The Brand evolution into adaptive and novel business models is now SOP. The brand strategy MUST embrace the paradigm-shift opportunities presented by Social Intelligence - or risk obsolescence by being out maneuvered by more nimble competitors.

1. Agencies & Brands + Social Intelligence
Opportunities to seize first-mover advantage in the development of innovative
Social Intelligence products & professional services in B2B & B2C
Big Data is looming.
Are you ready?
Most CMOs readily admit that they are not.
And even the top performing CMOs are not
too far ahead. The data explosion (Big Data)
means a lot more than Social Media – but
Social Media is the driving force behind the
tidal wave of information that is becoming
available to organizations. Building the
customer data cube (multi-dimensional
matrix of customer information) is fast
Infographic Credit: HubSpot – “The Social Media Data Stacks”
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2. becoming SOP for organizations – and Social Media is helping to flesh-out many of the requisite
data points. But Social Media is largely unstructured data – and that’s a challenge for most.
In the evolution of Social Intelligence, we first monitored brand mentions as a way of
performing crisis management and mitigation and movement towards Social CRM. We then
started listening for brand mentions and brand
attributes as a means to identify sentiment and
influence. This gave rise to strategic
engagements that sought to leverage
influencer reach as a means of brand
amplification, earned media, and the ultimate:
virality. In social media, we subscribe to
Metcalfe’s Law to maximize message and
Infographic Credit: NoahBrier.com
achieve the tipping-point for ROI.
While this is a worthwhile endeavor for campaigns and tactics, what’s next? What else can be
gained from the vast amount of data being mounted online every day?
1st evolutionary step: Monitor
2nd evolutionary step: Strategic Listening
3rd evolutionary step: Engage and Activate Individuals & Networks
4th evolutionary step: Social Intelligence
5th evolutionary step: ?
Big Data. Bigger Thinking.
We now have the ability to get inside the head of our target audience like never before by way
of socialized content analysis. And when we are able to bring-to-bear the multiple data
repositories via comprehensive multi-factorial analyses, we have achieved a radical shift in
intelligence & insight development. We have achieved a data-enabled shift in BrandParadigm.
This rich and highly strategic information can help inform business decisions with greater-and-
greater impact. And as we evolve the solutions and capabilities for insights development, we
can develop extremely valuable predictive models for audience behaviors, affinities, attitudinal
indications, emerging trends, untapped markets, brand velocity within audience segments, etc.
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3. The vast gulf or whitespace that exists between
brand-specific content and brand-relevant content
is not noise - it is opportunity.
Relevance drives engagement and in a world of distractions, engagement is the new currency.
But how do brands create relevance? Do brands see themselves as publishers or curators? Do
brands see themselves as an experience or in the backdrop of their customers’ experience?
Scaling social engagement (earned media) is highly achievable with
good, relevant content.
We know that 57% of people (in developed markets) do
not want to engage with brands in social media (TNS
Digital Life), but this shouldn’t deter brands from looking
at content and data produced by these folks - and
everyone else - as being extremely valuable. It’s just
that the appropriate, strategic lens must be developed
in order to see it in context of the brand. B2C or B2B – it
doesn’t matter. A brand strategy is a content strategy.
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4. And when we see the importance of data-driven
decision making (targeting) in the marketplace
followed closely by “leveraging social data,” we
know that there’s a critical connection waiting to be
made between the more traditional digital efforts of
organizations around their business objectives – and
the opportunities that reside in the untapped power
of social intelligence.
And when the brand loosens the reins of content
development and finally sees itself as a publisher
within the greater context of community, the
significant power of curation and trending content
then becomes available.
And there is an even greater opportunity for Social Intelligence
products and professional services in the B2B space.
“Topping the list of necessary investments – and cited by approximately half of
the survey respondents – is the perceived need for new tools and technologies.
Additionally, the research suggested that the lack of companies’ engagement in
social media is linked to the lack of confidence they have in making the right
investment decisions to achieve their objectives.”
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5. “This finding, more so than any other, confirms what we have seen in our work
with B2B companies around the world. Executives understand the critical role
that social media can play in organizational success. And, to a certain degree,
they have even identified the goals they would like their social media programs
to address. Yet, many simply don’t know how to proceed. Their lack of
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6. confidence translates into a lack of action. As a result, the potential value that
social media can deliver is left unclaimed.”
Infographics & Quotes Credit: Accenture – “Making Social Media Pay: Rethinking Social Media’s Potential to Bolster B2B Interactions, Customer
Loyalty, Revenues and Brand Reputation”
Global is no longer a mandate, it is a foregone conclusion.
81% of users of top global internet properties reside outside the USA.
We must now develop and
leverage assets in the field like
never before. This doesn’t mean
satellite offices or agencies – this
means locality (BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India,
& China | MIST = Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea,
& Turkey | South Africa and Argentina)
embedded individuals who can
perform “investigative, brand
relevant research and
journalism” to bring back to the
brand or agency Mother Ship –
and/or activate the local
networks for message/content
amplification.
“Ten emerging markets will
account for half of ad
spending growth in the
next three years”
Quote Credit: AdvertisingAge, December 5, 2011:
“Where’s The Growth? Follow the BRIC Road”
Infographics Credit: Mary Meeker (KPCB) on Internet Trends
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7. So what do these potential Social Intelligence products and
professional services look like?
As a developing practice area, Social Intelligence products and services span aspects of
consulting, measurement & analytics, editorial & communications, PR/marketing, brand health
& reputation, market research, process & protocols operationalization, stakeholder buy-in,
enterprise socialization of value proposition, technology stacks, strategic partnership(s)
development, vendor selection & acquisition, etc. To simplify the product offerings, the Social
Intelligence practice area can be further segmented into distinct buckets (examples):
These are but a few of the strategic areas that can be pursued and developed.
Social Intelligence + Big Data + Measurement & Analytics + Market Research = Limitless
Productization and supporting Professional Services
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8. And what about REALLY moving the needle for a brand? What does
that strategy look like?
Forget strategy – how about vision? Strategy implies a known or proposed set of existing
tactics. In Big Data / Social Intelligence, these do not yet exist for the most part. It’s not as
simple as a platform, or an integrated online marketing system, or a dedicated department, or
an agency selection. It’s much more holistic (& visionary) than that.
Infographic Credit: MDGAdvertising.com
While ROI is important to measure in terms of tactical investments, how do you calculate the
ROI of a global shift in brand perception? How do you calculate the ROI of an emotional
connection? How do you calculate the ROI of brand engagement that does not easily connect to
lead generation or conversion? How do you calculate the ROI of a meme? How do you calculate
the ROI of brand resonance with an idea or a culture?
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9. The ROI for a holistic and visionary brand content strategy is best illustrated by Nielsen:
And when a brand develops the systems and methodologies to maximize EdgeRank and
PageRank simultaneously, brand messaging achieves unprecedented scale. Trouble is most
brands don’t have the ability to appropriately measure Ad Recall, Awareness, and Purchase
Intent like a Nielsen or a DynamicLogic. So, agencies & brands must look at the strategies &
tactics that allow for ROI attribution as being distinctly separate from those that are primarily
focused on Brand Lift (Reputation, Perception, Contextual Affinities, Developing Trust, etc.)
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10. OK, it’s big – this vision – kind of like “Low Tech, High Concept?”
Yes. This is a good metaphor for Social Intelligence enabled brand scaling. There are many ways
to approach this, but here is a matrixed example for strategic (tactical) innovation.
For every spoke on the hub, there are strategic partners & solutions that must come together
for the BrandParadigm. The new agency & brand model is one of bespoke solutions and
consortiums of strategic partners to maximize capabilities in innovation. Gone are the days
when Thought Leadership is owned and Intellectual Property only resides within the firewall.
“Radical customization, constant experimentation, and novel business models
will be new hallmarks of competition as companies capture and analyze huge
volumes of data”
Quote Credit: InventionMachine.com – “Big Data: The Big Innovation Opportunity” and McKinsey & Company – “Big Data: The next frontier for
innovation, competition, and productivity”
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