The Fundamentals series continues the analysis phase with a look into the challenges of going into social business. Using a number of key questions, I aim to make you think about which bumps along the road you might face. Let’s get started!
The following challenges await you when going into social business:
- Culture
- Integration
- Openness
- Receptiveness
- Governance
- Measurement
- Action
Let’s take a closer look at each challenge.
Culture
Social business requires a certain cultural approach that might not be natural to every organization. Think about the following:
- In which ways do you need to make changes to incorporate social business into your company culture?
- Is company politics likely to play the role of spoiler?
- Are you comfortable with empowering your employees to engage online?
Integration
Social business has to make sense and be consistent within your company. Be honest about the following questions:
- How will you integrate social business activities into existing activities and business units?
- Are you willing to create new jobs, retrain staff, updates processes, reallocate resources and revise corporate policies?
- To what extent are your IT solutions—e.g. website content management system, company firewall, et cetera—set up for social business?
- How will you establish brand consistency across all marketing channels (including social)?
- Are you capable of being in social business for the long haul?
Openness
You will share information and content on the social web. Think about the following questions:
- How open are you willing to be, also to your competitors?
- Can you talk about more than just your own company, products and/or services?
Receptiveness
You’re opening up to the world as well as putting yourself out there. Answer the following questions:
- How will you convince people that you’re not only willing to talk but also willing to listen?
- How will you make sure that people get the idea that you’re encouraging feedback?
- Are you willing to sacrifice control for feedback?
- How will you make people feel welcome for engaging with your brand?
Governance
Everybody has access to social media, inside or outside the workplace. Be clear inside your company on the following:
- Are people viewing social media more as a tool for personal benefits rather than business benefits?
- How will you make sure that everybody is on the same page when it comes to online engagement?
- Do you sufficiently understand the risks when everyone isn’t on the same page?
Measurement
Your social business efforts will need to point to reaching certain business objectives. Give the following some careful consideration:
- Is social media a threat to your current business model?
- How will you formulate a social business approach that contributes to reaching business objectives?
- Across how many time periods will you evaluate your efforts and do you know when you’d like to see success?
- How will you measure performance and ROI?
Action
Social business will require proactive monitoring, engagement, and content creation. Think about the following:
- How will you set up your organization to cope with that?
- Are you able to create content tailored to a social media audience?
- When you receive feedback, what will you do about it?
You don’t need to have a clearly defined answer for every challenge/question listed above. Some of the answers won’t even reveal themselves until you’re in the process already, but they act as an alert to what may be ahead.
If you have comments or questions, you know where to put them!
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