Social Media Marketing

58

c h a p t e r

3 :

BUILD A S

OCIAL B

USINESS

■

in the context of social participation with a business. To be sure, savvy marketers have

tapped this best practice even through their traditional campaigns: At GSD&M | Idea

City, where I worked with clients ranging from the Air Force to Chili’s to Land Rover,

Walmart and AARP, we connected the brand with the customer through a shared

value and purpose, something larger than the brand itself and to which both the brand

and customer simultaneously aspired. This created a very powerful linkage that tran-

scended the basic brand-consumer relationship. This same type of appeal to a common

purpose or value that is larger than the brand itself can be applied in an analogous

manner on the Social Web.

Social media takes this practice to the next level. Social media inherently revolves

around passions, lifestyles, and causes—the higher calling that defines larger social objects

to which participants relate. The social media programs that are intended to link custom-

ers to communities and shared social activities around the business, and thereby around

the brand, product, or service must themselves be anchored in this same larger ideal.

Compare Figure 3.3 with Figures 3.1 and 3.2: Simple in concept, getting this larger social

object identified and in place is critical to the successful realization of a social business.

Higher

Calling

CompanyCustomer

Figure 3.3 The Higher Calling

Here is a down-to-earth example: Tupperware, and more specifically Tupperware

parties. Having seen more than a few of these first-hand as a child, a Tupperware party

seemed to me to be little more than a dozen or so women getting together to spend a

couple of hours laughing and talking about plastic tubs. Obviously, I didn’t get it: There

was a higher purpose involved, a much higher purpose: Tupperware had tapped into the

basic human need for socialization, and a Tupperware party provided the perfect occa-

sion to link this need with its product line. The combination of great products, meeting

its customers’ human needs (social interchange) as well as their practical needs (efficient,

organized food, and related item storage) has helped Tupperware build a business as

timeless and durable as the products it sells.