6 Benefits of Being A Social Business

It is a common debate as to whether social media should be managed in-house or out-sourced. I believe this is not the correct question. The question should be how can we become a social business? In practice, the actual management may be part in-house and part out-sourced, it is not black or white, but one of grey. The main point is that becoming a social business is more than just in-house marketing adoption of social media, it is an enterprise wide culture.

Here are six key aspects that becoming a social business that deliver value to your company.

Deeper Relationships

Close to 90% of consumers don’t trust communications from companies on social networking sites. This may be due to companies pushing messages and not actually being social, or simply that human nature trusts individuals more than it does companies. We commonly hear the phrase ‘people buy people’, and this is especially true in B2B channels with long buying cycles and multiple decision makers. In an increasing array of social media channels, the most effective ways to build relationships with people is at an individual personal level. The best way to manage and implement this is through a social business, where a social culture exists and individuals are empowered to be socially active. Out-sourced and agency managed services can commonly fail deliver the same personal level of relationships.

Greater Trust

No one can replicate the credibility a CEO brings by operating effectively on social media channels.  It carries the perception of leadership, transparency and authenticity. The BRANDFog 2012 CEO Survey says more than 82% of respondents are likely or much more likely to trust a company whose CEO and team engage in social media. The study also reports that 77% of respondents are likely or much more willing to buy from a company whose mission and values are defined through their leaderships’ involvement in social media. Yes, some comments can ghost written, agencies and consultants can advice on strategy, yet the authenticity of C-level interaction cannot be replicated. Board level participation also acts to lead by example. If a framework, support and guidelines is in place it helps to enable uptake of social media throughout an organisation.

Thought leadership

In complex B2B channels, subject area expertise is vital in creating compelling, engaging content that drives online authority and thought leadership. Delivery across many social media channels is the same. In technical professional forums, discussions and debates, conversation is typically held at a technical level. A level that many communication agencies may not be able to offer value in. Responses and postings are also held at an individual level therefore communication from an agency lacks authenticity and screams marketing message. From a research and development perspective vital insight on market desires, challenges, issues and opportunities can also be crowd sourced and monitored across social channels.


Nurture to sale

With relationships being central to effective social media practice, sales professionals are key in driving prospect progression towards a sale. Effectively building and nurturing relationships is strongest at a personal level with relationships between people and teams, not just brands and companies. Social media channels provide a new avenue to identify sales opportunities, with both new prospects and existing customers. Additionally, it represents much more than just a channel for communication by helping sales keep up to date with customers experiences, challenges and successes, all of which provide opportunities to deepen relationships and reasons to pick up the phone with a positive conversation.

Improved Transparency

Dealing effectively with customer issues can go a long way to minimising potential risks, and demonstrate good levels of customer services and customer. If a customer is unhappy, they may take to social media regardless of your blessing or visibility. With an open channel of communication, social media allows responses to help manage the situation. Monitoring brand #hashtags and products is a good way to understand sentiment and identify any items for action promptly.

Efficient Recruitment

A key element of any business is recruitment. Attracting and retaining top talent is a long term must for any company wishing to succeed over their competitors. Social media provides an platform to research prospective employees, just as they would research and prepare for an interview with you. More proactively you can nurture individuals with demanded skill sets and desirable experience for when suitable opportunities arise.  Word of mouth is also more visible, with peer endorsements and skills validation often publicly open helping to create a broader picture than traditional references may. Whilst many recruitment agencies can also utilise these benefits, the internet has provided companies the ability of reducing dependency on these suppliers thus lowering recruitment costs.

Agencies and suppliers can effectively help with integration and social media management at a corporate and brand level, but are challenged to replicate the scope of services and coverage a social business can. The role of agencies and suppliers has evolved. In addition to offering value in their knowledge of the channels, skills and experience in using them, and promoting best practices, the greatest value they offer is through helping to reform and evolve organisation culture – helping to transform them into a social business.


Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-business/6-benefits-of-being-a-social-business-0467039#luwH76AmgXefBzTS.99 

Source: business2community.com

Should your CEO be tweeting? Here’s what the experts say

American City Business Journals’ Social Madness competition is a unique opportunity for Charlotte companies to measure their social-media engagement.Our now-annual contest that helps businesses track engagement on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus opened March 1.

To help guide Charlotte-area companies through the many choices they face in navigating the social-media landscape, we’ve asked local experts to offer advice on a range of topics over the next several weeks. Laura Bell Greeno of WebScout Online Marketing, Nathan Richie of NR Creative and Brandon Uttley, social-media product manager for Sales Performance International, answered this question:

Should the CEO of large (1,000-plus employee) company be personally active on Twitter? Why or why not? And if so, how?

Brandon Uttley

It is increasingly important for CEOs to become active on Twitter and other social networks. According to a recent survey by BRANDfog of employees ranging from startups to Fortune 1000 companies, 80.6 percent of respondents said social media is an important communication channel for CEOs to engage with customers and investors. And 83.9 percent said that CEO social media engagement is an effective tool to increase brand loyalty.

“What’s more, CEO social media engagement was viewed as a gateway to facilitate deeper connections with customers, employees and shareholders,” BRANDfog reported.

To use Twitter effectively, CEOs need training and practice on etiquette specific to the site, in addition to understanding any communications restrictions that may apply to their industry.

They also need to align their efforts with other departments such as marketing and customer service. Finally, they need to develop new habits to tweet on a regular basis. That includes responding quickly to messages or having rules in place for other teams members to help them respond. CEOs should never outsource all of their social media engagement.

Nathan Richie

I regularly encourage the C-levels in the companies I work with to step out from behind the desk and online. If you really are an expert in your field, you have opinions that your industry, customers, and prospects would find valuable. People buy from people that appear trustworthy, sincere, and competent. Power buys from power. Both offline and online. You’ll either strike a chord as someone they can relate to (personally or professionally), or someone that has the influence to get a critical business issue taken care of.

The challenge most of the time for the corner office executive is where to find the time. Between back-to-back phone calls, meetings, hours in front of a computer doing “real work”, hopping flights from one city to another — they have more important things to do than crafting compelling content in 140 characters. There’s also the concern over sensitive information, fear of too much personal access, and letting people peek behind the curtain. Not everyone is comfortable building a stage and drawing attention to themselves. They’d rather just do their job and go home, rinse and repeat.

If Twitter is where you want to venture, it’s easy, painless, and free to set up an account.

•Try to set it up under your real name (vs @BossMan_419)

•Professional headshot

•Strong bio reflecting your position and strengths. Something your passionate about (sports or charity) helps to show you as an approachable human vs. a corporate robot.

•Find your interests using #hashtags or keywords

•Follow interesting posts and people

•Engage. Be you. Be professional.

Want a good example of someone doing it well? Follow Scott Monty of Ford. Do what he does.

Here’s his twitter bio: @ScottMonty

FOLLOWS YOU

Global head of social media at Ford Motor Company, husband, dad, podcaster, proprietor

of http://bakerstreetblog.com , and a generally nice guy. Formerly from Boston.

Detroit, MI · http://scottmonty.com

Laura Bell Greeno

Yes, if she or he is personally interested, has an extremely well-qualified, trusted assistant to help attend to the relatively immediate response times needed to create a long-term positive effect — or the ability to do it without help. The CEO also needs to be in close communication with the marketing team (or a trusted outsourced marketing partner) regarding brand standards, social-specific direction, how the tweets would fit into that direction and overall marketing plan.

How? This completely depends on the “why” — we have to determine goals before strategy and/or tactics.

Some ideas for C-suite tweeting:

•Company cheerleader.

•Recognition for specific employee efforts or performance.

•Developing strategic partnerships and relationships.

•Tout company progress.

•Ask directly for feedback: how to improve, what to do next, what products and services does the public think we should be working on now?

•Unexpectedly show up in a customer-service conversation.

Source: bizjournals.com

Solving the CEO Social Media Riddle

How’s this for a wake-up stat: 80.4% of survey respondents said it was important for CEOs to engage with customers on social channels and over half of the respondents stated that they believe social media engagement makes CEOs more effective leaders. That’s according to the recent2013 CEO, Social Media and Leadership survey by BRANDfog.

The social surge shows no signs of abating. There are 340M+ tweets each day posted to Twitter, 20% of which are brand related. As of 2012, LinkedIn hosted about 50% of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 CEOs on the platform. Aside from being a networking hub for 200M+ registered members, LinkedIn serves as a digital community where industry leaders can voice opinions and gain valuable feedback. The blog post that you’re reading now is part of the LinkedIn Influencer program, a great example of a social feature that allows executives to follow other thought leaders and read guest posts from preeminent business, political and cultural influencers like Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra, David Cameron, and Reid Hoffman.

Social media platforms present broad competitive advantages that benefit business leaders, and one of the most critical is developing brand trust. We know that consumers are wary of brands, and show much more trust in people than in institutions. And given the power of social media to shatter a brand as negative posts rapidly ripple across the globe, social media needs to be a C-suite issue (this presentation from my colleague highlights the reputation risks that the C-suite needs to understand: Strategic reputation management in a digital world). 

Sharing, liking and posting have by now been seamlessly integrated into our content-driven culture. CEOs and senior executives, however, have long overlooked social media as a key communications channel at the executive level, questioning its credibility and worrying about managing risk. 

Social media cannot be treated as another task managed in a silo by marketing or public relations departments – just signing up for Twitter and tweeting once in a while doesn’t count. Social media needs to be an integral part of a broader strategy to build consumer trust, a critical issue for corporations and executives today. Compared to other media sources, more than 75% of people prefer and trust social media as a source of information about a company. Nearly 88% of BRANDfog survey respondents also said that social media use by CEOs helps to raise a brand’s profile, and about 69% said that the use of social media by executives makes a brand seem more honest and trustworthy. 

The modern C-suite executive must take control of his or her own social media image to cultivate a broad professional network, as well as engage and listen to thought leaders that care about their business and industry. This network may include fellow industry leaders, colleagues, and customers. Connecting with your audience for at least 15 minutes per week as a starting point will grow your professional network and strengthen your reputation. 

And this isn’t just about enhancing your own brand. Executives who are successful in their use of social media also create a halo effect for their corporate brand. Today’s digital consumers connect with the brands they admire and executives who are genuinely involved in the conversation can enhance positive customer experiences across social media channels. 

In past posts I have mentioned the “riddle” of social media. Today’s C-suite executives are starting to solve this riddle. Only a small percentage of CEOs and C-suite executives have enthusiastically and successfully engaged with social media; but those who have done so, have gained a competitive edge within their industry. 

Have you solved your own CEO social media riddle?

Learn more about social media and other topics on the Chief Marketing & Sales Officer Forums site (you can follow us on Twitter @McK_CMSOForum). And please follow me@davidedelman.

Source: linkedin.com

A Guide To Social Media For CSR Professionals

Social media provides powerful tools to communicate, get information and feedback on CSR.

Jonathan_yohannan

By Jonathan Yohannan, adjunct professor at Boston University and Corporate Responsibility lead at Cone

The CSR issues landscape is evolving in tandem with new media. New technologies and channels break barriers by enabling a flow of information – which is often instantaneous and unfortunately sometimes less than accurate. More sophisticated companies are using social and new media channels to protect their reputation from misinformation, tell their story to target audiences and inspire new ideas and innovation.

Managing social engagement for companies also pays dividends to employees. When C-Suite social media engagement is managed, nearly 70 percent of employees believe that leveraging social media makes CEOs more effective leaders according to a recent survey by BRANDfog.

Becoming a CSR expert can be daunting enough.

Understanding the data – from Life Cycle Assessments to industry specific challenges such as water, human rights and conflict minerals – can be a full-time adventure. But now you also have to think about how to manage and use social media to communicate complex issues and engage priority stakeholders.  

For those CSR experts who haven’t had the time to understand the dynamics of new media and social social mediachannels, below is a guide to help you understand the pros/cons of using a particular channel to engage or communicate on CSR issues.

Twitter: What You Should Know

Twitter has been a prominent vehicle of CSR headlines,from politicized comments by rogue Whirlpool employees to Wal-Mart engaging and disclosing their commitment to purchase $50B in products made in the U.S.

Why is Twitter important in the context of CSR?

Discovery

  • Serves as an effective monitoring tool and early warning signal of concerns or trending issues
  • Helps you identify and follow latest thinking of CSR leaders as many have Twitter handles.

Networking

  • Provides opportunity to identify influencers based on subject matter expertise or specific issues [Examples: #sri #water #climate #sustainability]
  • Serves as a vehicle to have dialogue in real time [Examples: #sustycareers #csrchat #csr #susty]

Engagement

Limitations: 140 characters

———————–

Pinterest: What You Should Know

Pinterest has made headlines as one of the fastest growing social media sites. The content sharingSevenly on Pinterestsite enables users to share images, ideas with their networks. Think of it as modern scrapbooking.

Why is Pinterest important in the context of CSR?

Storytelling

  • Provides companies a way to illustrate their commitments

Grassroots Sharing

  • Enables companies to provide sharable imagery, infographics or videos to groups passionate about issues from fair trade to global warming

Limitations: Not quite defined as a presence for brands/marketers and CSR. CSR products that have a retail component do well, like Sevenly.

———————–

LinkedIn: What You Should Know

LinkedIn has been the strong and steady networking channel for professionals since 2002. While you Linkedinmay be keeping your personal and professional distinct, it can also be a very effective tool to identify and engage CSR influencers for your company.

Why is LinkedIn important in the context of CSR?

  • Provides opportunities for companies to create or join CSR groups to share ideas, stories, network and promote key initiatives [Example: CSRwire’s Linkedin group]
  • Helps you directly connect and have discreet conversations with subject matter experts in CSR or in CSR focused groups
  • Also, is a source for recruiting talent.

Limitations: Balancing the line between personal and professional outreach.

———————–

Facebook: What You Should Know

The global adoption rate of Facebook over the past five years has made this a familiar channel for most professionals. Facebook has been a tool embraced by brands, companies and activists alike.

Why is Facebook important in the context of CSR?

  • Provides vehicle to incorporate and bring to life a company or brand’s CSR commitments
  • Gives an opportunity for activists to engage and challenge a brand on issues, such as thecriticism NGOs and consumers provided directly to Hershey on cocoa and human rights
  • Enables brands or companies to customize their story on a market-by-market basis. Not all CSR issues have the same importance geographically

Limitations: Facebook is a resource intensive investment that comes with risk. As an organization, you need to determine if CSR supports the brand or has a distinct identity.

———————–

YouTube/Vimeo: What You Should Know

Now an alternative source of entertainment to traditional cable television, YouTube has established itself as a critical social media channel in the minds of consumers.

Why are YouTube/Vimeo important in the context of CSR?

  • Offer an excellent way to humanize your CSR story through video and allow others to pass along the content to their networks
  • Chipotle has effectively communicated their CSR story through traditional advertising and social channels

Limitations: Cost for content creation, http://bit.ly/MXTgZo (video).

Tips for CSR Communicators

  • Understand you don’t control the conversation. You influence it; it’s social, not one-way, advertising.
  • Prepare to have a dialogue on difficult issues; deleting or ignoring challenging uncomfortable comments creates animosity and distrust towards your brand.
  • Be credible, authentic and transparent in your communications. Make sure you are communicating in a way that’s believable and true to your business commitments.
  • Leverage all social media outlets to engage: tweet about a speaking engagement, post it on Facebook, host a Twitter chat, post images on Pinterest – with the goal of all linking back to each other.
  • Do your homework and have a well thought out strategy.
  • Invest in resources and talent to manage social and new media communication.

Source: commpro.biz

Social Media Considerations for Small Business Owners

Social Media Considerations for Small Business OwnersStill on the fence about using social media to promote your small business? You may want to consider the findings of a new survey conducted by BRANDfog. Although much of its focus was on social media participation by C-suite executives, the 2012 CEO, Social Media and Leadership Survey’s findings are applicable to small businesses as well.

The consulting firm maintains that in today’s digital world, social media has become an increasingly important communications channel for building a connection between brands and their most vocal advocates. “While many companies understand the important role that social media plays in brand building, most have not yet realized its potential to raise the profile of corporate executives to establish industry thought leadership and strengthen the credibility of the brand,” says BRANDfog CEO Ann Charles.

The report notes that the ubiquity of social media has changed customer expectations about brand engagement, created expectations that they will have direct access to brands and brand leaders, and made a direct connection between social media participation, purchase intent and increased loyalty to a brand. It cites a recent report in which 50 percent of consumers stated they were more likely to purchase from a company and recommend a brand to others after following the company’s tweets.

The survey set out to better understand the connection between engagement at the highest levels of management on social media channels and attitudes of customer and employees toward that brand. Its aim was to determine the effect this has on brand image, customer loyalty, purchase intent and overall leadership.

Survey results demonstrate that executive engagement in social media raises the brand profile and instills confidence in a company’s leadership team, builds greater trust, brand loyalty and purchase intent.

Specifics include:

  • 81 percent of respondents believe that CEOs who engage in social media are better equipped than their peers to lead companies in a web 2.0 world.
  • A large majority of the respondents believe that CEOs can use social media channels to improve engagement with multiple stakeholders across their organizations. Building better connections with customers topped the list at 89 percent, but engagement with employees (85 percent) and investors (66 percent) also came in very strong.
  • When asked what benefits C-Suite engagement in social media can lead to, 78 percent cited Better Communication and 71 percent stated Improved Brand Image as the biggest positive benefits.
  • 86 percent of respondents rated CEO social media engagement as either somewhat important, very important or mission critical.
  • 82 percent of respondents were more likely or much more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engage with social media.
  • 77 percent of respondents were more likely or much more likely to buy from a company whose values and mission are defined through CEO and executive leadership participation on social media.


Several hundred employees participated in the survey. They represented all levels of diverse companies ranging in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies in a wide selection of industries, professions and regions.

 

Source: wanentrepreneur.com

CEOs-Roll Up Your Social Media Sleeves

CEOs Roll Up Your Social Media Sleeves image Social CEOs 300x300His sleeves were rolled up. His tie was loose. He swore. It was all public.

It may sound like a recipe for disaster for any CEO edgy enough to take center stage in a content marketing strategy…except when it works.

Armed with $9.8 million in new venture funding, Dollar Shave Club CEO Mike Dubin spent some of that money on a YouTube video that cast him in the leading role. The company earned an incredible amount of media coverage which put the company on the map. As of the time of this writing, about a year later, that video has racked up some 9.4 million views or about as many views as venture capital dollars invested.

While many senior business leaders shy from this type of public role, Dubin is embracing it. A quick look at his Twitter stream will demonstrate, it’s not just lip service, he’s actively engaged. Just this week his engagement earned him an unsolicited compliment from an Advertising Age editor, who also appears to be a subscribing customer.

CEOs Roll Up Your Social Media Sleeves image dubin learmouth 300x182

The lesson is clear: CEO’s that are active in social media and content marketing efforts ignite conversation. And now is the time to engage, because the competition is scarce.

Objections from a publicly traded company

Critics will say a public company could never engage in this manner or face the wrath of investors or regulatory authorities. Tell that to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors which is publically traded and personally took The New York Times to task for a review he flatly called “fake.”

In a short period, Musk took a lot of criticism for his approach. A Forbes contributor wrote that “Musk reacted to Broder’s story the same way that a proud father would if he heard someone call his daughter ugly at the school play.”

Musk held his ground and earned what amounts to a correction of sorts from the Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan. Speaking of the reporter that wrote the initial story she said:

“Did he use good judgment along the way? Not especially. In particular, decisions he made at a crucial juncture – when he recharged the Model S in Norwich, Conn., a stop forced by the unexpected loss of charge overnight – were certainly instrumental in this saga’s high-drama ending.”

Writing for the MediaBistro’s 10,000 Words, Lauren Hockenson might have summed it up best when she wrote about three takeaways, “Never underestimate the power of social media to become a megaphone for a cause.”

Arguably, Musk earned the attention by virtue of his position as CEO. While I think there’s truth to that, I’d also point out that Musk has 148,000 followers on Twitter. That didn’t happen overnight, it happened because he’s actively worked to cultivate a community long before he needed to rally that community to his cause.

He gave something before he asked for something back.

Social CEOs drive results


These anecdotes are powerful indications that senior leaders can drive business outcomes with their participation. There’s also data to support this assertion.

Brandfog, a marketing consultancy, published a survey of employees that found engaged CEOs both add value to a brand’s visibility and galvanize the work force:

The survey found that social engaged CEOs are either very effective or somewhat effective at:

  • Raising a brand’s profile (87.5%).
  • Increasing brand loyalty (83.9%).
  • Communicating a company’s mission and values (82.5%).
  • Attracting new talent (80.9%).
  • Increasing purchase intent (80.8%).

There’s a caveat to all this, however, in that the magic doesn’t happen overnight. Rather it requires dedication and consistency. As marketer, sales trainer and author, Scott Stratten says, publishing a few posts on Twitter once a month is about as effective as showing up to a networking event, saying hello, and then turning around and leaving.

A matter of priorities


It’s an understatement to say that senior executives are busy. The time demands of the top executive at a publicly traded company are unquestionably taxing. It boils down to one question: what’s the best way to spend time to deliver results for a company.

Executives often look at this problem as a dichotomy: they can run a business or they can evangelize. Some businesses are addressing this by either hiring another executive to either focus on operations or evangelism.

In either case, it’s always a matter of priorities and the top executive has the latitude to set those. Even if Apple doesn’t embrace social media, Steve Jobs led that publicly traded company and also found time to answer customer emails,

It’s a far fetch to say that CEOs that do not engage in social media will be out of business in five years. On the other hand, those that do can – and do – drive results for their business.

After all, everyone admires a senior leader willing to roll up their sleeves.


Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-media/ceos-roll-up-your-social-media-sleeves-0420125#0YI0rZftk75Ude7Z.99 

Source: business2community.com

A Guide To Social Media For CSR Professionals

By Jonathan Yohannan

The CSR issues landscape is evolving in tandem with new media. New technologies and channels break barriers by enabling a flow of information — which is often instantaneous and unfortunately sometimes less than accurate. More sophisticated companies are using social and new media channels to protect their reputation from misinformation, tell their story to target audiences and inspire new ideas and innovation.

Managing social engagement for companies also pays dividends to employees. When C-Suite social media engagement is managed, nearly 70 percent of employees believe that leveraging social media makes CEOs more effective leaders according to a recent survey by BRANDfog.

Becoming a CSR expert can be daunting enough.

Understanding the data — from Life Cycle Assessments to industry specific challenges such as water, human rights and conflict minerals — can be a full-time adventure. But now you also have to think about how to manage and use social media to communicate complex issues and engage priority stakeholders.  

For those CSR experts who haven’t had the time to understand the dynamics of new media and social social mediachannels, below is a guide to help you understand the pros/cons of using a particular channel to engage or communicate on CSR issues.

Twitter: What You Should Know

Twitter has been a prominent vehicle of CSR headlines,from politicized comments by rogue Whirlpool employeesto Wal-Mart engaging and disclosing their commitment to purchase $50B in products made in the U.S.

Why is Twitter important in the context of CSR?

Discovery

  • Serves as an effective monitoring tool and early warning signal of concerns or trending issues
  • Helps you identify and follow latest thinking of CSR leaders as many have Twitter handles.

Networking

  • Provides opportunity to identify influencers based on subject matter expertise or specific issues [Examples: #sri #water #climate #sustainability]
  • Serves as a vehicle to have dialogue in real time [Examples: #sustycareers #csrchat #csr #susty]

Engagement

Limitations: 140 characters

———————————-

Pinterest: What You Should Know

Pinterest has made headlines as one of the fastest growing social media sites. The content sharingSevenly on Pinterestsite enables users to share images, ideas with their networks. Think of it as modern scrapbooking.

Why is Pinterest important in the context of CSR?

Storytelling

  • Provides companies a way to illustrate their commitments

Grassroots Sharing

  • Enables companies to provide sharable imagery, infographics or videos to groups passionate about issues from fair trade to global warming

Limitations: Not quite defined as a presence for brands/marketers and CSR. CSR products that have a retail component do well, like Sevenly.

———————————-

LinkedIn: What You Should Know

LinkedIn has been the strong and steady networking channel for professionals since 2002. While you Linkedinmay be keeping your personal and professional distinct, it can also be a very effective tool to identify and engage CSR influencers for your company.

Why is LinkedIn important in the context of CSR?

  • Provides opportunities for companies to create or join CSR groups to share ideas, stories, network and promote key initiatives [Example: CSRwire’s Linkedin group]
  • Helps you directly connect and have discreet conversations with subject matter experts in CSR or in CSR focused groups
  • Also, is a source for recruiting talent.

Limitations: Balancing the line between personal and professional outreach.

———————————-

Facebook: What You Should Know

The global adoption rate of Facebook over the past five years has made this a familiar channel for most professionals. Facebook has been a tool embraced by brands, companies and activists alike.

Why is Facebook important in the context of CSR?

  • Provides vehicle to incorporate and bring to life a company or brand’s CSR commitments
  • Gives an opportunity for activists to engage and challenge a brand on issues, such as thecriticism NGOs and consumers provided directly to Hershey on cocoa and human rights
  • Enables brands or companies to customize their story on a market-by-market basis. Not all CSR issues have the same importance geographically

Limitations: Facebook is a resource intensive investment that comes with risk. As an organization, you need to determine if CSR supports the brand or has a distinct identity.

———————————-

YouTube/Vimeo: What You Should Know

Now an alternative source of entertainment to traditional cable television, YouTube has established itself as a critical social media channel in the minds of consumers.

Why are YouTube/Vimeo important in the context of CSR?

  • Offer an excellent way to humanize your CSR story through video and allow others to pass along the content to their networks
  • Chipotle has effectively communicated their CSR story through traditional advertising and social channels

Limitations: Cost for content creation

Tips for CSR Communicators

  • Understand you don’t control the conversation. You influence it; it’s social, not one-way, advertising.
  • Prepare to have a dialogue on difficult issues; deleting or ignoring challenging uncomfortable comments creates animosity and distrust towards your brand.
  • Be credible, authentic and transparent in your communications. Make sure you are communicating in a way that’s believable and true to your business commitments.
  • Leverage all social media outlets to engage: tweet about a speaking engagement, post it onFacebook, host a Twitter chat, post images on Pinterest – with the goal of all linking back to each other.
  • Do your homework and have a well thought out strategy.
  • Invest in resources and talent to manage social and new media communication.

Source: csrwire.com

Social CEOs drive brand lift, talent acquisition and become better leaders

shutterstock_107017667

Social media marketing tears down corporate walls, giving consumers direct lines of communication to their favorite brands. Popular social networks provide new and existing customers with outlets on which they can voice their opinions, and brands understand they need to be receptive to any and all feedback. In 2010, public relations firm Weber Shandwick surveyed CEOs from 50 of the world’s largest companies to understand how active they were online. The PR firm found that only 36 percent achieved the label of “social,” which is defined as someone who engages on his or her company website, appears in video on the company YouTube channel or had a public and verified social network profile. In the two years after Weber Shandwick’s first survey, social CEOs have increased to 66 percent.

Brand Lift through SocialBusiness owners now see the value of their own social branding online – it helps their companies and it helps their credibility. While at a more granular level, social networks saw a 2 percent jump in the number of professionals now using services for personal branding, the small increase speaks more to the diverse marketplace and social media’s inability to influence authority online.

Of the networks that do serve CEOs and business professionals, Facebook showed the biggest leap, with one out of 10 CEOs on the largest social media hub. Twitter saw a decline, meaning that some CEOs may feel less enthusiastic about Twitter’s ability to communicate with audiences, but the network remains a powerful resource. CEOs should establish and manage professional accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, as these outlets attract wider audiences and help communicate branded updates and website content to fans and followers.

What benefits are there for CEOs who are active on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter?

According to BRANDfog, approximately 87 percent of professionals say that brand awareness improves when their CEOs actively engage audiences via social channels. This leads to an increase in brands’ online profiles and credibility, making brand loyalty an easier task to achieve. Seventy percent of professionals say their managers become more effective leaders after they become active on social media hubs. Another 81 percent thought a CEO’s online presence helps improve talent acquisition for their brands.

Social media marketing doesn’t always have to be about direct conversions – it can focus on brand building and distributing credible social media content to prospects. When CEOs actively use sites like Facebook and Twitter, their entire operations benefit long term.

Source: contentlead.com

5 Tips to Get Your CEO On Social Media [Charts]

Despite their corporate standing, CEOs aren’t on social media, according to BrandFog’s 2013 CEO, Social Media, and Leadership Survey. These findings echo earlier research by The 2012 Fortune 500 Social CEO Index that found 70% of the Fortune 500 CEOs had no presence on social media!

Why are CEOs missing from social media? They’re afraid of making a PR misstep or they don’t think it’s worth their time despite the fact that customers believe that CEOs who are on social media are more trustworthy.

3 Social media and CEO research findings

1. Fear and lack of time drive CEO inactivity on social media.

  • One out of four executives is concerned with negative feedback or criticism. For these titans of business, the risk of a PR crisis are higher than the potential to connect with prospects, customers and the public.
  • One out of five CEOs doesn’t have time to get involved with social media. In part, this may be attributable to the fact that executives perceive that social media involves hours of time and doesn’t yield a measurable ROI.
  • One out of eight CEOs has no interest in social media. This makes you wonder what rock they’ve been hiding under since social media accounts for one out of four minutes spent online.
  • One in eight CEOs doesn’t understand social media. This is less surprising. This falls into the category of fear of looking stupid. Senior executives don’t want to admit that they don’t know something. (BTW-We can help you get up to speed on social media.)

2. About half of CEOs take an ostrich approach to social media.

  • One quarter of CEOs don’t know who’s in charge of their leadership brand on social media. This translates to: it’s not important enough for my attention. This may have worked a few years ago but it doesn’t any more!
  • One of quarter of CEOs say no one manages the leadership brand on social media. This is the equivalent of saying we don’t need to be on social media despite the fact that other research shows that consumers trust businesses where the senior executives are involved on social media.

3. CEOs believe social media is useful to accomplish business goals, especially those related to branding and communications.

  • About 90% believe social media is either very effective or somewhat effective to raise the corporate brand’s profile.Related to this, about 80% believe social media is somewhat effective or very effective to communicate company mission and values.
  • About two-thirds of respondents believe c-suite social media engagement makes a brand appear more honest and trustworthy. Further,  over 70% believe c-suite social media engagement either somewhat or definitely creates brand transparency.
  • About 80% of respondents believe social media is somewhat or very important as a communications channel for CEOs to engage with customers and investors.
  • Almost 60% of respondents believe social media engagement makes CEOs more effective leaders. Further, almost 70% of respondents believe social media can be used either very or somewhat effectively by CEOs during company crises. (Here’s what to do when social media goes bad.)
  • About 80% believe CEO engagement on social media is somewhat or very effective at increasing brand loyalty and purchase intent.

5 Actionable Social Media Recommendations For Your CEO

  1. Set social media guidelines including branding. Review or outline your organization’s rules for social media engagement. Ensure that these rules spell out how to represent your brand on social media platforms. Outline when employees should elevate issues to legal (This includes how to respond to a PR crisis.)
  2. Help senior executive to interact on social media. Understand c-suite executives may be reticent to admit they don’t know how to engage on social media. If so, have your social media manager work with them or get them outside one-on-one training. (We can help with this.)
  3. Craft appropriate profiles for your senior executives across social media. As an extension of your firm and your brand, stake your turf and ensure that they’re consistent. Don’t overlook Wikipedia.
  4. Start with small steps. The goal is to understand how social media works and to engage with your customers in a transparent way. It’s important to get to know how to use the tools to build your presence.
  5. Be strategic with your senior executive’s social media interactions. Take a page from President Obama. While his staff provides support for his social media presence, he does participate directly. You don’t want your CEO to spend his or her days trolling Facebook. Consider a range of options such as Instagram photographs of your CEO’s at his desk, YouTube videos answering customer questions, or a Google+ hangout.

Social media is no longer a flash in the pan. It’s time that your CEO built his or her presence and started to engage in real time with prospects, customers and the public; to help build your business’ brand and sales. Understand for many CEOs the first step is the scariest.

How does your CEO handle social media for your organization and what implications does it have for your business?

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Source: heidicohen.com

Should CEOs Use Social Media?

Yes, writes Peter Houston, but you don’t have to do it all yourself.

PHouston_blog_size

Peter Houston

You probably have bigger calls on your time, but have you given much thought to social media? Not in the abstract corporate communications sense, in a you-the-CEO sense? There has been a flurry of reports over the last six months about the C-suite’s engagement with social media. Some hail the arrival of the social CEO, others ask “Where are they all?”

The cheerleaders for CEO participation say it makes total sense for corporate leadership to take to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the rest to spread the good news — or fight the bad news — about their businesses. While it might be tempting to leave social media to the PR and marketing folks, you could be missing a trick. BRANDFog, promoting social media for CEOs, says in its 2012 CEO, Social Media & Leadership Survey that 82 percent of employees are more likely to trust a business whose leadership communicates openly through social media.

IBM’s Global CEO survey concurs: the best performing companies are “30 percent more likely to identify openness – characterized by greater use of social media platforms – as a key influence on their organizations.”

The IBM study, based on 1,700 face-to-face interviews with CEOs and public sector leaders from around the world, explores how corporate leadership is responding to the complexity of what IBM calls the connected economy — increasingly interconnected organisations, markets, societies and governments. It highlights the importance of social media in communicating with both employees and customers. Finding that 16 percent of the CEOs surveyed use social media to communicate with customers, it trumpets expectations of a threefold increase in adoption of social media channels in the coming five years.

Writing on Forbes.com mid January , the lead for Weber Shandwick’s digital practise, Chris Perry,  accepts without question the business logic behind the growth in executive support for social media. He sees growth in the number of social CEOs “to present an authentic face, get closer to customers, engage employees” and presents the findings of his own company’s Socializing Your CEO 2013  survey to cement the case. The Weber Shandwick study says 66 percent of CEOs at the world’s top 50 companies engage online. This compares with just 36 percent in 2010 when Weber Shandwick first conducted an analysis of CEO social engagement.

Do Social CEOs tweet?

Yes, but don’t expect to see too many personal tweets or status updates from your fellow captains of industry. According to the Socializing Your CEO study, only 18 percent of the world’s largest company CEOs have their own social network pages.

Brandfog looks closer at Twitter: Although 61% of Fortune 500 brands were engaging with customers via Twitter, less than 2.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs were actively participating on the world’s favourite microblogging network. And while the numbers are a little different, this lack of personal participation is echoed in a joint study from CEO.com and business intelligence firmDOMO. Pitching the use of social media by the general population at 50 percent for Facebook and 37 percent for Twitter, it notes that among Fortune 500 CEOs Facebook usage is only 7.6 percent and just 4 percent for Twitter.

However, the CEO.com/DOMO study reports one social CEO hotspot – senior executive participation on Linked in is ahead of everyone else – 26 percent versus 20.15 percent. And this statistic maybe hints at one reason for the reticence of high-profile corporate leaders to engage fully on public social media forums. LinkedIn’s “Professional’s Only” ethos offers a safer environment for senior executives where connections, and conversations, can be better controlled. This is in direct contrast to open networks where high-profile executives fear what Weber Shandwick’s Perry describes as “personal attacks, disclosure issues and media scrutiny”.

Perry thinks these, plus the obvious time pressures, are the reasons that executive personal pages are so noticeable by their absence. But he can resolve the apparent contradiction between this lack of personal participation and the assertion that CEO’s are embracing social. An increasing number of CEOs are choosing to perform their “spokesperson-in-chief” role through their company’s social media pages and portals.

“CEOs understand they must be a leading voice with those who follow their company pages, without necessarily amassing and engaging a network of followers on personal pages,” Perry writes on Forbes.com.

So while it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing a Twitterstorm from Big Pharma’s leading lights anytime soon, can we expect to see more Pharma leaders on company pages and YouTube channels? Number one in Paul Tunnah’s New Year Pharmaphorum post on emerging trends in Pharma communications is to “Put a face on your senior execs”. He expects this year to introduce senior Pharma executives presenting their views on a wide range of issues, presenting “the human face of pharma.”

If you have been feeling bad about neglecting the Twitter or Facebook accounts you set up for yourself 18 months back, you can take some comfort from the fact that you’re not alone among your C-Suite peers. But maybe it’s time to reacquaint yourself with the social media basics; Corporate Communications could be knocking at your door any day to help them get followers, likes or to turn you into a YouTube sensation.

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