Starbuck’s Alexandra Wheeler: forget social strategy, think social philosophy
Submitted by Bernhard Warner on July 16, 2010 – 11:00 am65 Comments
Earlier this week we reported how Starbucks hit a new milestone in social media marketing, the first brand to surpass 10 million Facebook fans. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to interview Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks’ director of digital strategies, on the sidelines of the Social Media Influence conference.
She spoke of the profound importance to get buy-in from the top level of the organization (in the case of Starbucks, that comes from founder Howard Schultz) in order to implement not just a successful social media strategy, but a philosophy. There’s a big difference. Hear for yourself:
SMI offers specially tailored social media training for companies. Email: training[at] socialmediainfluence.com for more information.
65 Comments »
Luis;
This is a really good name to broaden this general movement and I would say the connection to philosophy is also valid. I’ve long thought that Hippie 1.0 was more of a fashion statement for many people. I don’t mean to trivialize what was done. I just believe that deep foundational change is harder and takes longer than it might originally appear and doesn’t alway take the direction you would initially think. Since my first reading of post-fordism in the early 90′s I’ve felt that the original Hippie ideals were still at work underground and that continues today with people like John Hagel and Umir Haque.
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Luis, this is very, very interesting. And I can see from the comments that people are already plotting to kill it stone dead. (Not that they want you and me to think that’s what they arre doing, but Cecil articulates it so well!)
“We mustn’t be heard talking like that, the board would never accept it.” As though success in business was ever about getting permission.
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Hippie 2.0? H2O
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Starbuck’s Alexandra Wheeler: forget social strategy, think social philosophy 10 million Facebook fans http://bit.ly/bE1C8n #edupunkarg
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Starbuck’s Alexandra Wheeler: forget social strategy, think social philosophy http://ow.ly/1qI37A
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Luis has started something really big. It has become the Hippie 2.0 movement here http://hippie20.posterous.com/are-you-a-20-hippie
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Great post Luis and I’m glad we got a chance to meet at E2.0. I’ve conducted 4 in depth interviews (3 of them are live on my site) of companies implementing E2.0: Intuit, Vistaprint, Oce, and Booz Allen Hamilton. The #1 thing I hear back is that employees are the most powerful asset that any organization has it’s important to empower them to help make them do their jobs better. You can’t put a price tag on engagement. Every organization I interviewed was supported to experiment and try things without the expectations of a particular ROI and in every case an ROI or accomplished business objective was reached that far exceeded the orgs expectations.
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Oh, heck yes! I knew being a hippie in the old days would help me as I got older. Hippie 2.0 is right, anarchy and self organization! Farout!
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Luis, this is a great thought I’m glad to see it’s attracting lots of response and reaction.
Schumpeter in The Economist has a great review of ‘The Power of Pull” which IMHO puts its finger on the marketing problem with this meme. The ideas are right, but middle-aged men trying to make themselves look cool is just wrong.
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Superb interview with #Starbucks re their social media philosophy & buy-in at highest level http://bit.ly/cZWPfE
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
You stirred me outa my chair to go get a beer to toast to this one Luis.
(got here via this though (http://digitalnaiv.com/the-enterprise-20-and-the-old-boys-networks-v) – also good one).
Flags will be ready by Nov E2.0 show? Happy to help!
This comment was originally posted on E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez
Yea! Now we’re talking. From tactics, to strategy, and now into the cherished realm, philosophy. I’ll be bold in making the prediction that soon the business world will actually wake up and seriously grapple with worldviews and then you’ll hear glorious words (and hopefully serious discussion about them) like presuppositions, pre-commitments, and maybe even metaphysics, and then, if the biz world can be bold, they’ll debate metaphysics AND epistemology instead of “how to add Twitter followers” or even “how to measure the ROI of social media.”
The opportunity is NOT in the technology nor the tactics it affords. The real opportunity of our time will only be recognized and realized as it grows from embracing entirely new philosophies (which require totally new worldviews, which require an honest assessment of our assumptions about the nature of reality [how things are], knowledge [how do we come to know what we know and what is knowledge worth], and how things can be and should be [classical ethics]).
Unfortunately, it’s faster to calculate ROI than grapple with metaphysics. Those who embrace the latter will eventually crush the former into utter oblivion.
Great job in capturing this interview. Thank you for sharing. Brilliant.
[...] first brand to reach more than 10 million fans, is one of the most popular pages on Facebook due to its engaging social media [...]
[...] responsabile del Global Digital Marketing di Starbucks, Alexandra Wheeler conferma che l’obbiettivo del lancio dell’App è appunto quello di sorprendere e [...]
[...] responsabile del Global Digital Marketing di Starbucks, Alexandra Wheeler conferma che l’obbiettivo del lancio dell’App è appunto quello di sorprendere e deliziare i [...]
Additional comments powered by BackType