The Social Business And The Social Brand

There's some confusion in the marketplace about the difference between a social brand and a social business. First, a couple of quick definitions:

A social brand is any company, product, or individual that uses social technologies to communicate with social customers, their partners and constituencies, or the general public. A social business is any company that has integrated and operationalized social media within every job function internally.

Social business planning is internal; a social brand is external. But more important, there needs to be consistent alignment between both internal and external programs and initiatives to generate true business results. I have always been a firm believer that an organization cannot and will not have meaningful conversations with the social customer unless it can have meaningful conversations internally first.

Here's my logic and one example that illustrate my point:

John is irritated because he dialed in to a customer support department and was put on hold for 30 minutes. No one ever answered his call. He goes to the brand's Facebook page and leaves a comment expressing his anger. No response. He then tweets at the brand's Twitter profile. No response. So he writes a blog post criticizing the heck out of the brand and shares it all over the social Web. Still no response.

In most organizations, a corporate Twitter handle is owned and managed by someone in PR. And because of organizational silos that still plague businesses, the PR folks probably aren't talking with their colleagues in customer support.

So here's a situation where a social brand is unresponsive and is pissing off the social customer because its internal communication is lacking. Now, let's take a different angle. Assume the PR person did send an email to customer support, which took care of John's issue so he's happy now. And then the same thing happens with Mary, Chris, Steve, and several other customers, and the support team realizes it needs to shift internally to address all of these online inquiries. Progress, for sure. Happy customers are a good thing.

But a true social business will go above and beyond addressing isolated customer support issues. It will take that feedback (because its people are communicating and working together internally) and fix the root cause of the problem.

Another quick example is when companies create products with their customers, giving birth to innovation. Take Starbucks' Splashstick. In creating a product with its community, Starbucks changed the coffee-drinking experience for millions of customers and solved a vexing business problem: hot coffee spillage.

Of course, I'm oversimplifying the issue because situations like these take time, a commitment to change and new processes, and the establishment of governance models. But Starbucks provides a good example of an organization reaping the benefits of social brand and social business alignment.

But here is why a social brand and social business are completely different:

-- A social brand focuses on external communications. A social business focuses on internal communications.

-- A social brand is all about engagement with the social customer. A social business is all about engagement with employees.

-- A social brand is owned by marketing. A social business should be owned by the entire organization.

-- A social brand is measured by clicks, impressions, reach, Likes, comments, RTs, etc. A social business is measured by organizational change.

-- With a social brand, budgets are usually allocated toward agencies, community management, Facebook applications, blog development, etc. Most investments in social business initiatives revolve around internal communities, social technologies, and training.

And here's the one reason they're exactly the same:

-- They serve the same purpose and underlying goal: creating value for the social customer.

The social customer, in turn, is creating value by offering insights and opinions (both good and bad) about his or her brand experience. The social brand creates value with the customer by listening, engaging, and solving problems, and it shares those insights, feedback, and best practices internally. And finally, the social business is creating value for the social customer by listening to the collective feedback of the community and innovating its products, services, policies, and processes--creating a cycle of value creation.

Michael Brito is a senior VP of social business planning at Edelman Digital, where he provides strategic counsel, guidance, and best practices to several top global tech accounts. Michael just finished writing his first social business book, "Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organizations." Contact him at [email protected].