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Socializing Y our Brand: A Brand s Guide to Sociability A GLOBAL STUDY BY WEBER SHANDWICK AND FORBES INSIGHTS WORLD CLASS SOCIAL BRANDS WORLD CLASS SOCIAL BRANDSForeword by Chris Perry President of Digital Communications, Weber Shandwick In considering the biggest influences on their brands sociability, most executives look to external forces winning the approval of the right media, achieving a target number of “Likes” on Facebook and dominating coverage of certain topics. The reality is that internal strategy, planning, cohesiveness and comfort in the digital space must come first but may never come at all. As new research from Weber Shandwick and Forbes Insights shows, internal focus and consistency of vision are areas where substantial improvement must be made by most brands. Weber Shandwick works with some of the worlds most successful brands to align social activity with business objectives. Sociability for the sake of it carries significant risks, but sociability in pursuit of bottom line goals can reap rewards beyond initial expectations.WEBER SHANDWICK 1 B eing social online is fast becoming critical to being a world class brand. Despite the proliferation of social media outlets and growing penetration of the Internet worldwide, most organizations still struggle to build a brand with a distinctive social identity. Social brands interact with their target audiences. They do much more than broadcast news, deals or events. They get their communities of interest engaged and develop meaningful ties over shared passions or commonalities. Social brands demonstrate a genuine interest in what their audiences say and listen carefully to responses. Technology has hyper-charged the ability for brands to be more social but it is not the technology alone that makes a brand social. Sociability ultimately rests on the collaboration of the entire organization and, more specifically, on marketers and public relations professionals who typically have responsibility for communications and branding strategies. Global public relations firm Weber Shandwick partnered with Forbes Insights to identify what makes brands social and how. We conducted an online survey in Spring 2011 of 1,897 senior executives from high revenue companies across 50 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Executive respondents were selected for their personal involvement in marketing, communications or public relations strategy and utilization of digital channels as part of that strategy. They are on the front lines of “brand sociability” with all its risks and rewards. Creating and nurturing a social brand is no longer optional. To support an effective social undertaking, brands need a strong social governance foundation so that their organizations can meet their business objectives. As sociability at the core of the organization becomes fundamental, brand managers are charged with developing a strong framework for enabling meaningful social interactions that allow the best of the brand to emerge. 2 WEBER SHANDWICK It is no longer an open question as to whether brand sociability matters. Global executives attribute 52% of their brands reputation to how social it is online today, up from 45% one year ago. They project that 65% of their brands reputation will come from its online sociability in three years, a five-year growth rate of 44%. Sociability is important not only to the brand, but also to the reputation of the entire enterprise: One-third (33%) of all global executives with digital and marketing responsibility consider Why does brand sociability matter? “quality of online presence or engagement” a primary contributor to a companys overall reputation. Whereas many of the traditional drivers of reputation such as customer experience and product/service quality remain at the top of the importance list, the addition of “online presence” as a factor in driving reputation today is long overdue for consideration. +44 % WEBER SHANDWICK 3 1 year ago 45 % 52 % 65 % today in 3 years Average per cent brand reputation attributed to online sociability 4 WEBER SHANDWICK Recognizing how important brand sociability is and will be, large global companies say that they have jumped into the social media waters with both feet. They almost universally have social media brand strategies (87%) and nearly all (93%) are using at least one social media tool. Yet, fewer have integrated their social brand strategies into their marketing and communications strategies (63%), a sign they are struggling to master the challenges of brand sociability. Bringing social activities into marketing and communications strategies ensures a cohesive, holistic approach. Global executives acknowledge that they have far to go before their companies are truly social: Only a small group of global executives (16%) describe their brands sociability as “world class.” Is it worth the intense effort to be a world class social organization? Global senior executives think so they report that the rewards of using social media far outweigh the risks, by a margin of more than 2-to-1. 54 % 23 % 20 % 3 % 1 year ago 45 % 52 % 65 % today in 3 years GLOBAL EXECUTIVES Rewards outweigh risks Risks outweigh rewards Risks and rewards are fairly even Dont know Average percent brand reputation attributed to online sociability WEBER SHANDWICK 5 Since use of social media tools is nearly universal, the focus of our report is not to convince readers that they should adopt social tools. Rather, we concentrate on how to focus their social media communication goals and efforts to maximize their brands sociability. An impediment that companies in our study face is a lack of clear business goals for social media. First, no single item stands out as a strong objective of social media strategies among respondents. Second, response levels to goals for social media brand strategy show little differentiation the most frequently mentioned objectives are strengthening customer loyalty and improving brand reputation, each cited by barely one-third of all global executives (32% each). What do these results mean? Perhaps executives are not quite sure how social media exactly benefits their business, or perhaps social media is expected to deliver a host of many different benefits. In either case, this suggests that senior executives are scrambling to figure out where their businesses will ultimately benefit the most from all this social activity. Their crystal balls are fairly cloudy at this point and there is no clearly identified brass ring of social media. Interestingly, inclusion into the brand conversation an aspect of social media endlessly touted as the ultimate goal of social media is very low on the list (18%). Top Objectives of Social Media Brand Strategy Global Companies (%) Strengthen customer loyalty 32 Improve brand recognition 32 Locate new customers or prospects 31 Improve customer service 31 Improve brand reputation 28 Broadcast information quickly 28 Bottom Objectives of Social Media Brand Strategy Global Companies (%) Make us part of the brand conversation 18 Impact company reputation better than other marketing 17 Stay competitive: Our competitors use social media 16 Its the cost of entry for marketing goods and services 16 Allows us to charge a premium 14Socializing Your Brand identifies the hallmarks of a world class social brand. This report provides both conceptual and practical guidance on what it takes to execute brand sociability that delivers on specific business objectives and become world class.6 WEBER SHANDWICK Weber Shandwick has developed a guide to brand sociability rooted in the practices of the elite few whose activities, organizational structure, integrative nature and measurement focus are all at the high end of social brand creation. These global organizations have earned the distinction of “world class.” The 9 drivers of brand sociability are based on an analysis of the most distinguishing characteristics of world class social brands relative to those of the average global company in our study. 9 drivers of world class brand sociability: WORLD CLASS SOCIAL BRANDS WORLD CLASS SOCIAL BRANDSWEBER SHANDWICK 7 its not the medium and its more than the message put your brands in motion integrate or die make social central listen more than you talk count what matters meaningful engagement think global go outside to get inside be vigilant8 WEBER SHANDWICK # 1 It s not the medium and it s more than the messageWEBER SHANDWICK 9 Global Companies 28 % 45 % World Class Companies “We create originalcontent specifically for social media”(% strongly agree) Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message” and foresaw the World Wide Web nearly 30 years before it was invented. As brands today strive for sociability, there is no question that there is a keen relationship between the medium and the message. Companies, however, may be concentrating too hard on the medium and not enough on the substance of the brand story, identity and message. In the case of Weber Shandwick/Forbes Insights research, you could say that its not the medium and its more than the message that is required to be among the best social brands in the world. The vast majority of large global companies use social media, making the medium almost ubiquitous. What makes world class social brand organizations stand out is how they differentiate their brands through the medium. World class brands dont depend on the medium to make them social. They strive to provide unique and engaging content that pull their fans in which allows the brands and fans to enjoy the interactive benefits of social media. World class brands are much more likely than the average brand to create original content designed specifically for their community of interest and influencers. Although fewer than half of world class companies are currently originating content, they are much more likely than other global companies to report they are creating original content for social media. Messages are only part of what constitutes a brands social identity. Weaving messages into a brands story without the behavior to back it up will discredit the story. As most marketers and communications professionals know, style is important but substance is critical. Creating original material is important to brand identity because it differentiates the brand from its competitors, shows its responsiveness to meeting the varied interests of different communities through customized content and provides a measure of value- added exclusivity, i.e., “available only on _.” “Nothing turns off visitors more than old content.” Canadian C-Level Executive10 WEBER SHANDWICK World class social brands are deeply entrenched in social media eight-in-10 use social networks, three-quarters use blogs, Twitter and YouTube, and at least six-in-10 use mobile apps and crowdsourcing. Usage of all the social brand tools included in our survey are indexed much higher than the average global company. World class companies dont just experiment with social media tools. They also apply their social media tools in more ways for their brands than the average global company. For example, they are much more likely than the average global company to host branded podcasts, brand-specific YouTube channels, video blogs, viral videos, proximity- marketing, brand-related mobile content and geo-location tools. The social activities of world class brands are not static but in motion. They do not exist to occupy space on social networks but are activated for dynamic interaction with their communities of interest. Put your brands in motion # 2WEBER SHANDWICK 1 1 Weber Shandwick/Forbes Insights research found that world class social brands are pioneers they lead their industry in the use of emerging social media tactics. Interestingly, these pioneers are so rapidly refining their “toolbox” that nearly half of them (48%) have already closed a corporate blog. Of course, they were probably more likely to have a corporate blog than other companies to begin with. World class brands realize that it is essential to test tactics and iterate or eliminate as necessary. “Failing better” is a key to success for any endeavor. These companies may also realize that they cannot afford to rest on their laurels in the social space. As new platforms and streams of attention-getting content are created at a rate faster than most of us can comprehend, it is not enough to try to freeze todays success for tomorrow. Bringing value in the form of solutions, personality, context and other social commodities is the only way to stay on top. Evolution has to be tackled daily. The current focus of world class brands, by a 2-to-1 margin over the average global brand, is on mobile. In particular, they are currently more likely to do proximity marketing (38% vs. 27%, respectively), offer brand- related mobile content (36% vs. 25%) and participate in Foursquare or other check-in apps (33% vs. 23%). % Strongly agree that Global Companies (%) World Class Companies (%) Index We are generally among the first in our industry to adopt emerging social media tactics 27 56 2.07 We are focusing most of our social media efforts on mobile-based tools 25 50 2.00 Increased use of smartphones and tablets will change how we approach social media 32 50 1.56 We have closed a corporate blog 21 48 2.29 Global Companies (%) World Class Companies (%) Index Brand sociability tools currently using Social network 70 81 1.16 Online community 67 76 1.13 Blog 61 74 1.21 Twitter/other micro-feed 58 74 1.28 YouTube/other video channel 58 75 1.29 Mobile app 54 68 1.26 Location-based mobile app 50 69 1.38 Crowdsourcing 42 61 1.45 Social activities that MOST distinguish world class Companies from Average Global Companies* We offer brand-related mobile content (e.g., games, ringtones) 25 36 1.44 We participate on Foursquare and/or other “check-in” apps 23 33 1.43 We do proximity marketing (e.g., geo-tracking, offers based on location, offers based on context) 27 38 1.41 We have our own branded channel(s) on YouTube 35 49 1.40 * World Class organizations over-indexed on every activity measured in our survey, those listed here are the highest indexing.12 WEBER SHANDWICK Building a truly global social brand with a clear identity that optimizes the customer experience requires rock solid integration. Senior executives of world class social brands are more likely than the average global executive to rep
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