Social Media Marketing

The Systems Thinking Approach

By Jeri Denniston, Principal, and Stephen Haines, Founder and CEO, The Haines Centre for Strategic Management This is no longer a gimmick. This is how ... people want to receive their news and want to hear from us. Nick Schaper
Where do we want to be in social media? How will we know when we get there? Where are we now and what must we do? How will we get to where we want to be? What may change the environment in the future? Dont launch into social networking without first knowing why youre doing it and how to make the best use of the tools for your business to achieve results. Combine systems thinking with the journalists five questionsthe Who, What, When, Where and Whyto ensure youre using social networking to your best advantage. See our ABCs and top five tips below for our Systems Thinking Approach to Social Media Marketing.

SYSTEMS THINKING IN TODAYS COMMUNICATION

As the new-media representative for House Minority Leader John Boehner, Nick Schaper was in charge of the communications team that rocketed Boehner to the Speaker of the House in 2011. Schaper expanded Boehners campaign through the use of social media, video production and custom web development. He said the election was a real spark for our members to realize this needs to be a major part of our communications strategy. This is no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want to receive their news and want to hear from us. Social media is now a part of business. Like any business structure, it needs to be approached strategically to be used efficiently and effectively to get revenue and results. Applying The Systems Thinking Approach to social media is the difference between arbitrary web postings and connections and using todays means of communication to attract and retain customers. Social media marketing is all about creating relationships with customers and potential customers. Of course, the big question is when and how do you actually turn social media relationships into sales? The Systems Thinking Approachthe Haines Centres Universal Framework and Guide to work and lifeallows you to build a strategic plan and direction for your social media marketing. It involves five phases that have five questions:

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Who is your target audience?

TOP FIVE TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Tip 1: Do some research.
What may change in the future?

Systems Thinking begins by examining the external environment around you so that you can make informed plans and decisions. This phase is an ongoing process. Researching social media will get you started answering the journalists five questions: Start by identifying your target audience or audiences. The tools they use and how they interact with online websites and social media differ by age, gender and demographics. In order to reach your audience effectively, you first need to know your customers or clients and find out what theyre doing online. An excellent resource for this data is Mashable.com, a top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. Aaron Uhrmacher, one of the sites bloggers, provides especially helpful information and resources for understanding this industry in his entry How to Find Statistics on Social Media. In this blog, he cites several resources for information about who uses which social media sites. One resource mentioned is a study of 49.3 million people conducted by Rapleaf. The study identifies each of the social media tools most used by men and women in several age categories. For example, between the ages of 14 and 34, women tend to be the heavier users of social media sites. However, from ages 35 to over 65, men are the heavier users of social media. Clearly, knowing statistics like this will help your organization target its desired demographic.

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What are they doing online?

Its important to know what your customers and clients are doing when they go online, not just which tools theyre using. Are they blogging, searching for products and services, sharing photos and comments on Facebook, or looking for jobs on LinkedIn? You need to understand what theyre doing so you can meet them online in the same spaceproviding coupons, special promotional offers and information theyre seeking. There are many websites that provide information about the myriad social networking sites. These resources can help you make the key decisions about which tools to use to target which audiences: ComScore, Inc.resource for statistics about the most popular tools and what age groups are using them (comscore.com) The Future Buzzblog by Adam Singer that provides useful statistics on some of the most popular social media sites (thefuturebuzz.com) Web Strategyblog by Jeremiah Owyang (web-strategist.com) TechCrunchtechnology media property dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products and breaking tech news (techcrunch.com) CNETtechnology reviews and news (cnet.com) Nielsen Onlineonline measurement services (nielsen.com) Nielson reported that social networks and blogs have surpassed personal e-mail as a popular online activity. Member communities are visited by nearly 70 percent of the global online population, with time spent growing at three times the overall internet rate, accounting for nearly 10 percent of all internet time.

This increase in use often alters expected demographics, as Nielsen reported: Facebook started out as a service for university students but now almost one third of its global audience is aged 35 to 49 years of age and almost one quarter is over 50 years old. In the UK, for example, if the average month-on-month audience changes over the last six months were to continue; by mid-June 2009 there would be as many 35- to 49-year-olds on Facebook as 18- to 34-yearolds. The changing audience offers advertisers the opportunity to use social networks as a vehicle for targeting all demographic groups. In Italy, brands such as Maseratitraditionally marketed to an older audiencenow have fan pages on Facebook.

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When are they going online? Where are they coming from?

Another tool to help you identify the social media sites your customers are using is the Social Technographics profile tool, which was created by Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff of Forrester Research Technographics as part of a promotion for their book Groundswell. The tool lets users enter basic information and see how participation varies among demographics worldwide. The results give you a picture of whether your target audience are comprised mostly of Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators or Inactives when it comes to using social media. (See model to right. You can also view an explanatory slide presentation on Forrester.com.) Of course, the big debate right now is how do you translate this information into sales?

It is also crucial to know when your customers and clients are going online to interact with social media, so that you will be online at the same time. This is a critical component of your social media strategy. Gary McCaffrey, for example, has tracked the best times for sending Tweets on Twitter to gain the maximum traffic and attention, based on the traffic hes seen to his websites. He reports that early in the morning (5 to 6 a.m.) and midday (noon to 2 p.m.) seem to be the highest traffic times. The research resources listed earlier may provide insight about when your customers are using social media. You may want to look at similar statistics for traffic to your blogs and websites as well. A critical aspect of your social media strategy is to understand where your customers and clients are coming from. Are they being referred by other customers? Are they finding you through Google searches? Are they coming to your sites because of your online presence, your blogs or your links to other key sites? What other sites are they

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visiting and where are they buying? Youll want to find ways to link to or advertise with those sites to entice customers to visit yours.

Why are they using social media?

To successfully use social media, it is critical to gain an understanding of why companies, clients and customers are turning to social media. A scan of the environment around you will provide some clues. For a holistic view, consider the following Future Environmental Scanning categories grouped together under the acronym SKEEPTIC (which is the new industry standard copyrighted by the Haines Centre): 1. Sociodemographics: Consider how society is changing and will change in the next 3 to 5 years, the possible exit of many boomers from the workforce, the talent gap that will exist between the 30-somethings in power and the knowledge and experience void boomers leave behind. Look at demographics to see how they impact your products or services and your changing customer base. 2. Competition: Gain a thorough understanding of who youre competing against today, as well as who the new entrants might be into your particular industry or market. For example, in banking in the 1980s, the mentality was build it and they will come. Who would have thought that retail stores like Sears and Wal-Mart would enter the field? Now we find bank branches in grocery outlets. Automated banking is now the norm for many people who never visit any bank branches. Clearly, the banks had to change to meet their customers where they shop. So considerwho might be your next competitor? 3. Economy: Yes, the poor global economy is having a dramatic impact on how people work, live and shop, and its affecting how companies market to them. More dollars are shifting to online social media sites in order to establish relationships with customers. According to a survey by Forrester Research Technographics, 48% of company respondents said the current economy has made them experiment more with social media to compensate for budget cuts. Additionally, 22% said they would shift dollars from traditional channels to online use and 20% said they would focus more on social media then traditional tactics. Only 10% said the current economy would make them cut back on all marketing activity. 4. Environment: Are your customers and clients concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, buying only products and services that are environmentally friendly? What are you doing or can you do to ensure your company is environmentally friendly? If it applies, be sure to include this in your plan. There is a growing green revolution world-wideare you a part of it? 5. Political and Regulatory Issues: Do you operate in a regulated industry like energy, health care or the financial industry? How are the changing political and regulatory issues affecting the way you do business and how you serve your customers? What additional changes might take effect in the next 3 to 5 years for which you need to prepare today, and how do they affect your social media and online marketing strategies and tactics?

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Tip 2: Have a vision and plan.

6. Technology: The world is changing so fast. What do you need to do to ensure your staff has the latest technological tools in order to do the work necessary to achieve your social media goals? 7. Industry: How will your global competitors and industry change in the next 3 to 5 years? Who will be the new entrants to the marketand who will be gone? What do you need to do today to be ready for the changes, and what impact will these competition implications have on your social media strategies? 8. Customer/ Clients: Todays customers may not be your customers tomorrow. The newspaper industry is a good example of an industry that didnt pay significant attention to the changing environment. They continued to write for an increasingly diminishing market: the baby boomers and older. While many have also gone online to reach the younger audiences, they focused their major attention on the print side rather than online. And we see whats happening today with that industrys demise. What about yours? Are your customers of tomorrow increasingly researching and shopping online? How can your website(s) and blog(s) become trusted sites to which your customers refer for valuable information? Considering the environmental around you is a critical component to creating and successfully implementing your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.

Where do we want to be in social media?

After considering the external environment, you need to determine your vision. What is your Ideal Future Vision for social media marketing? As Stephen Covey said, Begin with the end in mind. Begin your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan by detailing your desired outcomeswhat you want to achieve. Apply the research on the Who, What, When, Where and Why identified in the first phase. Once youve created your desired outcomes, you can begin to put them into action and be on your way to your Ideal Future Vision. The next three tips lay out the framework for creating your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.

Tip 3: Identify your key success measures.

How will we know when we get there?

Once youve decided where you want to be, you need to determine your own specific goals/ Key Success Measures for each demographic youre trying to reach. What feedback will determine that your strategies are working and you are progressing toward your desired outcomes? Customer comments? The number of people that link to your information, websites, blogs? A percentage increase in sales or customer satisfaction? Only you can determine these measures, and they are critical to helping you to gauge the success of your social media strategies. Make sure to include financial results, not just massive activity buzz.

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Tip 4: Understand your current situation.

Where are we now?
The next step is a Current State Assessment in which you consider the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) to your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan: Internal Strengths and Weaknesses: Honestly evaluate your staff s current strengths and weaknesses relative to social media use. How knowledgeable are you and your staff about the social media tools? Who will be using these tools and to what purpose? Will you rely on one person or department to handle all the social media marketing? Will you outsource the process or do it yourself? External Opportunities and Threats: Next, evaluate the Opportunities and Threats of your competition and the implications of your Future Environmental Scan. Know which of your competitors might be ahead of you in the social media networking arenaand which are lagging behind or still sitting on the sidelines. You also need to look at where new competitors might be springing from 2 to 3 years down the road. The world is changing so fast, and new opportunities are being created daily that didnt exist a year or so ago. You need to be reviewing these environmental trends on a quarterly basis to stay ahead of the game. Be ready to act fast when the opportunities present themselves.

Tip 5: Close the gap with key strategies and actions.

How do we get there?

Now that youve established where you are, you can close the gap between your current state and your Ideal Future Vision. This is where you start creating the strategies, initiatives and actions youll implement to reach your desired outcomes. This phase is also about implementing your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.

For each target audience identify the social media tools they use: blogs, RSS Feeds, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Are they creating content, uploading videos, reviewing and linking to other peoples content, or reading and commenting on content? This will determine how you and your staff participate and communicate with the specific target audience. You may want to assign different people to focus their efforts on different target audiencesand you may also want to match your staff with the appropriate age groups so the language they use matches that of the target audience. These are some of the key decisions you need to make as you develop your Core Strategies and actions. Resources such as Chris Brograns The 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media (chrisbrogan.com) and Bill Crosbys Twitter Traffic Machine (twittertrafficmachinethe.com) can help in this process. If you choose to outsource the social media networking process, external consultants such as the Haines Centre would help you develop your 3 7 Core Strategies with a maximum of four key actions supporting each strategy. (Its difficult to execute more than that in one year.) External consultants also help to ensure we have the right team of people communicating on your behalf with your specific target audiences.

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SUMMARY
Another in the Becoming Customer-Focused Series.

Finally, set a calendar of key dates to track your progress and your staff s progress in executing the strategies and actions. If you dont do this, other work will get in the way, and youll find this plan falling by the wayside. This is one of the most critical aspects of putting your plan into action. People do what you inspect, not what you expect. Setting a calendar for progress review meetings and reports and holding those involved accountable is critical to ensure successful implementation of your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan.

Strategic use of social media requires a Systems Thinking Approach to guide you through the creation and implementation of your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan. But remember that online use requires constant vigilance. Technology is created and updated at a dizzying rate. What is state-of-the-art now may be obsolete in six months! To keep up with the pace, it is important to repeat the Systems Thinking Cycle, constantly scanning the future for changes that may affect your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan. Doing so will keep you on top of the social media game. Clarity, simplicity and speedand better financial resultsare the norm when you use The Systems Thinking Approach. For more information or help with your Strategic Social Media Marketing Plan, e-mail Jeri Denniston at jeri.denniston@hainescentre.com or visit strategysd.com.

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