How Robust Is Your Social Business Strategy?

Last November, I wrote about why most social strategies fail -- it's because they aren't really strategies but rather, a pile of social media tactics that lack connection to business goals.

In a comprehensive social business research study with my colleague, Brian Solis, we uncovered the sad state of social media strategy within enterprise organizations:

Only 34% of businesses feel that their social strategy is connected to business outcomes.
Just 28% of companies we studied feel that they have a holistic approach to social media, where lines of business and business functions work together under a common vision.
A mere 12% are confident they have a plan that looks beyond the next year.
Only half said that top executives were “informed, engaged and aligned with their companies’ social strategy.”

Brian and I published the first part of the research as a report looking at The Evolution of Social Business Strategy that lays out the six maturity stages and how organizations can connect their strategy to business goals throughout that journey.

We also found that there are common characteristics of successful social business strategies, the most important one being a laser focus on achieving business goals. In fact, the most successful businesses are those with an executive who can articulate the vision and strategy almost as well as the social strategist.

Today, we proudly announce that the findings are available in the newly released book, The Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy. In the book, we go into detail about how to approach each success factor, illustrating the key elements with best practices and exercises, as well as common mistakes to avoid. One of my favorite sections is how to convince and even rally decision makers at the executive level. Brian and I also designed the book to be a quick but useful read -- at only 100 pages it's something that you can give to your team and executives and reasonable expect that they will actually read it!

A Quick Summary of the Seven Success Factors of Social Business

So ask yourself -- how robust is your social strategy? As you look at each of the elements above, consider how well you are doing in each area. Score your social strategy on each factor on a scale of 1 (not doing it well at all) to 5 (knocking it out of the park). In the spirit of open discussion, I'd love hear how you scored yourself -- where your strategy is strong, where you need to improve.

1. Define the overall business goals. You can't align your social strategy with your business objectives if you don't even know what your objectives are.

2. Establish the long-term vision. If you're not striving toward the end goal, you're likely to veer off the path. If you want your team to fully invest in your social strategy -- and you need the support of your entire team-- you'll need to communicate your vision with clarity and passion.

3. Ensure executive support. In the early days you may be able to fly under the radar, but at some point, if you want to truly have an impact on the business, you'll need the backing and support of key executives.

4. Define the strategy roadmap. You already know your business objectives and have a clear vision. But how are you going to get there? Plan out your route, what roads you'll travel, and what roads you'll avoid.

5. Establish governance and guidelines. Who is responsible for executing the social strategy? What's your process of listening and responding to your customers? If you clearly define this process and then stick to it, you'll spend less tie floating along throughout the social sphere and more time strategizing your social growth.

6. Secure staff, resources, and funding. In the early stages of social growth, you might outsource your social media campaign to an agency, and that's fine. But you should also be looking down the road and planning to develop internal resources to take your company to the next level as your social prowess -- and your business -- grows.

7. Invest in technology platforms that evolve. Resist the temptation to jump on the latest technology bandwagon before you have a long-term strategic plan in place. Hold off on making significant technology investments until you're equipped with a sound vision and strategic plan.

The organizations we studied didn't necessarily have each of these success factors fully developed; rather, we found that it was much more important that each factor was aligned with immediate and long-term business goals.

Our hope is that the book will help you move from having a pile of social media tactics to having a social business strategy around which your entire organization is aligned. And if you need additional support crafting that strategy, Altimeter can also help with our Social Business Strategy service offerings.

More information and additional resources: