The role of digital in social enterprise

What is the role of digital in social enterprise? Digital marketing plays a crucial role in amplifying social, financial, and environmental impacts. These enterprises use commercial strategies to generate revenue. This is then reinvested into social causes. Unlike traditional businesses, social enterprises focus on social impact over profits. In this blog post, I will explore the role of digital marketing alongside social enterprise.

How far can digital take us?

It's worth starting with something that is obvious. It's also worth us not doing a whole history lesson. Long story short, the world is spinning faster. It seems like new breakthroughs are more and more prevalent more often. Not long ago Canva pushed out new updates. Each one had an underlying AI element. Being able to be creative and web compliant seems possible. I remember when it wasn't possible.

Knowledge divide

Technology seems to have come so far that there are now multiple solutions to the same thing. There are competitors in fields that we never knew before. I can't count the number of times I have made a website for someone because their site was rubbish. It's described this way because the client wasn't happy. If you ask the developer, it's a different story. The needs of a client are always translated into the developer using the eyes of the developer. I'm sure a developer somewhere hates me now. They did their best from a technical point of view. They have also gone on to ensure the clients know what's right. Even retraining them! My apologies for offending anyone. My point is that there is a divide.

What does a SocEnt deliver

Let's circle back. Social enterprise businesses are strange. Did you know that you can form a charity company? You can also create a Community Interest Company. The actual term social enterprise is not defined as a type of business by the government. The fundamentals of what a social enterprise does are what makes it a #socent. It is a type of business that makes the impact of social benefits a greater priority than profits. Let's look at the marketplace. There are none. Socent businesses slot in with other commercial vendors and also seem to have a common trait. They offer something that makes an impact. The pure definition means it's hands-on or face-to-face. Tea and Toast do not do the heavy lifting, as far as I can tell. The individual or team in the enterprise make the change. They advocate or campaign. Social enterprise is about being a change-maker. It's about doing good. Doing your bit.

Funding cycle

Having worked in a few sectors, it's worth mentioning the third sector. It does great things every day. It is not a business. It does good with no return. For this reason, it requires watering like a plant. It needs regular attention. If it's not watered, it doesn't work very well. Funding is important. One thing I would say is that I can see a similar culture in the #socent world. Only in some corners. Not all areas. It's still worth saying, try not to depend on funding. Having a project or a campaign is fine. Funding dependency at the core of your business is not what social enterprise is about.

Giving birth

When you had the idea for your social enterprise, what happened? How did you move towards digitising? The hard thing here is that the focus is still on the impact. This means translating the digital can be tricky. In the commercial world, the idea is one part. Positioning in the marketing is also important. One would argue that there are a few basics missing here. When you give birth to an idea, there are basic fuels and catalysts missing. When a child is born its hard work. The first thing we need is extra help. We need tea and toast, to boost our bodies. That's what I do. Support the creation and try not to change it too far from what's there. It's already a thing of beauty.

Converging social enterprise and digital

It goes without saying then. Making your business digitally focused is hard. Here are three examples of how you could see your #socent move further and further into digital gear.

Domain

Domain name matches your business nameI love it when I see synergy in branding. It's even better when we see the business name match the website address and email address. We have all seen those vans with DIY details and branding on the side, followed by a Gmail email. That's my pet hate.

Board meetings

Do you have a section at your meeting that dedicates time to something called digital? This is how you know you are not digital. Integrating digital language and analytics into your business is healthy. It shows that you are confident in how you manage digital assets.

Analytics

Analytics is the exception to the previous rule. Having a data-driven overview that guides you is essential to future success.

Try treating a service more like a campaign. This allows you have more data on pain points or areas you could use as leverage. It also means to can deliver performance reports over a longer period of time.

Digital data story

One of the main areas we all struggle with is in getting the results we should get. In real terms what you get is what you get. we can't argue with data.

There is often hesitation in committing to data from social entrepreneurs. Rightly so. You want to focus on the doing good bit. The role of data is very much missed by many here. The earlier we start the better. This does not mean you need to share the data. If it's terrible, that's fine. It should motivate you to do better. It should motivate you to record processes better.

When a funder or client asks for your route and journey, what do you say? You're a social enterprise. This is your story to tell. Be personal. Tug on those strings. Once in a while, add in your data. This should now support your narrative.

Someone once told me;

Data isn't all about data. It tells a many stories.
We need to pick the right narrative that helps us.

Skills gap

Whilst I have been building brands and websites, there is one thing that sticks out. Whilst I deliver my training programmes there is one thing that sticks out.

I am a bit rubbish. Yet everyone else loves what I have to say. I can't see how or why. Until now. It's because there is a gap in knowledge. I know stuff. If I didn't I could find it and learn it faster than anyone else. It's what I do.

Do you, a #socent have time for this? No. That's why I try to always be open. Let people know everything. Give and keep giving.

It always surprises me that people run a social enterprise without digital support. It's mad. So over the last year or two, I have tried to build a library of content. In anything I offer, I also try to be transparent and unbiased. I can't see a single organisation that helps punch through consistent digital support for #socent. If you search for things online you don't get a lot.

There is one great company that I am modelling on by accident. Amica writes many posts that are good and relate to this topic. They are Australian and trust me the Aussies are ahead of us in this game.

I was going to drop a link to an online course. Other than Google Garage, there isn't anything out there. The only help is to access the same stuff as other commercial companies.

What's needed

My offer will grow and change over time. The hope for all social enterprise businesses is that you have a digital hub. The kind of place where you can drop in and talk about what you do. The kind of place where you can find digital support that you need to take you to the next level.

We need a full raft of digital support from startup to large organisational support. Having funding and support on one axis is exactly that. It's one axis. Having digital support for startups is another axis. The final axis of support needed is one that mirrors key milestones in the journey of a business. This is also a hard one. There are generic date-based milestones. There are also other things that are helpful only to #socent. Mental health. Level of impact. With this extra dimension, we move to 3d. We begin to see how a social enterprise can become both digitised and successful.

If you got this far, why not leave a comment?
I'd love to know if this was helpful.