Organisations which are brand centric risk being stuck in denial about the sea-change in customer behavior. The path to social media acceptance is akin to the grief cycle. Identifying your company's position within this process is an important first step to executing some short-term initiatives to help get you there. There is no point in starting to think about channels if key stakeholders are at a different stage in the cycle.
- Denial - "Twitter, Facebook, this social network stuff is inane, frivolous and an absolute waste of time"
- Anger - "Participate? Who? ME? US? Go and do some real work!"
- Bargaining - "OK, so there are people conversing, some of them may be customers"
- Depression - "Hang on, there's a social media party going on and I'm not invited. What do I do?"
- Acceptance - "Let's connect with customers, employees and suppliers to maximize value for all."
Where do you find yourself in this process? Is your business participating or are you being dragged along kicking and screaming?
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