Here are ten tips to nurture a strong partnership between innovators and the core business:

1. Articulate a motivating vision of victory in which both the dedicated team and the performance engine win.
2. Highlight the reality that the dedicated team and the performance engine are mutually dependent.
3. Create a common enemy: the competition.
4. Reinforce the values that the dedicated team and the performance engine share, even if they are simple and universal values, like a commitment to integrity.
5. Make the division of responsibilities between the dedicated team and the performance engine as clear as possible.
6. Anticipate resource constraints created when the shared staff must simultaneously handle the demands of innovation and ongoing operations.
7. Gather data to understand whether fears about cannibalization are valid or unfounded.
8. Alter incentives. Specifically evaluate "ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries" on performance reviews.
9. Use influential and collaborative insiders at points of interaction between the dedicated team and the shared staff.
10. When the innovation initiative succeeds, share credit liberally, with both the dedicated team and the shared staff.

The executive or manager who relies too much on a single or small group of advisors ignores the wider diversity of opinion that can shape a better decision. This is particularly true considering the "echo-chamber effect" we have all seen some leaders fall prey to, where advisors are (however unconsciously) selected and endorsed because they already share the same worldview and are likely to go along with the gut reactions of the man or woman holding the power. If the advice put forward has the additional sheen of elder year experience, it may be all the more possible to believe that the "second opinion" is in fact an authoritative reinforcement of what was already decided.

Beware the wise elder. It's not that he or she can't offer good advice. It's just that such experience can sometimes become a false and dangerous substitute for the breadth and diversity of opinion, combined with analytical rigor and shared problem-solving, that together make for great organizational judgment.

The lesson: Ensure that your engagement style matches your company’s brand, goals, and general attitude. We took a look at the top five engagement styles that currently dominate the social web. Which are you?

1. The Game Show Host
2. Your Friendly Neighborhood Service Rep
3. The Beehive
4. The Community Builder
5. The Friend

An integrated social media strategy requires a commitment to customer-centricity, conversation, and community. This means preparation, direct engagement, and real time communication to address any issues -– potential and unforeseen -– that may arise in social interactions.

Do these things:

• be totally transparent about what's happening
• get help to the teams on the front lines
• provide timely updates -- internally and externally (take care of your employees)
• give people something to do -- doing trumps talking
• get leaders involved -- a crisis involves change
• collect and post information and updates in one central location
• respond to and clear contradicting information aggressively

Set the tone and continue listening. Most of us are not qualified to speak to technical information, industry relations, regulatory issues, etc. That doesn't keep us from having opinions on any of those matters.

Sometimes it can be pretty difficult to adequately describe to people in your organisation why social media actually matters. Not because of the results that can be achieved, but because of the complexity of interactions involved in creating the social following that can drive those results. When we tie social media activities into the core of our digital strategy, many organisations have experienced a ‘cycle of engagement’, driving greater outreach and more interactions with their marketing campaigns.

So what is sCRM? To me, sCRM is everything that a company does to deal with the above changes in communication patterns introduced by social media. This involves many aspects of business. Clearly the technology has to change. Instead of managing the conversation with X number of customers, sCRM systems must track and manage roughly X-squared number of conversations among the customers. Since these conversations are unstructured, sCRM systems must be intelligent enough to interpret and understand the conversation on the social web. Sentiment scoring is one but only the very first step in this analysis. Moreover, since there is no way for employees to engage and respond to every customer conversation, sCRM systems must enable business processes by prioritizing and routing the relevant conversations to the proper responder – in other words they have to scale with the company and the audience.

 

Aside from technology, new strategies and business processes must be in place to collaborate with people outside your company. I once said “the only way any organization can scale with social, is via social.” So companies must learn to work with their advocates, influencers and superusers to co-create value with them. Whether it is answering technical questions about your product, helping to spread your marketing message, or defending your brand, not only are these non-corporate affiliates crucial for scaling, they are actually more effective than the voices of the company.

 

There should be some level of change to the internal structure of the organization to facilitate the interaction between the support, marketing, sales, and product department within the company. The social customers see the company as one corporate entity (one Twitter account, one Facebook fan page, just like any other users), not a conglomerate of disparate departments. The relationship that sCRM manages should be the relationship between your customers and your brand; it shouldn’t be the relationship between your customers and the departments within your company. Breaking down some of the organizational walls not only provides a more seamless customer experience, it will also increase customer satisfaction and loyalty in the long run.

 

Finally, sCRM involves a change in the philosophy and the culture of the company. As conversations become more transparent, companies must engage social customers with authenticity and learn how to be more customer-centric. You may have 10,000 employees watching the social stream, but the whole world is watching yours.

 

Who owns social? I honestly think it’s owned by everyone. It is certainly everyone’s responsibility to know what the social customers are saying about their brand. The company may have guidelines on how to respond and interact on in the social web. But as the Gen-Z enters the work force, what used to be guidelines will simply become part of normal social conduct and etiquette for the new generation.

The Ingredients of Social Media Communications Plans

The Digital Brand Expressions report that found that those who are approaching social media with a plan find that needs, concerns, and outcomes outweigh the current scope of activities. The study found that logistics contributed to visibility, but insight was absent from investing in presence. Most notably, resource allocation guidelines, registration of branded usernames in social networks and competitive research were among the top ingredients of a social marketing plan. Other tactical elements include:

71% establish metrics to measure ROI, which is in direct contrast with a previous study by Mzinga that found that over 80% of companies were not measuring ROI.

52% plan for ongoing monitoring

45% develop social media protocols and policies

39% create and distribute guidelines for professional and personal social media use

At the bottom of the list, we see that only 29% of businesses are introducing protocols and policies for the usage of social media by specific departments. As this is the socialization of business, multiple divisions will embrace social media at any one moment, from sales to service to HR to sales and marketing and everything in between. Social media indeed reveals the true 360-degree opportunity. The social consumer is many things to brand snow and over time. And, to expect one representative or facet of business to track and engage with influential individuals in active and expansive networks is narrowing.

The question as to who owns social media is universal. Ownership begins within the team where social media championship is concentrated. As experience matures, social media extends and in many cases, “socializes” each sector. At the moment however, a land grab is in full effect with marketing taking the lead as the area responsible for the creation and management of social media plans. In fact 71% of respondents stated such with communications representing 29% , the executive team accounting for 16% and sales and IT tied with 10%.

Dragonflies have a unique ability to maneuver in multiple directions during flight due to the fact that their four independent wings work in unison.

This visual was inspired by The Dragonfly Effect – Quick, Effective, Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Effect Social Change written by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. I love the dragonfly concept and thought it also represented the perfect metaphor for connecting the major elements of social media strategy:

1. Social Environment
2. Strategic Planning
3. Tactical Implementation
4. Ongoing Management

Attention is the currency of the Internet. When you pay attention to someone or something online — by viewing it, by commenting on it, by linking to it — you help to legitimize it in a palpable way. You help it to attract more attention, traffic, and ad revenue. This of course is often the opposite of what a critic is trying to do. By paying attention to me, the conservative blogosphere amplified a voice that it hoped to drown out.

In contrast, look at what happens when people direct their attention to what they like or what more from. Companies that focus on thanking people for positive feedback, rather than defending themselves against online criticism, develop strong online fan bases. Nonprofits that reach out to their supporters expand their network of support. People who focus on their closest friends have more satisfying online relationships.

Giving this kind of attention helps the Internet become the kind of online world we'd like to see. And it means that we'll spend time in those parts of the Internet that reflect our own values. We'll spend our time online from a place of integrity. And we'll experience our time online as an authentic reflection of who we really are.

How can you best spend the currency of your own attention online?