Social Enablement for Marketers

Today is World Enablement Day.

It's one of those "create your own days" really, sponsored by Seismic, the global leader in enablement. But if humans can embrace National Donut Day, let's take this opportunity to embrace the growing industry of enablement 😉

But, what is enablement really?

It's about enabling people to do what they were hired to do.

Pretty simple, actually.

And honestly, the booming industry is a little crazy to me.

According to Seismic, the category is currently estimated to have a $5 billion USD global market valuation with expectations to grow to $13 billion USD by 2030.

All because we're not currently enabling our people to do what they were hired to do 🤯

I mean, hasn't this always been leadership's job?

Ok, I'll leave that one for now, as we get back to WHY people aren't being enabled...and because I'm a marketer, let's look specifically at how marketers have been disabled over the last 20 years...

...and how we can enable them again!

A Definition of Disabled

Let's start where I love to start...with a definition:

Disabled = impaired or limited by a physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition.

In order to explore enablement, we need to understand what created the disablement in the first place. And to do that, let's use the foundational pillars of being social that Rob Durant outlines in his book "The Social Enablement Blueprint" (available soon on Amazon, I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy). Let's go.

Be Approachable

Let's start with how have Marketers have been disabled in their ability to be approachable.

Simply put, we're not required to be approachable.

You see, most marketers are still operating BEHIND the scenes. Our jobs aren't to be approachable. Our jobs are to create content, plan and execute campaigns, measure KPI's, etc. Just take a look at any of the Marketing job descriptions on LinkedIn (even the executive leadership roles). ALL of them talk about WHAT the marketers are DOING. NOT about who they are BEING.

So, how can we become enabled in being approachable?

Let's start with being SEEN. And then, let's layer in being HUMAN.

The concept of being seen is simple. But for YEARS, marketers have been taught that they are NOT seen. We've been taught to be behind the scenes, and a lot of us got really good at it. And it's not that easy to turn it around. In fact, "good marketers" were the ones that got the most done, and were invisible as an individual; they were 100% the corporate brand.

So, to start turning this around, there needs to be a revolution of sorts.

A company needs to decide to go AGAINST what most organizations are doing.

And we can all see how few of those companies exist.

Although, they generally turn into giants 🤔

But the company needs to decide, from a CULTURE perspective, that their people DESERVE to be seen. Because if you don't have this underlying belief and you only create SYSTEMS for people to be seen, you'll hand-cuff them so much you can't possibly get to the second part (about being human).

So, you need to ask yourself?

If I look at my team today, do I really believe that they deserve to be seen?

Do I really believe that them being seen will contribute positively to my brand?

And if not, you might want to look at your hiring practices.

And if the answer is YES, then we can move to step two, bring human.

Now again, while this is a simple concept, it's not as easy to implement in practice. Why?

Because many of our school experiences, and professional experiences, have taught us to filter OUT being human.

"It's not personal. It's just business."

"Leave your emotions at the door."

Yeah, you've at least heard those two, I would guess. And many others that are more subtle.

We value effectiveness and efficiency. AKA...robots.

So, we behave more robotically.

And we get rewarded for it.

And so we do it more. And so on. And so on.

Until we actually FORGOT how to just show up and care about people.

But being human is kind of like riding a bike.

Even if you don't do it for a long time, deep down inside, we remember how.

And when we FOCUS on doing that, we can bring the habits back pretty quickly.

This is one of the things I love most about the DLA ignite Training Program. That it's focused on driving HUMAN interactions by BEING human. And once you practice enough, it becomes second nature 💖

Be Sociable

And how have Marketers have been disabled on this front?

Our KPI's are based on DOING things on social, not BEING social.

Take a look at any list of marketing KPI's. It's about how many posts or pieces of content, how many downloads of white papers or podcast episodes, it's about number of people on an email list and what percentage of the emails were opened. It's about how many interviews our CEO had this month.

But NONE of those things measure being social. They measure creation. And creation of content does not automatically equal social interactions.

I found this definition of "social interaction" at HelpfulProfessor.com:

Social interaction refers to the dynamic exchanges between individuals or groups, encompassing a wide range of behaviors, from brief exchanges to prolonged engagements. It is a fundamental process through which people share information, create relationships, and define social structures and roles.

Now, if you look at any of the above "social KPI's", how many of them are an indicator of the defined social interaction?

Since none of them actually measure an EXCHANGE, I would say they fall flat.

For years, Marketing has become about broadcasting. About sending out one-way messages to people hoping they see them. It happens on TV and radio, newspaper and magazine, digital ads and emails, podcasts and blogs. We started caring only about the distribution, and not the exchange.

So, how can we become enabled in being sociable?

We start caring about the EXCHANGE. And we train our marketing team to not just PARTICIPATE in the exchange, but in how to IGNITE the exchange.

The first piece comes back to culture again. You either believe in the value of the conversation with your potential clients, partners, vendors and investors, or you don't. But I think, if we go deep enough, we ALL believe in the value of the community. We just need to tap back into it...and identify what other "values" have been getting in the way.

Then, we start by building participation skills. Conversation skills. Networking skills. Call them what you want, but it's all about building skills that allow people to have a two-way conversation; confidently.

Now, if you've been hiding your marketers behind the scenes for years, this is going to take a minute.

Ok, more than a minute.

Realistically, probably at least a quarter.

And then once they have the confidence to HAVE a conversation? We create opportunities for them to CREATE conversations.

But not the conversations the BRAND dictates for them.

The conversations THEY want to have.

And of course, let's make sure those conversations make sense under the brand umbrella. But they get to OWN the conversation.

Because you know what happens when awesome people feel ownership in what they're doing?

They DO it.

And they do it A LOT 💖

Be Generous

Ok, this is one that I LOVE, and marketers have TOTALLY been disabled in this capacity. How?

Because we're been brainwashed to think that DISTRIBUTING = GIVING.

And sure, if you look at a technical definition, you could be right.

But looking for ways to make yourself "right" never led to enablement 💡

Let's use Rob's definition of being generous here:

Sharing insights and offers of help freely, building trust, and positioning oneself as a valuable resource.

Let's start with sharing insights. Now, you MIGHT be doing this today. You might be following your industry online to see what's new today, and sharing that on your social channels.

But do people know WHY you're sharing it? Or ever why you CARE?

Usually not.

And then let's look at "offers of help". Well, that's normally saved for the sales people right? But as a consumer, who would you rather have help you? Someone who's trying to sell you something? Or someone whose just trying build a brand?

I know which one I would choose.

And then let's talk about building trust.

I mean, at the end of the day, that's a marketers job right? To build trust in the brand?

But how do people build trust in a brand?

By trusting the PEOPLE who represent that brand.

And last but not least, let's talk about being a valuable resource (which is really the thing that builds trust).

How many organizations do you know where the marketing team is the valuable resource?

Shockingly few.

It might be a CEO. Or a Co-Founder. Maybe even a technical developer like a Chief Product Officer. But the marketers aren't hired to be experts in the business. They're hired to be experts in MARKETING.

But what if?

What if we trained our marketers to truly know enough about our products and services that they could answer questions confidently? What if we intentionally built our marketing team to be the valuable resource?

What might that do to the consumption of our content?

You see, you're most likely not reading this today because you were searching for content on social enablement and you stumbled across this article.

You're most likely reading this today because you know ME, you like me (at least a bit), and you're curious about my thoughts on the matter.

You picked to engage with this content today because of ME. And the relationship what we have wither each other.

Like the above "social interaction" definition outlines, we have created a relationship. It might be a tight relationship where we interact lots, or it might be a looser relationship where we engage sometimes.

But either way, it's because you trust that relationship to add value.

And because you know, I give awesome content away freely.

So, if your marketing team is still sticking all your valuable content behind a form or a paywall, it's hurting how generous you look in the market.

And while you might have some email addresses to show for it, you DON'T have the market trust. And which is more valuable?

In Summary

On this #WorldEnablementDay, I encourage you to take a look at your marketing efforts and ask yourself the question:

• How approachable are we?

• How sociable are we?

• How generous are we?

And come up with ONE WAY to be MORE of one of those three categories.

And share with us what you chose and the results.

Now, those results may not show on your balance sheet tomorrow. In fact, I'll just be bold and say they WON'T.

BUT...

They WILL have a positive impact on your brand. Either internally (in how your employees feel about coming to work), or externally (in how people perceive your brand).

And feel free to get creative! This is marketing, right?!

How YOU would be more generous today is different than how I would be more generous today.

And it's YOUR way that counts 💞

Of course, it takes mastery in all three of the categories to REALLY socially enable your marketing team, but everything starts with one step.

And if you're ready for more steps, check out the upcoming Social Selling for Marketers program with TLB Coaching!

Or, if you just need a conversation partner in this arena, let's chat 😊