Social Media Influence for Community Managers

Mashable had a great article from Paul Worthington who is the head of strategy over at Wolff Olins in NYC (where my friend Kelly Stewart works, who also happens to be an amazing marksman with a shotgun but that's another story). According to Paul, losing control is the primary reason clients don't spend more on Social Media. However, control is not the goal of advertising and this is how Paul explains it:

The reality is that great branding has always been about influence and not control – influencing consumer choices and desires in a manner conducive to your goals and their satisfaction.

In today’s world, the way to achieve this is not through bigger advertising budgets or better creative, but through involvement – first by observing the conversation and then by involving yourself in it. As a result, it’s likely that those brands with the most effective influence strategies rather than the most effective control strategies will be the most successful.

Paul goes on with his article to explain three ways that a brand can be a good influencer:

1) Listen than respond: Brands are not generally good listeners, mostly because they’ve never had to be. Before engaging with the conversation it’s important to first listen to it, see what is being said and interpret what this means. Once you engage with the conversation it’s important to be honest and to have real sense of empathy in what you say – if people are excited and interested in your brand you must be supportive. If people have issues or problems with your brand you must seek means of genuinely helping them.

2) Be comfortable with ambiguity. Conversation is messy, real time, and often capricious. At first what you see will appear chaotic, unmanageable and intimidating. The reality is that it isn’t your job to manage or control it – but to respond to it. Here you must learn to filter what you see and think in order to respond and take part. Here is an example from Wachovia:

3) Filter through your purpose. If you’re a great listener, and you’ve become comfortable with ambiguity, you still risk being overwhelmed by the conversation pulling you in multiple directions. Here, having a strong brand purpose is a crucial tool – it becomes the tangible filter through which you listen and respond. It defines the nature of your brand’s conversational voice, and is fundamental to the influence that you seek.

I think this should be the role of community managers and three things that they do as they engage in the conversation. We can't control it, but we can influence it to shift our way and change sentiment from brand critics to brand advocates.