Sunday, April 12, 2009

Three Phases of Social Media Maturation

At Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) we've been through the cycle.

From start-up to execution and now ROI evaluation, we have lived the maturation of social media and digital public relations programs. Our client work has also covered a broad spectrum of organizations, with representation of global firms like British Telecom (BT), Microsoft, Spirent Communications and BearingPoint, as well as emerging growth companies such as GovDelivery and Epok.

During the last few weeks I have made the swing visiting with clients to share the best practices and lessons learned we've picked up along this journey. It was during one of these discussions at a Starbucks tucked in a corner of a shopping mall in Washington, DC that a client helped define the three phases of a social media initiative.

Phase One: Pockets of Innovation

Strategic typically engages with a client in a pilot program environment, with the scope of work aligned with a funded requirement, such as a product launch, thought leadership campaign or industry conference. I assumed this pilot methodology was easily digested because it kept the budget (and risk) relatively modest.

While this is partly true, it's also apparent that certain individuals within an organization emerge as champions of social media. They may recognize that their customers and partners have become engaged in social networks and online communities. You have to fish where the fish are, right?

Or, perhaps it is a competitive threat in which an upstart has stolen away mindshare and momentum through their use of social media as a thought leadership platform.

Regardless of the reason, the social media champion correctly concludes that how companies position, brand, promote and identify leads has shifted. Their desire is to drive innovation in their communications program in a meaningful and measurable way.

During this initial phase, the social media program wins funding, a strategy is defined, an editorial content direction is agreed upon and tactics move to execution. The benchmark is to attract a community of readers, which is carefully tracked on an ongoing basis.

Phase Two: Bridging to Pervasive


There is a proverb that states success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan. This has proved to be spot on when it comes to a social media campaign.

As readership grows, the word spreads internally about the traction generated through social media tactics. There may even be instances in which direct sales and business development opportunities are identified through online channels. This resonates across multiple departments within a company, such as marketing, sales and product development.

This internal buzz stimulates action. Others in the company closely track the campaign and begin to invest more time engaging in their own social media activities. LinkedIn profiles are updated. Discussion groups are joined. Twitter feeds spring up.

For our social media champion, this second phase is about accelerating readership and encouraging dialogue. The editorial content strategy may evolve and multi-media elements -- such as video, podcasts, customer Q&As, etc. --are incorporated into the program. We also see a more consistent flow of comments, as well as other examples of readers reaching out to engage.

The promotion strategy to drive interest and among target audiences also becomes more effective and efficient. There is now a baseline. Readership and participation is measured with hot topics and themes fed to the sales organization as a form of real-time market intelligence.

Phase Three: The Last Mile


With the social media program now established and clicking along, our champion turns to the issue of ROI attached to measurable benchmarks.


At Strategic, we view community, conversation and awareness as merely the starting point. Is there an appropriate way to cross this last mile to identify members of our engaged community as sales leads, potential partners or new hires? (Image created by Ryan Schradin.)

It's in this phase that interaction with the organization's sales team becomes paramount. Thought leadership-based lead generation tactics -- such as educational Webinars -- combined with good old fashioned sales outreach must be defined and put in place.

Although we never stray from what's appropriate in social media participation, the last mile phase is all about justifying the spend to date and making a business case for continued investment.


What has your experience been with the implementation of social media programs? I welcome your comments to this blog post or you can add specific content to this article at this wiki:

Three Phases of Social Media Maturation

8 comments:

Channels of the Future said...

This is a good overview. Although I have not written about it this way, I can see the stages at various companies - and in the channel where I usually consult. Most of my clients are in stage two, although a few have made it into stage three already.

Axel Schultze said...

Like the three phases - makes it easy to digest. Some may argue that "leads" and "sales" are counterproductive elements in a social media engagement - others still have to understand that a deal has to be orchestrated by somebody and a somebody who is interested is still called a lead.
@AxelS

Marc Hausman said...

@Axel - thanks for the comment and raising the issue of social media as a channel for lead generation and sales support.

Many social media consultants argue the channel is for community and conversation. I do feel otherwise, yet recognize that lead generation activities must follow the basic ground rules of how to engage with others in online communities.

I wrote about that issue this past January in this post:

http://tinyurl.com/9kvtb4

Gianluigi Cuccureddu said...

"Many social media consultants argue the channel is for community and conversation"
How do you mean this?

Good article, the second phase is important but neglected.

Best regards,
Gianluigi Cuccureddu

Marc Hausman said...

@Gianluigi -- thanks for the comment.

To clarify, my point is that many public relations and social media professionals define the value from participation in online communities and social networks as positioning and awareness.

Like traditional PR activities (i.e. media relations, analyst communications, etc.), the ROI of this value is difficult to measure.

Everett Reiss said...

Marc,

Richard Piske directed me to your blog post. Very insightful. Currently, in my work with the Staffing Cooperative we're going back and forth between phase 1 and 2. We're getting active in twitter, linkedin, and blogging, but need to work on an over all strategy and determine exactly what we want to invest on this and then measure the ROI. Right now the biggest challenge is figuring out what to invest - we want to take the lead in our maret, but want to do so using our time most effectively.

Everett
Business Relationship Development
http://www.staffingcooperative.com

Marc Hausman said...

@Everett -- thanks for checking out the blog and for the comment. I've known Richard for more than five years and think highly of him.

We've found that much of social media and digital marketing continues to be a learning process based on a company's key audiences, as well as the very culture of the organization.

I think it's great that you guys have integrated social media into your marketing mix and I suspect you'll continue to refine tactics (and performance expectations) as you go forward.

Doug Kessler said...

We're increasingly using social media for our B2B clients. Feels like we might expect a fourth phase: when the novelty wears off and results get less exciting.
I'm already finding myself tune out to commercial messages on Twitter.
Of course, the engagement value will remain but the novelty will wear off as it becomes just another medium.