The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration

in Business
By Brian Solis, blogger at BrianSolis.com and principal of FutureWorks, Author of the new book
Engage!, Co-Author, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and Now Is Gone

What follows is the unabridged version of my post on Mashable, "The 10 Stages

of Social Media Business Integration."

An overnight success ten plus years in the making, Social Media is as

transformative as it is evolutionary. With every day that passes, we are presented
with increasing reports that showcase the impact of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
and blogs within small and large businesses alike. As a result, we can now
visualize the state of adoption, understanding, and implementation in different
business ecosystems. What we realize as a result, is that individual examples vary

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based on the assorted stages of aptitude and proficiency in Social Media within
each company.

In writing the next book, I interviewed many executives and marketing and
service professionals as well as reviewed piles of case studies. I noticed that the
path towards new media enlightenment was directed by the conditions of their
respective market places and the consumers who define them. Furthermore, the
timetable for integration and permeation was dictated by the politics and support
system within the business infrastructure.

A pattern became very obvious. There are at least ten stages of Social Media
adoption, strategy, and execution that determine their place in the attention
economy of today and tomorrow.

The Evolution of a Corporate Renaissance

2009 - 2010
2010 is designated as the year Social Media proliferates mainstream businesses.
Indeed this year will showcase the transformation of business acumen while also
shifting the culture and the communication that embraces an inward and
outward flow for listening, interacting, learning, and adapting.

Social Media Marketing is exhilarating to behold as it evolves “media” from a

broadcast platform to a sophisticated network of connections and rewarding
engagement. We learn that through participation, we ultimately eradicate the
myths that initially fueled skeptics and prevented early experimentation. The
perceived loss of control was in actuality, the ability to realize public sentiment
and the gatekeepers who could help us actively steer perception. It is a chance to
actually gain control rather than simply possessing the illusion of it.

As 2009 raced to an end, Social Media marketers realized that listening to the
proverbial conversation offered very little in terms of influence. In fact, it was the
listening that would eventually set the stage for intelligent participation.

It was the realization that listening would only engender empathy. But, in order
to truly shape and guide market sentiment and hopefully one day empower

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advocacy and a new workflow, a supporting infrastructure would require
construction.

We are only as relevant as our ability to not only realize the state of affairs, but
also have the prowess necessary to define and also adapt along with it.

The next stage of Social Media Marketing will mature from one of listening and
unguided participation to one of strategic observation, analysis and informed
engagement. It is how we can shift from a state of awareness to one of
intelligence, setting the stage for relevance and affinity. It is a new age of
“unmarketing” inspired by purpose and vision.

As Social Media evolves, behavior and intention modifies, mirroring the depth of
learning and confidence that develops with experience. In New Media, we are
always learning and as such, we are forever in pursuit of the next stage.

The 10 Stages of New Media Evolution

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Stage 1 – Observe and Report

This is the entry point for businesses to better understand the market behavior
and interaction within their marketplaces. These initial tasks materialize the
current state of affairs that defines share of voice and the potential for new
opportunities to compete for attention.

Listening: The employment of listening devices such as Google Alerts, Twitter

Search, Radian6, and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations
and instances associated with key words.

Reporting: Capturing related conversations tied to commentary into a report

prepared for executives and managers. This early form of reporting is merely
designed to provide decision makers with the information to demonstrate the
need for continued exploration into social media and its potential impact on
business.

Stage 2 – Setting the Stage + Dress Rehearsal

Upon amassing an initial understanding of conversational dynamics and stature,

businesses will build the framework that sets the stage for social media
broadcasting and participation. This is an interesting phase as it, in many cases,
actually joins Stage 1 as a more sweeping first step. Instead of researching current
activity to answer an important question as to why engage in social media at all
and as such, how should we engage, many businesses create accounts across
multiple social networks and unfortunately publish content without a plan or
purpose.

However, those businesses that conduct research will find a rewarding array of
options and opportunities of which to analyze and target.

Presence: The creation of official presences across one or more social networks,
usually Twitter and possibly Facebook (Fan Pages), YouTube, and Flickr. This
stage is also reflective of initial experimentation through activity, with or without
the following analysis. But, this is less about strategic engagement in this early
stage, resembling either chatter or the traditional broadcasting of messages.

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Analysis: Reviewing activity for frequency (the rate of mentions), the state of
sentiment allocation, traffic, as well as the size of connections (friends, followers,
fans), etc., provides managers with a limited glimpse into the effects of presence
and participation.

Stage 3 – Socializing Media

The next stage in the evolution of a new media business is the proverbial step
towards “joining the conversation.”

As companies take the stage, they will eventually pay attention to the reaction of
the audience in order to respond and improve content, define future
engagements, and humanize communication.

Conversation: Representative of an early form of participation, this stage usually

evokes reactive engagement based on the nature of existing dialogue or mentions
and also incorporates the proactive broadcasting of activity, events and
announcements.

Rapid Response: Listening for potentially heated, viral, and emotional activity in
order to extinguish a potential crisis or possibly to fan a flame of positive support.

Metrics: The documentation of the aforementioned activity in order to

demonstrate momentum in a particular direction – usually captured in the form
of friends, fans, followers, conversations, sentiment, mentions, traffic, and reach.

Stage 4 – Finding a Voice and a Sense of Purpose

This is a powerful milestone in the maturation of new media and business. By not
only listening, but hearing and observing the responses and mannerisms of those
who define our markets, we can surface pain points, source ideas, foster
innovation, earn inspiration, learn, and feel a little empathy in order to integrate
a sense of purpose into our socialized media programs. We open the door to new
possibilities.

Research: Reviewing activity for not only sentiment allocation, but to embrace
negative and also neutral commentary to surface and observe trends in responses

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and ultimately behavior. This allows for a poignant understanding of where to
concentrate activity, at what level, and with what voice across marketing, sales,
service, and PR.

Strategic Visibility: Introducing relevance and focus, we realize that we don’t

have to be everywhere in order to create presence, just in the places where our
presence is missed or unfelt. Understanding that the Social Web is far more
extensive than Twitter, blogs, and Facebook, brand managers search across the
entire Web using listening services or the methodologies rife within the
Conversation Prism to locate where influential dialogue transpires.

Relevance: The realization that “chatter” or aimless broadcasting is not as

effective as strategic communications and engagement. This stage reflects the
exploration of goals, objectives and the exploration and implementation of value.

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As we learn that interaction is based on exchange and the exchange is measured
by loyalty and trust, our interaction is thus defined by benefits and significance.

Stage 5 – Putting Words into Action

Actions speak louder than words and therefore we are committed to putting our
words into action. While we opened the door to the emotions that awoke social
consciousness, they eventually permeate the spirit of the company and inspire us
to set into motion a change in everything we do and say.

Empathy: Social media personifies those with something to say, allowing us to

see who it is we're hoping to reach as well as what motivates them. Listening and
observing is not enough. The ability to truly understand someone, their
challenges, filters, objectives, options, and experiences allows us to truly become
the people with whom we hope to connect.

Purpose: The shift from response to strategic communications, purpose, powered

by empathy and resolution, facilitates meaningful and mutually beneficial
interaction. Affinity requires an emotional connection, a sense of purpose if you
will. It is in this stage that we truly visualize the motivation necessary to captivate
one's attention. In order to hold it, we have to give them something to believe in,
something that moves them in a way that they can connect as well as bond.

Stage 6 – Humanizing the Brand and Defining the Experience

As Doc Searls says, “There is no market for messages.” Indeed. Through the
internalization of sentiment, brands will relearn how to speak. No longer will we
focus on the attempted control of the message from conception to documentation
to distribution. We realize that we lose control as our messages are introduced
into the real world. Virtual control migrates to the actual control of the shaping
and protection of our story as it migrates from consumer to consumer. This chain
forms a powerful connection that reveals true reactions, perception, and
perspectives.

The conversations that bind us form a Human Algorithm that serves as the pulse
of awareness, trustworthiness, and emotion.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis

Branding - The Humanization of the Brand: Once we truly understand the people
who influence our markets, we need to establish a persona worthy of attention
and affinity. The state of a brand in social media is largely tied to the awareness
that a Socialized version of a branding style guide is necessary. It is during this
step that brand managers assess the state of the brand persona, realizing that it is
derivative of the actions, words and mannerisms associated with interaction. In
this stage the persona of the brand and the personality of those who are
representing it are calculated and defined by how it is they wish to be portrayed
and perceived.

Experience: Our experiences in dynamic social ecosystems teach us that our

activity online must not only maintain a sense of purpose, it must also direct
traffic and shape perceptions and experiences in the process. We question our
current online properties, landing pages, processes, and messages. We usually
find that existing architecture for civil engineering leads people from a very
vibrant and interactive experience (social networks) to a static dead end (our
Web sites). As we attempt to redefine the experience of new customers, prospects
and influencers, we essentially induce a brand makeover.

Stage 7 - Community

Community is an investment in the cultivation and fusion of affinity, interaction,

advocacy and loyalty. Learned earlier in the stages of new media adoption,
community isn’t established with the creation of a Facebook Fan Page, Group, or
any online profile for that matter. Community is earned and fortified through
shared experiences. Hosting a community isn’t a prerequisite in the cookie-cutter
templates of social media of which so many programs are patterned. Community
is a commitment and must be done so without compromise. As Kathy Sierra once
said, “Trying to replace 'brand' with 'conversation' does a disservice to both
brands & conversations.”

In this stage, businesses learn and visualize through experience, the nucleus of
connections and the interests, pains, hopes, and benefits that bind us.

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Community Building/Recruitment: While essentially we are building community
through engagement in each of the previous stages, as we now possess intimate
knowledge of our stakeholders and influencers, we will proactively reach out to
ideal participants and potential ambassadors to personally recruit them. We
become social architects to build the roads necessary to escort them to a rich and
rewarding network to help them receive valuable information and connections.

Stage 8 – Social Darwinism

Before we can collaborate externally, we have to improve collaboration and

communication within. Listening and responding is only as effective as its ability
to inspire transformation, improvement, and adaptation from the inside out.
Survival of the fittest is not in any way tied to whether or not a company engages
in social media. Remember, social is but one part of an overall integrated
strategy, all of which will point leaders in the direction to effectively compete for
the future. It’s how we learn and adapt that ensures our place within the
evolution of our markets.

Social Media as embraced in the earlier stages is not scalable. The introduction of
new roles will beget the restructuring of teams and workflow, which will
ultimately necessitate organizational transformation to support effective
engagement, production, and the ongoing evolution towards ensuring brand and
product relevance.

Adaptation: In order to truly compete for the future, the actions that govern
genuine and artful listening, community building, and advocacy align, in parallel,
with the ability of any organization to adapt and improve products, services, and
policies according to the laws of the now Web. In order for any team to effectively
collaborate externally, it must first foster collaboration within. It is this
interdepartmental cooperative exchange that provides a means for which to
pursue sincere engagement over time.

Organizational Transformation: The internal renaissance and reorganization of

teams and processes to eventually support a formal sCRM program becomes
pervasive. As Social Media chases ubiquity, we learn that influence isn't relegated

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to one department or function within the organization. Any department affected
by external activity will eventually socialize. Therefore an integrated and
interconnected network of brand ambassadors will collaborate internally to
ensure that the brand is leading and responding to constructive instances, by
department. However, at the departmental and brand level, successful social
media marketing will require governance and accountability. Organizational
transformation will gravitate towards a top-down hierarchy of policy, education,
and empowerment across the entire organization.

Stage 9 – The Socialization of Business Processes

As companies and brands learn through participation and analysis and transform
teams and processes to support critical opportunities, the stage of organizational
transformation surfaces the channels and themes that map accordingly to the
internal structure of departments and divisions affected by outside influence and

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in turn, can also participate in the direction of said influence to benefit individual
goals and objectives.

Multiple disciplines and departments will socialize and therefore the assembly or
adaptation of a technology and methodology infrastructure is required to
streamline and manage social workflow.

Social CRM (SRM): Once opportunities register, scalability, resources, and

efficiencies quickly necessitate consideration and support resulting in a modified,
or completely new, infrastructure that either augments or resembles a CRM-like
workflow. Combining technology, principles, philosophies and processes, social
CRM (sCRM) establishes a value chain that fosters relationships within
traditional business dynamics. As an organization evolves through engagement,
sCRM will transform into SRM - the recognition that all people, not just
customers, are equal. It represents a wider scope of active listening and
participation across the full spectrum of influence mapped to specific department
representatives within the organization using various lenses for which to identify
individuals where and how they interact.

Stage 10 – Business Performance Metrics

Inevitably, we report to executives who don't wish to quantify transparency or

authenticity. Their goal, and job, is to steer the company towards greater
profitability, relevance, growth, and new opportunities. In order to measure the
true effects of social media and eventually guide people to desired locations and
actions, we need insight to the numbers behind the activity – at every level.

While many experts argue that there is no need to measure Social, much in the
same way that some companies don’t explicitly define the ROI of Superbowl Ads
or billboards, make no mistake, social is measurable and the process of mining
data tied to our activity is unbelievably empowering. Our ambition to excel
should be driven through the inclusion of business performance metrics with or
without an executive asking us to do so. It’s the difference between visibility and
presence. And in the attention economy, presence is felt.

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ROI: I place ROI in stage ten for several reasons. Without an understanding of
the volume, locations, and nature of online interaction, the true impact of our
digital footprint and its relationship to the bottom line of any business is
impossible to assess. The embodiment of social influence and an immersed view
of its path and effects combined with our goals and objectives and an intrinsic
knowledge of the resources required to achieve them allow us to truly measure
ROI. Stage 10 reveals the meaning and opportunity behind the numbers and
allows us to identify ways to introduce opportunities for interaction, direction,
and action. The “action” is defined by a desired result or outcome and serves as
the beacon to reverse engineer activities that end with a point of capture and
analysis.

In The End…

The distance between where we are today and where we need to be however is
separated by the people who seek solutions and direction in the places where
we're not currently focused. Our work in 2010 is dedicated to narrowing the
social chasm.

The thing about new media is that it’s always new and as such, these stages
represent a moment in time. They will continue to change, augment, and expand
as new technologies, experiences, and innovations are introduced to those
champions who can effectively integrate and learn from experimentation and
assessment.

In the end, Social media is privilege and with it, we learn just one more piece of
how to run a more meaningful and relevant business.

(cc) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com - Twitter, @briansolis

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and
published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has
influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing,
communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New
Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune
500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. BrianSolis.com is ranked
among the top of world's leading business and marketing online resources.

Solis is the author of Engage! The complete guide for businesses to build, cultivate and
measure success in the new Web.

In 2009, Brian Solis, along with Deirdre Breakenridge, released, Putting the Public back
in Public Relations.

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