Put everyone in marketing? Yes, and with a social spin

Harvard management guru Rosabeth Moss Kanter last week suggested: "In a Recession, Put Everyone in Marketing." The idea, of course, is that you can't just keep cutting costs endlessly, and your employees are your most important asset. When times are tough, everyone needs to contribute to growth.

It's a perfectly fine idea, although often stated as one of those age-old cliches that you don't actually take seriously: "Sure, we're all marketers. Great. Can we get back to work now?"

In fact, the recession is the perfect time to merge the basic idea of everyone supporting marketing with the mega-trend of social media.

Kanter's five suggestions for how to put everyone in marketing are all good ones, but surprisingly pre-Web 2.0. If we give them a social spin, the possibilities become a lot more interesting.

• Increase customer contact and communication. Not only should senior executives reach out more, so should employees throughout the organization. "Perhaps a personal note or a phone call to provide news or ask questions." Isn't it time to accelerate efforts to connect with customers through social networks and communities, and tap employees around the organization who are already active to lead the charge?
• Start looking for new markets now. All employees should be looking for new uses of existing products and new areas for potential customers. "This might involve sales calls, tests of a new channel, postings on Web sites targeting new areas or industry segments, sending more people to speak at industry conferences and cultivate relationship." What about tapping the social web both internally and externally to rapidly crowdsource new market ideas and opportunities, as  companies like IBM, Dell, Cisco, and others are doing with innovation jams and webstorms?
• Invest in employee morale. When morale is down, productivity suffers. Managers should do more to show employees how much they are valued. "Small tokens of appreciation and enjoyment, such as a weekend outing with families or a food festival with employee contributions... go a long way to keep people motivated." Why not really open up the organization internally with a new transparency using honest executive blogs, wide-ranging online discussion of business challenges and opportunities, and an authentic commitment from the top to respond to employee questions and concerns? If the new external marketing is all about open conversation and community, the new internal marketing should be, too.  
• Emphasize and reward small wins. Tough times make it that much more important to get new ideas from anyone and everyone in the organization, but companies too often neglect to ask or provide incentives to help the process along. "A program that actively seeks these ideas and rewards them... can strengthen the company immediately." Why not use the crowdsourcing approach noted above for an even broader effort to generate and recognize new business improvement ideas. 
• Stick with your values. Managers are often tempted to cut ethical corners in a down economy, but desperate measures often come back to haunt the company soon thereafter -- "Reminders about company values can reinforce solidarity and increase the confidence that customers have in the company." What about using the recession as the perfect opportunity to increase public commitment to management transparency and corporate social responsibility, and create new online resources such as interactive sustainability reports to demonstrate the commitment?

Kanter is right on when she suggests that getting all employees involved in knowing and caring about customers is a key to success when times are tough. This is not exactly easy when many of those employees are understandably worried most of all about their own job security and families. Fortunately, our growing experience with new social tools and programs is making it a bit easier just when we need it most. 

What do you think?

Photo credit: aleske