Social Media: Let's Get Social

“Social is the most disruptive force in modern enterprise. There, I’ve said it. We’re in a period of expansive reinvention and evolution for brands. The challenge is not to communicate a better brand, but to be a better brand. Social brands are guided by three core principles that enable them to engage with connected people; they actively listen, create win-win relationships and demonstrate appropriate social behaviours by being true, compelling, transparent and authentic.

“Some brands get this ethos instinctively, but the reality is that few brands were built to be social. They are going through an exciting and sometimes very difficult period of change as they learn that social is about a whole lot more than just another media channel.

“The social media space is made up of technologies, platforms, content and behaviour. New platforms are emerging daily (good luck keeping up). Capitalising on content and behaviour is where brands and agencies can really win, by developing customer loyalty and long-term relationships through creative content and social currency. The winners in this space aren’t the ones who are shouting the loudest; they are the ones who are the most useful.

“Last year, Old Spice proved this brilliantly. The online popularity of The Man Your Man Could Smell Like caused the creative team to consider what else they could do to make the most of what had already been a hit campaign. This is a great example of how a brand went from shouting loudly to active listening and creating win-win relationships with transparent, authentic and compelling content.

“But does this make Old Spice a social brand? It proves that the potential is there, but research we’ve conducted indicates that the brand’s social behaviour and content has waned over the past few months. Old Spice has shown great potential, but it needs to spread its reach beyond campaigns. To be a truly social brand, the nature of the business will undergo a revolution across not only communications
but employee engagement (Zappos offers newly trained employees $3,000 to quit to test brand loyalty), customer service (think Best Buy’s Twelpforce) and product design (such as Dell’s Ideastorm).

“It’s an exciting time for brands, but also for agencies that need to rethink their perspective on social. Is ‘social’ a team sitting in a corner or is it part of your DNA?”

Chris Buckley is the head of consulting at Headstream Visit headstream.com to see the full research into the Social Brands 100