1
Social Strategy:
Getting Your Company Ready
April 14, 2010
#socialchecklist
Charlene Li
Founder and Partner
Jeremiah Owyang
Partner
A 3-part series
2
 Technology is only part of the solution. Getting
your company ready and developing a strategy are
the key drivers of success.
 Our final webinar (Part 3) of this series will help
you get your company ready with our Social
Readiness checklist.
 View all webinar slides and recordings, including
today’s, at: blog.altimetergroup.com
 Use the hashtag #socialchecklist for today
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Image by Roo Reynolds used with Attribution as directed by Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/zerega/1366292835
Companies Jump Into Social
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Image by divemasterking2000 used with Attribution as directed by Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/divemasterking2000/3827673841
Yet Most Companies
Fail to Plan Properly
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Many companies do not engage with their
customers
ENGAGEMENTdb ranked
the world's most valuable
brands based on how they
leverage social media to
interact with customers.
Source: http://www.engagementdb.com
© 2010 Altimeter Group
5
Many companies like the idea, but don’t
fully execute
© 2010 Altimeter Group
6
7
Get Ready Internally First
© 2010 Altimeter Group
8
To be successful using social technologies,
companies must first prepare and align internal
roles, processes, policies and
stakeholders with their business
objectives. Social business is a profound
change that impacts all departments in the
organization.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Agenda
 Getting Your Company Ready
Research
Planning
Resources
 Social Readiness Checklist and Scorecard
 Questions
© 2010 Altimeter Group
9
10
Getting Your Company Ready
© 2010 Altimeter Group
11
Research
© 2010 Altimeter Group
12
Customer profile
Demographics
Psychographics
e.g. Where are moms
online?
e.g. Who are moms
influenced by?
Source: “Digital Mom,” RazorFish and CafeMom, 2009
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Socialgraphics
13
Where are your customers online?
What are your customers’ social behaviors online?
What social information or people do your customers
rely on?
What is your customers’ social influence? Who trusts
them?
How do your customers use social technologies in
the context of your products.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
14
Engagement Pyramid
Curating
Producing
Commenting
Sharing
Watching
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Map out how your
customers social
behaviors online in order
to determine what
technologies to deploy.
Community pain points
15
Communispace customer
communities allow
marketers to gain insights
from their own customers
Source: Communispace
© 2010 Altimeter Group
16
Market analysis
Companies should constantly
measure what competitors are
doing in the social space. Here
are some examples in the hotel
industry that can be added to a
chart of industry assets.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Current social audit
17
 What is your company currently doing in the social
space? What are employees doing? Product team,
field, and support?
 Identify internal experts by hosting brown bag
lunches where anyone can share what they are
doing in the social space.
 Tip: Don’t relegate social media to Gen Y just
because they use it for personal use.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Processes
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Crisis response plan
© 2010 Altimeter Group
19
20
Social media triage
Take reasonable
action to fix issue and
let customer know
action taken
Positive
Negative
Yes
No
Assess the
message
Do you want to
respond?
Yes
Does customer
need/deserve more
info?
Evaluate the
purpose
Unhappy
Customer?
No Response
Yes
Yes
Are the facts
correct?
No
Gently correct the facts
No
Yes
Respond in
kind & share
Can you add
value?
No
Dedicated
Complainer?
Thank the
person
Yes
Are the facts
correct?
No
No
Yes
Comedian
Want-to-Be?
Is the problem Yes
being fixed?
Explain what is being
done to correct the
issue.
No
This framework was built using the USAF Blog Triage. Yes
(Added this attribution post webinar)
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Let post stand and
monitor.
Organizational Models
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Centralized
Social Business Organizational Models
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Organic
 Organic growth
 Authentic
 Experimental
 Not coordinated
 e.g. Sun
© 2010 Altimeter Group
23
Coordinated
 One hub sets rules, best
practices, procedures
 Business units undertake
own efforts
 Spreads widely around the
org
 Takes time
 e.g. Red Cross
© 2010 Altimeter Group
24
Multiple hub and spoke or “Dandelion”
 Similar to
Coordinated but
across multiple
brands and units
 e.g. HP
© 2010 Altimeter Group
25
Holistic or “Honeycomb”
 Each employee is
empowered
 Unlike Organic,
employees are
organized.
 e.g. Dell, Zappos
© 2010 Altimeter Group
26
Policies
© 2010 Altimeter Group
28
Disclosure/ethics policy
From Walmart Elevenmom’s
disclosure policy:
“Participation in the Walmart
Elevenmoms program is
voluntary. Participants in the
program are required to clearly
disclose their relationship with
Walmart as well as any
compensation received,
including travel opportunities,
expenses or products. In the
event that products are received
for review, participants may
keep or dispose of product at
their discretion.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Social media policy
Intel updates it’s Social Media policy
regularly (last in March 2010) and offers
tips and pragmatic rules of engagement
such as “Be transparent,” “Be judicious,”
and “Write what you know.”
© 2010 Altimeter Group
29
30
Community policy
SeaWorld sets boundaries
on its blog for readers. For
example, Seaworld asks for
favorite park experiences
and tips, and will not post
“foul or offensive language.”
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Internal education
© 2010 Altimeter Group
31
Host brown bags, invite external
speakers to talk, and promote
memberships in organizations like
Social Media Club or Social Media
Business Council, as seen here.
Internal training is important to
organizational change.
Communication and collaboration
Sites like Yammer, Socialtext
and Socialcast offer
lightweight ways for staff to
share insights and best
practices internally. Telligent
is a more robust enterpriselevel tool.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
32
33
Resources
© 2010 Altimeter Group
34
Key roles
 Social strategist*:
Responsible for the overall program,
including ROI.
There may be multiple
strategists at each spoke.
 Community manager:
Customer facing role trusted by customers.
Companies may have
dozens of community
managers.
*Look out for our research paper on the role of the Social Strategist later this year.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Agencies
 Test to see that they focus on relationships, not
campaigns.
 Ask when they failed at social media – and
what they learned.
Hire only agencies with “scar tissue.”
 Leverage agencies and have them train you in
all things social.
Enable fast, concerted entry into the market.
 Be wary of agencies wanting to craft your
strategy – only you can do that.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
35
Customer advocates
© 2010 Altimeter Group
36
Stakeholders
37
 Executives:
Approval to move forward, budget, allocate resources
 Communications:
What new skills will they need to learn and unlearn?
 Employees:
How will they be educated, armed, and supported?
 Legal:
Protect employees and corporation by co-creating policies
and guidelines
© 2010 Altimeter Group
38
Reporting
Web analytics
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Community analytics
Image by randomcuriousity used with Attribution as directed by Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomcuriosity/3445573373/
39
Social Readiness Score Card
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Your social readiness score
© 2010 Altimeter Group
40
41
Your social readiness score
Ideally, you
should be at
“4.0” for
launch.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
Area of
opportunity.
Full details on our checklist
Includes findings, scoring, roles, and specific recommendations
from a trusted third party.
© 2010 Altimeter Group
42
Have the confidence to let go and still
inspire results
Register for our upcoming
webinar:
“Making the Case for
Open Leadership”
Monday, April 26 at 10 am PST
http://bit.ly/openleaderweb1
© 2010 Altimeter Group
43
44
Thank you
Charlene Li
Jeremiah Owyang
charlene@altimetergroup.com
jeremiah@altimetergroup.com
charleneli.com
web-strategist.com/blog
Twitter: charleneli
Twitter: jowyang
With assistance from Christine Tran, Researcher
© 2010 Altimeter Group
45
About Us
Altimeter Group is a Silicon Valley-based strategy research and
consulting firm that provides companies with a pragmatic
approach to disruptive technologies. We have four areas of
focus: Leadership and Management, Customer Strategy,
Enterprise Strategy, and Innovation and Design.
Visit us at http://www.altimetergroup.com or contact
info@altimetergroup.com.
© 2010 Altimeter Group