictionary is “the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result”.   This is critical in developing a social roadmap.  

My epiphany was: Goals are set to Rectify Bad Habits.   Goal setting, by nature, should be prefaced by a gut wrenching exercise to determine why this is a goal to start.  What aren’t you doing or what are you doing which is preventing the ideal nature of business nirvana?   We all have heard to death that “Goals need to be measureable.” Sure, okay… but does that make them achievable?   Think about a personal goal which continues to show up on the list in January year after year.  Some of the top personal goals every year are to lose weight, stop smoking, spend more time with family, exercise more…  you get the picture.   

Let’s look at this.   On your goal list is:  I want to lose 30 pounds this year.  Okay, that is:

1.     Attainable (given you have 30lbs to lose) with proper management and is less than a pound a week. 
2.     It can be measured by a scale
3.    It can be broken up into smaller goals that can be used as incentives along the way.  I want to lose 10 pounds by March 31^st.

What most people don’t do is look at really why they need to lose 30 pounds.  They may realize they don’t eat healthy or exercise or have an addiction to ice cream.  However, these are still symptoms rather than the root of the problem that is causing the issue.   You aren’t going to suddenly decide fruit is tastier and a craving rather than ice cream.  

Moving this into the professional realm.   Do you want to have better customer retention?  Okay great.  Your social strategy goal is to impact customer retention and increase your percentage by 10% over two years and drive incremental existing customer sales up by also 10%.   Lofty goals, my friend.  Lets put the goal analysis magnifying glass on it.

1.      Attainable: Yes, companies can improve customer retention by 10%
2.      It can be measured.  Sure I have 1000 customers how many of these are still customers in two years.
3.      It can be broken into smaller subsets

Here is the question…  Why are you having a problem with retention in the first place?  Better communication and listening to your customers on a 24/7/365 basis is certainly a step in the right direction just like joining a gym.   However, simply having a place to listen or work out is not going to get you to the goal.  For many, this is hitting bottom.  They have looked in the mirror and decided what is looking back at them isn’t the person or company they want to be in life.   If you are a company leader, is the organization really the best it can be?  Are you finally ready to implement changes that need to happen in order to make your customers more loyal or buy more from you?   Are you cultural ready?  

You may not realize the core of the problem.  Your customers probably understand it.  Social Technology can be a great mirror.  Painful for some.   Addicting to others.   So when you look in your corporate mirror are you seeing the Biggest Loser when they walk into get on the scale for the first time or at the finale?   Zappos.com, Ford Motor Company, American Express and others are addicted to looking in their social mirrors at themselves.  It is not a bad thing for you and others to like what you see.  

Success is not chance.  It is hard work with a bit of luck around the edges.   Social success is not easy or free.   Companies that are seeing success have dedicated the appropriate resources from a human resource, financial and cultural standpoint.   

BUT WHY????

BUT WHY???

If you have children or have had the luxury of spending quality time with a three year old, you probably have encountered the "Why Stage". Every statement, question, and sentence, regardless of how silly, is answered by a sweet young voice asking, "WHY!??!??"  Enterprises need to harness “their inner child voices” while developing their social strategy  The first rule and milestone to agree upon is the "WHY". This is your primary goal for establishing a multi channeled conversation. This "WHY" will identify also the first audience you also want to impact. It will set the table for some of the milestones and metrics you as a company want to accomplish with this journey.

"WHY?" is a nagging and grueling question. "WHY?" can drive you crazy. One answer is never correct. It is a typical answer from adults… "BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!. You see, this answer, doesn't satisfy the audience. The three year old hates this answer. You can already see the resentment and tears forming in the eyes of the cherub. That cherub is your intended corporate audience. Whether that audience is your employees, customers, prospects, partners, or OEM's… the last thing any company needs is a social effort that brings tears to your stakeholders' eyes. It is crucial to be able sit down and clearly articulate the "Why" in terminology that anyone (even the three year old) can understand. A clear message on why will help:

• Internal staff responsible for the effort to understand their role
  
• Stakeholders understand the purpose and what they will gain from collaboration
  
• Clarify the metrics and the message
  
• Reach the ROI potential
  

Some samples of corporate whys:

• Increase online sales and support our franchise network
  
• Customer support and retention
  
• Increase our place in the XXX listing of our competitors
  
• Reduce product innovation and time to market costs
  
• Improve employee collaboration and institutional memory
  
• Increase fan loyalty during the off season
  

If you are having trouble selecting one or formulating this, it may be time to reach out to someone to assist with this. I encourage you to share either your corporate "WHY" or comment on what challenges you faced determining the "WHY" your enterprise entered the social conversation.