One of the challenges I continue to hear from companies looking to get involved in social communications is how to shift mindsets from tactics and campaigns to a holistic, conversational approach with customers, and what that means from an organizational and operational perspective. Additionally, while there are places within social media for fun, exciting campaigns, if you aren’t at the table having a conversation to begin with you are still adopting a push mentality to the web and missing key opportunities to engage directly with the people who care about your company.

A simple but powerful method I use to illustrate what holistic participation means in the social web is to “L.E.T. GO”.

What does this mean in practice?

Listen / Learn:

Find out what people think about, care about, talk about

Learn what you are doing right and wrong

Discover new ideas

Where are people talking?

What do they think about you?

Are there stories you didn’t know about?

Engage:

Figure out what you have to add that brings value

Find the people internally who are passionate and let them connect

Embrace the chaos

Internalize feedback

Experiment & think integration

You aren’t IN control, but you still HAVE some control

Transform:

Evolution isn’t static.

Social communications touches every aspect of your business – sales, HR, product development, customer care, marketing, R&D, partners, etc. in a holistic fashion. People don’t think in silos.


Caring about how people truly experience your brand will drive your brand forward. In our hyper-connected world your reputation is what other people say it is. The illusion of control is just that, an illusion.

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Above all else, when thinking about “letting go” and participating, the number one rule is that you must be HUMAN. Let go of the marketing and corporate speak: no one is listening. Being human means incorporating and acting on valid feedback and changing when it makes sense. In today’s world it is a differentiating factor that will drive your business forward.