With the rapid evolution of social media in North America, Europe and Asia, companies as an “organizational mind” are being thrown into a whole new space and medium they can barely understand, let alone figure out how to leverage. In large enterprises with a +50 senior executive team, they may not feel a “value” in social media, thinking it the bane of youth. Such things get assigned to the junior intern in marketing. This is completely understandable. Large organizations and enterprises have suddenly become an awkward nerd in the middle of the room at the high-school party where all the cool kids are. They want to be a part, they’re just not sure how.

What the onslaught of social media tools and applications means to the enterprise is that they now have to suddenly learn to have meaningful dialog with not just customers, but other key audiences such as investors and family of employees. They have to learn Conversation Skills. Across multiple departments, with many people who will have responsibility to connect and engage with their key audiences. Those organizations that don’t develop strategies and adapt, will find themselves increasingly isolated from the their markets over time. It won’t be a sudden decline in business, but sales will decline. Very much like the horse and buggy market. it didn’t happen overnight, but it did die off. It’s not easy to do this, nor should companies simply plunge into social media strategies, or assign it to marketing or public relations to deal with.

The first step is for an organization to realize they need to learn new conversation skills. Then to determine what audiences they are going to engage and to what degree…this leads to sorting out ROI - meaning Return On Influence. What does the organization think this should be?

Once you’ve determined your key audiences (we recommend easing into an overall strategy, select one or two starting audiences, then move up as your organization grows comfortable) start to develop strategies and plans to engage and measure them. Implement media monitoring tools, such as our MediaBadger solution (soon to Beta) or others, work with a consultant or PR agency that has a good track record in social media analysis (i.e. Chirs Brogan) and planning.

The enterprise will have to adapt, because the market wants to talk. a lot. The market, including customers, current and past employees, employee families, journalists, bloggers, shareholders…they’re all like a teenager hyped up on coffee wanting to chatter. This is what will cause a fundamental shift in marketing in the coming years. Get ready.