CHAPTER 8

Customers and Prospects

Social media took off just prior to my transitioning to higher education. I was still doing strategy work full-time for clients, ranging from local startups and family-owned operations to Fortune 250, multinational corporations. In the span of a decade, social media went from being a novel curiosity to a nearly indispensable communication tactic, when used appropriately.

When I first started talking with clients about social media, we looked at the few platforms available as merely ways to reach young people and the tech-savvy. Most business people had little clue what social media entailed, why anyone would “waste” time using them, and what advantage there could possibly be from such an odd way to communicate. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure, either.

If you have ever been to a trade show, you know that the challenge each year is coming up with a novel way to generate buzz and attract people to your booth. Nothing is more defeating, or costly, than investing tens of thousands of dollars on a trade show presence, only to stand around for several days, meeting few new prospects.

With a few clients, we used social media as a trade show strategy, very early on in the days of these platforms. This was long before people started thinking so intently about content strategy, and how to post the kind of information that would be both valuable and enticing to social media followers. This was also before people understood social media as a relationship-­building tool, not just a way to transmit information. So, with a particular client, we would get active on Foursquare, Twitter, ­Facebook, and the like, but only just prior to the trade shows. We would then blast information that seemed strategic at the time, but, in hindsight, truly wasn’t. By pushing out information, we thought we would attract whoever might be paying attention.

Keep in mind that this was before smart phones. So, you had people walking around a trade show, carrying their laptops in shoulder bags. Or, worse yet, you had people getting ready for the day in their hotel rooms, or staying up late working at night, with laptops logged into the Internet, but very rarely visiting social media sites. Very few people were socially networked at that time, and even for those who were, following posts and tweets throughout the day wasn’t really feasible, at least not while on the go.

We recognized these limitations, of course. And, using some old-fashioned word-of-mouth strategy, we made a point of pulling people over to our booth, and showing them what we were publishing on social media. But, you get the problem, right? We were spending a good amount of time and energy drawing people to our booth who were already near our booth, anyway. We were wasting our time telling them about our use of social media, rather than about our products and services. Even worse, we were not drawing new visitors to the booth, because so few people were social media followers at the time, and those who were did not have the convenient luxury of hand-held smart phones.

The world of social media has come a long, long, long way. In the first decade of popular usage, social media exploded. Statistics vary over time, but well more than half of online American adults participate regularly in at least one social media platform. Many are regularly active on multiple social media sites, using various platforms for different needs, both personal and professional.

You can’t escape social media. As a leader, you must acknowledge that social media have simply become an extension of the real world. In fact, there isn’t really a virtual world, anymore. What is happening on social media is real—that is, real dialogue, real debate, and real conversation. And all of that activity is happening in real-time, 24 hours a day, seven days per week. You cannot stop what is happening online, just as you cannot stop what is happening offline. However, with social media, you can monitor, respond, and track progress. That isn’t always easy with what might be happening offline.

Whether you personally enjoy social media or not, you cannot ignore or disregard their power. You can help your organization leverage social media, through your leadership role.

Respect Digital Dialogue

What people are doing on social media matters. What they are saying about your organization, on social media, matters even more.

Consider this scenario. You own a number of small, upscale groceries serving several thriving neighborhoods in a large city. Your customers are largely affluent, highly opinionated, and active on multiple social media platforms. They might like your Facebook page, or follow your Twitter feed. That’s great, but without active engagement, their likes and follows mean very little. What you want are brand advocates who engage with your team, both offline and online.

Now, imagine that your upscale groceries carry free-range eggs from an area farm, and the distribution agreement is exclusive. That means the farm can sell its eggs only through your stores. When the agreement is working well, all is good. You might even pick up some positive buzz via your social media accounts. But, let’s pretend that a large batch of eggs is sold that carries salmonella. Some customers escape harm, but others don’t cook their eggs fully, or use them raw, and get sick. If social media did not exist, you might be able to contain the issue, take care of the customers and situation, and hope that traditional word-of-mouth doesn’t spread too far or too quickly. In a world with social media, though, all of that hoping is wasted energy. People will absolutely use the technology to broadcast their concerns and complaints, just as they do their praise and admiration.

As a leader, you must respect digital dialogue. That means not placing higher value on praise received than on the criticism coming your way, especially in times of crisis. All feedback—whether positive or negative—should matter to you and your organization. With clients, I tell them to think of social media relationships as being no different than offline relationships. Social media are simply an extension of the traditional offline reality, but amped up by the speed, power, and immediacy that comes with the technology.

More than 90 percent of the Inc. 500 have been using at least one social media tool for years, and at least half of those businesses have long considered social media as very important to their business and/or marketing strategy (Barnes and Mattson 2009). These numbers continue trending up over time, meaning social media keep becoming more and more influential to growing businesses. There is an important lesson to learn from that fact. A responsible communicator acknowledges that social media have very real value—to socially-active customers, to business growth, to the end goal of staying as responsive as possible to the public’s needs, wants, and concerns.

Be an advocate for social media. These platforms can be a powerful way to put organizational values into action. Just as your goal is to open up dialogue offline, so too should you want to open up dialogue offline; in fact, two-way, real-time communication is what makes social media such an important and powerful tool (Chaturvedi 2013). Help your ­organization be confident, diligent, and caring enough to become and stay active on social media.

Embrace Criticism; Respond Maturely

With social media activity inevitably comes highly visible, and sometimes painfully raw, public criticism. You can help your organization instill the fortitude necessary to manage through these challenges.

Solid social media management involves having clearly defined guidelines and processes for how to handle criticism. As a leader, you likely already serve as a subject matter expert for internal communications and/or news media interviews. Likewise, you should be identified and active as someone who can help diffuse social media criticism.

Guidelines would typically spell out three types of criticism to anticipate. First, there are the fairly benign remarks that can be briefly acknowledged online, then quickly and easily be moved to an offline conversation. An example might be someone whose order arrived late, and who chose to voice that complaint online rather than via a phone call or e-mail message. Your company’s social media management team can quickly acknowledge the error, and direct the customer to get in contact directly for resolution, a rebate, a discount toward future purchases, or whatever.

A second category of criticisms involves highly inflammatory comments that are offensive, harassing, or blatantly false, or that make unsubstantiated allegations. Legal counsel would typically tell you never to allow such comments to fester on your social media pages, and certainly not allow yourself to be drawn into an online conversation, which could open up significant risk or liability. In these often-rare instances, the ­inflammatory comments are removed from the site as quickly as possible, and direct follow-up is made with the individual via a private messaging tool on that same social media platform, explaining why the comment was removed. Your responsibility as a leader is to help the social media team understand and identify the types of comments that are offensive, harassing, or blatantly false, and to defend the team’s decision to police such comments when they appear.

The third category is the most troublesome. These are generally criticisms about an issue or crisis that is developing, and about which your organization is typically at fault. An example would be an airline that keeps passengers in a plane, on a tarmac, for an unreasonable amount of time. With each passing minute, more and more of these passengers, and their friends and family members, might post complaints to social media. They do this, of course, because they want—and need—to be heard. They are generally upset, and often deservedly so.

It’s in these gray areas where a social media manager has to make a judgment call. Are these benign complaints, inflammatory allegations, or something in between? In the “in between” moments, this is where leaders like you can be of tremendous help. If an issue is escalating, and someone tells you that customer service call volume is spiking, you and your peers do whatever necessary to appease callers while simultaneously resolving the issue. With social media, it is no different. You may not be responsible for social media, or communication, at all. But, ultimately, your part of the organization may become part of an issue that goes public. As a responsible communicator, demonstrate leadership, and take social media criticism seriously.

The public can see what’s happening on social media. I may not be a customer of your business, but perhaps my friend who lives four states away is. An issue boils up, she hops on social media, and quickly her rant gets seen by hundreds of friends and family members scattered around the nation and possibly the world. They might pass the message on, and, exponentially, the message takes hold. Inevitably, a savvy journalist will come across the posts, and investigate. Shortly thereafter, what seemed like an isolated topic becomes a full-blown crisis. And, in today’s digital world, that escalation can happen in as little as a few minutes.

Become and Remain Socially Active

Of course, there is some degree of inauthenticity in becoming active on social media only when negative issues arise. A values-driven organization would view social media platforms as relationship-building tools, and acknowledge that relationships are usually healthy and enjoyable, but also occasionally troublesome and mutually frustrating. That’s simply a fact of life, and in business.

Many organizations have begun to master social media as a form of ­responsible communication. Early pioneers included direct marketer Zappos, that has a commitment to “talk to customers every way that want to talk to us,” including via social media (Clay 2012). Likewise, Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing and commercial for upscale airline JetBlue, affirms his company’s passion for social media, because the technology “. . . facilitates that one-on-one brand connection that marketers have wanted for so long” (Gianatasio 2013).

Posting to social media is, in many ways, an updated variation on old-school blogging. Does your chief executive blog, on behalf of the organization? Do you? Regardless, a blog’s credibility depends on trust, and the building blocks of trust are forthrightness, openness, consistency, timeliness, truthfulness, and candor (Smudde 2005). Blogging in the traditional sense is a way of demonstrating an ongoing commitment to open, forthright communication, and shining light on what the organization values—ethically, morally, socially, and culturally.

Blogging is long-form and narrative. Micro-blogging, which is much of what happens on social media, is short-form and often actionable. You are giving people short bits that convey what you feel is important, then typically directing them to a website or infographic for more details. You might also invite opinions. All of this helps with relationship-building, but only when there is consistency, through the good times and the troubling times, as well. If your organization is not very active on social media during the good times, you are not building trust. To spike your social media activity only when bad things happen, suggests that you are defensive and largely self-oriented.

Take a cue from those who lead online discussion groups; in other words, the people perceived as the ones who foster dialogue and actively engage with others. Research shows that influencing others online comes from being active on the platform, being a credible expert, and being adaptive and responsive when it comes to posting replies and engaging in dialogue (Huffaker 2010).

Do you personally need to be on social media, representing your organization? There is a growing expectation, it seems. In fact, a recent worldwide survey revealed that more than three of every four global executives believe it is a good idea for their chief executive officer to be regularly active on social media, on behalf of the organization (Weber 2012). That does not mean, though, that being on social media for your organization is the right move. There are many considerations, not the least of which is the investment of your time, and the potential risks associated with having you communicate so visibly, and in real-time. These are matters to discuss with your communications counsel, be that an in-house communications executive or an outside consulting firm or agency.

In the end, the best role you will likely play is that of an advocate, supporting your company’s social media team as needed, rather than playing the role of a direct social media personality. Be mindful that chief financial officers generally aren’t as supportive of digital initiatives as chief executive officers, chief information officers, and chief marketing officers; plus, board members are generally even less supportive than the finance officers (McKinsey 2014). Digital technology, and certainly digital communication, is only going to keep exploding. The more you can advocate in this arena, the better.

Give some careful thought to how your organization uses digital communication, especially social media. How might you help infuse more of a values-driven approach? How might your expertise and ideas build more honest and meaningful relationships with stakeholders who are ­active on social media platforms? How can you champion digital communication with other leaders and with your team, as you strive to promote values-based decisions and initiatives?

Reflection Questions

Responsible Actions