Michael Brito discusses social business and the opportunities it presents. He defines social business as organizing a company's internal social media channels to better communicate, launch products, and gain insights. He emphasizes that leadership is key to driving the culture change needed for social business. Brito also outlines opportunities for social business in 2014, such as improving employee training, breaking down divisions between teams, and providing smart, targeted long-form content.

1. In Conversation with EveryoneSocial
Interviews with Content Marketing Thought Leaders
No.
14
MICHAEL
BRITO
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2. Introduction
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of
learning.” — Bill Gates
When it comes to social business, you might wonder if your
business has what it takes to make the change. What if
your employees aren’t ready? Or worse, what if they make
decisions that impact you negatively? The benefits of
social business can be huge: you can reach more potential
customers; you can respond to problems faster; and you can
gain huge insight into what customers and employees want
from your business and what will make them advocates for
you. The obstacles, however, can seem huge.
Fortunately, when it comes to social business, you only need
a few things to put you in the right direction: strong leadership
to inspire a desire to change and imitate; a company culture
that embraces change and creativity; and the ability to set
realistic goals and expectations for a social business.
Those factors might seem more daunting than easy, but don’t
worry, we have Michael Brito here to explain. Michael Brito is
the Group Director at WCG, a W20 company. He has written
several books on the power of social business. In this ebook,
he’ll give a few tips and tricks for creating a social business, as
well as the importance of good leadership and the challenges
of social business.

3. The social marketing
dashboard that transforms
every employee into a
brand evangelist
EveryoneSocial’s platform gives marketing teams and
social media specialists a broad range of intuitive tools
that make content initiatives and advocacy efforts
efficient, measurable, and easy to use.
Quantifies and measures
the business impact of
social media activity
Exponentially expands
brand reach and deepens
audience understanding
Creates advocates and
cultural alignment
C
O
N
T
IN
U
E
Click to Schedule a Demo

4. Get Organized
1
1
What is your definition of
“social business”?
It would be wise to tell you how I got here, which begs the question
as to why social business is such a hot commodity these days. Back
when social media first got big there was no strategy at all. There
were all these separate teams working within the same company,
and they weren’t communicating with each other. You found later
that big companies had around 180 social media channels on
average — which is really hard to get a handle on and control. It’s
hard to organize product launches and strategies with so many
different channels. People decided to step back and ask how this
could be done better, how it could be better measured. It is all
internally based — not social media marketing, nothing external,
but it enables better content.
My first book was about encouraging businesses to become social
businesses for the sake of being a social business, for the sake of
being better, more organized, and more effective. The challenge I
had was when I talk to a marketing person, I would say, here’s our
thinking on social business and they would say, “what’s in it for me?
How will that help me communicate with customers?” That’s a good
point! I needed to go back to the drawing board. My second book
was looking at real world business challenges and opportunities
based on the digital ecosystem where brands must think like
media companies. It takes the principles of social business — the
infrastructure, the training — and applies them to the evolution of
business.

5. Millennial Revolution
1
2
Is social the future
of business?
Whether they know it or not, it is. There are lots of businesses where
employees work in silos. I think companies are going to think about
it as millennials become CEOs and there are going to be more
challenges when that happens. Through industry and thought
leadership, companies will realize they need to figure it out sooner
rather than later.
If we want the next generation to take over business, to lead
companies, to become executives, we have to put the groundwork
in place for them to succeed and, fact of the matter is, millennials
work differently, and that’s great. Creating an environment that is
a smooth transition for them will be nothing but beneficial, even if
you’re hesitant about it.

6. Inspiring Leadership
1
3
Is it as big of a change
as people think it is?
Yes. The answer is yes! When you work for a huge company, it’s
hard for one person to make an impact. Take Sandy Carter, she is
a leader, she’s a knowledge leader, and she is making an impact.
People who listen to her begin to mimic her behaviors.
Being a manager is about being a leader and having other people
imitate you.
It’s the same in business, if you have a leader, and she doesn’t have
to be an executive, who is driving change, you have new people
coming in, not necessarily in sales and marketing, who think about
the company differently. It’s not about job rank; it’s the ability to
persuade and influence. Finding the right people to make the
change in business is really important.

7. Context and Opportunity
1
4
Is the change to social
business spread internally
or mandated from above?
My experience has been B2B Tech, so that’s where my perspective
comes from. For example, companies like IBM and Oracle have
completely turned around and changed the image of their
companies, building an ecosystem of social business. I mean, what
do you think of when you think of an executive at IBM? A middleaged man in a business suit? That’s not true anymore! IBM has
completely changed, they’ve completely overhauled the culture of
their business, and it’s fantastic! They are big into social selling and
the opportunities it presents.
When I think of top down companies, I don’t think they are
necessarily using social media the way other companies are,
possibly because they have other areas they need to focus on more.
Some companies have other challenges, especially if they are in a
very competitive niche, so they struggle with innovation, but that
doesn’t mean it isn’t important!

8. Change Agents
1
5
What is the role of the
agency in this big shift?
I think we, and by “we” I mean agencies, would play the role of
advisors. Our clients are in marketing and being able to communicate
the value of social business adoption and create a more cohesive
content strategy would be our biggest goal. Agencies in general
provide counsel and bring great ideas to the table that their clients
would miss otherwise. Agencies drive change because agencies are
essentially change agents.
In some cases it’s tactical and sometimes, it’s analytics. I love being in
a business that is run by data, because it’s much easier to implement
change when you have math on your side! There is a huge analytic
side to social business, which I think is why it is so powerful for so
many people. It’s important to understand the landscape and who
influencers are and it’s important to use that to drive programming.
That’s where social business comes in — you use data to drive
change because it’s all measureable.

9. Key Performance Indicators
1
6 How do you capture and
present results?
It starts from the beginning. Personally, when I work with a company,
I have to understand what the measure of success is and then to
help them understand what success is because it is different from
company to company!
The challenge of social media is that it’s often measured differently
from one department to another. For that reason, you have to
establish KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and hold yourself
accountable. For example, if you want to decrease calls to the call
center, or you want to increase employee activism, those are both
measurable indicators! The focus should then be on measuring those
things and holding yourself accountable if you do not meet them.
And if you don’t meet them, reassessing your strategy or your KPIs.

10. Leadership and Culture Change
1
7
What are key ingredients for
becoming a social business?
Leadership is the key ingredient. Also, there needs to be a rhythm of
business that is aligned with the vision. It’s very easy to say leadership
it’s about the kind of leadership that changes the way employees
communicate, operate, and do their jobs. It’s the kind of leadership
that can change the culture.
I would say, however, the challenge when the culture is not ready is
more compelling than a company that is perched for change, or is
very fluid in terms of culture. That challenge would motivate me to
think of new ideas and ways to radically change a culture.

11. Start Today
1
8
When do you know
your business is ready
to become social?
I think that the external market is changing so rapidly with this content
and media surplus, and how busy our lives have become with social
media and technology, that we can only consume a small amount of
content at a time. It’s hard to reach consumers! At the end of the day
though, that’s how you drive revenue.
When companies are faced with shrinking margins and shrinking
shares, they need to think differently, they realize they have 30,000
employees that have the ability to share content, to bring attention
to the company, to influence the company and the public. Those are
employees that are already being paid, that are easy to train, that are
just waiting for the opportunity to be advocates for their workplace.
Why not go for it? There is so much content and it’s never going away,
so brands are going to have to think differently and take chances,
even if they’re a little scary.

12. Intelligence, Cohesion, and Content
1
9
What are the big
opportunities for 2014?
For me, I think there are three big challenges that represent three big
opportunities. Firstly, I think that there is always going to be internal
challenges around employees using social media — as in, not using it
in a very wise fashion. That creates the opportunity for great training,
to teach employees about social media, even if they already use it,
and the power of social media; it’s true that some people really do not
understand the consequences of using social media irresponsibly!
Secondly, there is always going to be a challenge between teams
that feel like they “own” social and divide the organization. This is
another opportunity, because if you move towards becoming a social
business, this tension will fade a little bit, and instead of working
against each other, they will be able to work together for a common
goal.
Third is external: it’s the challenge created by content, media, and
analytics, and being able to provide smart content to customers. We
have to remember long-form content is a way to allow customers
to find us. Otherwise, we’re competing to interrupt people’s News
Feeds and that’s not necessarily effective. This means we have a
huge opportunity to target people in multiple ways: via news feeds, via
search, via Twitter… by having content in a variety of forms in a variety
of places, we can reach the right people at the right time.

13. The social marketing
dashboard that transforms
every employee into a
brand evangelist
EveryoneSocial’s platform gives marketing teams and
social media specialists a broad range of intuitive tools
that make content initiatives and advocacy efforts
efficient, measurable, and easy to use.
Quantifies and measures
the business impact of
social media activity
Exponentially expands
brand reach and deepens
audience understanding
Creates advocates and
cultural alignment
Click to Schedule a Demo
Share this ebook