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Socialytics! Ready, Set, Social Business Agenda!

Top 5 Questions on Social!
I was just looking at the Top 5 questions companies have about Social Media and in the Top 5 is "How do I create a social strategy?"  In fact 83% say this is THE most important question to answer.

Companies around the world are now focused on becoming Social Businesses, estimated to be a $100B market by 2015.  In the past, Social Media was top of mind for marketing and PR executives, with the focus on leveraging social tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and communities as a new form of media.  As these social techniques have advanced, businesses are now applying their value to more than just marketing and public relations but to all processes in a business – including Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Supply Chain and more.  A Social Business is one that uses these social techniques in all of its business processes.

It's GLOBAL!

As I have traveled around the globe to over 78 countries, this trend is a global one.  According to the GlobalWebIndex Survey of over 51K web users, use of social tools is now mainstream in all countries but Japan having over 50% of their population using the tools.  Communities are the number social tool being used, with Facebook is the dominating communities, except in Russia, Netherlands, Japan and China where local brands dominate.   So with this major focus,    how does your company start the journey?

 So how do you do it? 

Based on working with thousands of clients, below is a way to create your personalized Social Business Agenda.

 A  - Align your goals and culture to be ready to become more engaging and transparent. Do not underestimate the task ahead of you.  Culture eats strategy for lunch.  Take a look at IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines as a way to get started!

G – Gain Social Trust focuses on finding your fans, friends and followers, and forming best friends from your tippers or most influential clients or outside parties. It dives into what social trust is all about and how you instill it.

E – Engage through experiences focuses on how a company can engage its clients and employees and dives into gaming, virtual gifting, location based, mobile, or other stellar experiences to drive that engagement.

N – “Social” Network your processes. Since this is about business, figuring out how to add social technqiues to your processes is critical. Think about customer service — adding in Twitter to address your customer’s concerns. Or Crowdsourcing for product innovation, or Communities for incrementing your marketing processes around Loyalty!

D – Design for Reputation and Risk Management! This is the #1 areas of focus for the C level — managing the risk of having your brand online, your employees being your brand advocates, and even your clients becoming your marketing department! I think the value outweighs the risk .. but see how to develop a Disaster Recovery plan as you plan for the worst, and expect the best!

A – Analyze your data! Social analytics are the new black! You need to see the patterns of sentiment, who your tippers are, and listen daily !

by sandraanncarter