In Conversation with EveryoneSocialInterviews with Content Marketing Thought Leaders

MICHAEL BRITO

14No.

Share this ebook

Introduction

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates

When it comes to social business, you might wonder if your business has what it takes to make the change. What if your employees aren’t ready? Or worse, what if they make decisions that impact you negatively? The benefits of social business can be huge: you can reach more potential customers; you can respond to problems faster; and you can gain huge insight into what customers and employees want from your business and what will make them advocates for you. The obstacles, however, can seem huge.

Fortunately, when it comes to social business, you only need a few things to put you in the right direction: strong leadership to inspire a desire to change and imitate; a company culture that embraces change and creativity; and the ability to set realistic goals and expectations for a social business.

Those factors might seem more daunting than easy, but don’t worry, we have Michael Brito here to explain. Michael Brito is the Group Director at WCG, a W20 company. He has written several books on the power of social business. In this ebook, he’ll give a few tips and tricks for creating a social business, as well as the importance of good leadership and the challenges of social business.

The social marketing dashboard that transforms

every employee into a brand evangelist

EveryoneSocial’s platform gives marketing teams and social media specialists a broad range of intuitive tools

that make content initiatives and advocacy efforts efficient, measurable, and easy to use.

Quantifies and measures the business impact of

social media activity

Exponentially expands brand reach and deepens audience understanding

Creates advocates and cultural alignment

CONTINUE

Get Organized

It would be wise to tell you how I got here, which begs the question as to why social business is such a hot commodity these days. Back when social media first got big there was no strategy at all. There were all these separate teams working within the same company, and they weren’t communicating with each other. You found later that big companies had around 180 social media channels on average — which is really hard to get a handle on and control. It’s hard to organize product launches and strategies with so many different channels. People decided to step back and ask how this could be done better, how it could be better measured. It is all internally based — not social media marketing, nothing external, but it enables better content.

My first book was about encouraging businesses to become social businesses for the sake of being a social business, for the sake of being better, more organized, and more effective. The challenge I had was when I talk to a marketing person, I would say, here’s our thinking on social business and they would say, “what’s in it for me? How will that help me communicate with customers?” That’s a good point! I needed to go back to the drawing board. My second book was looking at real world business challenges and opportunities based on the digital ecosystem where brands must think like media companies. It takes the principles of social business — the infrastructure, the training — and applies them to the evolution of business.

11 What is your definition of “social business”?

Millennial Revolution

Whether they know it or not, it is. There are lots of businesses where employees work in silos. I think companies are going to think about it as millennials become CEOs and there are going to be more challenges when that happens. Through industry and thought leadership, companies will realize they need to figure it out sooner rather than later.

If we want the next generation to take over business, to lead companies, to become executives, we have to put the groundwork in place for them to succeed and, fact of the matter is, millennials work differently, and that’s great. Creating an environment that is a smooth transition for them will be nothing but beneficial, even if you’re hesitant about it.

12 Is social the future of business?

Inspiring Leadership

Yes. The answer is yes! When you work for a huge company, it’s hard for one person to make an impact. Take Sandy Carter, she is a leader, she’s a knowledge leader, and she is making an impact. People who listen to her begin to mimic her behaviors. Being a manager is about being a leader and having other people imitate you.

It’s the same in business, if you have a leader, and she doesn’t have to be an executive, who is driving change, you have new people coming in, not necessarily in sales and marketing, who think about the company differently. It’s not about job rank; it’s the ability to persuade and influence. Finding the right people to make the change in business is really important.

13 Is it as big of a change as people think it is?

Context and Opportunity

My experience has been B2B Tech, so that’s where my perspective comes from. For example, companies like IBM and Oracle have completely turned around and changed the image of their companies, building an ecosystem of social business. I mean, what do you think of when you think of an executive at IBM? A middle-aged man in a business suit? That’s not true anymore! IBM has completely changed, they’ve completely overhauled the culture of their business, and it’s fantastic! They are big into social selling and the opportunities it presents.

When I think of top down companies, I don’t think they are necessarily using social media the way other companies are, possibly because they have other areas they need to focus on more. Some companies have other challenges, especially if they are in a very competitive niche, so they struggle with innovation, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important!

14 Is the change to social business spread internally or mandated from above?

Change Agents

I think we, and by “we” I mean agencies, would play the role of advisors. Our clients are in marketing and being able to communicate the value of social business adoption and create a more cohesive content strategy would be our biggest goal. Agencies in general provide counsel and bring great ideas to the table that their clients would miss otherwise. Agencies drive change because agencies are essentially change agents.

In some cases it’s tactical and sometimes, it’s analytics. I love being in a business that is run by data, because it’s much easier to implement change when you have math on your side! There is a huge analytic side to social business, which I think is why it is so powerful for so many people. It’s important to understand the landscape and who influencers are and it’s important to use that to drive programming. That’s where social business comes in — you use data to drive change because it’s all measureable.

15 What is the role of the agency in this big shift?

Key Performance Indicators

It starts from the beginning. Personally, when I work with a company, I have to understand what the measure of success is and then to help them understand what success is because it is different from company to company!

The challenge of social media is that it’s often measured differently from one department to another. For that reason, you have to establish KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and hold yourself accountable. For example, if you want to decrease calls to the call center, or you want to increase employee activism, those are both measurable indicators! The focus should then be on measuring those things and holding yourself accountable if you do not meet them. And if you don’t meet them, reassessing your strategy or your KPIs.

16 How do you capture and present results?

Leadership and Culture Change

Leadership is the key ingredient. Also, there needs to be a rhythm of business that is aligned with the vision. It’s very easy to say leadership it’s about the kind of leadership that changes the way employees communicate, operate, and do their jobs. It’s the kind of leadership that can change the culture.

I would say, however, the challenge when the culture is not ready is more compelling than a company that is perched for change, or is very fluid in terms of culture. That challenge would motivate me to think of new ideas and ways to radically change a culture.

17 What are key ingredients for becoming a social business?

Start Today

I think that the external market is changing so rapidly with this content and media surplus, and how busy our lives have become with social media and technology, that we can only consume a small amount of content at a time. It’s hard to reach consumers! At the end of the day though, that’s how you drive revenue.

When companies are faced with shrinking margins and shrinking shares, they need to think differently, they realize they have 30,000 employees that have the ability to share content, to bring attention to the company, to influence the company and the public. Those are employees that are already being paid, that are easy to train, that are just waiting for the opportunity to be advocates for their workplace. Why not go for it? There is so much content and it’s never going away, so brands are going to have to think differently and take chances, even if they’re a little scary.

18 When do you know your business is ready to become social?

Intelligence, Cohesion, and Content

For me, I think there are three big challenges that represent three big opportunities. Firstly, I think that there is always going to be internal challenges around employees using social media — as in, not using it in a very wise fashion. That creates the opportunity for great training, to teach employees about social media, even if they already use it, and the power of social media; it’s true that some people really do not understand the consequences of using social media irresponsibly!

Secondly, there is always going to be a challenge between teams that feel like they “own” social and divide the organization. This is another opportunity, because if you move towards becoming a social business, this tension will fade a little bit, and instead of working against each other, they will be able to work together for a common goal.

Third is external: it’s the challenge created by content, media, and analytics, and being able to provide smart content to customers. We have to remember long-form content is a way to allow customers to find us. Otherwise, we’re competing to interrupt people’s News Feeds and that’s not necessarily effective. This means we have a huge opportunity to target people in multiple ways: via news feeds, via search, via Twitter… by having content in a variety of forms in a variety of places, we can reach the right people at the right time.

19 What are the big opportunities for 2014?

The social marketing dashboard that transforms

every employee into a brand evangelist

EveryoneSocial’s platform gives marketing teams and social media specialists a broad range of intuitive tools that make content initiatives and advocacy efforts efficient, measurable, and easy to use.

Share this ebook

Quantifies and measures the business impact of

social media activity

Exponentially expands brand reach and deepens audience understanding

Creates advocates and cultural alignment