Article: “Managing beyond Web 2.0″
Source: McKinsey Quarterly
Much has been written on this subject, the ‘new’ marketing transparency and co-creation by prosumers are affecting the rapidly changing landscape.
What I do find interesting in the article is the model which is created by the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing that is called LEAD. The model suffices as a roadmap which can be applied to the constant changing environment.
The model LEAD stands for:
* Listen
* Experiment
* Apply
* Develop
Ad. Listen
This refers to an active listening (monitoring). It’s good to have an overview of your landscape, but if a company does not react on the interaction, customers won’t be retained and will enhance their attitude with a negative vibe.
Ad. Experiment
Don’t just monitor the landscape but do experiment with small and easy to implement web 2.0 tactics.
Make sure the tactics aren’t too difficult and extended, social media technology might be free (mostly) but the time-investment by employees isn’t. No company wants to set up a blog and quit after six months because the time, money or creativity is not sustaining.
Ad. Apply
Learn from the experiments and apply them widely throughout the landscape. In this phase the company achieves the portability of the brand throughout the Internet.
Create content that is enlightening, entertaining and educational, optimize the website with tools that easily let your target audience spread the word and let your brand flow. Influence and impact are important measurements of social media employments, learn about social media analytical packages which not only report insights on reach and visibility but also offer qualitative analytical tools which will give insights on the interaction itself, is it positive or negative etc.
Ad. Develop
Learning the ins and outs along the way, integrate social strategies in the marketing mix (read The 3 Fundaments of Online Strategy for an extensive model and analysis how to incorporate social strategies in the online strategy). The Internet is not just another advertising channel (although it is treated all too often as if it were), the target audience is ruling, they determine what the brand, they demand ownership and will give the company loyalty and word of mouth in return.
There are many models which propose touchpoints or phases to go through when employing social strategies and tactics, what I do wonder about the LEAD model, is why there is made a distinction between Experiment and Apply.
Much of what concerns Web 2.0 is in its infancy or exploratory phase, though the consumers are becoming more demanding by the day.
First experimenting and then applying produces a slower adaptational process, hire social media and technology experts which can implement proven applications and let the company thrive and compete more effective in this constant changing environment.
Develop social strategies according to the POST- or Behavior/Business/Technology model and make a sound decision on the technologies based upon their conditions.
Don’t precipitate the executions of your social strategies which will only give you more challenges in return.
The Develop phase is an interesting conception because it put focus on the integral mix. Interactive applications are becoming more and more important, but it’s still part of the overall marketing mix. After having put emphasis on Web 2.0 in the Experiment and Apply phases integrate it correctly in the marketing mix.
What framework do you use?
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