In every business there is, and naturally always will be, a constant butting of the marketing and operations heads over who drives the business plan. This part of business is like gravity and air..can’t live without either.
What is new to the age old war for control of the business plan has to do with Social Media and how it is dealt with in each of these parts of any business. Who wins will be whoever can find social media’s logic first.
For those new to the business game the battles waged between a business’ operations and its marketing has been going on forever. In all likelihood it will continue since each of these extremes of a business function drive each other to develop innovation which leads to the business making a change. Change is what will improve or kill a business.
If there is not a battle between the two different parts of a business usually a business hits a wall. However, there are the cases I have seen where the two sides battle to a draw which is another wall the business hits that will eventually cause the business to decay and go out of business.
The goal of becoming a successful business is driven by the leadership of a business that understands the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of a business’ overall operations. This is extremely hard to accomplish for a diehard ‘Sale at all cost’ decision maker or a ‘Where’s the ROI’ bean counter who sit in the ‘direction setter’s’ chair. Each of these types of business managers need to be introduced to the virtues of both sides of a business’ operations. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses can ONLY be obtained through experience.
Since Social Media is new to most businesses the experience level for most business leaders is extremely low. This makes it very difficult for a business leader to set the correct direction.
Social Media Fuels the Battle
Implementing something new, or making changes to a business process the business’ owners deems needed, usually starts the staff meeting battles. In the case where Social Media is mandated to be used for marketing a product the challenge of ‘making it happen’ is the first salvo of the skirmish between marketing and operations. The next step can take one of three different directions. Here is generally how the three actions take place and their results.
1. Marketing Driven
Since in most business… yes, even the sole proprietor businesses… the ‘Type A’ fully confident personalities usually reside in the marketing groups. This highly aggressive mentality makes the first move towards controlling the direction the business should take in using social media. It is a natural reaction since social media is primarily used for marketing a business’ product.
Marketing will layout a long stream of approaches in how social media will be used which generally is what draws first blood from the operations side of the table. All of the methods will be formulated on unrealistic scheduling and expectations the operations managers of the business currently is able to provide.
But..since the marketing plan for social media is usually based on large volumes of fluffed statistics that highlight the potential for high profits the management of the business will jump on taking the marketing direction which generates the mandate to the operations side of the business to ‘Handle It!’. The battle lines are drawn and war begins.
2. Operations Driven
Very rarely does the operations take the first shot at how a marketing based tool should be used. However, there are the cases where the savvy operations manager will hear the freight train of disaster coming long before marketing or the owners will. This instinct to stop the insanity will move the operations person to outline their concerns or guidelines first.
In an operations driven approach will be based on certainties, for which there are not many absolute statistics to base expectations from using social media marketing. The operations plan will usually have estimated costs for backing a social media marketing plan which are highly marked up to insure back-ups and retries can be made over a short period of time.
As a result, the use of social media is tabled until more certainties can be obtained on actual usages and market penetrations for which none can be obtained due to the unverifiable stats available for internet uses. The plan will keep the business from using social media until large funds can be secured to back up a business plan filled with too many bailout benchmarks. This will handcuff the marketing group and send them to the street with a ‘Must Get ROI’ attitude that the consumer will sniff out as an attempt to scam them into buying something.
The long term battle is averted from instigating a self destruct business plan.
3. Balance Driven
What is rare to see in this war for profits is a business creating from the beginning a ‘balance’ between the different approaches of using social media. Most business leaders will attempt to start their approach to using social media with a balanced directive, but are generally persuaded from the stronger driving force they possess to move into a risk filled endeavor or stir directly into the headlights of costly mediocrity.
Some will take the shotgun method of marketing most business seem to be using today which will result in unfulfilled expectations. Others will enter the social spaces with social media with a ‘Must Make a Sale’ attitude will produce even worse results.
What has to be developed is a balance between risk taking and wishfully obtaining certainties. Good leadership and smart business management comes from experience to know how to balance both. Some businesses have tremendous talent in one or the other but few have both.
Experienced business leaders will take a chance and move immediately towards while taking heed to reality that are based on fundamental of prudent business policy. The combination of these two extremes is the balance businesses need today when taking on the debate of how much social media a business needs. Falling off this balance will result in failure.
A business cannot function without an operations and will never succeed with marketing. The balance between the two is what keeps peace in the boardroom, the staff meeting and the workplace. This balance should be the goal for every business’ approach to using social media.
Let me know how I can help.
 Contact Scot Duke for a Complementary 30 minute Business Operations Evaluation Session. When it comes time to check your business’ direction it’s time to talk to someone experienced in business operations. |
