The world is changing. We are living and breathing the history that many will look back at in generations to come and see as the era that changed the fundamental way we interact. Forever.
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In my previous article, I explained how having a mobile strategy is vital to surviving that change. The next element to consider for succeeding in a digital world is social. To explain this to clients I often refer to an internal strategy we use called Social By Design.
By this, I mean we need to start thinking and work off the premise that something is not social unless we deign it to be. This way of strategically thinking needs to be applied to business from the start.
Social needs to be a core part of what we do as brands and companies, not just limited to using social platforms. This approach allows you to become inherently social (and therefore engaging) as it leverages the social aspect of life rather than just making use of a social network. There is a difference!
To effectively implement there are three primary elements that make up the Social By Design concept
1. Personalisation
A social strategy will look to customize a campaign with a personalized interface for the user that enhances their experience by highlighting what’s important to them.
The user’s identity then defines a large part of what their experience becomes. This is easily achieved by integrating with existing social networks, and by designing space within online platforms for personalised content.
2. Voice and a reason to share
Viral campaigns become viral because they have something that people want to share. The trouble is that people don’t always share content in the same way all the time. Sharing is dependent on the content, the emotional context of consuming that content and so many other uncontrollable factors.
When designing for social, one can’t just ‘hope’ that people will share your content; you need to design your strategy to encourage the sharing action.
3. Connecting community
Building a community is important and its key for brand to connect with the community of people who ‘like’ or ‘follow’ them. A strong focus must be placed on your social communities; however this needs to be balanced with a serious focus on connecting into the communities of your fans.
Sharing content often will introduce your brand or company to the communities of your but take this a step further. Look at developing the strategy so as to connect your brands community to the communities of your fans. In doing this your brand can start to really influence their social communities and the communities of their fans as connecting community has more to do with empowering ambassadors to build new communities rather than adding people to the your own database.
Through effective implementation and execution of a Social by Design strategy brands are able to develop a robust online voice and thus grow their followings and influence amongst online communities. At this point brands start to become a resource – through adding value and providing users with a reason to engage.
Digital business framework development by DigitLab CEO Mike Saunders and CTO Stephan Gardner. Mike is an International key note speaker for Tomorrow Today and respected thought leader in the industry
