Meri’s recipe for success:
- Take corporate touchstone.
- Distill simple and clear corporate values.
- Combine with matching tools and processes.
- Stir continuously.
- Serve up to every customer, every time.
- Keep fresh.
The crux of Business Execution is that companies with a clear set of values outperform if these values are explicit and actionable. An era of customer engagement and expanding social networking means you must externalize your values beyond your organization. You need to put your values to work in the social networks and communities that matter to you and your customers.
Walmart and BestBuy are succeeding by externalizing their values in social media. First Walmart.
“Walmart is all about saving money, so it was easy to find people who were passionate about saving money,” said John Andrews of Collective Bias and formerly Emerging Media Manager Walmart, speaking at Engage!Expo last week. Walmart built “communities of people passionate about the same value.”
Walmart started by listening and learning. In their own words: “We began slowly, making contacts in Twitter, leveraging Facebook profiles, viewing related YouTube videos, and trying to understand how we could participate. And not just by adding more messaging. We made friends. We heard from our critics. And we began to interact as both Walmart associates and as people.”
After listening and learning, Walmart reached out to 11 mom bloggers and asked them to join a connected community about saving money. The group, naturally called Elevenmoms, has grown into what John called “an integrated social platform actively involved in brand decisions.”
John shared these words of wisdom for companies defining their social media strategy. “The Big Thing is to be an evangelist and bring the entire organization into the process. Social media is not owned by marketing or corporate communications. Zappos has it right – every person in your company is part of your social media platform.”
And what better way to tee up my next blog post on Best Buy’s social media strategy with 1800 customer service employees on Twitter.
