Aligning Communications and Social Excellence in an Asymmetric World
Over the past 15 years, the evolution of the internet and the way key constituents use it to communicate has far outpaced the ability of organizations to keep up. Consumers simply want content where they want it, when they want it. Corporations, on the other hand, are structured to deliver symmetric messaging and channel engagement in an increasingly blurred, asymmetric environment.
What do I mean by this? Pretend for a moment, you’re a provider of SaaS technology solutions for small and medium businesses in the financial services sector. Your target customer is the CIO, along with the people who rely on him/her to perform their jobs and the key decision makers on budget and competitive advantage (the CFO and CEO). Each of those constituents consumes information and engages in much the same way—rapidly and across several platforms. Most are looking for information on their mobile device. They have short attention spans resulting from increasingly busy schedules, as well as having been fundamentally reprogrammed by the device itself.
For the purposes of this example, I am focused on how a SaaS provider deals with these conditions. But the truth is, the same circumstances apply across virtually every B2B and B2C sector today. The information consumer and his/her engagement and consumption habits are the control.
These transformational changes have been happening, steadily, for the past decade-and-a-half. Even so, faced with clear evidence of this change, corporations and large organizations have largely retained a model that is not responsive to this. Rather than integrating their approach to content development and distribution, they have stuck to less efficient models that give each marketing discipline control over content creation, business and information cycle management, and outcomes. This symmetric approach will become less and less effective with the advent of new technologies, as well as changing engagement and information consumption habits.
Forward looking organizations need to challenge the status quo and commence with breaking down the walls between marketing silos. To optimize value and win customers in this world, they need to focus first on the places and formats each information consumer uses to engage—from long-form pieces in major trades and business media, to short-burst formats on blogs and social networks, and everything in between. Then, they need to think in terms of how best to optimize narratives and create the most efficient and repeatable content assets that can be shared across disciplines. Finally, they need to consider how best to leverage each discipline to support the others—for example, how to lengthen the life cycle of a piece of content generated by the PR team by creating a sustained echo chamber in social, and vice-versa.
This approach requires rethinking the marketing and communications infrastructure. It requires C-suite participation in challenging the leaders of the various communications, social and content functions to rethink their approaches from the customer perspective. It demands new levels of cooperation and budget allocation which, done right, will optimize investment and efficiency. Practitioners and partners need to validate the case with evidence of its effectiveness with key stakeholders.
Go back to the initial example of the SaaS provider. Imagine an elegant campaign and engagement that starts with a narrative, moves next to execution of shared content assets—byline articles, FAQs, social posts, short videos, infographics, etc., each related to the other. The content is furnished consistently to people who have traditionally managed the communications and social media silos. They are asked to maximize usage both in terms of distribution, but also through the lenses of each stakeholder they are trying to reach and engage. Ultimately, they launch a coordinated campaign that effectively touches every constituent group more times, for longer and with more consistent messaging. As a result, they drive greater sales and market acquisition.
This isn’t some far off reality. The reality exists now. What stands between here and there is more a function of the structure of communications, with social and status quo thinning in most organizations. The opportunity is to examine and break down the walls that are getting in the path of progress in this asymmetric world. This kind of change management, done right, offers tremendous possibilities.
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Peter Prodromou is president of Boathouse, a Massachusetts-based independent agency co-founded by former Hill Holiday/McCann executive John Connors. He previously spent more than 15 years helping to build and lead Racepoint Global.
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