For the past several years social media has been a buzzword swamp with marketers chasing one shiny object after another like dogs chasing their tails. Social Listening, Advocacy, Content Marketing, Engagement and Social Marketing to name but a few.
More recently joining the CMO in the chase have been other c-suite executives lured by the promise of a brave new world empowered by social business and collaboration. Or maybe it’s just their fear of losing control and being left behind.
As sustainable social applications begin to crawl their way out of the swamp of social media disillusionment, platforms facilitating the creation and sharing of content across social channels may be poised to lead the way.
Interestingly enough utilizing a unified platform for operationalizing two of the above words, Advocacy and Engagement may just hold the key to unlocking greater value from content creation and social sharing.
Both Advocacy and Engagement have one thing in common that’s critical for any true social success and that’s PEOPLE!
Businesses and brands today are aiming to truly engage people to become advocates and these people can be customers, influencers and of course even employees.
Co-ordinating, encouraging and facilitating a culture of creation and social sharing of all forms of content by these three groups has the potential to generate a multiplier effect.
A technology platform to support these efforts is a key prerequisite building block, but ultimately much more will be required for success. True cultural change embraced by most employees and many customers & influencers with the brand will require leading both a ‘Top Down’ and ‘Bottom Up’ approach, as well as adopting both ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Outside In’ methods for the distributed creation and flows of content.
Like any successful corporate development or change initiative, internal efforts need to be embraced, lead and supported both from the C-Suite and frontline employees. Active leadership from the C-Level including the CEO is critical to demonstrate commitment and lead by example, ‘Walking the Talk’ through the creation and sharing of content. For the shift to a culture of content creation and sharing to take root the ‘Bottom Up’ groundswell of content creation and social sharing must be facilitated, encouraged and your people rewarded for these efforts. The ultimate goal is for these aligned ‘Bottom Up’ and ‘Top Down’ initiatives to meet in the middle cementing this as a permanent part of company culture moving forward.
Likewise ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Outside In’ bi-directional content creation and sharing initiatives can cultivate a similar resulting flow and synergy between a company and its’ customers and potential influencers. Again rewards and recognition for their active participation in content creation should be a key consideration in your planning.
Very few individual initiatives can effectively address so many goals, in this case simultaneously addressing Customer, Influencer and Employee Engagement while at the same time harnessing joint content and creation to energize your efforts. The power of creating a culture of content comes from synchronizing and synergizing the voices of Employees, Customers and Influencers as true advocates and ambassadors together writing new chapters as they tell the brand story, jointly advancing both brand purpose and the customer journey.
Jeff Ashcroft
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