You know me, I’m a big fan of Brian Solis. He never stops producing amazing content that is educational and helpful, but also backed up by some serious research -> reliable. So, today we are going to talk about one of his recent pieces of work together with Charlene Li from Altimeter Group and part of their new ebook – the key success factors to developing a winning social business strategy.  

Why is a social business strategy important? Because even though social media is now everywhere and digital is disruption everything, only 17% of businesses are truly strategic in the execution of social strategies. What does that speak about the future success of the other 83% if they don’t change? I’ll leave the answer to you.

Here’s another interesting finding: 88% of companies report an ongoing digital transformation and invest in digital, however without much insight or purpose – only 25% have mapped the digital customer journey and have a clear understanding of the different digital touchpoints.

Brian Solis defines a social business strategy not as a “marketing strategy or a technology roadmap but rather a way or philosophy of how business could be done differently… in a much more human manner.”

A social business strategy requires a transformation of your existing business model. It needs to be aligned with your business processes and practices and embedded throughout your organisation in order to be resilient. Only so will you be able to achieve real ROI – such a favourite world in corporate speak.

So, what do you need to do to develop a successful social business strategy? You need to follow seven steps:

The Seven Success Factor of Social Business Strategy [Infographic]

1. Define your overall business goals

You need to know what you want to achieve for your business overall before you even start aligning with your social strategy. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even know where you are going nor if there’s any need for social media to help you get there.

2. Establish your long-term vision

Have a clear vision of what becoming a social business means, what the value is and communicate that to internal and external stakeholders. You need your employees and customers to support you along the way because if not, you won’t be able to realise that vision.

3. Get executive support

To truly make an impact for the long run, you need to get buy-in from the top as well. Here’s where numbers matter – you need to prove that becoming a social business is profitable and brings value to executives too.

4. Define your strategy roadmap and identify initiatives

To achieve your long-term vision you need to define specific social media initiatives that will allow you to get there and align your business goals with these activities across the organisation. What is it you are going to do and what is it that you are NOT going to do?

5. Establish governance and guidelines

Now that you have a vision, goals and a roadmap in place, you need to define who is going to be doing the work, who is going to be responsible for overseeing progress and putting processes in place, who is going to be getting to the nitty gritty of the execution. You need clear guidelines and a plan with roles and responsibilities.

6. Secure staff, resources and funding

At the beginning, you might be able to outsource the majority of these activities to an external social media agency, but as your social business grows you should be establishing your own internal team of experts and provide them with the resources, ongoing training and approaches needed to move your business to the next level – and scale.

7. Invest in technology platforms that support the greater vision and objectives

Once you’ve tested the water and understood how social technology could enable or optimise your strategy, it would be worth investing in software or platforms that will allow you to reach your vision and goals in a more scalable, structured and organised approach.

Brian Solis agrees that these seven steps might be common sense and true for any good strategy, however the power lies in actually applying them in order to demonstrate the relationship between business objectives, social technology and the people in between, and so truly steer your business in the right direction.

What’s your social business strategy?