Social Media Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Social Business

Kamales Lardi Rainer Fuchs

a step-by-step guide to building

your social business

socialmedia strategy

The Social Media Strategy Framework presented in this book offers a unique and comprehensive

end-to-end approach. It takes a company from the point of understanding the value of social

media for business to the point of implementing a solution that meets its business needs.

The Framework is distinguished by several elements:

* It focuses on building a sustainable use for social media along the business value chain

* It aligns with company strategic objectives and business context

* It identifies key elements to create a strong foundation for social media use in the company

* It separates internal and external social media uses

* It is NOT a technology implementation

Additionally, the case studies presented in this book and on the corresponding website highlight successful social media implementation in business by companies in Europe.

social media str ategy

The ZHAW School of Management and Law is one of todays leading business schools in Switzerland, offering internationally recognized Bachelors and Masters degree programs, a broad range of continuing education courses and programs, and innovative research and development projects. The Institute of Marketing Management of the ZHAW School of Management and Law aims to connect scientific knowledge and practical application in the field of modern marketing.

www.imm.zhaw.chwww.imm.zhaw.ch/blog

Lardi & Partner Consulting GmbH helps companies get clarity on their strategic goals and find ways to reach them. Combining professional expertise with proven methodologies, we develop strategies, define pragmatic and measurable solutions and support our clients in implementing them.Visit us at www.lardipartner.com

Design book cover: Pauline Hoogweg, www.paulinehoogweg.comLayout: Manuel Gchter,Oberegg/Zrich

Bibliographic information published by die deutsche NationalbibliothekDie Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

All rights reserved. Nothing from this publication may be reproduced, stored in computerised systems or published in any form or in any manner, including electronic, mechanical, reprographic or photographic, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9783728135575

2013, vdf Hochschulverlag AG an der ETH Zrich

[email protected]

Leseprobe aus: Kamales Lardi, Rainer Fuchs: Social Media Strategy vdf Hochschulverlag 2013

http://vdf.ch/social-media-strategy-a-step-by-step-guide-to-building-your-social-business.html

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|pp.| |Contents|

[ sandro Gr af & teresa Valerie Mandl ]

A Sustainable Approach to Social Media --------------------- 9 for Businesses

[ K aMales lardi ]

The Social Media Strategy Framework ----------------------- 17Why is a social Media strategy framework important? --------------- 17The difference between social media strategy and ---------------------- 19 social media marketing strategyapplying the social Media strategy framework ------------------------- 20 applying the social Media strategy framework ------------------------- 22 in large companies applying the framework in small companies, non-profits ------------ 22 or charity organisations

2.1 develop the strategy --------------------------------------------------- 242.1.1 inputs required for Phase 1 ------------------------------------------- 252.1.2 determine objectives and readiness -------------------------------- 28

identify business goals and challenges to be addressed ------------ 28determine readiness ------------------------------------------------------- 29assess strategic fit ---------------------------------------------------------- 31determine scope ------------------------------------------------------------ 32

2.1.3 identify initiatives and prioritise ----------------------------------- 34define business drivers and social media opportunities ----------- 35Prioritise opportunities --------------------------------------------------- 36Map benefits and develop key measures ------------------------------- 36develop the business case ------------------------------------------------- 38develop guiding principles ------------------------------------------------ 39set high-level scope and timelines -------------------------------------- 39

2.2 eight key considerations ---------------------------------------------- 40People -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41technology ------------------------------------------------------------------- 41Governance ------------------------------------------------------------------- 42risks --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42


http://vdf.ch/social-media-strategy-a-step-by-step-guide-to-building-your-social-business.htmlhttp://vdf.ch/social-media-strategy-a-step-by-step-guide-to-building-your-social-business.html

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organisation structure ---------------------------------------------------- 43Change and learning ------------------------------------------------------- 43support structure ----------------------------------------------------------- 44Processes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 44

[ K aMales lardi & rolf rellstab ]

Plan and Deliver Enterprise Collaboration Initiatives 47transforming the way people work together ----------------------------- 49types of enterprise collaboration platforms ----------------------------- 50User levels ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 51

3.1 enterprise collaboration focus areas ------------------------------ 53

3.2 approaching enterprise collaboration ---------------------------- 553.2.1 Plan implementation --------------------------------------------------- 55

define functional user requirements ----------------------------------- 55build use cases --------------------------------------------------------------- 56evaluate and select technology ------------------------------------------- 57define project plan ---------------------------------------------------------- 58

3.2.2 build and launch -------------------------------------------------------- 59launch pilot and test ------------------------------------------------------- 60launch change management and training ----------------------------- 60final launch (or phased launch) ------------------------------------------ 61

3.2.3 Continuous management --------------------------------------------- 61Monitor key measures ----------------------------------------------------- 61launch support structure ------------------------------------------------- 62

3.3 enterprise collaboration adoption tactics ----------------------- 62

[ K aMales lardi & arMin lederGerber ]

Plan and Deliver Business 2.0 Initiatives -------------------- 67The social customer ------------------------------------------------------------ 68types of business 2.0 tools --------------------------------------------------- 71

4.1 Business 2.0 focus areas ----------------------------------------------- 72

4.2 approaching Business 2.0 -------------------------------------------- 744.2.1 Plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 74

Know the target audience ------------------------------------------------- 74Clarify the message --------------------------------------------------------- 77evaluate and select the appropriate channels ------------------------- 79Prepare the company ------------------------------------------------------- 80



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4.2.2 innovate ------------------------------------------------------------------ 81brainstorming creative ideas --------------------------------------------- 81

4.2.3 setup ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 82implement preparation activities ---------------------------------------- 82Create a content calendar ------------------------------------------------- 83setup social media accounts and tools ---------------------------------- 84

4.2.4 launch -------------------------------------------------------------------- 85align with traditional marketing /branding activities -------------- 85launch the channels ------------------------------------------------------- 85

4.2.5 operate ------------------------------------------------------------------- 86

4.3 social media engagement tactics ----------------------------------- 86

[ r ainer fUChs & heiKe r aWitzer ]

Social Media Strategy: Key Lessons Learned --------------- 95 from Successful Examples Case study: social media customer service at ---------------------------- 96

swiss international air linesCase study: excellent customer service in social networks ----------- 97

at eurailCase study: Platform to boost employee collaboration ----------------- 99

at swiss reCase study: Customer care and peer support through ----------------- 100

social media at swisscomCase study: innovative banking customer service ---------------------- 102

from finansbankCase study: innovation management to improve ----------------------- 103

product development at ibM



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Chapter 1-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Sustainable Approach to Social Media for Businesses-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[ Sandro Graf & TereSa Valerie Mandl ]

Glancing at the agenda for the next executive board meeting, david Wallmer prepares himself for a challenging session. as the senior director of busi-ness development in a company with more than 10,000 employees in two continents, david is responsible for all initiatives labelled social media. He vividly remembers some of the boards previous discussions in the topic, which have sometimes been challenging. The lack of understanding of social medias business value and potential on the part of several execu-tives, as well as his own inability to demonstrate returns on investment from the channels have left david frustrated.

The company david has been with for over ten years is very good at gaug-ing the behaviour of its customers, and tailoring its products and services to their specific needs. after great effort, it has managed to position itself as a leading player and innovator in the highly competitive environment of consumer goods and today covers all major markets.

davids department was quick to recognise the digital changes af-fecting society. They observed the emergence of social networks with inter-est and soon initiated their own concept. Well ahead of the competition, davids team joined forces with the companys marketing and distribution teams in setting up a facebook profile. While this initially focused on dis-seminating information to customers, interaction gradually increased. To-day, the company offers customer support via facebook. Many customer questions are answered directly by other customers, and support is pro-vided by customer service staff only where it is necessary or requested.



Chapter 1A Sustainable Approach to Social Media for Businesses

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facebook was proceeded by Twitter, which was initially quite effective for one-way communication. The company mainly tweeted corporate news re-lating to new products or special achievements. While the Twitter feed was originally followed by journalists and existing loyal customers, the channel eventually became increasingly active and, after only a few months began to be used by potential new customers as well. Twitter followers started to use the account to respond to tweets and to make service enquiries.

as a result, the customer service department became quite busy with social media channel requests. enquiries coming in via Twitter had to be addressed (and dealt with) immediately, in line with the dynamic nature of the medium and high customer expectations. This in turn led to higher staffing costs, particularly to cover weekend shifts. david has had several discussions with other departments regarding the impact of social media in the company. for example, the head of customer relationship manage-ment (CrM) argues that receiving requests and complaints on social me-dia channels make it difficult to use standard CrM tools to manage and follow-up on enquiries as well as customer lead. This is because the plat-forms and customer data are not integrated.

as a consequence, it is becoming increasingly challenging to develop and maintain successful relationships with customers and other stakehold-ers. as social media became more popular throughout europe, customers became more active in wanting to shape their experiences with the com-pany and its products and services. They accessed their friends and peers online and interacted with them on different levels: by exchanging infor-mation and ideas, by providing peer support, leveraging their bargaining power and even engaging in co-creation. eventually, the corporate commu-nications department became involved and expressed the need for more proactive control of user-generated content on the social media channels used by the company.

davids company also initiated important developments in Hr man agement including convincing recruiters to utilise social media chan-nels to search for high potential candidates. early on, individual staff mem-bers started using Xing to establish and maintain business contacts. as the companys operations became more international, linkedin also gained importance. Today, the Hr managers actively use these platforms in their international recruiting activities to advertise job vacancies and identify potential candidates. However, to date this has not led to a reduction in the use, and thus the costs of more traditional recruitment methods.

in recent months there has been an increase in evaluation of the company on platforms such as |www.kelzen.com|, which is used by former and current employees and job seekers to evaluate potential employers. nega-tive comments by individual former employees give external users a bi-



Sandro Graf & TereSa Valerie Mandl

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ased opinion of the day-to-day operations of the company. Management fears that this may result in a highly subjective (one-sided) company profile affecting public opinion and perhaps even influencing representatives of employers associations. So far, however, the companys efforts to address these risks have neither been effective nor coordinated.

admittedly, david has profited from a very open and dynamic cor-porate culture that encourages a trial-and-error approach towards embrac-ing new developments. on the other hand, pressure from senior manage-ment has increased to present financial figures justifying the investments made or proposed. at the beginning, external social media consultants promised great things and internal stakeholders placed high hopes on the use of social media tools for their business. indeed, initially the company made remarkable progress in establishing direct access to its customers for the first time and took advantage of opportunities to learn about their likes, dislikes and desires. Customer interaction became more targeted and personal, leading to very valuable feedback. at the same time, in many ways the changes proved to be too radical for the company. While davids fellow board members appreciate the great potential of social media, they are feeling uneasy about the risks and the uncertain outcome of social me-dia measures with regard to the companys profitability.

david will need to propose to the executive board a well-managed, top-down strategic approach embracing not only the companys goals and overall strategic direction, but also to manage reputational risks and trig-ger changes in organisational culture. The approach will need to demon-strate how social media could contribute to cost effectiveness and efficien-cy of processes such as recruitment and customer service. in addition, the company will have to implement reliable feedback mechanisms to monitor success and profitability over the coming months.

davids case is an example of the issues and sensitivities of senior execu-tive clients of lardi & Partner as well as the project partners of the Zurich University of applied Sciences (ZHaW) face regularly. Those days when companies paid for their social media activities out of their marketing budgets and hoped for the best are long gone. The increasing popularity and significance of social media in the consumer lifecycle that developed over the past decade has created real challenges for companies and their long-term strategies. Social and collaborative technologies are no longer just marketing tools; they promise a broad range of benefits for compa-nies in terms of internal and external collaboration, communication and interaction |Merchant, 2010|. in the medium and long term, these benefits must be transformed into sustainable, measurable profits. To this end, management today must deal with the following key questions:




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) How can the advantages of social media be utilised to a companys best advantage?

) How can a company create measurable added value by using social media?

) What are the effects of such measures on the long-term strategy of a company, and what cultural and structural changes need to be taken into consideration?

) How can a company effectively manage reputational risks and po-tential opportunities arising from independent content produced by users of social media (e. g., loss of influence over the dissemina-tion of information, users advocating brands and products)?

) What future developments must be taken into account today and integrated into a companys corporate strategy for tomorrow?

a number of books have been published on the topic of social media over the last few years. Most of them either focus on strategic guidelines for the use of social media in marketing or distribution activities or they serve as instructions for creating social media communities. only a few of them take into consideration a holistic business approach.

in order for a company to grasp and utilise the potential of new developments in the social web, the various approaches available must be thoroughly understood and dissected. They can be categorised in two ways:

) according to field of application, as Business 2.0 or Enterprise col-laboration

) according to type of interaction, as transactional or cooperative models

Business 2.0 describes the activities of companies aiming to interact with social media groups outside their own organisation. in addition to market-ing and branding activities, such approaches are becoming popular in many other corporate areas, such as CrM, innovation development, competi-tive intelligence, revenue creation and operational excellence |SoliS, 2011, Bernoff & Schadler, 2010, Bruhn, SchoenMueller & Schaefer, 2012|. Companies generally like to use well-known, well-established tools, such as facebook, Twitter, linkedin, flickr, Google+ and YouTube. However, there are also numerous smaller social media channels and aggregator sites that companies could utilise.

Enterprise collaboration comprises activities based on internal collaboration in companies and includes knowledge sharing, innovating,




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content creation and reusing, communication and learning |MicheliS, 2012, Zhou, hong & liu, 2013, li & Bernoff, 2011|. The companies again employ well-establish tools in addition to their existing technology infrastructure as well as customised solutions.

in a transactional interaction model, the participants in a social network exchange services for money or another material advantage. loy-alty programs, for instance, operate by exchanging customer information or data for loyalty points or coupons the customer can use towards buying the products, and thus to save money (e. g., nespresso Club or the Tesco Clubcard). often, companies collect facebook likes and reward the clicks they get with an opportunity to take part in a contest or to receive some similar benefit |cf. http://bysb.eu/c1r1 or http://bysb.eu/c1r2|.

in cooperative interaction models, on the other hand, the material transaction is effectively replaced (or supplemented) by an immaterial ben-efit that makes a transaction superfluous. Thus, the companies and their stakeholders cooperate; or rather, they invest reciprocally in the relation-ship because they believe that they will eventually receive something in return. relationships based on cooperation are thus less stable than trans-actional relationships, where the agreed trade-off is always something of tangible value for both sides |odonnel, oregan, coateS, Kennedy, Keary & BerKery, 2003|.

This type of immaterial interaction can work only if both parties are able to profit, i. e. if they receive an added value from their collaboration. at the same time, they must both be prepared to collaborate and be perceived as trustworthy. in return, both consumers and employees must put their trust in the company. in a social network, such trust must be gained and it must be justified. Without it, immaterial exchange cannot take place in the long run |chaSerant, 2003|.

Compared to transactional models, cooperative models have two major advantages. There is an inherent culture of trust between the send-er (the customer or employee) and the receiver (the company) of informa-tion, and more data (particularly personal data), is typically exchanged between sender and receiver | Johann, 2011 |. furthermore, the return on investment on the part of the company is higher when no material trans-action is necessary to achieve the interaction and the customer relation-ship the company wishes to have.

Yet, how can companies sift through the multitude of possible social media initiatives and identify those that will produce sustainable benefits in the context of their own business and market environment? How could these opportunities be aligned with the overarching corporate goals or function-al strategic goals? Currently no proven management tools are available for




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use in developing sustainable interactive practices that create value and meet the following requirements:

) Firmly built into the companys overall strategy ) Embedded in the companys processes with a high degree of organ-

isational fit

) Measurable in terms of effort versus value add

This book is designed as a practical manual for executives whose responsi-bilities include social media initiatives as part of their strategic activities. further, it is aimed at anyone interested in methods to realise value-added, sustainable Business 2.0 and enterprise collaboration measures in their companies. The book serves the following objectives:

) It introduces an integrated social media framework describing all possibilities of social media in a business and enterprise context and includes both cooperative and transactional initiatives.

) It presents a state-of-the-art guide that has been extensively field-tested and can be used to develop, implement and maintain a social media strategy in the readers own company.

) A web-based platform that continuously provides up-to-date infor-mation about the most promising approaches and most recent suc-cess stories.

it was a conscious decision by the authors not to include a chronological history of developments in social media over the last few years. neither does the book provide an overview of the relevant platforms in social me-dia. rather, the authors refer to other sources where such information is readily available, e. g the book titled The new Community rules from Tamar Weinberg.

instead, the following chapters describe a framework that has been field tested and found to be sound: the Social Media Strategy Framework to develop and implement social media for business use. This book uses the framework to develop a step-by-step guide to help companies achieve the following:

) identify and develop social media initiatives based on the business context and taking business goals and challenges into consideration. | the Social Media Strategy framework, chapter 2|.

) Based on the strategy developed, implement initiatives for the compa-nys internal use | enterprise collaboration, chapter 3|, or in order to achieve external business goals | Business 2.0, chapter 4|.




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finally, the last chapter | Successful examples, chapter 5| provides the reader with an overview of success stories from various sectors of industry and com-merce. These are published on a case-study platform created to accompany the book. This database of online case studies will be continuously updated and expanded to offer readers additional inspiration for their own projects.

References

Bernoff, J. / SCHadler, T. (2010). empowered. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing.

BrUHn, M. / SCHoenMUeller, V. / SCHaefer, d. B. (2012). are social media re-placing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation? In: Management research review, 35(9), 770790.

CHaSer anT, C. (2003). Cooperation, Contracts and Social Networks: From a Bounded to a procedural rationality approach. in: Journal of Management & Governance, 7(2), 163186.

JoHann, a. (2011). Verstehen lernen was in sozialen Medien relevant ist. Wirtschafts-Blatt. May 26. p. 3435.

li, C. / Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a World transformed by Social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

MerCHanT, n. (2010). The New how Creating Business Solutions through Collabora-tive Strategy. Ca: oreilly Media.

MiCHeliS, d. (2012). Organisieren ohne Organisationen. in: Michelis, d. / Schildhau-er, T. (ed.): Social Media handbuch (pp. 118133). Baden-Baden: nomos Verlags-gesellschaft.

odonnell, d. et al. (2003). human interaction: the critical source of tangible value. in: Journal of Intellectual Capital, 4(1), 8299.

SoliS, B. (2011). engage! the Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cul-tivate, and Measure Success in the New Web. new Jersey: John Wiley & Sons inc.

ZHoU, Y. / HonG, Y. / liU J. (2013). Internal commitment or external collaboration? the impact of human resource management systems on firm innovation and perfor-mance. in: human resource Management, 52(2), 263288.



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