What Does It Really Mean to Be a Social Business?

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Social media and social business are terms that are getting used a lot lately. But while one may enable the other, they're very different - and organizations that don't understand the distinction may be missing out on a huge opportunity to improve their business processes.

Debate Brewing

Social media continues to mature as both a channel and a market in its own right. It's even becoming an agent for social change. Technology made it possible for us to connect, and now social media has made it possible to do it in a more organic, human way. It's hard to believe, but Facebook and LinkedIn are each coming up on their 10th year, and Twitter is now six years old. Together, they've fundamentally changed how we engage with one another online. Millennials who grew up in a social world are entering the workforce. What happens next? Social business.

While the concept of a social business has been around for a few years, right now it's really gaining traction. But there's a huge difference between a business that uses social media and one that that empowers social connections and makes them a fundamental part of operations. In other words, some companies tweet about their products - and that's it. Truly social businesses use social collaboration to change the way their employees and teams interact.

Not everyone agrees - the debate is brewing, and a number of papers, research reports, and books appear on the subject every day. I recently engaged in a discussion on the subject during a Twitter chat hosted by @PamMktgNut. Check out the #getrealchat transcript to read the whole conversation. I love the fact that we were using social media to discuss the topic, and that we got to hear 136 perspectives in a real-time discussion. The consensus was that social media is a marketing and communication channel, and social business is a philosophy that combines process, technology, and people to be successful. Of course, social media is a part of the greater concept of social business, since it helps an organization communicate with external constituents. But an intrinsically social company infuses social interaction into every part of their business operations.

The Social Business

The way I see it, a social business is a connected organization where the expertise of the individual is accessible by all through the ability to collaborate. Internal and external social communication fuels the development of new product and service development by employing social listening and analytics. It's the application of the new communication medium that was introduced by social media into the very fabric of how we work.

I believe that social business is the next step in the evolutionary process in the day-to-day functions of digitally enabled enterprises. Much in the same way that the Internet revolutionized how we all work in the era of e-business; social processes, technology, and mindsets will revolutionize how people in organizations connect, collaborate, and share knowledge.

What Do You Think?

Of course, this debate continues in the marketplace, and since this is an ongoing evolution, it's likely to change. Large software vendors like Adobe, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce.com are starting to formulate strategies for developing new ways business is conducted in the digital and social era. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what this means for you - and also for the future of your business.

 

Target, Trend, and Timing: How Victoria’s Secret Marketers Got It Right

I love when I see marketers knock it out of the park!

(It makes for funny TV watching conversation with my husband, when I force him to rewind the DVR back to the commercial so that I watch the nuance, and explain—over the actual show—what made that commercial so great… ha!)

So when I received the Victoria’s Secret PINK back-to-school catalog last week, I was in heaven.The VS marketers really demonstrate my top three marketing mandates:

  1. Know your target market
  2. Stay on trend
  3. Time it just right

VS PINK certainly knows their target market—millennial women. I won’t go into the fashion itself, but I will speak directly to the marketing techniques applied to this particular audience. And this audience is very particular—they know exactly what they want and they’re used to being able to get it with a tap of their fingers. But what really struck me as clever about the back-to-school catalog was the free gift with purchase.

I had just read this great article about millennial demographic preferences that specifically points out the fact that “Millennials love their headphones.” So this (branded) gift with purchase hits that sweet spot with the VS PINK audience and further reinforces the brand.

Love it!

The “on trend” aspect that grabbed me about the catalog was that the graphic designers had tweaked every design element “just so.”

Perfectly on target: flat design, simple graphics, circles, bright colors. The inside pages of the catalog look like you’re shopping on an iPad. And then they sealed the deal with a hashtag tagline on the back cover. All perfectly tuned into their audience.

The timing of this campaign was also seamlessly orchestrated:

  • Day 1 (Wednesday): The VS PINK BTS catalog arrives in the mail with a note that a new PINK store is opening in my area
  • Day 2 (Thursday): A VS PINK BTS email pops up in my inbox with consistent imagery and offers
  • Day 3 (Friday): A VS PINK new store email shows up, reinforcing the catalog mention of the new local store opening
  • Day 4 (Saturday): A VS PINK BTS email follows with consistent imagery to catalog, but different from the first BTS email

So not only did the catalog arrive at just the right time to hit the back-to-school shopper, but the sequence of online and offline marketing touches reinforced the message over time.

Well done, VS PINK marketing team!

Thanks for demonstrating how to execute marketing effectively. I certainly enjoyed it!

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