Diving in to social media

A friend of mine e-mailed me yesterday.  She is an experienced marketing strategist, seeking a new job  – and facing lots of tough questions around social media.

She wrote:

“I wanted to ask your opinion about the whole 2.0 strategy for businesses. My opinion is that businesses “think” they should be implementing all of it but it may not necessarily be appropriate.”

There’s a lot of chatter out there on the web about what’s right & what’s not in social media.  The following guideposts can frame a conversation about diving in to social media.

1. Is the company ready to commit resources to content steams and dialog in each region? Its gotta be at least one person’s job in each region.  And it can’t be just anyone.  Social media liaisons must be able to work with little supervision, channel the brand voice, stay casual enough to mesh well with the network’s vibe, manage small crises alone and know when to elevate a larger crisis. And to support that elevation, you need to have a panel of experts familiar enough with the space to advise immediately if needed.


Like Billy Costigan, the police mole embedded in the mafia in The Departed (2006), your community liaison should develop deep empathy for the community in which he or she is embedded.

2. Is the company ready to accept & act on feedback, suggestions and lessons learned from the community? A reluctance to do so will cause frustration — both with the members of your community and the liaisons who represent your company.  Your community liaison should develop deep empathy for the community in which he or she is embedded, and should be able to expect wide open ears when he or she brings feedback back to the business.
3. Is the company ready to relinquish a great deal of control to the users? This is one of the hardest things for brands to adjust to.  They’ve gotta be willing to follow the conversations that users are raising…  which means dropping agendas, being open and staying quick on your feet.
4. Which social networks are appropriate for your company in each region? Where are your customers?  Where are your prospects?  Where are your competitors?  Which networks should all regions support?  Which should only some regions support?
5. Is your customer service channel prepared to accommodate urgent requests coming in from your social networks? This is key.  Gripers have to be satisfied ASAP and many customers know that the risk of their public complaining will prompt action… so they’ll expect it and can make your existence on a social network hard if you don’t respond… and they develop a following (which can happen within hours.)
6. What’s the right blend of outgoing content you’ll offer on each of the networks? On Twitter in the consumer space, for example, you’d want to have a bit of editorial, some personal flavor, and the occasional promotion – as well as a lot of conversation.   Are you currently producing the content you’d need, or will it require additional planning?

Don’t let the long list of considerations turn you off from the idea.  If you company doesn’t tackle these challenges now, they’ll continue to be faced with them again and again until they embrace the revolution.  My advice is to dive in as soon as possible to begin learning, because the more that society is immersed in the Social Web, the more that users across the board will expect from your company.

Companies should dive in knowingly.  The social path is fraught with lessons, but companies that survive the journey will reach places they’ve never been before.

What other guidelines should companies be aware of as they consider a dive in to social media?

See also

1. TMI: Social Media Overload
2. Product Camp Austin: From Product Management To Social Product Management
3. The Powerful 1%