How do you organize listening and responding to Social Media in the context of a modern organizational structure?
Mergers and Acquisitions want intelligence on competitor and other organizations of interest...Product Development want intelligence on competitor and own brands and product performance. HR want intelligence on people of interest and noise about humanity in their own and other organizations of interest. Marketing are interested in intelligence on competitor prices, offers, promotions, etc. Customer Service are trying to satisfy customers...
Each department has an agenda for using the Social Media. However...Legal and Corporate Affairs will want to limit the risk of both listening and responding...the CEO and Board want to make sure there is a focus on broad organizational strategy. How would you organize it in the interests of the overall organization? Do you see a centralized or decentralized model?
Answers (7)
Christine H.
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Each department would be in the best position to assess what's most relevant for them in Social Media conversations.
Curt B.
Publicist, Public & Media Relations, Entrepreneur, Radio Producer/Director, Child of The Most High God
I would suggest a combination of both: centralized and decentralized. I agree with your other answer that each individual dept. is going to know their needs better than the overall head of all departments, therefore have "each head of dept" implement the social media strategy for "that dept" and then bring in the centralized by either 1. holding regular meetings to stay on the same page or 2. use a software program to do the same. (you could do both if you're a perfectionist).
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Jim F.
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Great Question! Some thoughts: Each function/department has specific needs so it would seem they each need to have some level of autonomy. Some functions have a need to be part of the dialog versus solely monitoring...so it's both incoming and outgoing Social Media. Then there seems to be a need to funnel up the most relevant topics to sequentially higher levels depending on the size of the organization. There's a lot coming out dealing with metrics of measuring both tone and quantitative, predecitve modeling...natural language processing...we're only scratching the surface.
It would seem like marketing would be the closest to using SM, one of the things I've said to Investor Relations people who are charged with the dialog with investors is, "if your marketing department is using it so too should you be using it"...they can surely turn the focus inwards with what they are learning and be a resource for the rest of the organization.
IT is no longer the 'owner' of Corporate Content...just because it resides in computers or digitally they don't own it. There has to be Data and Information Governance...or Data Democracy ! Learning how to Democratize it into systems, processes and organizationally remains a learning experience today.
I'm Jim Flanagan and I personally approved this message
Robert B.
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Bill-
This IS a great question. So good, in fact, that I read it at lunch yesterday, and continued to think about it until I was ready to respond today.
"Q. How do you organize listening and responding to Social Media in the context of a modern organizational structure? Do you see a centralized or decentralized model?"
I see it like this:
a) Too 'centralized' and you run the risk of suppressing TRUE social media communication, in the manner that is required to be successful with these mediums. If you give Legal and Corporate Affairs too much control over listening and responding, you might quickly stifle transparency, over-edit what shouldn't be, and pull the plug on those messages which should be sent.
b) Too 'decentralized,' and whichever department becomes responsible for the listening and responding is eventually no longer on board with the other departments, whose agendas are inextricably necessary to a functioning business model based on social media. In other words, the agendas you listed in your first paragraph all have great importance.
"IT is no longer the 'owner' of Corporate Content...just because it resides in computers or digitally they don't own it. There has to be Data and Information Governance...or Data Democracy ! Learning how to Democratize it into systems, processes and organizationally remains a learning experience today."
^^^ I agree with Jim 100% here. Over the years, this has been the major downfall the workplace has seen as many organizations begin to incorporate social media. Many individuals and departments are reluctant to use it, particularly the "listening and responding piece," giving it the cold shoulder and charging it to IT. This is changing, however, and many corporations are starting to approach social media with a more decentralized strategy.
My answer to your question is this: As integrally important as those department-specific agendas are, "listening and responding" is EQUALLY as important (many would say even moreso), and thus needs to be part of a somewhat-decentralized model.
Short weekly meetings to keep all parties on board is an effective strategy. It allows for quick updates from each department, allows each to voice its concerns, problem-solve, and best of all, minimizes the costs of additional software. This does not mean, "Each department do your own thing, we'll meet back here in a week." The point of meetings is to encourage regular communication to keep your usage and monitoring of social media FOCUSED, in respect to each department's needs.
I've also provided a link to SocialMediaToday.com. Check out the attached article on "5 reasons Why Corporations are Failing with Social Media," and see reasons #2, 3, 4 and 5. Hopefully my response and this link helps!
Links:
Clarification added June 12, 2010:
Shame on you, Bill, for actually making me THINK! I was beginning to get spoiled with all of the basic-level "How can I increase my Twitter followers?" Linkedin Q&A. Haha. Good question.
If you maintain focus on social media as a tactic within the overall strategy, then it's a natural extension of whatever you're already doing. It's centralized in the sense that any function becomes centralized in modern organizations. Thus, both sales and community relations may have media interests, but neither can precisely "own" the function; you need a coordinator with a higher-level view of the strategy to direct both in the best service of the organization's goals.
Analogies are difficult, though. Increasingly, social media are becoming equivalent to the telephone: ubiquitous means of communication. So would you have a "Director of Telephonic Communications"?
Taken together, I'd have to agree with the "combination" response. Thanks!
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Dear Bill,
We can start with your words: "Each department has an agenda for using the Social Media".
"Best interests of the overall organisation will be the result".
The point, after my opinion, is to generate a place on a SM field, where all your departments must cross their ways. I think is a problem of interdepartments communication. I would choose a centralized model where a person or a group of persons, which also plays in SM field, must communicate one with another and try to paste goal after goal in the same bin. I'm talking here about head oh each departments.
Social Media is about "collaborate" despite all differences.
Best regards,
Florin
Kathi B.
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Your question points out why large companies have a harder time taking advantage of Socal Media than smaller ones. Policy strips SM of it's true form and intent. That being said, it's not impossible.
Each department has to be it's own hall monitor and strategy planner, but there should be boundaries that are clearly communicated and enforced. Dept managers have to coordinate their efforts (train with the same guidelines, represent a consistent brand, communicate what each dept is doing, and share data across depts) so they can act as one voice without chaos.
The best way to start out in SM is to begin by taking advantage of the data that is out there and leave the tweeting for down the road. Getting exposed to what gets put out there is a good learning process to prepare a company to take part responsibly. There is so much market-specific data out there to begin with, and little risk associated with it. Targeted marketing is also a great tool that requires little worry.
