are you frank?
Are you frank?
Are you being real, honest, authentic, transparent, inviting, collaborative, trusting and in rich, regular conversation with your best customers, your co-workers, maybe even yourself?
Ready to see how frank your organization is?
Organizations who are frank understand there’s a conversation happening right now – about your brand, your product, your company. And the more you get into it, the more you get out of it.
Organizations who are frank realize that a passionate customer is a participant in your success. And the more you embrace them, the more they’ll embrace you.
Organizations who are frank realize that merit is replacing machismo, evolution is replacing ego, co-creation is replacing coercion, frankness is replacing fabrication. And the more you let go, the more you gain.
This is frank. And the result?
An authentic brand that shines from the inside out. A creative company that operates from courage. A new breed of CEO – a Conversation Empowered Organization – that leads by example, that thrives in this dynamic paradigm, that changes the world.
Why be frank? From communication to connection, profitability to people,
authority to authenticity, there are many reasons to be frank.
Check out the major business trends in play:
1. Evolutionary business transformation is happening now.
“The economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle; it
represents a `reset.' It's an emotional, social, economic reset. People
who understand that will prosper. Those who don't will be left behind.”
- Jeff Immelt, CEO, of General Electric
Who do you trust? Probably not many corporations, that’s for
sure. In fact, the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer reports that only 38% of
us trust U.S. businesses – down from 58% last year – the lowest in the
Barometer’s tracking history. That’s why trust is now an essential line
of business to be co-created inside and outside of organizations. The
strategic use of social technology can help by building Conversation
> Community > Collaboration > Innovation. When everyone’s in
and an architecture of participation is created together, people and
organizations are transformed. And trust can re-emerge.
"Business applications will undergo a fundamental
transformation -- fusing business applications with social/collaboration
software and analytics into a new generation of 'socialytic' apps.”
- IDC, 2009
2. Successful organizations will empower more productive, internal conversation, community and collaboration that leads to innovation.
94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase
their investment in enterprise social media tools.
- Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications
Research, 2009
Francois Gossieaux from Beeline Labs summed it up this way:
“Businesses are truly becoming social again, and companies should look
to leverage the collective wisdom of their employees, customers and
partners in order to innovate faster, reduce costs, and bolster their
bottom lines.” That’s the promise of collaborative enterprise technology
– when launched “in the flow” of employees’ daily activities with a
clear line of sight to business goals that align with year-end bonuses!
80% of a company’s success is getting their
organization ready through the right roles, processes, policies,
measurement. Only 20% should be on tools - IDC, 2009
3. Marketing 2.0: Co-create or die.
“Companies must listen and respond to customers
in a Web 2.0 world or risk losing them to those that do.”
- Ken Hittel, vice president of corporate Internet New York Life
Insurance Co
Consumers don’t automatically trust businesses, remember, so where do people look for product, service and brand opinions? Many studies now reveal that after a “family member” or “close friend,” consumers turn to a “good contact on a social network.” So in this age of real-time, marketing transparency, it’s all about getting into the “conversation stream.” At frank, we often say you have three choices when it comes to such conversations already going on about your brand: Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way.
There's a lot of social-media GMOOT – “Get me one
of those" – in boardrooms across the globe. After all, it's easier to
throw up a Twitter account or Facebook page than to really effect change
and transformation within an organization.”
- B.L. Ochman, Marketing Strategist and Blogger: http://www.whatsnextblog.com
4. From fad to fact of life: Social media has been legitimized as a powerful business tool.
“We’re moving from an information economy to a
social economy …”
- Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, October, 2009
Social means business. (Lesson #1 in a 2.0 world.) Hence you need dimensions of both at all levels of your brand – inside and outside of your organization. The more strategic, seamless and easy that integration, the more successful you will be. We believe that at the end of the day, it’s the people behind a brand who make the difference: the more authentic, creative, innovative and frequent their contribution, the more distinctive their output will be. A final frank mantra: Authenticity is the new differentiato. Social media is the engine to drive that natural energy.
“… into a new era of knowledge, accessibility and
experiences unbound by distance, time or physical walls.”
- Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com
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Let's be frank: It's the conversations that ARE NOT taking place that are sabotaging your business success (with your colleagues, your customers, your consumers, your self).
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Organizations that create a space of permission for frank conversations are the ones that are thriving.
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Yes, you need to get the tech right, but know that it's not only about the technology: it's about human interaction. A dysfunctional organization will be exposed by the technology faster than ever, so get your
cultural house in order pronto. -
Authenticity, Meritocracy, Co-creation, Amplified Voice, Transparency … these are the new business values you have to understand and practice for future success.
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An integrated, holistic approach is necessary for sustained success: know your scope, plan to scale,
welcome learning, be nimble, expand from there. -
Stay open. Stay in conversation. Stay in a place of trust. This is a process of emergence. Social Media will not give you all the answers at the outset, but it is guaranteed to drive up answers, solutions and
opportunities along the way. -
Have fun. Amazing results will be generated on this journey. Learn to recognize them along the way and
use these results (“good” and “bad”) to create future opportunities and success. -
No one can do this for you. Your organization has to do it for itself. If you do, you will build internal momentum, courage, capability, passion and success. And you will totally own the long-term outcome.
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You are building a brand that shines from the inside out. Get that right and you create a powerful, distinctive market position no one can touch.
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Authenticity is the killer differentiator. Be yourself. Be genuine. Be real. Be amazing.