This is a question that Eric Doyle from Crux, (who are DLA Ignite partners) put to one of his clients, CyberHawk.
CyberHawk are a digital organisation.
What do we mean by that?
They use social media throughout the business, for
- Visibility – recognition in the marketplace
- Trusted advisor status
- Recruit and retain the best talent
- Employee engagement & shared sense of purpose
- Pipeline, growth and new logos
They do this as it strips out cost from the business and makes the company more efficient and effective. This isn't about using Slack, or teams or LinkedIn, it's about having a strategy, from the top down, that supports social.
Social isn't just about marketing or social selling.
Let's pick up on Eric's article
"Social Media directly improves Marketing, Business Development, Sales, Employee Advocacy, Supply Chain, R&D, HR, Safety, Technical and Engineering and Quality and more…. all organisational functions that require people connecting and growing relationships with people."
But who says so? Let's go back to Eric's article..
"Patrick Saracco is the Chief Revenue Office at Cyberhawk, a global leading drones inspection and visual data organisation."
Patrick is one of the clients of Crux who use the DLA Ignite program, Eric asked him what he now understood as the difference between a company simply posting corporate brochures and hoping....and a true Social Organisation, his answer:
“A social organisation recognises that building a more humanised relationship with all of its stakeholders from customers to investors and employees, develops trust and a sense of belonging to differentiate from an ever-growing digital marketplace.”
So, this is different. Back to the article ...
"This is seeing the idea of The Social Organisation as the driver for achieving a more humanised relationship with many groups of people.
Patrick sees Social Media as a conduit to developing trust with people who can assist Cyberhawk with its mission.
This is going beyond simple ‘leads and visibility’, Patrick is a commercial business leader using his Social Organisation to build a sense of internal and external belonging, as well as actively working to have his organisation stand out from the competition, who are all racing to look and sound the same.
So, the idea is not to look at Social Media as a bolt on to what you are doing today or a series of individual solutions but place it right at the heart of the organisation."
Eric asked Patrick Saracco what changed since Cyberhawk became a Social Organisation…
“The daily information overload we are all subjected to prevents us from discerning the right from wrong and not easily identifying a business’s unique selling points. Since we’ve become a social organisation, our communication has evolved and simplified, allowing us to diversify and get closer to our audience, this in turn has helped us expand our marketing outreach and strengthen existing relationships”.
As Eric concludes..
"We often find that for an organisation to become successful with Social Media, the senior team might have to suspend some preconceptions or beliefs and create a space where what needs to be done, can be done.
Think less about “…needing to do more on LinkedIn” and think more about becoming a Social Organisation.
As always, I’m happy to explain this to you and your team should you wish to get into the details and the expected results."
With this transformational response, it would seem that becoming a social / digital organisation is the way to go.
Now Imagine .....
Imagine, I pick you up tomorrow in my car and drive you to a place which is full of your prospects and customers. All you have to do is go up and have a conversations with them.
In a social environment like this, walking up and pitching to somebody doesn't work, as it doesn't on a social network.
There has never been an excuse not to be connected to people within an account and in this digital age, even less so. Our social selling and influence course, will teach and coach you to be having conversations with prospects and customers at scale. Whether this is a new business or account-based marketing (ABM) approach.
Related: Why Your Starting a New Position Post on LinkedIn, Isn’t Social Selling