CHAPTER 3

Social Business

Technology has significantly transformed the business landscape over the last century. It has impacted not only how products and services are produced, marketed, and distributed but also how businesses communicate, build, and maintain a relationship with their consumers. Numerous technological advancements have strengthened and furthered the businesses’ ability to grow and expand. For example, the Remington typewriter occupied a dominant presence in the workplace through most of the 1900s, and by the 1960s, the telephone displaced the traditional letter as the primary method of communication (Polt 1995; Dillerm 2015). The 1980s marked the beginning of the modern technology era with the introduction of the first personal computer (i.e., Apple’s Macintosh), brick-size cellular phones, and the fax machine (Novell 2013). By the turn of the millennium, the rate of technological advancements exploded. The Internet led the charge. The Web made companies more accessible, e-mail became a popular communication tool, the first smartphone was released, we could send text and photo messages, and e-commerce changed forever the way we shop (Dillerm 2015; Williams 2012). Apple’s iPhone introduction, coupled with high consumer-adoption rates of smartphones, further propelled the usage of social media and launched the era of the social consumer. Today, technology is fully integrated into all aspects of our daily lives. We live, work, and play in a digital world.

Historically, businesses held the majority of the power in the marketplace. Companies decided what to produce, when and where to release it, and how consumers would purchase and consume it. This is no longer true; today consumers sit in the driver’s seat. Social media has given consumers a loud voice. They are now able to widely broadcast what they want, how, when, and where they want it. Consumers wield this power through their desktops or laptops, but more likely, through a small, powerful device that sits nicely in the palm of their hand. When consumers have a question, a complaint, or a compliment, they turn to their smartphone and share it with hundreds, thousands, and maybe even millions of other consumers on social media. If a company cannot give them what they want, they discount them with a swipe of their finger or the click of a button. The balance of power has shifted. For those companies slow to recognize this shift, the global health threat of late 2019 and early 2020 was a wake-up call.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about the realization that every business is a technology business. In the United States, the average number of minutes spent on social networks rose by 16 percent (Statista 2020). As the world closed down and consumer mobility reduced, people naturally gravitated toward online channels. Companies recognized the importance of investing in digital technologies for internal operations, customer, and supply–chain interactions. A global study by management consultants McKinsey & Company (2020) of 899 c-suite executives and senior managers revealed that the pandemic accelerated the digitalization of customer interactions by an average of three years. Survey respondents indicated that upward of 80 percent of their customer interactions are now digital. Furthermore, business adoption of partial or fully digitized products and services to meet consumer expectations was accelerated by seven years. Not surprisingly, acceleration was more significant in some industries than others, with the most considerable growth seen in healthcare and pharma, financial and professional services (McKinsey & Company 2020). Once consumers have developed a taste for digital interaction, they are often unwilling to return to the old methods. Therefore, we can expect consumer needs and expectations for digital technologies and exchanges, including the use of social media, to remain in a post-COVID world.

For a company to succeed today, they need to embrace the power of social media, to make it part of who they are and what they do. Companies need to evolve into social businesses. Those who fail to make this transition may find themselves left behind. As a wise person once said, companies must innovate or die. Innovation is not just about new product development; it is also about developing new ways of doing business. In this chapter, we will explain what it means to be a social business and why it is crucial for your company to embrace this change. We will also explain the stages of social business development and how social tools can be integrated to become part of your company’s DNA. Interspersed throughout the chapter are examples of companies that have successfully made the transition. Hopefully, they will inspire you to do the same.

The Social Business

Social business is “activities that use social media, social software and social networks to enable efficient, effective and mutually useful connections between people, information, and assets” (Kiron 2012). When a company becomes a social business, they no longer view social media solely as a marketing or public relations communication tool but as a tool that can be used throughout various strategic, innovative, and functional areas of a company. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for accelerated social media adoption to sustain and grow businesses. The transition is not easy; it requires leadership, resources, and time.

Social Business Maturity Model

The social business maturity model presented in Table 3.1 was developed from a combination of academic frameworks and industry models.

Trial Phase

The trial phase of social business is not unlike Hollywood’s portrayal of the Wild West, chaotic and lawless. In this phase, social media is not a formal part of the business. Company social media accounts are often created in silos, functioning independently from other company social media accounts. Those that exist were created by individual departments or social-savvy and (in some cases) not-so-socially savvy employees. These accounts were more than likely created without undergoing a formal approval process. There may be duplicate accounts, inconsistent posting and engagement practices, and unauthorized or inappropriate use of company intellectual property (e.g., logos, trademarks). During this phase, there is no strategy or goals in place. There is little synergy between accounts. Your company may be using social media as a broadcasting channel—posting the same information on each platform instead of customizing information for each platform and using specific platforms to engage consumers in conversation and build relationships. Your company may not have a social media policy that outlines what employees can and cannot post. Your employees are often unaware of the laws and regulations that they are required to be followed. Sometimes, the intern(s) is solely charged with crafting your company’s social media presence (Tip: Don’t do this). In this phase, the mindset is “let’s give it a shot and see what happens.”

Table 3.1 Social business maturity model

	Trial	Transition	Maturity
Current status	• No clear goals • No formal policy • No plan • No control • Ad hoc and experimental social initiatives • Using social media as a broadcasting channel	• More focused activities • Allocation of some resources • Movement from listening to engaging with consumers • Social media is primarily used for marketing and PR purposes • Some, but inconsistent interaction with consumers	• Social media monitoring • Communicating feedback • Employee, consumer, and influencer engagement • More focused use of social media in a number of functional areas
Next steps	• Learn how your consumers use social media • Listen to what they are saying • Conduct a competitive audit • Develop, implement, and learn from pilot projects • Prioritize initiatives	• Creation of a Social Media Advisory Board or Center of Excellence • Policy formation and rules for engagement • Goal alignment with strategic business goals • Encourage employee engagement • Providing employee support and training • Identifying social influencers • Exploration of how social media can be used in other functional areas—HR, Sales, Finance, and so on • Measuring and communicating results • Ongoing monitoring	• Obtaining C-level support and engagement • Social media moves into all areas of the business—HR, Sales, Finance, and so on • Social media is now part of the business planning process • Policies and procedures updated to allow for companywide participation • Review Advisory Board or Center of Excellence role and composition
Resources required	• Obtaining support from senior management • Human resources • Identify social media evangelists • Listening or monitoring platform	• Allocation of additional human resources • Social media management system	• Ongoing education and support

Source: Adapted from van Luxemburg (2011), Li and Solis (2013), Effing and Spil (2016). The model describes three phases of social business. It identifies activities that typically take place during each phase, the steps and the resources required to move your company to the next phase.

Chaos aside, there is value in experimentation. However, this value will go unrealized if no one pays careful attention. Social businesses need to listen and learn. So, let’s get a little more focused. There are at least four valuable sources of information you can draw upon to learn about how to use social media for business purposes: (1) publicly available information, (2) information about your social media connections, (3) information about your current consumer base, and (4) information about your competition.

Public Information

The beauty (and curse) of social media is that it is constantly growing and evolving. Platforms that were once popular (e.g., MySpace) lose their appeal and are replaced with other platforms (e.g., Facebook). New platforms are launched and become hugely successful (e.g., Instagram and Snapchat), others transform by adding new features (e.g., Pinterest), and some simply fail to catch on (e.g., Gowalla). How consumers use and engage with social media also changes. A decade ago, social media was used primarily to connect with family and friends. Today, as we learned in Chapter 2, consumers use it for various additional purposes, such as to meet new people, be inspired, research products, catch up on the latest news, find employment, and be entertained. Social media has certainly come a long way. Strategies that worked well on social media five years ago may not work well today. Companies need to keep up-to-date on the growth and popularity of different platforms and understand how consumers are currently using them. Fortunately, there is ample publicly available information on this topic. Pew Internet (pewinternet.org), eMarketer (emarketer.com), Social Media Examiner (socialmediaexaminer.com), Nielsen (nielsen.com), Forrester (forrester.com), and McKinsey (mckinsey.com) are all excellent places to start.

Social Connections

The key to marketing success is by understanding your consumers. This truism is no different in the social space. Therefore, you need to learn as much as you can from your existing social connections. To begin, select a sample of 20 to 30 of your social media followers and review their accounts to see when they use social (day and time), how frequently they use it (frequency of posts), and what type of content they appear to be interested in (evident by status updates, shares, likes, comments, and so on). You are likely to find that there are platform differences in how consumers are using and engaging with your brand. For example, consumers may be more active on Facebook than on Twitter. They may like watching the videos you share on Facebook but do not engage with those you post to Twitter. Next, examine your social accounts carefully to see what type of content resonates the strongest with your followers. Look for content that receives the greatest level of engagement from your followers (i.e., likes, shares, comments, retweets). Take note of specific content that fails to ignite a response. A final step is to conduct a sentiment analysis, a process by which you perform a keyword search, typically your company name to see what people are saying about your company across social media. Sentiment analysis also quantifies and categorizes comments as positive, negative, and neutral. There is a large number of free and fee-based sentiment analysis services available: Social Mention (socialmention.com—free), WhosTalkin (whostalkin.com—free), HowSocialable (howsocialable.com—fee-based), Mention (mention.com—fee-based), and Keyhole.co (keyhole.co-fee-based). These will allow you not only to see what people are saying about your company, brand, product, competition, or industry in real time but also help you determine if they like you.

Consumer Base

While social media can provide a valuable window into the lives of your consumers, you may still need a better view. If you need more information on your consumers’ social media habits, then it is a good idea to survey them. A formal survey can be drafted and distributed via e-mail or social media. Alternatively, you could add a couple of questions to an existing task (e.g., order form) or interaction (e.g., customer service call). An informal, exploratory survey format using social media is another option. A company could simply ask or post a question on Twitter or Facebook and document consumer feedback.

Competition

There is a lot that you can learn about how to and how not to use social media by simply monitoring the social activities of your competitors. Identify three or more competitors to monitor. Select the industry leader and a couple of your immediate competitors and audit their social media activities. Identify which platforms they use, how active they are on each platform, how they use their brand voice, how they embody their brand story (more on this later), what they post, and the kind of response these posts generate. Try to identify the content and timing of posts that work for each platform. Similarly, identify what does not appear to work. In other words, what posts did not generate much consumer engagement (i.e., likes, retweets, comments)? You can learn just as much from their failures as you can from their successes.

To monitor your consumers’ and your competitors’ social media habits, it may be worthwhile to purchase a subscription to a social media monitoring platform. There are myriad of options available depending on the amount and level of data you wish to capture and the size of your budget. Getting into the nuances of social media monitoring is beyond the scope of this book, but a low-cost and effective option to start with is Hootsuite (hootsuite.com). Other commonly used options include Sprout Social, Meltwater, and Cyfe.

Once you have observed and learned as much as you can from your connections, consumers, and competitors, you will be able to formulate a set of assumptions about the best way to generate a following and successfully engage with your consumers on social media to encourage social word of mouth (sWOM). Now it is time to test some of these assumptions. Pick one or two social media accounts, and over a period of a couple of weeks, pilot these assumptions. Monitor each and every post to determine success. After a couple of weeks of experimenting with different approaches, you will be ready to prioritize future initiatives. Remember, the goal is quality, not quantity. It is better to have a small number of well-executed initiatives on a couple of social media platforms that generate positive results than it is to try and be everywhere and do everything. In other words, do not jump into simultaneously creating a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok account. Take, for example, Apple; they are very active on Instagram but surprisingly quiet on other platforms. Be realistic about what you can achieve, given the resources you have at your disposal. Your holistic social media efforts are a marathon and not a sprint.

There are two primary social media resources you will need: financial resources for a monitoring service subscription as well as any resources required for your initiatives (i.e., content generation and organization) and human resources to develop, implement, and monitor your pilot projects. During this phase, social media responsibilities largely fall to the marketing department. Someone in the marketing department needs to be assigned the responsibility of managing the company’s social media initiatives—a Director of Social Media or Social Media Manager. To assist this person now and in the future, it is essential that you identify and recruit social media evangelists—employees at all levels of the organization who recognize the importance of social media as a business tool. These evangelists can be very influential at gaining companywide support, beginning at the senior level.

Executive Buy-In

Executive buy-in and support are essential for success (Kiron 2012). C-level executives differ in their perceptions of social media and the importance and value of creating a social business. There are many reasons why executives are often reluctant to adopt social, including the perception that the investment may be worth the time, particularly if existing traditional media is working. They may feel that social media in the hands of employees is risky and the reward is minimal. This is a valid concern, but employee education and training can mitigate many risks. They may think their target market is not using social media. This may have been the case 10 years ago, but it is hard to argue this point today. As we learned in Chapter 2, consumer social media adoption rates have changed dramatically over the years. In 2021, 73 percent of US consumers aged 50 to 64 and 65 percent of those aged 65+ used at least one social media platform, up from 69 to 40 percent, respectively, in 2019 (Pew Research Center 2021).

Transition Phase

The transition phase is the evolutionary phase. Having completed the steps of listening and learning, conducting a competitive audit, and piloting initiatives, it is time to put all of this knowledge to good use. During the transition phase, social media activities become more focused. Instead of trying to do it all and be something for everyone, the company directs its social media efforts toward specific consumer groups and social platforms. There is a movement from listening to consumers to engaging with them. Resource allocation has improved but likely has room to grow. To gain support for additional resources, it is important for you to keep monitoring, measuring, and reporting results. Senior management needs to see that social media is worth the investment. Now may be an appropriate time to acquire or trade up to a more robust social media monitoring and management system. Hootsuite may continue to be a good long-term option for small-to-medium-size companies. Larger companies may eventually need to upgrade to a more sophisticated system with additional features. Social monitoring leaders include Salesforce, Sysomos, Visual Technologies, and Viral Heat.

When the focus becomes engagement, it is time to establish a social media advisory board. An advisory board or a center of excellence is a group of individuals whose purpose is to craft a company social media policy and provide appropriate guidelines for using social media in the workplace. We cover social media policies and advisory boards in Chapter 7.

Employee Engagement

The primary reason why many companies adopt social media is to connect with and motivate external consumers. This is a legitimate reason but do not forget your internal consumers—your employees. Social media can build and maintain business relationships between employees and between employees and senior management. Social media can be an effective communication channel for sharing company news and fostering a sense of company pride.

In their book, The Social Employee, authors Cheryl and Mark Burgess stress that the primary drivers of social business are employees (Burgess and Burgess 2014). They are right. Your employees are the face of your company, engaging with consumers and the public daily. It will be challenging to succeed as a social business without employee support. Company employees are “low-hanging fruit” when it comes to increasing your social media following. Employees have expertise that can be shared on social media and may be very helpful in spreading positive sWOM. Through social media, employees can foster long-term relationships with social consumers. Empowering your employees to share company information on their personal accounts may make your company more accessible to people outside of your company network.

In truth, not all employees are socially savvy, especially about how to use social media for business purposes. Some employees may also be reluctant to take on additional social responsibilities. To build a culture of collaboration and social sharing among your employees, you need to identify your social media evangelists and perhaps create a social media employee advocacy program. An employee advocate is someone who represents the interests of the company to internal and external audiences. These employees may be product or service experts, perhaps partly because of their position within the company and, therefore, a perceived credible spokesperson for the company. In other cases, they may be actively engaged with and have large social media networks that represent valuable contacts for the company. These employees can individually and collectively help promote the company and specific products and services through their social media accounts. Companies that have successfully implemented employee advocacy programs include Dell (computers), Kelly Services (staffing agency), Zappos (E-commerce), and Starbucks (retail). In Chapter 5, we will discuss the process of creating and managing an employee advocacy program.

Integrating Social Throughout the Company

The chances are that your company is using social media primarily for marketing and public relations purposes. This is great, but the deep integration of social media into multiple areas of the organization is necessary to transform your company into a social business. It is time to start exploring opportunities for incorporating social throughout the company.

The following section provides a brief overview of how social media can add value to a company and increase company-related sWOM.

Strategic Insights and Execution

Social media can help business leaders by offering strategic insights and improving strategic execution. In the case of strategic insights, a company can analyze consumer comments and perform brand sentiment analysis to identify problems with existing products and anticipate shifts in consumer preferences. In 2017, Taco Bell was ranked number five on Fast Company’s most innovative social media companies. Instead of relying solely on traditional marketing research techniques such as surveys and focus groups, the company listens to its 20+ million consumers. Customer service is a top priority for the company. When they learned through social media that consumers were unhappy with the cheese in their Quesalupa, they reached out to restaurants to remind them to follow the recipe to ensure quality control (Gorbatch 2019).

Comments can live online forever. Positive comments help consumers evaluate products, make purchase decisions, and reaffirm their selection. This helps with product sales and brand reputation. However, when a complaint or criticism is shared on social media, it has the potential to do harm. After a comment is posted, it moves from a private matter to a public one. The source of the complaint will determine the impact that it will have on the brand’s reputation and sales. When the complaint comes from a consumer, who has a high number of social connections, and if these social connections are not closely connected to each other, there is the potential for a firestorm (Stich, Golla, and Nanopoulos 2014). A firestorm is a “sudden discharge of large quantities of messages containing negative WOM and complaint behavior against a person, company, or group in social media networks” (Pfeffer, Zorbach, and Carley 2014, 118). In other words, negativity may breed negativity. Recipients or readers of the complaint may contribute to the conversation by voicing or sharing the initial complaint with their social networks. For this reason, companies need to have a strategy for handling the negative sWOM.

Innovation

Social media can be a great tool for solving problems with existing products and sourcing ideas for new ones. By listening to online conversations, Netflix learned that many people fall asleep while binge-watching their favorite shows. The entertainment company saw this as an opportunity to create a new product—Netflix Socks. These smart socks can detect when the viewer is nodding off and signal the television to pause the show. Now we won’t wake up only to realize that we have slept through three episodes or that our hero has met an untimely death! Fitbit uses social listening to identify emerging issues and troubleshoot problems with its activity tracker. The company collects all of the ideas generated by the users to bring to their engineering team for review. One great example that originated from social listening was creating the “Reminders to Move” feature—a buzzing sensation initiated by the wrist device to encourage users to get up and move (Gorbatch 2019). Personal care brand, Nivea, assumed that when it came to purchasing deodorant, consumers were most concerned about skin irritations and length of protection. However, when the company analyzed social media comments about the brand, they learned that consumers were most concerned about the stains on their clothes caused by the deodorant’s residue. Nivea used these insights to create a new product—Nivea Invisible for Black and White.

Human Resources

If you have been employed in the same position for a while, you may not realize how the recruitment process has changed. Help wanted ads and paper resumes are artifacts of yesteryear—say “hello” to social recruiting. Social recruiting is using popular social media platforms to advertise, source, and recruit potential candidates for a job. In 2020, 92 percent of employers surveyed reported using social and professional networks to recruit. The same survey revealed that 86 percent of job seekers used social media to search, apply to, or engage with employment-related social media content or reach out to recruiters (PR Newswire 2021).

A study by The Harris Poll revealed that 71 percent of US hiring decision makers agree that social media profiles are an effective way to screen potential candidates. Seventy percent of survey respondents believe that employers should be using social media profiles to screen candidates. Fifty-five percent report finding content on personal social media accounts that caused them not to hire the candidate. Checking a publicly available social media account can assist in validating work history and experience. It can also eliminate potential candidates if social posts indicate that the beliefs and value systems of the candidate do not align with those of the company (PR Web 2020). With over 722 million members, LinkedIn is the most popular platform for searching for candidates, with over 90 percent of recruiters using the platform for this purpose. Whereas membership spans all age groups, 59.9 percent of members are aged 25 to 34 years, suggesting it is a prime target to find and attract entry-level college graduates. Over 40 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs each week (Newberry 2021). Despite the popularity and benefits of social recruiting, care should be taken when using social media or other Internet search tools to vet job applicants. Information obtained through social media may be outdated, inaccurate, unreliable, or protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. This information is typically omitted from a resume and job application form but may be inadvertently obtained while viewing the applicant’s social media account (Global HR Research 2015).

Marketing Communications

Social media is first and foremost a communication channel. It is a channel that provides a two-way dialog between consumers, between a company and its consumers, and between companies. Social media is a conversation tool. It allows you to communicate with consumers by either broadcasting a general message or delivering a personalized, individual message. Broadcasting is akin to a megaphone—a company reaches a large number of people with a single message (mass communication). The company crafts a message and talks to the consumer, not unlike the traditional mass media (TV, radio, and print). The difference, however, between traditional and social media is the timeliness of the communication. Social media allows immediate access and real-time communication with your consumers at a fraction of the cost of traditional media.

Broadcasting general messages to your entire network may be appropriate some of the time but certainly not all of the time. On social media, you have a direct line to your consumers, much like a telephone. You should use this opportunity to engage specific segments of your network and individual consumers in conversations. Thus, your social media efforts should consist of a combination of mass and targeted and personalized communications.

Companies should not view social media as purely a sales channel, but as an important contributor to the consumer decision-making process. In truth, the best way to sell a product is not to sell it at all. Instead, a good sales representative will have a conversation with you, she or he asks questions, listens, and provides guidance. Social media allows companies to have one-on-one conversations with individual consumers. It is like chatting with someone on the telephone. As a company engages in a conversation with a specific consumer, other social media users can eavesdrop and may even chime in on the conversation. The conversation may eventually lead to a sale. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses experienced a drastic drop in revenues. In response, they utilized social media to generate awareness, enhance their brand identity, and maintain their connections with consumers. For instance, many hotels initially experienced up to a 50 percent drop in revenues due to travel restrictions. Silverado Resort and Spa amended its digital strategy to focus on educating the consumer about personal well-being. They created and shared several posts that explained how different plants could help boost immunity. Ikea encouraged consumers to stay positive, keep safe, and find comfort in their homes. Nike urged fans to “Play inside, play for the world” (Anand n.d.). In Chapters 4 and 6, we will talk more about how to have conversations with consumers by crafting persuasive social media messages.

Humanizing the Brand

Consumers respond positively to brands that represent who they are or whom they want to be. Have you ever heard yourself say something to the effect of “Yes, it (insert brand name) is nice, but it’s just not me?” If the answer is yes, then you may be saying that the personality of the brand is not consistent with your identity. When consumers choose to follow and engage with a brand on social media, they do so because they identify with the brand. As we discussed in Chapter 2, this is a motivating factor in why we share. Consumers see their real or aspirational sense of self (i.e., whom they want to be) reflected in the brand. Once they follow the brand on social media, the brand becomes part of their online social identity. This brand association becomes one of the many important data points connected to a consumer’s profile(s). Collectively, this information paints a picture of a consumer’s social identity that is broadcasted across the social media network(s). You are whom you like. The brand and consumer social identity association provide numerous benefits such as increasing brand awareness, extending your communication reach, and increasing the consumer’s brand involvement. It may also increase consumer engagement, stimulate sWOM, improve the reputation of your company, drive traffic to your website, and improve your search engine ranking. To encourage consumers to make this connection, a company needs to humanize their brand.

To humanize your brand is to imagine your brand as it were a person, to give your brand a personality—a set of traits that people attribute to your product as if it were a real person (Aaker, Vohs, and Mogilner 2010). A brand personality makes your brand more relatable and helps to distinguish it from the competition. The greater the congruence between a brand’s personality and the real or aspirational personality of the consumer, the stronger the preference for the brand (Aaker 1997). If your brand were a person, how would you describe its personality? Are they formal or relaxed? Feisty or timid? Conservative or progressive? Innovative or conventional? Energetic or easy-going? If you are uncertain, look at your brand values for guidance.

Brand Voice

Once you have determined your brand personality, you then need to develop your brand voice. That is, you need to decide not only the types of content that you will share but also how you will communicate with consumers on social media. Brand voice is an important way in which your company can stand out from the crowded digital landscape. Whereas visual content such as your logo, graphics, and videos are essential, so too is your written content. Your brand voice is the personality that your brand takes on in communications and includes the words, phrases, and stylistic choices you use in your messaging. In a study performed by Sprout Social, 33 percent of respondents indicated that a distinct personality helped make a brand stand out (Chen 2020). The process of developing a distinctive brand voice begins with reviewing your company’s mission and values. This will help you identify appropriate personality traits and appropriate language and tone. Next, you should conduct an audit of your current voice on social media. Are the tone, language, phrases, and stylistic choices consistent with the personality you are trying to portray? If not, what changes may be necessary? Consider your target audience(s). What is their demographic profile, which social media do they use, and why? How do they speak on social media? What vocabulary and tone will they find appealing and will match your brand? For example, fast-casual restaurant, Smashburger is unlikely to post content related to the virtues of a vegetarian diet or low-fat food. Instead, they celebrate “holidays” such as National Bacon Lovers Day (FYI: It’s August 20). If your company is very formal then when replying to consumer posts, you may decide to address the consumer by their last name (e.g., Mr. Jones). On the other hand, if your company is very informal and spontaneous, you may choose to share witty content and use the consumer’s first names (e.g., Hi Bob!).

Some examples of companies with strong and distinct brand voices include Taco Bell, Intel, and Adidas (Figures 3.1–3.6).

Figure 3.1 Taco Bell Twitter example 1

Figure 3.2 Taco Bell Twitter example 2

Source: Images courtesy of Taco Bell’s public Twitter account.

Taco Bell’s personality and brand voice could be described as humorous and somewhat wacky

Figure 3.3 Intel’s Facebook example 1

Figure 3.4 Intel’s Facebook example 2

Source: Images courtesy of Intel’s public Facebook page.

Intel’s voice is smart and enlightening.

Figure 3.5 Adidas Twitter example 1

Figure 3.6 Adidas Twitter example 2

Source: Images courtesy of Adidas public Twitter account.

Adidas is inspirational.

Once you have developed your voice, you will need to provide guidelines for your employees to follow, guidelines on acceptable content, and manner of speech. Employees and third parties who are authorized to post on behalf of the company will need direction to ensure a consistent brand voice, which is essential for presenting an accurate and consistent brand identity. You do not want Jim in accounting to be super serious, Jenny in human resources to be feisty, and your social media influencers or paid endorsers to be totally irreverent. Consider creating a brand voice style guide, a document that offers a description of your personality traits and gives examples of appropriate language and tone. This brand voice style guide should form part of your company’s social media policies and procedures documentation.

It is also important to meet periodically with your social media team to review whether or not your social media posts are consistent with your brand voice. Find emblematic social media posts and examples of consumer engagement that embody the essence of your brand. It is also helpful to pinpoint posts that are not consistent with your brand and identify the reasons why (i.e., word choice, tone, subject matter). And it goes without saying, learn from your social media mistakes (there will be many!). Archive and revisit these positive and negative examples.

Customer Service

If you had a question about a recent purchase, how would you contact the company? Would you call them on the 1–800 number? Jump in your car and head to the store? Try the live chat feature on their website? Perhaps, you would send them a tweet? Or, post a question on the company’s Facebook page? Maybe you would not contact the company. Perhaps, you would post a message on social media and let members of your social network respond. Social customer service or s-Care is the delivery of customer service via social networks rather than call centers, retail stores, service counters, and company websites. Upward of 80 percent of consumers use social to engage with brands (Fontanella 2020). Some of the engagement includes asking for help. Perhaps not surprisingly, when it comes to seeking assistance, there are generational differences. Thirty-one percent of Zoomers (born 1997–2012) and 29 percent of Millennials (born 1981–1996) report using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to contact a company. This number drops to 10 percent for those aged 55+ who still favor traditional customer service channels. Zoomers are more likely to attempt to solve issues on their own. Three out of every four Zoomers report conducting online research (e.g., comparing brands and reading reviews) before they buy, and 30 percent said they attempted to solve issues on their own before reaching out for assistance (Grieve 2021).

Tolerance of poor customer service also varies by generation. Fifty-three percent of Millennials and 34 percent of Zoomers said they are likely to switch to a competitor after one poor customer service experience, suggesting that (at least for now) young consumers are more likely to tolerate a single bad experience. It is only after multiple negative experiences that they are likely to switch to a competitor (64 percent). Wealth or lack thereof may be a contributing factor. Younger consumers have less spending power and shopping experience and are more likely to tolerate a poor service encounter than older, more experienced, and potentially wealthier consumers. When probed on what aspects of the customer experience negatively impacted their interaction, nearly half of the Zoomers respondents reported having to interact with an “unfriendly support agent.” Helpful empathetic service agents are essential to this generation (Grieve 2021).

It is fair to say that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on customer service. Mandatory stay-at-home orders forced many consumers to turn to social media and digital technologies for assistance. Research suggests that of all generations, Zoomers followed by Millennials were most affected by the pandemic. Twenty-one percent of Zoomers and 20 percent of Millennials surveyed reported higher expectations for customer service during the pandemic than consumers aged 55+. Similarly, 18 percent of both Zoomers and Millennials reported becoming less patient during customer service interactions compared to 10 percent of older consumers (Grieve 2021).

By 2030, Millennials and Zoomers will be the two largest consumer groups in the United States (Grieve 2021). At this time, customer service via social media will no longer be an option for businesses; it will be a requirement. So why wait? If they have not already done so, consider offering customer service via social media. Here are some suggestions:

• When targeting a mix of generations, it is essential to select a combination of traditional, digital, and social media customer service channels.

• Create a dedicated handle for each social media service account (e.g., @TMobileHelp). This will ensure that requests for help are directed to the right person and can be answered faster.

• The bio/about section of the account should indicate the purpose of the account (e.g., global business support or customersupport).

• The bio/about section should also communicate when live support is available. For example, “24/7 support 365 days” or “8 a.m.–8 p.m. Mon–Fri.”

• Consider encouraging customer service representatives to sign off their posts on social media with their first names. This is a strategy that has been adopted by TMobile and can assist in humanizing the brand.

• Rather than looking for your dedicated customer support account, many customers will automatically visit your primary social media account. So be sure to provide the handle for the customer service account in the bio/about section (e.g., for customer service, visit @TMobileHelp).

• Consider including links on each social media account to FAQ documents/videos/websites to encourage self-service.

• Identify repeat questions and use these as an opportunity to update FAQs and create new resources.

• Provide those employees who manage the account with guidelines to ensure a consistent approach to handling questions and maintaining the appropriate brand voice. These guidelines should include a target response time for each new question, proper tone and language, and protocols for escalating issues or complaints.

Social media is not only important and effective for dealing with consumers directly, but it is also important for sharing information internally to help solve consumer problems. Take, for example, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. A Nationwide customer was stranded on vacation—his RV had broken down. He called the Nationwide call center for assistance—did his policy cover this situation? The call center agent was uncertain and decided to post the case on the company’s internal social collaboration platform. People from all across the company chimed in to help solve the problem. Within 30 minutes, the call center representative had an answer and a detailed approach to help the customer. Without this internal social collaboration system, the problem may have taken hours or even days to resolve, and Nationwide could have lost a customer (Kiron 2012). Furthermore, unanswered questions, unresolved issues, and unreturned calls can often lead to negative WOM. It is not uncommon for dissatisfied consumers to turn to social media to publicly air their grievances. This has the potential to create a firestorm. Even if it does not motivate others to complain, it can still discourage consumers from doing business with your company.

Maturity Phase

During the maturity phase, the company’s social media moves beyond marketing to include other functional areas. Policies and procedures may need to be updated, and the role and composition of the social media advisory board modified to accommodate the enhanced use of social media and to include representation from additional areas. Hopefully, all of the C-level executives now see the value of social. If some members of senior management are still wavering, it may be worthwhile to involve them with a specific social initiative that will help achieve one of their goals (Li and Solis 2013).

The key to determining if you have successfully made the transition to a social business is when social is an integral part of the business planning process and when there is companywide support and usage of social. Social is now part of the fabric of your business; it is part of the company’s DNA.

An example of an organization that has successfully transitioned to a social business is the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross was founded in 1881 with the mission to “prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors” (American Red Cross 2021). To help them achieve their mission, the Red Cross made the commitment to infuse social media into every aspect of the organization. First and foremost, they have the commitment of senior management. Senior management recognizes the unique capabilities of social media to mobilize the masses to prepare for and respond to disasters.

The Red Cross operates accounts on a variety of social platforms, each with a specific purpose. To share the history of the company and to help build an emotional connection with the public, they use Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter. Facebook is used primarily to connect with supporters, volunteers, blood donors, and others who are looking for information on the services provided. LinkedIn is where people can explore current job openings. Instagram is used to share photographs and videos of disaster relief responders in the field. TikTok offers safety tips, historical facts, and an inside look at life at the Red Cross. The Red Cross YouTube account informs the public about disaster response and helps to educate the public on topics such as CPR. Twitter is used for real-time updates on disasters and Red Cross services (Figure 3.7).

Figure 3.7 Red Cross Twitter example

Source: Image courtesy of Red Cross public Twitter account.

In addition to using social media to educate, communicate, and build relationships with supporters, the Red Cross also uses social media to make business decisions. By monitoring social chatter and public sentiment, they can identify how to respond to public needs. For example, by tracking keywords like “tornado” on Twitter, the Red Cross can spot exactly when and where disasters are happening and use this information to help manage and track resources and supplies.

Social is also an important tool for fundraising. Supporters can make a donation through one of their blogs or on Facebook. They use Twitter to post messages encouraging followers to donate to specific disasters (Kane 2014).

If a 140-year-old charitable organization with over 600 chapters, 20,000 employees, and 314,000 volunteers in the United States alone can make the commitment and transition to becoming a social business what is stopping your company?

Social B2B Companies

You may be thinking that social media is not particularly relevant to those companies that operate in the business-to-business (B2B) market. After all, who on earth would be interested in a photograph of your frontend loaders, sea containers, or enterprise software? But you would be surprised just how important social is to these companies. Research revealed that more than 80 percent of B2B decision makers at the C-level and VP-level across all industries admitted to being influenced by social media and at least 75 percent of B2B businesses use social media as part of their marketing strategy (Sagefrog Marketing Group 2021). A 2021 survey revealed that the top three social media platforms adopted by B2B marketers are Facebook (89 percent), LinkedIn (81 percent), and Instagram (72 percent) (Statista 2021). The following are some examples of B2B success on social media.

Maersk Group

The world’s largest shipping container company with offices in 130 countries utilizes LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to share news about the company to get closer to its consumers and potentially influence the industry (Katona and Sarvary 2014). Shipping enthusiasts are drawn to the company’s posts and even post their photos of Maersk ships (Figure 3.7). By contributing their materials, these followers help to craft and share the story of Maersk throughout the social web (Katona and Sarvary 2014).

IBM

IBM uses social media to tell the 100+ year story of their company. Instagram is used to post photos and videos of employees sharing information about their personal experiences at IBM. Providing insights into new technologies helps promote the company values of trust, innovation, and responsibility (Morrison 2021).

Shopify

Ecommerce platform Shopify utilizes Facebook and YouTube to share How-To videos and tutorials for digital business owners. Their educational and entertaining content positions the company as a valuable resource for aspiring entrepreneurs (Morrison 2021).

Slack

Slack is a workplace communication and collaboration platform. The company uses Twitter to reach different audiences. In addition to creating their own content, they also share third-party articles on topics their customers may find appealing (Moreno 2020).

Airtable

Airtable is a cloud-based collaboration tool. The company uses Instagram to educate companies about its services and Instagram stories to showcase its brand personality. They regularly feature their employees and share behind-the-scenes and real-time in-the-moment content to humanize their brand (Moreno 2020).

In light of the influence of social media in the B2B market, we feel it is important to revisit some important facts for those readers who work for a B2B company:

We conclude this chapter with one more example, the case of SAP. SAP is a B2B company that has successfully made the transition to becoming a social business.

SAP

Systems Applications and Products (SAP) is the market leader in enterprise software to help companies manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, SAP employs almost 102,000 people in 130 countries. SAP’s vision is to “help the world run better and improve people’s lives” (SAP 2016). They embedded social media into their organization for strategic insight and execution, innovation, human resources, marketing communications, and customer service. Like many other businesses, they have a wide selection of accounts on multiple platforms, including, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

The most powerful illustration that SAP is a social business is the SAP Community Network, a global online community of over 2.8 million IT people, technologists, partners, business experts, students, professors, consultants, and influencers from more than 200 countries (SAP 2015). The community that is hosted by SAP includes blogs, wikis, and discussion forums. It is a place where members can discuss SAP products, programming languages, industries, and technology. How-to guides, white papers, and free downloads are all available on the site. Community members can post questions that are answered by either a company representative or other members of the community.

For a company to be successful in today’s hyper-connected world, the company needs to embrace social media. sWOM begins internally; it begins with engaging with and empowering your employees to use social media for business purposes. Social media needs to be integrated into your company, much in the same way the telephone and the computer did decades ago. Social media is the telephone of this generation—ringing loudly and constantly. The question is, are you going to answer it?

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