Simon Mainwaring. The We First Blog.

Taking social media to the streets

This was an exciting week for We First, not just because of the book appeared on a Times Square billboard (huge thanks to PR Newswire for making this possible), but more because of what that represents. Like most authors, you write a book because you have ideas you want to share in the hope that they connect with people. But when it comes to current challenges to business, the economy, and the multiple social crises that we face, we need more than words. We need action.

That’s why the We First Social Branding Seminar advertised on the billboard is important. The seminar is how the principles of a re-purposed capitalism are translated into concrete shifts in thinking and behavior that will benefit the bottom line and social impact of big brands. It’s how small brands, start-ups and social entrepreneurs ensure that their brand story is well-told in a community-facing way that allows them to use social technology to quickly build a customer community. It’s how non-profits get the essential support they need to marry brand storytelling and social technology so that their fundraising and impact scale dramatically while their costs do not.

As such, the We First Social Branding seminar is designed to be different in three ways.

1. VALUE/S: Rather than talking at the topics of brand storytelling or social media, it represents a two day deep-dive into the attendee’s brands, starting with their brand storytelling through to their social media tactics and strategies that bring the story to life, so that attendees walk out with a practical Social Branding Blueprint that they can act on.

2. CONTRIBUTION: Every attendee at the We First seminar gets an extra ticket to invite their favorite non-profit for free. So if you’re a non-profit you can find a sponsor to cover the cost for both of you, or you can register and take a second guest for free.

3. EXPERTISE: The We First seminar is lucky to have the insights and expertise of incredible guest speakers such as Carol Cone, the Global Senior Vice President of Business + Social Purpose at Edelman and Robert Terceck, the Chairman of the Creative Visions Foundation and former President of Digital Media at OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

In the last year we have seen social media play a powerful role in political revolutions around the globe and consumer demands for corporate social responsibility. The intention behind the We First Social Branding seminar, and so many other important efforts by for-profit and non-profits companies using social media, is to leverage the power of social technology to make a real difference in their lives of others and the well-being of society at large.

This is the last week of early bird pricing.  So join us and enjoy real bottom line benefits to your company and a powerful sense of fulfilment through your impact on the world.

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Top ten milestones for social media success

Too often, social media commentary or discussions focus too much on tools, tactics, and strategies. Instead today, I’d like to focus on the life-cycle of branding that is essential if a company hopes to reap the full benefits of social media engagement and the support their customer community.

I’ll break these down into ten steps that highlight the life-cycle that any brand must consider when creating a brand story that effectively leverages social media for amplification.

 1. Define your purpose: This can take the form of a mission statement, which is a few paragraphs that articulate for leadership, employees, and customers exactly what a company stands for and the core values that inform its products, services, and marketing.

2. Distill your mantra: The most persuasive brands in the marketplace always distill their purpose or mission statements down to a singular phrase. In all cases, that language is simple and emotional, and communicated consistently, so that both employees and customers can help spread the message.

3. Internal integration: Too many brands overlook the fact that employees are your first line of word-of-mouth advertising. So, instead of starting with your customers, make sure that your purpose and mantra are clearly communicated to your employees. This will have bottom-line benefits in terms of employee retention, satisfaction and productivity, and also ensure that they use social media channels to promote the brand that they work for.

4. Architect Community: Even when a brand does the difficult work of defining what its message or story is, they often still frame that story in a way that talks about themselves, rather than the value of their purpose to their customer community. So before considering what marketing a brand should do, always revisit the story you tell and re-frame it in a way that allows you to build a community based on shared values.

5. Define Business Objectives: Many brands apply a one-size fits all mentality to their use of social media and the metrics by which they measure success. Yet just as with any other marketing channel, the tools, tactics, and strategies must be chosen specific to the business goals, whether they are raising awareness of a brand, improving customer service, or optimizing your supply chain or employee productivity. So be sure to clearly define your distinct goals before looking at social media tactics or tools, and then let those goals inform your metrics for success.

6. Forgo Silos: Customer engagement using social media is a delicate balance. You have to communicate with customers in a way that’s specific to a platform like Facebook or Twitter, and then integrate those platforms in a way that allows customers to migrate, discover new content, or try your products and services. So rather than seeing social media as a series of independent channels, see it as a fluid conversation that migrates from one platform to another, and challenge your brand to become sufficiently fluent in each of these tools that it can migrate seamlessly tracking with conversations.

7. Show your humanity: There is no doubt that it is challenging for any brand to act in a more human way, particularly when they face legal and intellectual property issues. But social technology demands a new type of relatedness from brands. The bad news is that this often takes place in real-time, which means companies must be more timely in their response than ever before. The good news is that they’re allowed to be more human, with all that implicit fallibility. So as long as your brand can admit to making a mistake and take responsibility for it, this can in fact endear a brand to its customers.

8. Lead with listening: Every brand faces a series of hurdles before it can meaningfully enter a conversation being conducted by its customers about the brand. The first of those is the patience required to be invited to join a conversation. At first a brand must listen to the nature of the conversation, and validate the issues being raised by its customers, rather than try and dictate it or move the narrative in a new direction. In fact, the companies that will succeed in the future will be defined by quality of listening, because the capacity of your customers to promote your brand is in direct proportion to your capacity to listen to their wants and needs.

9. Move with them: Social technology is changing faster than ever, and this challenge is compounded by the fact that customers often use new technology in ways that were never imagined by its developers. Still, a successful brand must maintain contact with the ways that their customers like to relate to each other. So this means a persistent fascination with emerging social technology, and also a curiosity as to the new ways in which it’s being used. Only then can a brand stay in sufficient contact with its customers to be seen as a relevant and consistent part of the community.

10. Let go of ‘right’: Just as with human relationships, social technology has an emotional dimension and a qualitative nature that precludes any notion of being “right” or finding the “perfect” answer. Instead, brands must recognize that it’s is an ongoing and tireless challenge, but one that also gives companies an unprecedented opportunity to connect emotionally with their customers.

If a brand walks itself steadily and consistently through these ten steps, and maintains a fascination with emerging technology, they will be able to maintain contact with their customer community, which over time can becomes their greatest asset.

This process is the subject of the upcoming We First Social Branding seminar, in which, we walk through these stages togther ensuring you walk out with an actionable Social Branding Blueprint based on the best practices, case studies and bottom lines benefits of the world’s smartest marketers. I invite you to join me and other world class experts as we work on your business to ensure it’s social business success in 2012.

Are there any other key steps that you would add to this list? Which do you find is the most challenging for your brand?

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Why you need a social branding blueprint

One of the greatest challenges that every brand faces today is the distance between theory and execution. Between understanding and action. Between the study of marketing and Returns on Investment. This is not their fault. Not only is it hard enough to meet the demands of your business on a daily basis, but now social technology is changing so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep up. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that without a blueprint specific to your business, targeted toward today’s consumer, and leveraging the latest social technologies, a brand cannot hope to connect to their customers in the most meaningful way that will drive their bottom-lines. That’s why you need a Social Branding Blueprint.

The We First Social Branding Seminar is designed to give you just that – a Social Branding Blueprint with three distinct benefits:

1. SKILL SETS: Too often brands either make the mistake of focusing on their story to the exclusion of social technology, or focusing on social media without clearly defining who they are. This seminar is designed to walk you through, step-by-step, the necessary stages of thinking to create a meaningful story that can then be amplified by social media.

2. SPECIFICITY: While everyone has access to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, that does not mean every tool is right for every business or strategic objective. That’s why the seminar is designed to lay out the best practices by the world’s smartest marketers, detailing the various tools, tactics and strategies to achieve different measurable results.

3. SUPPORT: It is difficult to clearly define a brand, and it’s almost impossible to do it for your own company. That’s why the biggest brands use advertising agencies– because they give you the benefit of a third-party perspective that deeply understands both you and the marketplace. In order to give you and your business the same one-on-one attention and third -arty perspective, the seminar is designed in the following way: First, there is pre-work which will allow you to start thinking about what your brand stands for even before you start the seminar. Secondly, there will be world-class trainers walking you through each step of the social branding blueprint with the support of mentors and break-out sessions. Thirdly, after the seminar there will be ongoing support available so that you can further refine your business blueprint and marketing specific to your business goals.

Too often, a conference or seminar talks at a topic rather than enabling you to act on your new knowledge. The We First Social Branding Seminar is designed to give you an actionable blueprint specific to your business that is informed by the best practices, case-studies, and bottom-line benefits of the biggest and smartest marketers in the world .

I invite you to join us on February 1st and 2nd in sunny California at the beautiful beachside Marina Del Rey Marriott Hotel. But don’t wait–early bird pricing is ending, and places are limited. Plus, remember you get to invite your favorite non-profit to attend for free simply by registering. So you’ll be making a great contribution while also building your business.

We look forward to working with you, and ensuring you have a Social Branding Blueprint on which to build your success next year.

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