What is your company Mission, Vision and Values (“MV²“)?

The acronym is something we reference here at AllyMark all of the time. We regularly refer to it as we consider our own social media marketing plans and approach to business. In the same way, we encourage our clients to reflect on these concepts as they consider their business social media engagement efforts. It is a concept that is vitally important in today’s business environment, particularly with sharing your business story and personality with social media.

MV² = Mission / Vision / Values

Ok, I imagine you just rolled your eyes thinking “oh great, yet another academic theory being espoused without any practical need.” Well you are partly correct, this concept has substantial academic support and is a staple in any strong business course. Just indulge me for a moment.

Let’s start by ensuring common definitions of the words for the sake of this article. The definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Mission – “a pre-established and often self-imposed objective or purpose”

Vision – “a thought, concept, or object formed by the imagination”

Values – “something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable”

From the preceding definitions, you are already beginning to understand why we emphasize MV² when it comes to marketing generally and social media specifically. Let’s break each one down to see how it relates to your social media marketing efforts:

Mission

Without defining your Mission, your company is sailing along but without a rudder. I didn’t say it isn’t working or it isn’t moving forward, rather it just isn’t moving in a specific direction other than what the day brings. Marketing is fundamentally about communicating to the right person, at the right time and about what they are interested in knowing (or soon will be). That communication begins through your Business Plan and policies with your employees, all the way to what you say to your clients and prospects on the phone sales call, your website, product brochures and increasingly now most immediately (and sometimes exclusively) social media. It is extremely difficult and easily a waste of time to engage a social media marketing plan when your business does not have a clear objective. Having a clear Mission keeps your marketing on point, communicating exactly where you want to lead your business. Your social media engagement will stand a better chance of remaining consistent and on point when your Mission is firmly established. Let’s not forget what Lewis Carroll opined: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there! “ The problem is “there” may be nowhere you really want to be without a solid Mission.

Vision

Next, why did you go into business in the first place? Most likely you had a thought of doing something better or different than everybody else. You imagined a business, providing a product or service and delivered to a yet unknown client. Customers and potential clients identify with businesses today in a way never before seen and hardly imagined even 25 years ago. Those customers and clients want to identify with where your business is going and they often start with social media. Your customers are there waiting for you to convey your vision…don’t believe me? Pew Research stated the following in 2015 “Nearly two-thirds of American adults (65%) use social networking sites, up from 7% when Pew Research Center began systematically tracking social media usage in 2005.” ^{Pew Research} So what have you done about conveying your “Vision”? What if you don’t have a formal vision statement? There was a Vision at some point, maybe all it needs is place to reside (like your social media “about” tab/information). Compared to your Mission, Vision is surely going to morph over time responding to market conditions and your imagination. However, nothing resonates better with a client or prospect than understanding your passion, skill and desire to meet their needs, and that communication starts with a clear Vision reinforced in your messaging.

Values

Your company Values should simply guide everything you do. If, for example, you commit to providing excellent customer service, that should be demonstrated in words and in action. Anyone should be able to understand your Values as a statement committing your entire organization to those principles. In turn, those principles will be reinforced in how you use and what you highlight in social media. In today’s world, people are looking for company positions with which they identify. Consumers today are increasingly making a buying decision based upon what the provider genuinely stands for – those values are not just words but are lived out in your business. So many companies are figuring this out and now they are embedding their values in their products/services – think “Made In The USA” or “organic” or “green” or even “support our troops”. Even to the extent of whether and how a company responds to social media posts from clients – both good and bad – are being scrutinized by customers and prospects alike. From coffee houses to airlines to grocery stores to local mechanics, their values are being espoused often with equal weighting to the products they offer and clients are making their buying decisions accordingly.

Wrapping Up

So you may still be in the camp of “this is really isn’t important and my business is just fine.” If that is the case, then congratulations and you are probably correct. That said, don’t believe for even a minute that your customer doesn’t have some sort of perspective on these concepts about your business. Rest assured they do. It’s human nature to make snap decisions based upon what is seen and experienced that then translate into perception about motivation (Mission), the vitality of the organization (Vision) and how they’ll be treated (Values). Wouldn’t you rather just remove the guesswork and take a stand on those positions instead of being labeled?

So what is your MV²? Well, let me encourage you to take a moment and think through these concepts and jot down some thoughts in each area for your business today. At AllyMark, we are prepared and happy to assist you in this process if that would be helpful to you.

About the Author – Jon Visser is a partner at AllyMark which offers its social media management tools through its BizSocially product offering. BizSocially is designed to make social media easy for the business owner through its various turnkey services. Engineered to remove the guesswork and create consistency at a cost that is manageable for any size business, BizSocially can get your business on the right track with social media today.