Last year I wrote about my five I’s of social media from an individual perspective and now, thinking about a presentation I have to give, I’m revising them slightly for the organization/enterprise:
How an organization can adapt to the new, conversation driven marketing environment:
Investigate: what’s being said and who’s saying it
Interact: with this new-found community
Integrate: the community into your organization. And vice-versa. (NB – see Wikinomics for the IBM case study)
Initiate: the conversation. Once you know what your community is interested in, you can act on it. Change your process. Change your products. Change your marketing. Become that social object.
As Abraham Lincoln allegedly said to his cabinet:
Seven nays and one aye; the ayes have it.
Four slides, a quote and an image…it’s a start.
[Image from Gaping Void by Hugh MacLeod]
January 25, 2008 at 11:53 am
For me, the most important amon the I’s you mentioned in your post is “interact”. I mean, for me, it would be really dull without interaction. It’s like facing and talking to a blank wall and having your efforts go down the drain.
January 26, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Where did the fifth go? Or was that part of the revision?
“Initiate” is my favourite here. Whether people are nervous, fearful, or just lazy, there’s not enough initiation happening out there. It’s the culmination stage for the other I’s, which is why its so important…
You are absolutely right, it’s key to becoming the “social object” we strive to be as communicators.
January 30, 2008 at 6:09 pm
The “Five i’s” were for people wanting to get into the community; the enterprise has a much shorter attention span so i could only slip four in!
February 4, 2008 at 11:09 am
Hey Ed-
I really like the way you broke those “I”s down. It’s almost cyclical – once you’ve initiated and changed your product, you have to start investigating what people are saying and interact with them etc.
I’m currently a PR student in Toronto, and social media has become a focus in a few of our courses. Thanks for the post, I think I might share it with the class!