by John Bell, Global Managing Director, Social@Ogilvy. The following is a plan describing a simple and practical way for business leaders to think about gaining the benefits of social behaviors (and the technologies supporting those behaviors). In many ways the promise of a ‘social business’ is to get us back to what we care about — people working together to create something of greater value than they could have if they had remained unconnected and apart.

1. Time to Trade
Up to A Social
Business Strategy
John Bell
Global Managing Director
December 2012

2. 2 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Table of Contents
It’s About Technology and Behaviors 3
The Business Leader’s Core Responsibility 4
Integrated Acrossthe Enterprise 5
Building Shared Belief 7
The Components of a Social Business Strategy 8
Where to Start 9
Social Business: Projects Tools 10
About Social@Ogilvy 11

3. 3 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
It’s About Technology
and Behaviors
C
oca-Cola has acquired more than 50 Lithium and LinkedIn are all about expanding
million fans on their global Facebook and enabling new behaviors. People have
page – effectively connecting with five always shared word of mouth. They have
times as many consumers as the weekly always found different ways to collaborate
viewership of American Idol. Innocentive is and create greater value for themselves and
in their 11th year of crowdsourcing innovation their organizations. These new platforms and
from 250,000 scientists, engineers, and technologies add scale and impact beyond
problem-solvers from over 200 countries. what we could have ever expected based upon
They have solved sticky business problems previous pre-social network behaviors.
for over 100 companies and organizations by
asking their worldwide collaboration network As Ben Edwards, Global Vice President of
for answers1. While the costs of recruitment Digital Marketing at IBM, said in my recent
have gone up steadily over the past decade, interview with him, “Social networks allow
58 percent of companies found valuable new people to associate based on who they
staff via social networks in 2010, and overall want to associate with – a shared interest,
company investment in social network-based desire, passion, belief – those are the human
recruiting is the top recruitment investment behaviors and this is all about the humans.
for companies this year 2. It’s not about the process and it’s not about
the technology. So, take that thought and
Companies are finding value in social media. ask yourself how that is going to change the
Ford, IBM, Nestlé and American Express company. It’s going to have a profound effect.”
are all moving from the experimental phase
of social media adoption to integrating We can now ask our family, friends and social
techniques and technologies across business connections about products, services and the
disciplines. They are no longer asking brands behind them all throughout the buyer
themselves “if” they should engage in social journey – from discovery all the way through
media but “how” and “where else” they should purchase and experience. We seek experts
apply it within their business. via Google searches on topics we could never
get answers for before. We find collaborators
The conviction that social media is more and new ways of doing things by tapping into
than a passing fad, doomed to top out like an communities of interest across the social Web.
overvalued stock price, is born from a belief These new behaviors are not going away, and
that people’s behavior has changed. Social they provide opportunity and risk to almost
media technologies like Chatter, Facebook, every business on earth.
1 HBR “Are You Solving the Right Problem” 2012 http://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem/ar/1
2 Social Recruiting Survey Jobvite 2011 http://www.slideshare.net/StevenDuque/33-essential-social-recruiting-stats-2011

4. 4 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
The Business Leader’s
Core Responsibility
I
n November 2010, Jon Iwata, Senior Vice Look deeper in an organization at the
President, Marketing and Communications leadership across major functions – IT,
at IBM, held a private Social Business marketing, customer service, product
Summit for 63 C-suite executives from global development, legal affairs, public affairs.
brands. He spelled out for participants just Chances are many of these men and women
how seriously IBM was taking the impact of are all over the map in terms of their level
all things “social” on their business. During of belief in the relevance for social media
these sessions, which featured seasoned to the business. Often the marketing or
business leaders revealing how they were communications leads are early believers,
wrestling with transforming marcom cultures as the idea of connecting to consumers or
and innovation cycles, Jon Iwata framed up influencers via Twitter or Facebook and
a simple axiom for leaders in business. In its driving more interactions and time spent with
simplicity it unequivocally established why the brand is intuitively valuable. Customer
everyone in the room that day must take social service soon gets wise to the expansion of
media seriously and why they, as leaders, their mission to intercept customer complaints
needed to be the ones to act. across social networks. Hopefully, HR has
overhauled their recruiting practices to
Essentially, the primary job of the business take advantage of worldwide professional
leader is to manage risk to the business while networking via LinkedIn and Facebook. But
simultaneously reaping as much reward what about legal, product development,
as deemed appropriate for that business. and IT? And what if these leaders cannot
In between risk and reward lies value. The agree on the value that social brings to the
business leader’s job is to deliver maximum business? Most businesses may have pockets
value to the business. The evidence that social of innovation within certain disciplines but lack
media can produce both risk and value for the power of a singular focus that aligns all
organizations is incontrovertible. We can argue business leaders to a common strategy and a
about degrees and there may always be an common way of measuring business impact.
exception for a particular business, but, by and
large, companies can both benefit and be hurt For this reason, it may actually fall to the CEO
by new behaviors in social media. Recognizing to sponsor a process to define how social
this, the business leader must step in to lead media behaviors and technologies most
the way to the right procedures, strategy and impact the collective business. He or she may
business alignment to get the best value this need to be the one to drive prioritization and
worldwide shift can bring their business. alignment. A social business strategy is the
best way to articulate and share that common
view.

5. 5 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Integrated Across
the Enterprise
Social media-based practices and technologies can
deliver value in four major areas of business:
Create customer value Build brand
and reputation value
We can create greater value for the customer
and conversely make that customer more By communicating and behaving more openly
valuable to the business by using social and transparently we can earn a stronger
media to deliver products and services reputation with customers and influencers.
where and when our customers want them. Co-creating with stakeholders deepens their
We can involve customers in the business investment on our business and the value of
and give them more reasons to behave the brand.
loyally via co-creation where they have a say
and investment in products, services and EXAMPLE: DuPont launched the Food
business practices. By adding more utility to Security blog as part of a company-wide
existing products and services through social effort to lead in a global discussion to solve
or digital enhancements, we can deliver more some of the world’s big, enduring problems.
value or even design new, valuable products They effectively reached “higher” to establish
and services. meaning for the DuPont brand as a solution
provider for big issues.
EXAMPLE: Deutsche Bahn, the German rail
system, launched a new train ticket only for
young people, selling over 145,000 of them
via Facebook. They brought a valuable new
product to the place where their customers
wanted to find it.

6. 6 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Expand operations and Strengthen Workforce
innovation excellence and Culture
Organizations struggle with sources for New, scalable collaboration and knowledge-
profitable innovation. By crowdsourcing sharing platforms like Chatter and Yammer
ideas and mining social data for insights, can lower the costs of collaborating
businesses can source new ideas that and enable it at a worldwide scale.
may inherently be more relevant to their Internal communications fueled by social
customers. The true promise of combining technologies can demonstrate a valuable
marketing practices around ‘owned, earned openness to employees and increase job
and paid’ media is to derive a compound satisfaction. Social media platforms will
effect that makes all marketing more provide a scalable and measureable way to
efficient (bigger or equal impact for lower truly enable employees as qualified external
cost). advocates for the brand.
EXAMPLE: During the Deepwater Horizon EXAMPLE: Ford is actively promoting
crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, BP openly employees to share their experience and love
solicited ideas from experts and the public of the “blue oval” with their friends, family
– putting in place almost 30 crowdsourced and social connections by offering badges
ideas to solve the spill and/or its effects. that identify them as employees (retirees,
too) via Facebook and other channels.
In almost all of these four broad areas, two regards to using social media in customer
or more business disciplines must come relationships, marketing, public relations and
together to really get significant value from customer service must collaborate to avoid
a social-based program. Deutsche Bahn confusing customers by talking with them in
needed marketing, communications, customer contradictory ways across social platforms.
service, legal and operations to work together
to bring a new ticket to market via Facebook. Ray Day, Vice President of Communications
As DuPont sources experts within their staff for the Ford Motor Company, summed this up
to create content and engage in conversations in a recent interview, “Social media done well
online around food security, they need the is operationalized, instituted throughout the
cooperation of HR and various business business. And I can say at Ford, led by our CEO
managers to support the practice. – he has brought together the communications
team, the marketing team and IT team and
The use of social media cannot be relegated said ‘become the zealots, the advocates within
to one discipline such as marketing. Even in Ford and drive it through our whole business.”

7. 7 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Building
Shared Belief
W
hile IBM may be able to champion ƒƒ Closer listening to customers will help
the use of social media across the us understand their needs and behaviors
business without hesitation, many better
businesses struggle with the mix of attitudes
in middle management towards what is ƒƒ Earning people’s attention and advocacy
seen as anywhere from a “frothy” fad to a (and their business) will increase the value
revolutionary change. Trying to build belief of our customers and our business
that social media will change business may not
be necessary. After all, “social media” means ƒƒ A new set of influencers may impact our
so much to so many. While it certainly fueled business in significant ways and we had
public protests to overthrow governments best know who they are and how to engage
during the Arab Spring, helped reconnect productively
Japanese people thrown apart during the 2011
tsunami and grew the Zappos ecommerce ƒƒ The customer journey is complex and
business, it also drives countless trivial requires all the data – including social data
conversations online that were of questionable – and understanding of human behaviors to
value to even those doing the talking. On top affect
of it all, many people feel that ‘social media’
as a topic has garnered an outsized attention ƒƒ Marketing agility increasingly hits the
for what it truly can deliver. The recent stock bottom line as crisis and issues rapidly
price “recalibrations” for Zynga, Groupon accelerate across the social Web
and, even, Facebook seem to play into the
doubters positions. We need to take the long ƒƒ Social tools can improve how we produce
view. People’s behaviors are fundamentally value and innovation from collaboration with
changing. No one platform – not even employees, partners and customers
Facebook – is a bellwether of this shift.
ƒƒ Driving up customer satisfaction and
We don’t need to build belief in social media intervening earlier when problems arise
to lead business towards a productive and can improve reputation and the bottom line
profitable social business strategy. We simply
need to build belief around some enduring All of these are made newly possible through
fundamentals: social practices and technologies. Each builds
on established sources of value for companies.
Leaders can create alignment internally by
building belief in these core fundamentals.
Belief in social media as a means will follow.

8. 8 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
The Components of
a Social Business Strategy
T
he promise of a social business strategy A social business strategy ought to have 4 key
is aligning an organization around what components:
it will and won’t do to get the most
value to its business via social practices and 1 A Social Business Value Audit – a simple
technology. It follows a thoughtful process for SWOT analysis in each part of a business
analyzing needs and options and then creates done against the “4 Values” will ultimately
a path that is valuable and do-able. inventory all of the areas of the business
where social can have a material impact.
IBM developed a social business strategy that
essentially said, ‘by enabling IBM experts 2 A Social Business Strategy – this is the
with a strong social presence we can build output of a strategic planning process that
and maintain direct, digital relationships with ultimately focuses attention in the top areas
customers and influencers that have a clear of the business where social can deliver the
and positive impact on our business.’ With this most value. We want to distill our ambition
type of clarity, different disciplines can work down to a manageable strategy.
together to deliver on this strategy. Marketing
can work to build the digital eminence and 3 Project Priorities – a list with definition of
visibility of the experts. HR can work on distinct, actionable and measurable projects
governance, guidelines and training. IT can that can deliver on the strategy. This would
work on platforms to support experts, and so include the role and contribution of different
forth. business units and/or disciplines. A simple
framework for putting strategy into action
Many brands can see the value of a social includes 3 key project areas around People,
media strategy, especially after a few years Systems and Platforms Data.
of unconnected experiments in social media
marketing and communications. But generally 4 Operational Leadership Council – who will
a social media strategy focuses solely on be accountable and responsible for the
marketing, communications and/or customer strategy and its execution. Because social
service. At best, this covers two of the four defies traditional organizational structures,
business values: creating customer value and it is often necessary to establish a “center
building brand and reputation value. Very little for excellence” or a working group with
attention is paid in terms of creating pro-active clear responsibilities to apply the strategy
strategy to increase operating and innovation and report outcomes.
excellence or strengthening workforce and
culture.

9. 9 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Where to Start
E
very organization is different, and making 2 Form the operational leadership council
standard recommendations that apply first – While operational leadership is
to most businesses is where most white there primarily to execute the strategy,
papers like this one breakdown. The hardest they can often be a great group to
part of developing the social business strategy assemble to build consensus and be the
and then putting it into action is aligning it to “owners” of the audit or even the strategy.
the particular circumstances of a company.
Business models, organizational structure, 3 Build an operational plan for one part of
culture, and even politics of influence and the business – If tackling a comprehensive
decision-making all factor in. social business strategy is too large a
project, identify one area of the business
That being said, there are four practical – often marketing and communications or
places for a business leader to start – all of customer service – and create a strategy
which presume an organization well into the for aligning activity to measureable
experimentation and even the integration business value and how to scale that
phases of social media adoption. You have operation. Playbooks for social media
already been using Facebook to engage marketing and communications often
customers, Twitter to share news, and you serve this purpose.
may even have a sophisticated community
management model. A social business 4 Find an early success story – The ambition
strategy can also be created when there has for social business can get pretty grand.
been no previous activity in social. More likely One trick is to keep it simple and find a
it is the next phase of social media use that defining project where you can succeed
builds on initial experience. What’s right for and create a “bright spot” of things done
your organization will be up to you. right. Often a big multinational company
simply needs to look at what has already
1 Start at the beginning with the audit – been done to find that bright spot.
Identify the key stakeholders across
disciplines and business units and do
a “pretty good” assessment of the real
opportunities mapped to measureable
business value.

10. 10 TIME TO TRADE UP TO A SOCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
BY JOHN BELL DECEMBER 2012
Social Business:
Projects Tools
Projects Tools
PEOPLE
Expand the capabilities Organize groups for Situational Training for Organizational
of workforce and fast and successful Social Digital Modeling
leadership adoption
DATA
Convert social data Intelligence
into valuable, usable Dashboards
intelligence
SYSTEMS
Manage the social Define winning, Governance Guidelines Social Digital
brand consistent procedures Playbooks
for social
Standardize model of Create Customer/ Measurement
effectiveness Advocate Relationship Frameworks
Systems
PLATFORMS
Deploy common tools Integrate new Social Tools Social Media
across the business collaboration platforms Management Platforms
Adopt external social Social Brand
platforms that serve Architecture
best

11. About Social@Ogilvy
S
ocial@Ogilvy is the largest social media marketing communications
network in the world. Named 2011 Global Digital/Social
Consultancy of the Year by The Holmes Report, the practice
leverages social media expertise across all Ogilvy Mather disciplines,
offering an extensive list of services within the foundational business
solutions – Listening and Analytics; Social Business Solutions; Social
Media Marketing and Communications; Social Shopping; Social CRM;
Social Care; and Conversation Impact.
For more information, visit social.ogilvy.com and connect with
us at www.facebook.com/socialogilvy, www.twitter.com/
socialogilvy, www.slideshare.com/socialogilvy.
Contact: john.bell@ogilvy.com