garykoelling

What if you want to implement an open, social brand strategy ? (They go great together, open and social). Here’s a place to start.

The word, social, usually gets mashed up with another word that tends to steal the show. Like social+network or social+media. So I guess it strikes me that before we even start talking about strategy we should explore the concept of social. What comes to mind? It’s stuff humans do with each other - each other. We’re not social with machines or animals or with plants or rocks. Social happens between humans. This is called a ‘relationship.’ Communities. Clubs. Congregations. Friends. Companions. Buddies. Shared interests. Shared problems. And the glue? Mostly, trust.

So there’s the first pillar of the strategy - Trust.
Here’s a few more pillars of open. I’ve bolded them throughout for easy findability.
Participation
Iteration
Meritocracy

There are a few other principles that are important but tend to fold up under the four main pillars. A few key ones include transparency, clarity, accountability, institutional history and shared ownership - or at least open ownership which may fall under some version of the creative commons. I’ll explore these more in a different tirade.

Participation. This is about “Who” as in who are we talking about here. You and your would-be friends. This is always the toughest part.  These things are difficult to quantify. People. Friendships. Emotions. Messy open-ended stuff. So this is usually where we reach for our very insightful customer segmentation studies. They give us wonderful quasi-quantifying insight into every one of our customer segments. They even come with adorable human names. Helen. Charlie. Barry. Jill. These segmentations can be very useful, giving us a bearing as we try to understand who’s who and what’s what - a map. They describe general shapes, and behaviors but they are useful only at a distance. At distance or altitude you could call the mass a kind of mediasphere. And tonnage dropped from this altitude only has to get close. But messages dropped from the mediasphere, despite their promises, they don’t really let you get to know anyone. They just help you craft and deliver a message that either resonates (literally), “plop plop fizz fizz,” or is vaguely relevant, “just do it.” As an aside, each of those messages could be tied back to a “Great” brand - Alka-Seltzer and Nike. They both have a relevant message that finds a target that wants to believe. The key is that the target wants to believe. But I have found relevant messages in fortune cookies - messages I want to believe. The point is, while messages crafted to be delivered from high altitude will find some targets, they won’t create relationships. Ad agencies have known it for years. In fact anyone who tells stories knows that you need to know your audience. In the case of social, however, you - the brand - are audience too. So the first step to knowing your audience is knowing yourself.

What are you into?
What are you passionate about? (Zappos is service, Target is design, etc.)
What do you stand for? (As in, We stand for ...)
What do you believe in? (As in, We believe in ...)
Who do you want to be friends with and what kind of relationship do you want to have with them? Think hard about this one - it’ll bite you later.

K, now make a t-shirt out of your answers. You know how to do this. This is advertising. Basic problem solving. Target + Problem + Objective = Strategy. Strategy + Storytelling = Advertising. Remember? Have your friends and enemies critique it then tweak it - this is the Iteration part. (Have Karl Long critique it too if you get a chance http://tcritic.com/ ).

Now, put on your new t-shirt. Wear it in public. No? Not going to wear it in public? Maybe we have to back up few steps. This isn’t going to work unless you wear it in public.

Ready? Now we get to things to do. We’ll put them under the heading of “How”
enable individuals to go forth wearing the t-shirt.

Remember who you wanted to be friends with? Now find some shared social objects*? (*What are social objects? Social objects are independent (meaning no one ‘owns’ them) ideas, interests, problems and beliefs around which social networks form. These networks introduce, validate, invalidate, debate, agree on and disagree on ideas. They share experiences around interests. They discuss and solve problems. They bolster or question beliefs. Within this behavior rules are followed that allow individuals to continue to participate in and attain (or lose) status within the group. The rules vary slightly depending on the objects being discussed but generally apply regardless of the nature of the network. If you’ve ever discussed movies, especially your favorite movies, with a stranger at a dinner party you are familiar with how to explore shared social objects). Now go hang out regularly in spaces that contain these shared objects. What’s that? You don’t feel comfortable hanging out in “that kind of place?” Well, are you sure these are the people you want as friends? If the answer is no, don’t fake it. Nobody likes a poseur. You might get your ass kicked.  Go back up top and rethink the kind of friends you want. You may have to do a new t-shirt. More Iteration. If, on the other hand, these are the people you want to be friends with, you may have to work your way up the social order. This is the Meritocracy part. Think back to high school when you first joined the chess club. That was hard too, but you paid your dues and it was worth it. You can also bring something to the party - build or bring tools that facilitate sharing, examination and modification of shared objects and maybe even the creation of new objects.  More Meritocracy.

You, as a brand, can participate if you follow the rules and be yourself. Wear the t-shirt. Specifically you, a brand, can be very good at sharing interest objects and helping solve problem objects within a social group. Make sure you’re having fun. If you’re not maybe you have to ask the passion question again. Try, try, try to answer it truthfully. Make sure you’re learning something too. If you’re not, you’re not really participating and the rest of the group is probably referring to you as “a know-it-all” or simply as “a dick.” That’s bad. Time for a new t-shirt.