Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

3 :

Build Your Social Presence

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stakeholder base and as well within the fi rm or organization itself. After all, if nar-

rowly defi ned business interests take center stage, if the social interaction is built purely

around business objectives, then what will the customers of that business fi nd useful?

What’s in it for them?

Further, how will the employees of that business rally around the needs of your

customers? At Southwest Airlines, employees are bound together in service of the cus-

tomer, through a passionate belief for the freedom to fl y being a reality for anyone.

So much so that when times are tough or situations demand it, the employees don the

personas of “Freedom Fighters” and literally go to work on behalf of preserving the

“right to fl y” for their customers. As Freedom Fighters, they keep the characteristic

Southwest energy up: This translates directly into the positive conversations about this

aspect of Southwest Airlines found on the Social Web. Being a Freedom Fighter is the

kind of powerful ideal that unites businesses and customers and the kind of passion—

for travel, exploration, or the ability to go out and conquer new markets as a business

executive—that powers Southwest. It’s the kind of passion around which a business

traveler’s community can be built.

Build a Purpose-Driven Business

If you’re interested in how Southwest Airlines built its legendary service teams, you’ll find the

complete story in “It ’s Not What You Sell, It ’s What You Stand For,” by GSD&M’s Roy Spence and

Haley Rushing. If a business fails to connect to its customers through their passions and points of

interest, it cannot hope to engage them in ways that lead to collaboration.

While the preceding section used community formation as an example, the

social business summary point is this: By understanding the passions, lifestyles, and

causes that are relevant to your customers, you can identify the best social pathways

through which to build connections to your product, brand, or service. This is where

a number of otherwise well-intentioned efforts go wrong: Attempting to build a com-

munity around a brand or product will often fail as participation is driven primarily by

advertising expenditure and (costly) promotions rather than by organic interest gener-

ated by and between the participants themselves.

In Search of a Higher Calling

The surest way to avoid this trap is to appeal to passion, lifestyle, or cause—in other

words, to anchor your initiatives in something larger than your brand, product, or

service: Appeal to a “higher calling,” in a manner of speaking, one that is carefully

selected to both attract the people you want to associate with and to provide a natural

home or connection to your brand, product, or service.

Build a Purpose-Driven Business

If you’re interested in how Southwest Airlines built its legendary service teams, you’ll find the

complete story in “It ’s Not What You Sell, It ’s What You Stand For,” by GSD&M’s Roy Spence and

Haley Rushing. If a business fails to connect to its customers through their passions and points of

interest, it cannot hope to engage them in ways that lead to collaboration.