Why Grandma, Mercedes and 54,874 fans can’t crack the ‘social ceiling’.

Have you ever seen an industry figure present their organisation’s success story with social and thought to yourself: ‘This all sounds great, but what actually made this work?’ Perhaps you took their building blocks for success and ran that list against your own organisational circumstances: strategy — tick; people — tick; process — tick; technology — tick.

Strange. You’re doing everything they’re doing. So what invisible barrier is preventing you from enjoying the same success?

First: your success is not my success.

Before answering that question, one we’re often asked at Propel is: ‘Who does social really well?’ At the risk of fence-sitting, the answer — always — is: it depends.

It depends on the purpose behind an organisation’s use of social. For example, if social’s role is to mitigate risks relating to corporate reputation, success might be ‘0’ — no instances of major reputational blow ups online. Shareholders may well be happy, but not exactly the compelling success story you’d shout from the internet rooftops…

However, if you google ‘best social case studies’ right now, you’ll read how Mercedes Benz ‘win’ every time with their social media campaigns; how a beauty business generated “54,874 total fans. In 11 only months (sic). Pretty good, right?”; or, my personal favourite, ‘What Your Grandma Knows About Good Customer Service.’ [Note: this really is the first page of Google search results.]

The world of social is full of these visible-yet-tactical examples telling us success is about awards, likes or getting public kudos for clever content. But they distract organisations from what’s really important; what’s really valuable. ‘Success’ is not getting more likes than a competitor or making something ‘go viral’. Success in social is demonstrating a clear, measurable contribution to your organisation’s strategic goals: nothing more.

While it might not be sexy, the real value of social comes from the benefits the world rarely sees: improved customer insight; enhanced process; reduced risk profile. But if organisations instead chase short-term wins and public talkability with social, they will almost certainly hit an invisible barrier where business returns remain beyond their reach.

Introducing the ‘social ceiling’.

If you’ve ever compiled a wonderfully detailed, rich report full of quality social metrics and numbers for senior leaders, only to wonder why your enthusiasm isn’t shared and investments never grow, you’ve experienced the ‘social ceiling’.

When organisations view social simply as an execution channel but still expect it to deliver strategic business benefits, a tension forms. All the really valuable outcomes they hoped to achieve with social — improved customer loyalty or reduced operational costs, for example — never materialise. Those on the tools often don’t have the capacity or business context to design a new, better role for social. And leaders, without specialist expertise, cannot guide their teams towards a more strategic role for social aligned with business needs.

The hype and promise of all those industry ‘success stories’ seem frustratingly out of reach, with access prevented by the social ceiling.

The social ceiling develops when expectations outpace investment. Rather than approaching social investment with a strategic mindset (‘How can social support our business goals and priorities?’) and carefully planning the role social will play across employees, customers and other stakeholders, most organisations simply dive into the channels or campaigns (‘What social media channels can we use?’) through fear of being left behind.

What happens? This fear of ‘being left behind’ pushes organisations straight into social tactics and campaigns while a shared vision, clear expectations and targets, and the strategies to reach those goals are never discussed. In the US, USD 19.3 billion will go towards social media advertising this year while only 23.3% of marketing professionals leaders can quantitatively prove the impact of their social investments.

That’s scary.

But if organisations push on without designing a strategic role for social, they will hit the social ceiling and remain trapped in this cycle of discontent.

So…the social ceiling means we’re all stuffed?

Absolutely not. Organisations simply need to change the way they approach social.

If we step back for a moment and look at this situation through fresh eyes, we might start to see things differently.

How can a ‘broadcast-only channel’ genuinely provide new revenue streams? And how can customer service issues be resolved by marketing practitioners? Particularly when those charged with conceiving and driving those improvements are technical experts, not business leaders.

Identifying and acknowledging this reality — if it is in fact the case — is the first step. From there, there are nine drivers that will break through the social ceiling and guide investments towards genuine business impact.

Over the coming weeks, Propel will address each of these nine drivers individually, equipping you to tackle them within your own organisations. We’ll reveal common symptoms and scenarios that may indicate a need to focus your efforts on a select few, how you can start addressing these challenges, and what you stand to gain if you can break through the social ceiling. Subscribe to our Propel Thinking Newsletter to keep across each instalment.

But for now, what should we take from Mercedes, Grandma and those 54,874 beauty fans? When it comes to social business success, don’t get distracted by vanity metrics. Focus social investments inwards before looking outwards, as it’s the things organisations won’t share in a case study, or the efforts customers don’t see, that truly offer greatest value.