The phraseology sounds cool right?

Recently, I came across an interesting business study by Charlene Li and Brian S. regarding the pitfalls of how businesses fail to convert a social media strategy into an effective business model.

The report by the Altimeter Group, titled as "The Evolution of Social Business: 6 Stages of Social Media Transformation" takes into consideration verticals that have created the apparent lacuna's in employing social media for business growth.

It is indeed agreeable that all businesses have adopted the social media for marketing and advertising themselves. However, bridging the client-business gap is the difficult nut to crack. The report works towrads finding "common guiding success factors for organizations achieving success in each social business maturity stage, as well as prescriptive recommendations and checklists to grow to the next level of maturity."

The supposed cause of this vaccum in the business model exists due to the differences in the planning and the actual exceution of the social media strategy. It's not as if companies don't have a strategy in place.

A 2012 survey of social media strategists and executives shows a relative chasm connected to social media strategy as an attache to the main business techniques. While 28% felt that they had a social media plan in place, a paltry 12% showed confidence that it was a workable plan next year too.The startling revelation is the disconnect and lack of engagement of top executives with their own social strategy. So much so that some CEO's did not even have operational social media accounts to keep tabs let alone stay updated!

The research duo however, suggest two critical pointers for a effective social media business model:

1. Both the social amd main business strategy should align well with the larger goals. This is to say that social media should not be seen as the "other helping tool".

2.An organizational structure that is exclusively involved in handling social media should be in place. The seperation of the typical office work and promotional departments will reduce pressures on one set of employee population and even out the tasks.


Stage 1: Planning - "Listen to Learn"

The goal of this first stage is to ensure that there is a strong foundation for strategy development, organizational alignment, resource development, and execution.

Stage 2: Presence - "Stake Our Claim"

Staking a claim represents a natural evolution from planning to action. As you move along the journey, your experience establishes a formal and informed presence in social media.

Stage 3: Engagement - "Dialog Deepens Relationships"

When organizations move into this stage, they make a commitment where social media is no longer a “nice to “have” but instead, is seen as a critical element in relationship building.

Stage 4: Formalized - "Organize for Scale"

The risk of uncoordinated social initiatives is the main driver moving organizations into Stage 4, where a formalized approach focuses on three key activities: establishing an executive sponsor; creating a hub, a.k.a. a Center of Excellence (CoE); and establishing organization-wide governance. Organizations should plan for a potential CoE pitfall, however, as creating one may lead to scaling problems in the long-term.

Stage 5: Strategic - "Becoming a Social Business"

As organizations migrate along the maturity model, the social media initiatives gain greater visibility as they begin to have real business impact. This captures the attention of C-level executives and department heads who see the potential of social.

Stage 6: Converged - "Business is Social"

As a result of the cross-functional and executive support, social business strategies start to weave into the fabric of an evolving organization.


The interesting thing about this study I found was that the researchers do not leave the discussion midway after pin pointing the problems. They give a rationale to the problem and forward "7 Success Factors of Social Business" too. It goes something like this:

1.Define the overall business goal and align social media strategies against it.

2.Establish the long-term vision for becoming a social business.

3.Seek and earn key executive support and sponsorship based on the business case, not the trend.

4.Beyond marketing and service campaigns, develop a list of prioritized initiatives that will demonstrate business value at the enterprise-level and in key functions/lines of business and plot them on a two-to-three year roadmap.

5.Train and educate executives and employees not just how to use social media, but also how social media can impact business objectives and how to develop and run programs that do so continually.

6.Get the right people involved at the right levels. An effective social business strategy takes a unified approach with cross-functional support. It’s a combination of social media savvy and business acumen.

7.Invest in technology only after your vision and strategy are set. Technology and social media in general are only enablers to the overall mission and purpose you set forth.

For those interested in reading the whole report, you can download it here.

Do let us know your understanding of a social media strategy that works for you or any other tips that can be added to this write up.

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