How to Build a Social Media Strategy

According to a report by Melcrum, less than one-third of 2,100 corporate communicators surveyed felt confident about using social media as part of an integrated communications plan. Yet, 60% of respondent felt compelled to press ahead with getting started inside their organizations by the end of 2007, without a clear idea of strategy.

Based on real companies' case studies, the report makes some recommendations of issues to consider (bolded). Are those considerations valid for a social media strategy outside the organization as well?

• Assess your organization's cultural readiness. What are the dynamics inside your organization? Does the view at the top look as bright as the view among the rank and file when it comes to being open and communicative? If an organization, pardon the term, is constipated, it might need to decide to go on a different diet before it tries to apply social media anywhere.
• Think about the business purpose of the tools. What are your objectives? Do you wish to inform and educate? Do you need to do a better job at creating a dialogue?
• Be experimental and involve employees. When in doubt, ask. Do it with sincerity and allow people to say no to your face without flinching and without retribution. Think of employees as your customers. Once you open the door to conversations, be really careful that you are a good host. People will become involved only if they want to, you cannot really make them.
• Clarify what employees can and can't do. It's understandable that you'd want to fix some rules of the game. Be very clear and consistent about boundaries in what you're willing to allow at this time. Don't let your credibility and people's trust erode by retrofitting rules.
• Take a hands-off approach to marketing the tools. I like the idea of staying flexible and adapting to the feedback you receive. In fact, the more flexible and willing to take rejection or lack of adoption the better. You will start the conversation with those people -- employees and customers -- whose worldview you are matching. Then you may receive degrees of permission from others in a word of mouth environment.
• Understand the complexities of social media measurement. Remain focused on outcomes. A few great conversations and connections are light years better than dozens of comments and tons of page views. Focus on the story you are crafting about your company and the experience that people -- customers and employees -- have of it.

In the survey, the top perceived benefits for implementing social media tools are improved:

1. Employee engagement (71%).
2. Internal collaboration (59%).
3. Internal community development (51%).
4. Two-way dialogue with senior executives (42%).

This in turn may translate into better personal outlook and professional availability in the marketplace, higher knowledge of products and services, greater reliance on a support network when facing difficult market conditions, and a better grasp of the organization’s business goals and our role in achieving them.

Reality check: Is this true? What is your experience?

Comments

[David Reich]

Helpful post, Valeria. Thanks.

I've had a couple of clients start asking about use of social media -- mostly about putting things on YouTube. But it's been more of a knee-jerk reaction from hearing so much about YouTube and "millions of hits" that gets their attention. When I start asking them questions about how they plan to utilize it, they're stumped or else clueless as to what people will watch and what will never get clicked or passed along virally.

One client has asked about a blog, but they seem to view it totally as a sales catalogue, which I'm trying to explain to them is not what a blog can/should be.

[Valeria Maltoni]

David,

As I'm learning this week at the IABC international conference, there is still a lot of room for marketers and communicators themselves to learn about utilizing social media for the benefit of an open conversation.

[Alex Manchester]

Hi Valerie,

Great to hear you've found the report useful and yes, that figure is something of a reality check.

As also highlighted in the report, a lot of people seem to jump at the idea of social media without a decent grasp of each tool or what they want to use it for. As such many fall into the checklisting mindset "we want a blog, a podcast, an RFFSSS feed or whatever the hell it's called!" but they don't know why. Of course, tearing off in this direction will likely end in tears, and disappointing "results".

Some of the other surprising results from the research included the levels of personal use of social media tools. A lot more people than you might think are reading or using blogs, rss etc. More and more I'm convinced that none of it's a fad that will go away, but an evolution that's going to take some time to bed in. Companies that embrace it now will inevitably be ahead of the pack, but still a long way behind the early adopters.

Alex

P.S. Several of my Melcrum colleagues are at the IABC event this week. Mandy and Annie are blogging about it over on the Melcrum blog. http://www.melcrumblog.com

All the best,

Alex Manchester
(Melcrum social media report author)