Posts Tagged ‘social business’

May29

Bridging the traditional/social gap with WOM

By: Spike Jones

There are many things that fascinate me about the communications space right now. Human behavior and social tools. The staying-power of great advertising. Yeah, there’s a list. And another line on there is the gap between the digital/social media kids and the “traditional” side of the house.

How many times have you heard the digital kids in your agency whine and moan about how the traditional PR/communications people “just don’t get” social. That they think it’s some plug-in tactics after everything is figured out. How the program would be so much better if social media had a seat at the table from the beginning. You know, when everything’s integrated.

But what I’ve found is that as much as that may be true, many of the social kids don’t really understand what “traditional” PR/communications people do. Like, at all. You’re probably nodding your head right now because you know it’s true. It’s not all press releases and pitching stories. It’s actually a WHOLE lot more than that. Just ask them.

So to be the Word of Mouth guy of the group has made me realize that WOM is the answer to bridging that gap between social and traditional. When my team and I talk about a word of mouth program or concept with the social kids, their eyes light up, because they can easily see the digital hooks. And when we have that same conversation with the traditional folks, they easily get it too, because it’s a natural extension of what they are already doing. (Yes, ideally everyone would be in the same room when that conversation happens, but one thing at a time.)

I’m not saying that WOM is always the magic bullet. But I AM saying that it can be the bridge. The word of mouth discipline has its feet firmly planted in both the online and offline worlds (this is the part where I remind you that 90% of word of mouth conversations still happen offline). Because, built the right way, WOM programs that engage people in remarkable experiences push people online. And the reverse is also true. It’s actually a cycle: online to offline and offline to online.

So when you’re starting to work on that new project or even when the word “integrated” comes up, remember that word of mouth can help bridge the gap between two worlds. It just may be the difference between just another campaign that falls flat and a powerful, successful engagement.

Posted in: marketing, word of mouth1 comments

May15

Social Business Means Cultural Change

By: Spike Jones

Social business. All the cool kids are doing it. Come on, you should do it to. Why? You’ll be POP-uLARRRR!!

Like victims of high school peer pressure, everyone in the digital world is talking about how social business is the next big thing. And I’m not here to argue if it is or isn’t. Brother Armano recently wrote a great post about the evolution of digital that lays it out very nicely and talks about the natural evolution of social media into social business. It’s the next logical step, really. In fact, we’re seeing more and more businesses come on the scene that not only are trying to crack the social business nut, but are actually calling themselves social business businesses.

That’s pretty bold.

In a conversation with Chuck last week, we were discussing the state of the digital industry. It started with the obvious: that social media is just that: media. Tools. Things we can turn on and off and plug in and unplug and dial up or down  – you know, just like advertising. It’s mechanical “things” – at least the media part of it. But social business – this idea that social will come in and permeate every singe section of a company – that’s waaayyyyy different. In fact, it can’t happen unless there’s a fundamental cultural change within a company.

And therein lies the problem. Impossible? No. Hard? Very. To walk in to a company and tell them that in order to become a social business, they’re going to have to fundamentally shift the way they think about everything they do – internally and externally – is a damn hard sell. Because changing the culture of the company is no easy task. Volumes have been written about it. But ultimately it comes down to a willingness to do it from all parties involved and a push from the both the top-down and the bottom-up.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in word of mouth projects that have ignited cultural change within companies. I wish we could say that we set out to do it in the first place, but it was a result of a long-term, sustainable program that started under the PR division and then spread through marketing, advertising, HR, finance and so-on. It was amazing to watch and within 12 months, the entire company had begun to shift culturally.

So maybe that’s how you start. Small. Bit-by-bit. With something obvious that you know will begin to creep into the dark corners of a company and bring them into the fold. Telling a company of 400,000 people that everything is going to change is a lot harder than letting them see how you can take one section of a company, change it for the better and let them wrap their heads around it.

Change is hard. But when the right people (dare I say “influencers?”) within a company are dedicated to make it happen, it’s a beautiful thing. But before we go throwing around the term “social business,” let’s really be clear what we’re talking about.

Posted in: brands, marketing, word of mouth4 comments

January3

Taking Social Back

By: Spike Jones

And just like that, it’s 2012.

Yeah, he’s being social.

I don’t do resolutions. Or lists. Not that there’s anything wrong with those that do. (There is.) But here’s one thing that I will say about 2012: I’m taking the word “social” back.

Somewhere along the way, after it got slapped in front of anything old that marketers wanted to make new again (I’m looking at you media, business, community, etc.), “social” lost its way. If you were to go to a marketing conference or walked into a PR company and asked 20 people what social meant, yeah, you’d get 20 different answers.

But I digress.

Enough is enough. Now, I’m not implying that we should stop using the word, let’s just start using it like it was intended to be used. Being social online is different from being social offline. In most cases, you’re isolated when you’re using online social media. You’re in your own little world. Maybe in an airport or in your guest room/office at home. No matter what the case, everything you do is being filtered through that glass screen.

Social offline is really SOCIAL in the truest sense of the word. I find it so ironic that one of the definitions of social is “living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation.” I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that one.

So, in 2012, I’m taking social back – and not trying to pry it from the hands of the internet kids – to make social, SOCIAL. In other words, we will truly connect online to offline and offline to online. One drives the other. Always. If we are truly social beings, then it’s fair to say that we crave physical interaction from others. (That’s skin and bones, kids, not avatars.) After all, the best times of your life don’t happen on your smartphone or your iPad. And the sooner we all realize that, the sooner we can make social mean something more than the fairy dust we sprinkle on our new biz pitches.

Onward.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, rants2 comments

April18

Get Real with Spike – Episode 3: Social, Social, Social

By: Spike Jones

Do we really have to stick the word “social” on everything that stands still? Why “social business” just doesn’t cut it. Teaming up with SocialFresh, it’s the third installment of Get Real With Spike.

Get Real with Spike Jones – Episode 3: Social, social social from Social Fresh on Vimeo.

Posted in: marketing, rants2 comments

March10

There’s something big brewing in Austin, Texas

By: Spike Jones

And no, I’m not talking about SXSW.

That Peter Kim kid got some of us locals together to write about the intense digital and word of mouth happenings and the place where it’s all happening: Austin, Texas. (Some are calling it “Social Business Capital of the World,” but I don’t like the term “social business.”) You can read excerpts from all the contributors here. Or the individual posts of Aaron Strout, Greg Matthews, Virginia Miracle, Kat Mandelstein and Kate Niederhoffer.   And the following is my take on this great city I call home:

I was born and raised in Dallas and as soon as I graduated from Baylor I set out to explore places other than my home state. Colorado, Missouri, Georgia and South Carolina were among them and I never even gave it a se…cond thought about moving back to homeland. But things change. And when an opportunity opened up in Texas, I only had one requirement: I promised myself a long time ago that if I ever made my way back to the state, it’d only be to Austin.

Yes, it’s where the digital space in converging on many levels. But there are also huge opportunities that are growing out of the digital/social space – like marrying online and offline through word of mouth opportunities. And THAT’S what I’m excited to be a part of. The talent and big thinking here constantly blow me away – but it just adds to the great entrepreneurial spirit that exists within both the venture capital backed start-ups and the large, established companies, too.

Like a lot of us on this post, I get asked a lot about what it’s like to live in Austin. Where do I begin? I think my favorite thing is the vibe here. You can walk into just about any establishment and witness a cross-culture of individuals who just accept one another. Seriously. Go to the corner restaurant and you’ll see people completely covered ink sitting next to a few guys in suits over next to a young family wearing shorts and flip-flops with their kids running around the table. It just feels like everyone that’s here BELONGS here. No judgment. No snarky comments about non-native Texans (as they say, the only thing wrong with Austin is that it’s surrounded by Texas). No BS.

As for quality of life – are you kidding me? I live downtown. I walk to work. I walk across the street to the Whole Foods mothership. I walk two blocks to hear some of my favorite bands in the universe or eat at some amazing local restaurants or even lounge on a roof top deck and watch the world go by. It takes two minutes to hit the trail around Town Lake for my morning runs. No complaining here.

The thing I do love is that as the capital of Texas, Austin still has that certain Texas “something” about it. Call is pride. Call it history. Whatever. Yes, you can find people with cowboy hats and boots walking down Congress or at the airport. And I like that. But it’s not shoved down your throat. Oh, it’s there. But it’s a more accepting sense of pride. After all, like my grandfather always said, “Never ask a man where he’s from. If he’s from Texas, he’ll tell ya. If he’s not, don’t embarrass him.”

Posted in: slice of life2 comments

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