ARCHIVED CONTENT
You are viewing ARCHIVED CONTENT released online between 1 April 2010 and 24 August 2018 or content that has been selectively archived and is no longer active. Content in this archive is NOT UPDATED, and links may not function.First published in ILTA’s January 2010 white paper titled “Social Networking: Learn the Rules of Engagement” (www.iltanet.org), this updated and enhanced article shares an overview of how social media focus, influence, frequency and synchronization can significantly enhance the awareness of individuals and organizations.
Considering Social Media
In today’s “sound-bite” environment in which professional organizations compete for client attention through a variety of conduits and communications, it is increasingly important for individuals and organizations to consider and coordinate the use of all communications and communications tools in order to maximize their impact and influence on potential clients. One of the tools that is increasingly important to consider is the tool of social media.
Wikipedia defines “Social Media” as . . .
“media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use Internet- and Web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers.”
From a practical point of view, social media leverages online tools and techniques to reach, inform, engage, encourage and influence clients interactively.
However, to properly leverage the benefit of social media, one must understand that social media tools are just that –– tools. Social media tools should be used with a clear objective in mind and with the consistent application of well-known but often overlooked communications principles. Furthermore, these tools will have the most impact when used in conjunction with other social and nonsocial media communications tools in a coordinated manner. Synchronizing social media usage with all client contacts and communications can truly help individuals and organizations accelerate the impact and influence they have on potential clients
Communicators seeking to maximize the efficacy of social media tools should consider key areas that include marketing focus, behavioral influence and contact frequency. These considerations can be applied within a communications continuum using specific social media tools to help communicators effectively close the deal with current and potential customers. Social media tools can bring new opportunity in this final phase of the marketing process commonly referred to as “the last three feet,” where personal contact with the customer turns opportunity into business.
Marketing Focus
In order to truly optimize social media capabilities, communicators must clearly identify and understand exactly what it is they are trying to achieve and ensure that their communication efforts are focused on supporting their objectives. In the business arena, one of the best ways to frame one’s focus is to view potential objectives in relation to marketing and traditional marketing categories.
According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
There are four key areas considered to be part of an overall marketing mix, often referred to as the “4 P’s.” These are:
• Product (Service): The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services and how these relate to the end user’s needs and wants. The scope of a product or service also generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees and support.
• Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary; it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services (e.g., time, energy or attention). Methods of setting prices optimally are in the domain of pricing science.
• Promotion: Advertising and sales promotion include promotional education, publicity and personal selling. Branding refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand or company.
• Placement (Distribution): Placement refers to how the product gets to the customer including point-of-sale placement or retailing. This fourth “P” has sometimes been called “Place,” referring to the channel by which a product or service is sold (e.g., online vs. retail), the geographic region or industry in which it is sold and to which segment (young adults, families, business people).The environment in which the product is sold can also affect sales.
In addition, there is the overshadowing category of People. This category –– typically omitted from traditional marketing category descriptions but certainly relevant in light of the relationship component of social media –– plays an integral role in increasing the importance of marketing messages developed around and focused on the “4 P’s.”
To maximize the use of social media, it is necessary to define and develop a focused message that addresses client needs through the lens of one or more elements of the overall marketing mix. Intentionally and proactively determining which marketing elements to leverage and developing coordinated communications to support the sharing of those client-centric elements should increase the chance for success with social media. Delivering a dynamic message that will gain and maintain client influence is essential for optimal use of social media tools.
Behavioral Influence
In order to influence a customer, it is prudent to first become familiar with the components of customer behavior. There are both emotional and logical elements to client decisions –– and the impact of these elements changes over time.
Figure 1 illustrates a predictable flow to customer decisions that follows this general sequence:
• Initially a potential customer is stimulated through emotion to consider a change in behavior.
This emotion, resulting from a high motivation to consider change, progresses toward the need to justify the considered change with logic over time.
Example of Need for Emotional Stimulus: I am using legacy software for CRM, and my firm wishes to improve its client relationship processes. A new product looks promising, and if I can implement a product that saves the firm money, my employer will be impressed.
• At some point during the consideration of change, the customer begins to have to justify the emotional desire for change with a logical reason for considering the change.
Example of Need for Logical Stimulus: I want to impress my employer by providing cost savings, therefore I need to recognize and work through specific return on investment examples.
• Once both the emotional and logical stimuli for change have been presented, the individual being influenced (audience) typically makes a decision to change or maintain his or her behavior.
Example of Behavioral Change: It seems I can help the firm save money. The new product is compelling, and the return on investment numbers support its adoption, so I am going to purchase the new product.
If, at this point, there is not a decision to change behavior, then the communicator’s message (both emotional and logical stimulus components) may need to be refined.
• Once behavior has been changed, the next major challenge is maintaining the desired customer behavior.
This can be accomplished by continuing to send messages to the customer with logical reasons for maintaining his/her behavior along with ensuring that emotion-targeted messaging is not neglected. This combination serves to prevent competitive emotional and logical messaging from grabbing the attention of the customer and resulting in a non- desired change of behavior.
Example of Maintaining Behavioral Change: The change appears to be saving the firm money, and the return-on-investment case studies shared by the vendor seem to show that this is the best product to use to continue saving money.
In addition to focusing one’s message to the appropriate marketing category and refining communications according to the emotional and logical components of influence, the effectiveness of social media tools may also be increased by understanding how many contacts it takes to get that message through to the client.
Contact Frequency
In his widely read book, Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson shares that, from a contact perspective, there is significant benefit in multiple contacts with potential customers and a significant increase in probability of a client being influenced when contacted five or more times.
In applying this sales-centric call success probability metric to the use of communications in general, and social media communications specifically, it seems reasonable to assert that one could maximize the use of social media tools by providing a focused message with emotional and logical elements, and then delivering that message five or more times to a customer in an unobtrusive manner. This non-intrusiveness is a key point given the rapid dissemination and response capability of most social media tools.
Once one understands the Change/Maintain Behavior Continuum (Figure 1) and the number of contacts that may be required to influence customers (Figure 2), consideration can be given to how this knowledge can be applied with a variety of communications techniques.
Communications Continuum
Traditionally, organizations have sought to influence users through a combination of print and online materials shared directly by sales team members in face-to-face encounters. However, with the advent and acceptance of social media, organizations can now move a significant portion of conventional face-to-face encounters to an online environment –– a movement that can speed the sharing and collaboration between influencers and those being influenced.
In communicating with others, one’s interactions may be classified as reaching, informing, engaging, or encouraging (influencing) others. Whether these communications are online, in print, face-to-face, or consist of some combination of these communications methods, the fact remains that they all have some degree of influence on the parties involved in the communication process.
The Simple Communications Continuum (Figure 3) shows how one might employ a combination of online and offline tools in synchronization with each other to help decrease the time required to “close with the customer.”
Using all available conduits to the customer, a coordinated approach could include a combination of the following tools:
Online Social Media Tools
- Blogs
- Google+
- YouTube
Online Traditional Tools
- Email Messages
- Newsletters
- Multimedia (Audio/Video)
- Webinars
- Websites
- Wikipedia
Offline Print Tools
- Advertisements
- Articles
- Brochures
- Letters
- Newsletters
- Postcards
Offline Face-to-Face Tools
- Continuing Education Programs
- Industry Events
- Interviews
- Meetings
- Telephone Calls
- Speaking Engagements
While this listing of tools is not wholly inclusive, it does provide a solid starting place to consider how to structure, organize and execute plans designed to influence clients.
Synchronizing Social Media Usage
In the previous paragraphs the discussion has centered around the areas of marketing focus, behavioral influence and contact frequency. These areas certainly are the critical building blocks of any effective social media program and understanding them and considering them in all communications is critical to the success of any online interaction. However, in order to take full advantage of the influence power of social media, it is important to understand how clients receive information and engage via social media conduits and then synchronize individual and organizational use of these conduits to maximize message impact.
Receiving and Engaging Online
Different audiences receive and engage via social media in different ways. In the legal profession, the recent In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey provides some snapshot insight into the online behavior of 379 in-house counsel. Five key data points from this report on how legal professionals (in-house counsel) leverage social media include:
- The prevalence of social media use is substantial (73% of responders are using social media).
- LinkedIn is the most used professional network (40% of responders have used LinkedIn in the last 24 hours).
- Blogs are a growing source of information for legal professionals (46% of responders had used a blog in the previous week).
- Most social media users leverage social media as listeners only (74% of responders use social media to listen only and not for sharing news and information).
- The most used platforms within the last 24 hours are LinkedIn (40%), Wikipedia (23%), Blogs (22%), Facebook (13%), Google+ (7%), and Twitter (%7%).
Synchronizing Communications
When one considers that today almost all legal professionals leverage the Internet and email for receiving information and communicating and that social media usage is increasingly prevalent and in most cases growing in usage amongst this audience, it is reasonable to assert that a coordinated approach to sharing focused information in a systematic manner over the leading online and offline communications conduits can have a strong influence on client behavior. While there are many ways that one can initiate this synchronization, one example is provided below for your consideration:
- Daily posting of industry related news to Twitter.
- Weekly aggregation of Twitter posts into an industry newsletter for email and website distribution.
- Weekly posting of newsletter content into leading social media platforms as a single post with link.
- Weekly publishing of an industry specific blog for website distribution.
This simple four step approach can expanded in breadth (multiple areas of industry focus), depth (number of general and specialty groups) and density (number of posts) and sequenced in a manner to ensure continuous awareness of an individual or organization.
Social Media and Closing the Last “Three Feet”
“The fundamental qualities for good execution of a plan are: first, intelligence; then discernment and judgment, which enable one to recognize the best method as to attain it; the singleness of purpose; and lastly, what is most essential of all, will –– stubborn will.” Marshal Ferdinand Foch
To best translate the information provided here into practical application, one should ensure that all communications are coordinated in message, usage and follow-up. Customers value predictability in communications; it provides a comfortable context for understanding when and how future communications will occur. Likewise, customers respond well to continuity. Once a communication process (newsletter campaign, e-mail campaign) is initiated, it is important for an organization’s credibility to continue to meet the communication expectations set. How well an organization communicates is often directly extrapolated by the client as an indication of how well that organization will provide and support a product. Execution is fundamental in establishing credibility and a key determinant of whether one’s use of social media will be effective.
Once communicators understand and have developed objective-based messaging (marketing focus), have refined this messaging to provide both emotional and logical stimulus (behavioral influence) and have shared the messaging in a non- intrusive manner (contact frequency), they can begin to synchronize social media tools both individually and in concert with other communications tools (communication continuum), to effectively “close the last three feet” with clients/customers.
