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c h a p t e r10: SOCIAL OBJECTS■the context for consumer and stakeholder participation in the activities that are related
to the functional aspects of a brand, product, or service.Create a Relevant Presence for Your Business
Once you’ve identified a viable social object, the next step is to connect to it. You’ve got
choices in how you attach a particular business process to a social object: You may cre-
ate a service that you offer, for example, that can itself become part of the way in which
your audience pursues its involvement with the social object: Nike+ accomplishes this by
connectors runners with its shoes through a service that connects runners...with other
runners.
You may be thinking that the social object has to be large, or that larger
brands—perhaps because they are perceived (not always correctly) to have “more
resources” (they have profit and loss pressures, too)—have an easier time. Not true.
Social objects come in all sizes, and you can generally find one that applies to just
about any business audience segment of interest. Look again at Table 10.1: Being an
entrepreneur or owning a small business, the care for abandoned animals, babies,
action sports, and women’s health are all built around powerful social objects. Not
only is each of these a powerful social connector—you could easily throw a social
event around any one of these topics—they are also perfect alignment points between
customers and businesses that operate in these same consumer segments. This is what
social objects are all about: They form the common-interest-based connection between
your brand, product, or service and your customers, constituents, and employees.Become Part of the Community
With your social objects identified and an activation program that connects your busi-
ness into that activity built around it, attention turns to growing and supporting the
community. Think about showing up at a friend’s party: Unless specifically told other-
wise, you’d likely bring a small gift to share: an appetizer or dessert, or maybe a bottle
of wine if the setting is appropriate. The point is this: This sort of value exchange is
recognition that a social gathering among friends is a collective activity, one that is
made better as more participants contribute and share. Your business presence in a
community or activity built around a social object works the same way: As but one of
the participants—remember that the activity centers around the social object, and not
you—your program will generally work better if you are an equal co-contributor to the
general well-being of the community and its specific participants.
The result—looking back on the overall process—is that you have created a
space for, or joined into, the interests, lifestyles, passions, and causes that matter to
your customers and stakeholders. By practicing full disclosure and by taking care to
contribute as much or more than you gain, you have successfully anchored your busi-
ness in what matters to your customers, made things better for them, and created a
durable supporting link that ties back to your business objectives.