5 Step Process for Social Media Success

This is always a challenge (I work in an agency, so I’m thinking now of how we do this with clients). One basic, simple thing is frequent contact with as many people – executives, managers and front-line employees – within the organization as possible. Just by regularly talking to those people, asking them what they’re doing, what successes they’re having and what they’re hearing from their customers, you’ll start to hear stories bubble up. The key is to recognize when you’re hearing those stories and then know to stop, ask more questions and get all the details.

This is always a challenge (I work in an agency, so I’m thinking now of how we do this with clients). One basic, simple thing is frequent contact with as many people – executives, managers and front-line employees – within the organization as possible. Just by regularly talking to those people, asking them what they’re doing, what successes they’re having and what they’re hearing from their customers, you’ll start to hear stories bubble up. The key is to recognize when you’re hearing those stories and then know to stop, ask more questions and get all the details.

Thanks Jay…Your chart is a good description of how the “process” of Social Media Marketing should be viewed by most companies.

I believe we should all view ourselves as Social Media Toddlers. We can see other companies taking advantage of Social Media; but, we are still trying to find the best way to develop more meaningful relationships as we integrate social media strategies into our own marketing mix – http://www.stellarpointgroup.com/social-media-marketing.html

The key to the process is “willingness.” By integrating willingness into the process, it keeps the entire process moving forward. Good Post…thanks again…

Ditto on the LOVE for the graphic – spot on, easy to explain, and makes tons more sense than the gurus trying to “help you gain more followers for less $$”.

Truly is a great graphic.

And repeat…

I love the 5-steps and really like step number 2. It will “Convince & Convert.”

Oh hey, another “social media blah blah” that describes and lists the same shit that people have been saying for the past 4 years… really insightful.

Thanks for stopping by Finn.

You nailed it Rick. We never had control. We just didn’t have the magnifying glass to see that the way we do now.

Thanks Red. The key is getting companies to understand that the stuff they find boring is actually fascinating to a subset of their customer base.

Love the infograph Jay. Humanize your business and turn clients into friends which in turn become advocates for your business. Customers are people too.

We are both recording and creating stories to cover both sides. One of our projects is “Mission Igniter” where I interview both Church and Cause leaders in the northwest to build a content archive of stories.

Helpful infographic.

For a whole day of social media and storytelling, watch for a Social Story Conference near you. Next one is in Greenville, SC on 9/24.

Good infographic. Thanks for sharing.

For a full day of social media plus storytelling, watch for a Social Story Conference near you. Next one is in Greenville, SC 9/24.

Jay,

I have actually just finished my thesis on Twitter for CRM. The results were 7 guidelines, specified for Twitter but are similar to your 5 steps.

Nice post.

Storytelling and creating content is what most marketeers forget about. When the focus is on getting more sales, social media channels tends to work in the opposite way for them. Stories, stories, stories… and TALK to your customers

The elements of this, with the focus on storytelling, are great.
But surely this is actually just one ‘step’ here, and the step itself isn’t necessary about social media, and it is no guarantee of success?

Step one is the only action you can take. The rest are hoped-for consequences. So for social media success the big question is HOW you harvest. What type of relationship do you have with your clients? Who within your org has that relationship (could be multiple people)? How do you gather the story (informally? interviews? via SoMe?)? What about client confidentiality? … These are all interesting and challenging questions about gathering stories. And actually none of them have to do with social media, per se. They’re the basics of marketing. So the question is how is social media specifically used to gather and share those stories?

Maybe I’m reading it all out of context, I’m a first-time visitor here. But ’5 steps to social media success’ doesn’t seem the right title for this graphic.

Great infographic – should be in marketing textbooks across the country!

(the only change I would have made is more emphasis on the repeat…it’s the most important part but it’s tucked away in the corner)

I like it though, a lot. People spend a lot of time talking about how social media levels the playing field, but this shows another side – how big companies have a lot to gain from social media.

Good comment Simon. I agree that the title was a bit off the topic of the graphic but putting that to one side, I think the basic point about story telling is a good one although its power isn’t restricted to social media of course. Nor do I necessarily think that you need to harvest the stories from social media; they can be harvested from a variety of places and social media channels are just one place to use them to spark reaction and dialogue, which sparks engagement which sparks more stories etc etc. I think what’s refreshing though is the suggestion of a concern about an authentic story, vs the apps, followers, and range of other paint by the numbers social media approaches.

For what it’s worth (and only a mini-shameless plug here but totally on topic I think) we have a process for this that we use with small business owners called True Story Mining. You can check out our approach at: http://www.sydneysmallbusinesscentre.com/truestory

Focusing on step 2, storytelling humanizes company. What this really means is storytelling “humanizes” or makes more cuddly a company’s image, not the company itself. Humanizing the image is generally good for marketing a company’s product or service. I am not convinced that this can have any humanizing impact on the company. If it could – that would be something, really would be something. And, humanizing a company’s image while probably good for the company, may not be good for its customers, who will be misled into believing the company has human traits, like caring and empathy, which could well make the customers vulnerable. They might believe, for instance, that the company cared about them, which is unlikely.
This also applies to the kinship idea, in which people are feeling like family to a solely legal entity. Kind of scary.

Good post.

http://descargar-ares.org/