Defining Yourself on the Social Web

March 19, 2013

Imagine meeting someone for the first time and what would you say about yourself. You might talk about your family, your job, your hobbies or maybe just likes and dislikes.

In short, you’ve just described the challenge you face on the social web. Certainly it’s easy to set up a page on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or another social network. What makes it hard is doing it right.

How to define yourself is detailed in the newest sections of Untangling the Social Web, the on-going report from the Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America aimed at helping you through this process. Parts 6 and 7 of the report provide detailed steps that any company of any size need follow. These two parts along with an executive summary and the five previous parts are all available at http://bit.ly/UntanglingtheSocialWeb.

It all begins with defining your roles and goals, which starts with clearly articulating who you are and what you want to communicate in ways that go well beyond your standard mission statement. As this new report details, companies need to carefully examine their identity, reputation and connections to find a starting point for successfully entering the social web.

Companies need to remember that this process is different for internal and external communications. All relationships are different and the social web demands that you have a carefully differentiated approach to customers and associates.

Though it sounds complex, the steps to defining yourself are easily achievable. Follow the exercises and tips through both parts of the report to create a clear process. All parts of the report can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/UntanglingtheSocialWeb.

Michael Sansolo

Research Director

Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America