Business owners are incredible. Being entrepreneurial is an art-form. It’s the perfect combination of creative and industrial. One has to be practical and a visionary. It isn’t easy being both dreamer and realist.
Firms must of course, first and foremost, function. We all have our handy-dandy job-descriptions which follow a hierarchy and fulfill a functional purpose. And, many of us have had the delightful experience of managing someone who is dead-set on never performing a duty that is NOT listed in that formal description, especially those of us privileged enough to work with union-protected employees. But, what happens in a world where all firms perform solely based on function?
Function means that we do what needs to be done in order to have the demanded output. These tend to be hard-skills or measurable actions.
We have no community.
We have a place where no one wants to live.
So, exceptional employees leave.
We can’t recruit new exceptional employees.
And in the end, we are trying to run a firm alone, which will never successfully maximize our efforts.
What is missing?
Relationship.
Truly Successful Firms Think Beyond The Functional Bottom Line.
This is why the most successful local firms in communities are usually the most active representatives in voluntary community boards, civic programs, and in professional membership groups. Yes, participation in such groups require a considerable amount of time out of the office doing things unrelated to their job-description. But, this is not a waste of time if the firm’s leader frames this involvement properly.
Text books call this social marketing, others may call this civic duty, and accountants call it a good ol’ tax write-off. I say this an age-old necessity and one of the best marketing tactics, networking. You can still Tweet, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and blog all day about your products, but if you have no community connections or awareness of your community’s political, economical, ecological, or educational state, then you will have no credibility and therefore no social-media followers.
There are two main frameworks for effectiveness in firm community participation. Both of which directly relate to your social marketing effectiveness:
1. Community Awareness
You first must learn what is going on in your community. Ask questions. Know the politics. Know the history. Know the key-players. Figure out the challenges. Identify the opportunities. And, strategically connect these with your firm’s vision and mission.
2. Community Credibility
Once you make the strategic connections, make the efforts very clear with the representatives of your firm and their roles in the community. Set clear guidelines in their participatory roles and why and how they are involved in such activities.
For example, I participate in a community committee representing my employer, I understand the connection this committee has with my position and I clearly understand my representation and role. I make sure to wear my official nametag at these meetings, I bring free-bees with my firm’s logos each month, and I make sure that I dedicate the exact amount of time I am allotted by my supervisor. If there is additional work regarding the committee, I am clear with the committee that before I can commit to do the work I must first speak with my employer regarding the time commitment. And, I speak with my supervisor each month regarding the committees work and my participation to keep her up-to-date on the issues in the community.
My role on this committee is increasing credibility of my employer’s brand to the community because the committee represents 25 government, private, educational, for-profit, and non-profit community organizations. It is also an avenue to inform the leader of my organization of community issues and information. It is also a professional development opportunity for me which is an employee retention and satisfaction element.
In the end, I spend about one hour a month dedicating time to this community organization, representing my employer.
In addition to the two-part framework, of awareness and engagement, we are now talking about marketing. Did I just hear the “cha-ching” sound? Why yes, I think I did.
My employer is getting one hour of SOCIAL MARKETING ADVERTISING to 25 community organizations.
Instagram and Twitter
I Tweet and Instagram my participation at these meetings and I hashtag my employer, increasing marketing efforts for both myself as well as my employer’s brand. This increasing the marketing to my 836 social media followers. Check my Twitter page out to see how I do this for my own firm, https://twitter.com/pattycrawford1.
When you view my Twitter reel, you can see my recent participation at the Indiana Black Expo, representing Indiana University. I used hashtags (#) to identify groups that make my tweet searchable, including my employer, and I tagged individuals, like the Governor of Indiana…you know…no big deal.
You may be wondering, who the heck cares? Guess what, a lot of people.
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The governor may not remember meeting me, but he (or his staff member that manages his tweets) will now because it is saved for all the World Wide Web forever.
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My boss and Indiana University love it because it shows that as Indiana Black Expo “Diamond Sponsors” we are represented, active, and connected with decision-makers in our state.
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It is also networking at its finest. I was there in person, enjoyed conversations in person, shook hands (which confidence I may add), and now have it tweeted for all of internet posterity. Personal and technical networking.
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Lastly, it increasing credibility not only for my workplace, all those tagged and hash tagged in the post, but also for me and my future career.
Online Portfolios
All professionals and organizations have online portfolios, believe it or not. Do you know how to find your organization’s online portfolio?
Step 1: Go to www.google.com
Step 2: Type in your organization’s name
Step 3: What pops up? That is your portfolio…if nothing is there, then you don’t exist to that potential client, employer, customer, consumer, vendor, patient, etc.
It will make or break you, and as each month goes by, more and more consumers depend on internet reputations, grades, scoring, and recommendations for purchasing and participation decisions.
All in all, community awareness and community engagement and their connections with social marketing, when done strategically and in-line with your firm’s mission and vision, is an absolute necessity. There need to be clear internal messages provided to firm representatives regarding expectations in community engagements. Social marketing and networking are personal experiences that build community and cannot be replaced.
Who Doesn’t Love Some FREE Marketing?
And, don’t forget all of those annual community awards that are given to leaders of firms that are engaged in their community. Talk about free marketing! And, it also feels great to be honored. Oh, and did I mention it is also free marketing?
Want your organization to be more active in the community? Go to your next chamber networking night or connect with your local county foundation and see what non-profits in town have missions that meet your firm’s community interests.
Or, is your organization or are some of your individual employees already involved but aren’t capitalizing on the social marketing benefits of these engagements? Here are some tips:
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Get those community committees and employees into a lunch workshop and teach them how to market the firm’s commitment to the community.
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Get them on a firm smart-phone plan
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Sign them up for professional Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts
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Create a fun hash tag for your firm for them to use at all meetings and events
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Teach them the art of awesome selfies, Kardashian-style
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Let them know you appreciate this work and that they are always representing the firm and to keep it in context, basically, not REALLY Kardashian-style, (unless you are a certain kind of firm)
Remember, this is almost like free marketing. Who doesn’t love that?
