Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

I started working on our Forrester Groundswell Award entry a while back and re-discovered a topic I had been thinking about a few months ago – “holistic” versus “siloed” approaches towards social media initiatives.

The Groundswell authors break down the opportunities within social media to mirror corporate structures, providing an easy way for people in research, marketing/PR, customer support, product development to find their path into social media initiatives.

This is a solid approach because it brings clarity and structure, leading to actionable initiatives. It’s also a good approach for a brand that is making their first foray into the space so they can clearly define objectives and measurable goals and ultimately come away with a success story to justify additional investment.

But what about the brand that has experience and is ready to take a more holistic approach? Or what about the brand that wants to leapfrog their competitors who have already been experimenting for the past year?

Social media and word-of-mouth are not about corporate “silos” – the most effective and sustainable programs cut through silos and have touch points across departments. Does this approach make getting a program off the ground more challenging? Absolutely, but it also accelerates corporate learning, improves results and sustainability of the program.

When did you say the Groundswell 2.0 bus was arriving?