Let’s Be Realistic

A newborn baby can’t be expected to drive to the store to pick up some milk. Even if you really need milk. There are a host of reasons why: the kid can’t even hold his head up (for one), no WAY those legs will reach the pedals, and he’s got a complete inability to comprehend (never mind PASS) the driver’s license test.  The baby is  – in other words – a baby.

As a result, if you’re asking a baby to go buy the milk…well, the problem isn’t with the baby. It’s with you (and your expectations). Setting expectations and priorities correctly based on the reality of current abilities is integral to success. As an added bonus, you’ll save yourself and your organization from a ton of (costly) accidents.

Why so much pressure to be social? We work with clients to define “how does social make sense (and solve problems) for us”.  One of the compelling ideas we invariably cover is the cause of the pressure. Yes, the reality of the constantly connected consumer is [relatively] new. But this “always on” customer is disrupting the traditional sales cycle, adding additional expectations  for responsiveness in service and support, and generally forcing  business leadership to consider change at the risk of their market share.

This is very exciting

Of course, I find this change exciting (I’d better, it’s what I do for most of my day, every day)! But if you don’t feel that same exuberance, believe me, you’re not alone. Many of the folks I talk to admit they feel overwhelmed. Admittedly, “because you have to” has a tendency to make embracing a new idea less than exciting. However, no matter how you may feel about social, choosing to ignore it in your organization isn’t an effective strategy. Why? Because you employ social people, your customers are social, as are your partners, affiliates, and just about every one of your future employees. And don’t forget your competitors (they’re social, too – or learning how to be).

Your challenge is to recognize the opportunities your organization has to weave social in, and put some math behind the expected benefits. Even if you decide to do nothing more than create a Social Media policy for your employees and offer policy and usage training, you’ll reap rewards simply by ensuring your team knows the rules of the [social] road and how to navigate it with your brand’s best foot forward.

5 Steps to Defining Your Social Enterprise Maturity (and 1 Video to Pump You Up)

Step 1. Define Reality

If you had to take a guess, where on the social maturity scale would you place your organization? Evaluating your “right now” enables you to effectively plot your course. In the example of the baby, if you’d have taken a moment prior to throwing the kid your keys to consider his ability to turn the key in the ignition, you’d never have sent him off on the journey.

In a 2011 Altimeter Group research report, there were three distinct levels named: novice, intermediate, and advanced. Each level considers 6 key areas to determine social maturity: Program, Leadership and Organizational Model, Processes and Policies, Education, Measurement, and Technology. For you to tackle this evaluation, it’s important that you review all efforts that might be underway, even if they’re not your programs. I also recommend doing some review of what’s happening in your industry and how your competitors may be leveraging social. Luckily, social is a hot topic so information is everywhere. Two terrific places to start getting some industry-specific case studies are Radian6 and Salesforce.com.

Start by understanding how you stack up in each maturity area. Do you have a Social Media Policy? Do your employees understand it? Is your brand  ”on twitter (Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, etc.) ” with a plan? How’s the plan working? What types of measures are you using to understand your social results? Are your customers connecting effectively with you on social channels? Is your voice clear? Do you have the systems in place to help

support (efficiently) your social programs? Does your team collaborate using social? Who leads social in your company? How does that person or team communicate with the rest of the company? Is your legal team involved with helping to evaluate and bless social interactions?

Step 2. Hang with Believers

Who should help you get together the details of where your company stands at this moment on the maturity scale? The people who want to do the work. The people who know and are invested in the idea of social. Find allies, in other words. These folks are your extended eyes, ears, creativity, and sounding board. Best case, you span multiple departments and processes. Worst case, you’re a small but tenacious group of social advocates interested in bolstering results through careful due diligence.

When you’ve evaluated the 6 key areas, I’d recommend plotting them on a chart. This is your first visualization of where you have room to grow. And pretty pictures – or not so pretty pictures – can help convey your findings to the folks who may be thinking about this for the first time. From there, you and your fellow believers should take into consideration how your company can realistically mature in the following ways: internal priorities, customer-facing priorities, and technology.

Step 3. Do Some Reconnaissance

Take a look at your competitors’ social assets. What are they doing? Are they having interactions with customers or the community over social channels? Do they have a way for their customers to get answers online?

Maybe they’re supplementing their HR efforts with social headhunting (terrific for those industries where there is a shallow, competitive talent pool). If your competitors are fairly effective in their social initiatives, that’s both good and bad for you. Good because you’re able to experience their social “voice” first-hand and learn from missteps you may uncover. Bad because you – or others in your organization – may feel compelled to “skip