Social Media and Transformational Change…Its Coming…It’s Here…Are YOU Ready?

Social media.

We hear of it so often that it seems cliché’ to mention it anymore. If you are a GenXer like me, when you think of social media, images come to mind of Millennials and iGen kids incessantly on their phones, oblivious to their physical surroundings. (eyes rolling here).

We need to reconsider this picture.

If you are in business, or have a job, or wish to make an impact in the world, these ideas are not cliché’, and the power of social media should not be dismissed. When one thinks of social media, it needs to be thought of as so much more than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or LinkedIn. These aforementioned platforms are powerful in that they connect people, but the REALLY powerful idea here is that social media empowers you and me as individuals to connect with others across the globe and collaborate to solve problems via social technology enabled by the internet.

One voice can become a viral opinion leader.

Using ‘social’ media, companies have the ability to create internal networks in which employees collaborate on all fronts. Using social connections within our organizations, we have the internal capacity to develop leaders, improve business processes, develop safer business practices, and more. Social collaboration via the internet enables us to save more money due to efficiencies of communication, make more money due to the influx of innovation, and engage with our internal and external constituents more effectively. This social technology enables people to post a difficult question to the ether and have individuals who, up until that very moment, were unknown. Social media enables people to find each other and collaborate, without prior coordination.

THIS is how we need to be conceiving of social media…and all of the innovation and opportunity that exists for one to grasp hold of. It is a tsunami wave of change that is already upon us.

The internet has forever changed our way of existing, and those organizations who can understand and embrace this deep shift and begin adapting their business models and very structure of being will thrive.

The “social” in social media is a radical force to be reckoned with. One to be educated about and understand. This two-way, many-to-many capacity to communicate must be embraced and navigated. According to one strategic communication specialist, this capacity has caused all modes of doing business as we know it to begin a radical transformation, leaving current analog ways of doing business much like a burning platform from which people must jump in order to survive (Tapscott, 2012).

This social capacity to connect has changed how many industries operate – traditional media, marketing agencies, sports organizations know this fact all too well. These industries are finding that those individuals who once were merely consumers are now producers of content, vociferous constituents who cannot be ignored. Sports teams who evolve to include their fans more deeply in their organization are seeing success. Teams that are utilizing the data available via social media to analyze and understand their marketing, promotional, and ticket pricing strategies are seeing success. Media organizations who are embracing new financial models that embrace digital distribution models and social media promotion strategies are seeing success…those still tied to a reliance on the physical distribution of content…not so much.

The internet and social media, according to Tapscott (2012) are opening our world. Opening it to collaboration. Opening it because it requires transparency and upstanding values and trust in order for companies to survive. Open because it enables and rewards sharing of knowledge. Open because this collaboration, transparency and knowledge shared then empowers people to succeed. Shirky (2009) also references the increase in social capital that is now happening, due to the ability of users to connect with each other. According to Tapscott (2012), this wave of change must be acknowledged for companies to successfully transition to the next iteration.

These influential communities of individuals which form because of the internet can serve to be either a powerful ally or harsh critic to a business, and as a result, it requires competency in strategic communication and familiarity with emerging media in order to effectively embrace this new world order. Just look to those who created the secondary ticket market or to cable cutters seeking content on a second screen as validation of this point. Studies conducted with the Cleveland Indians found that social media influencers can become strong brand ambassadors, if connected with in a meaningful way (Holton & Coddington, 2012).

The internet has begun to transform everything we know how to do. It changes how we consume movies, buy groceries and gifts. In the sport world, it is changing our financial model. As we see the convergence of traditional media to the internet, this digital world and interconnection of people make it more difficult to retain control of the content of sport and entertainment properties. We are encountering new digital ways of content distribution, and we need to understand how to monetize it in a social media world.

The consumers who we used to talk to can now talk back, and they can talk with each other, band together and start a wave of support or controversy. For those who have raised a teenager, it puts talking back with sass into a whole new dimension. We hear much about it, however many people in my generation are still just becoming aware of the tsunami of change that will be crashing in…in the very near future.

One fantastic example of the learning curve we need to progress through was articulated very well by Wilson, Guinan, Parise and Weinberg (2011). In their discussion on social media strategy, Wilson et al. (2011) discuss four strategies, each increasing in complexity and scope as the organization becomes more familiar with navigating this social space. In the first phase, as predictive practitioners, one gains experience with social media. Results are measured with established tools and we see the outcome of a media campaign. As an example, we can run an advertisement on Facebook or some other social platform to determine the number of clicks or tickets purchased.

In the second step, we have creative experimenters, the individuals who have cast aside the constraints of ROI, using small-scale tests to find ways to improve discrete functions and practices. Learning is done by listening, and what is learned in this social space is used to develop bigger, broader applications. In this situation, teams create ideas similar to the Cleveland Indians Social Suite (Holton & Coddington, 2012). In this situation, a small promotion was created which enabled team officials to stumble upon nuances of a new way of interacting with fans via social media, and they ultimately discovered an effective way to create brand ambassadors and communities of interest around the team.

In the third phase, social media champions are those companies who have progressed through these first two stages to develop large initiatives. They require close collaboration across functions and levels within the company, and they include external stakeholders. In these situations, we see collaboration across all departments of the organization in order to achieve goals. It is a strategy that requires the involvement of marketing, ticket sales, competition, community relations and corporate sales, guest services in addition to senior executives. It happens when teams change ownership and have an overhaul in the culture, and this culture exudes into a transformational way of doing business, not unlike the Charlotte Hornets have experienced since the arrival of Michael Jordan as an owner.

The final phase of social media at its finest is referred to by Wilson et al. (2011) is social media transformers. These are the global companies that create internal social media networks among employees and constituents, transforming internal communications, human resource practices, production and delivery processes to incorporate collaboration and social innovation. Moves from the third to the fourth level involve changes in incentives, business processes, resource management, and leadership styles (Wilson, 2011).

As Shirky (2009) notes, the internet has created an environment for convening and supporting groups. The internet has also made communication global, social, ubiquitous and inexpensive. People are no longer disconnected from each other, and they now have the ability to talk back to those whom they have done business with. This technology also enables former consumers to now act as producer, and the size of the network is beyond one’s ability to effectively constrain.

Companies who embrace this new capability to share ideas with employees, customers and a global world, and who can change the internal systems and operations within their organizations to collaborate and conduct commerce are the ones who will successfully emerge from this revolution.

Surfs up…are you ready to ride the wave?

About the Author: Mary Beth is graduating this spring with a Ph.D. at Troy University in Sport Management, where her research interests involve organizational capacity in sport. She is the Sport Management Department Chair at Pfeiffer University, a liberal arts institution near Charlotte, NC. She has 15 years experience as a Marketing Director for an LPGA tourney, Marketing Director for a US Olympic National Governing Body, sponsorship sales executive for an NBA sports and entertainment property, VP of Marketing and Ticket Sales for a hockey team, and she aided press operations during the 1996 Olympic Games as an Interview Room Manager. Mary Beth enjoys thinking about new ideas and solving business problems.

Follow her on Twitter @mb_chambers or LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/marybethchambersphd

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References:

Holton, A. & Coddington, M. (2012). Recasting social media users as brand ambassadors: Opening the doors to the first ‘Social Suite’. Case Studies in Strategic Communication. (1). Retrieved from: http://cssc.uscannenberg.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/v1art2.pdf.

Shirky, C. (2009). How social media can make history. TEDState, Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history

Tapscott, D. (2012). Four principles for the open world. TEDGlobal.Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1?quote=1719