Waging a Social War or Earning Social Capital?

Remember when you first put your company web URL on your business cards? It was sort of a big deal back then. This became an alternative channel for digital demand generation and awareness. But, as more and more brands bred more and more websites, the challenge became finding a way where people could reach “my brand’s website” over others (remember that distinct point when you had too many "favorite" bookmarks in your browser folder?) There were just too many dot coms to remember.

Enter Larry Page and Google. Search. A simple concept, powered by a system of algorithms which indexed keywords. Suddenly we had a solution which could influence people in finding “my brand website” over others. Then Google monetized it - and the marketeers went to war, bidding for keywords, fighting for click-throughs, jostling for banners and strategizing over sponsored links. We starting behaving like those street vendors who stand at their store entrance, coaxing and cajoling you to come in "Madam, madam, come in! Excellent quality, best price for you!"

Till then, we did most of the talking. One way conversation. Our websites gave information, but we really did not allow our audience to engage in a dialogue. The advent of Web 2.0 changed that. Suddenly, everyone has the power to become a publisher overnight (including me it seems). The consumer could now publish what earlier she could only tell her select friends; and by the same guiding principle of search, billions of people could read it. The pendulum has swung. Consumers were doing all the talking and we were standing by at our storefronts sort of baffled on why our website traffic was declining. Where did everyone go?!

And thus, the corporate blog was born. But no one trusted corporate blogs. Especially when a slew of reports came out that companies were hiring agencies to put up these blogs. If anything, it hurt many corporates more than helped. CMOs retreated. Many became fearful of social media and set up teams to monitor and manage what is being said about the brand online. The corporate social media team became online reputation managers/watchdogs.

Enter Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Facebook created a social network platform which was embraced by millions by creating a platform that allowed an individual’s social layer to be integrated with her interest and activity layer. If brands made the right "friends", CMOs could influence people to converse about our brands. Then Facebook went a step further. They monetized it- and CMOs went to war over the open graph, Facebook ads, and gaining “Like” buttons.

Not surprising that CMOs are constantly waging a war, drafting the best agencies to come up with killer strategies (which must also use social media!). CMOs are competitive creatures and they keep a close eye on each other, especially in their own industries. The CMO Study shows that 81% of Indian CMOs use competitive benchmarking as a source to influence strategy decisions (followed by customer service feedback (74%)). Agencies are a great way to understand what the competition is doing. But is that really customer centric?

Not when it comes to social media. That is because social media is earned, not owned like web or paid like search can be. And earned media cannot be bought. It is why it is called earned media. It does not come in a schedule or a package. And more importantly it does not come as per quarter plans to suit our business sales cycles. It has to be earned. Literally. We can't just throw people or marketing budgets at it. It requires a complete shift in how we think of our roles, our team's skills, how we partner with other parts of the organization like sales and customer service to understand the entire customer experience so that we can turn them into brand advocates.

What are you doing to earn your social capital?

P.S. Many thanks to Devdulal Das, my digital coach, for contributing to the post!