How can my business become social?

Grant Leboff:  One of the things I said in a blog post recently was that when social media first started, and businesses first started looking at social media, they very much saw it as a tool. So they used it as a mechanism, mainly for broadcast, which was wrong anyway, but putting that aside, they saw it as a tool.

One of the points that I made in my book, and I know that you have a view on this as well, is that social media is not a tool, it’s more than that. It’s a way of thinking, and it’s a cultural thing, and unless businesses become social, unless they become – ‘social businesses’ is what I call it – then actually, they’re never going to get social media, because it’s a ‘you can’t put a square peg in a round hole’ type of situation. I know you have some views on this…

David Taylor:  The idea about social businesses is very interesting. As you say, when social media came on, a lot of businesses used it for broadcast and marketing. I think people like General Motors came off Facebook and said it’s not working for us, etc. A lot of the big brands really didn’t understand it and you are right, it isn’t a tool.

One of the things that we also touch on in our book, is that there are probably eight or nine areas of business which are impacted upon by social. Recruitment, internal communication, sales, marketing, public relations, human resources, corporate governance, media relations, all of these. Yet to so many companies, ‘Oh it’s the marketing department’. Well I don’t think it is, and certainly one of the things that I believe is that in large businesses, if you’ve got a board, there should be a ‘Head of Social’ on the board and they report to the managing director or chairman, because it is such a high level role. Obviously there may be some companies where you could have a communications director taking on that role, but it is so much more.

The other element of the social side, is that some businesses will never be social, no matter what you do, and for them social isn’t the answer. it could well be that they need to use traditional marketing. As you will well know, social media is a form of communications, but it is not the only way of communication. There are a host of other ways. But other businesses have to realise that if they are going to be social, they cannot just pay lip service.

Traditionally this is the brand, this is the brand equity and this is our mission statement, but what does it really mean? Is there any real warmth behind that? Is there any social aspect to it? It just might be a statement, a bland statement, and our people expect more of their brand.

And so the brand now hast to become more social, has to start listening to its customers, engaging with its customers much more which again, in a sense, is a return to old-fashioned customer service. So if you go back to the 1950s and you walk into a shop, they know your name, they know what you like, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have money because they will put it on the slate and you can come back next week etc., they might deliver it to you for free because they know you, and it’s a really good old-fashioned customer service. We are returning to that. We can’t hide behind our marketing, you actually do have to be social and for some businesses, that’s a really painful barrier to try and get through, because they aren’t social.

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