Category Archives: Social Media

Permalink to 4 Reasons Why CMOs Still Think Social Media Engagement is Irrelevant

4 Reasons Why CMOs Still Think Social Media Engagement is Irrelevant

by Angie Sanders|on April 17, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

Lost and Confused SignpostBack in January, Louis Columbus, senior manager, enterprise marketing at Cincom Systems, wrote an article titled “B2B Marketers Need To Get Real About Social Media and Customer Engagement.” “One area I consistently see CMOs of B2B companies divided on in their efforts to compete is the value of social media,” he wrote.

“I think it is incredibly short-sighted of any CMO, whether in B2B or business-to-consumer (B2C) to discount its value and say it is irrelevant to their marketing efforts.  Social media is how the current and next generation of B2B customers are choosing to learn about new solutions and stay current on brands they are loyal to.”

Living in an area like Washington, D.C. that’s uber-connected and social and web-savvy, I often think that other professionals outside the region are as connected and realize the value of these tools as much as I do. But like Louis, I meet others who just aren’t as sold as I am.

Fortune 500 companies were quicker to adapt to social media initially, and they have the budgets to create strategy, execute and evaluate success. But if you’re a CMO of a smaller company, you may not be as enthusiastic about the value of engaging your customers socially. There are probably a few reasons for why this is so:

CMOs and other c-suite professionals still think that their companies’ target demographics don’t use social media to look for their type of product.
If your company sells fertilizer or laser printing paper or some equally non-sexy product, then it’s hard for you to imagine that your target customer would want to engage with you on social media or is using the space to research products like yours. But there are probably some creative tactics you can use to reach your customers, even if it means cross-marketing with a related but non-competing product or finding ways to humanize your company and make your product fun.

They don’t have a good understanding of how interacting with these customers on social media fits into their sales funnel.
It takes a bit of technological know-how and some sophisticated tools to truly track the impact social media has on sales. Sharing data among your company’s web analytics software, customer relationship management software, online marketing software, social media engagement platform(s) and reporting system/data warehouse might not be rocket science, but it can be tough to grasp and execute if you’re new to the idea.

Successes other companies experience doing this aren’t widely shared.
We hear a lot about the successes B2C companies experience while engaging their customers on social media. However, when B2B companies achieve some sort of success doing the same thing, they either guard this information closely or it’s not widely covered in the media for lack of sex appeal. As a CMO, if you’re not crystal clear on the successes others are seeing using social media—especially your competitors—then you’re less likely to spend the time and energy to be a pioneer (unless you’re truly a visionary).

These companies probably don’t have the talent in-house to sell the benefits of social customer engagement or create/execute a strategy.

Here’s the catch: because these CMOs and other c-suite professionals don’t see the value of social media, they most likely don’t have the staff internally who would be champions for digital strategy. As a CMO, where do you begin to understand the value of investing in social media and developing a team to execute a strategy when there’s no one in-house to sell you on the idea in the first place? How do you look to an outside team for help when you’re not even clear on what your company’s needs are?

Share with us: Are you still struggling to grasp the value of a social media investment for your company? Are you a staffer trying to sell social to the c-suite at your company?

Read Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind

blindsidedIn his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences. Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Permalink to Could Brands Fill the Local News Gap Newspaper Deaths Have Created?

Could Brands Fill the Local News Gap Newspaper Deaths Have Created?

by Angie Sanders|on April 7, 2013 |in Content marketing, Social Media |tagged , , , , |Leave a comment

del ray patch credit facebookNewspapers are dying, and the ones that have managed to survive are shells of their former selves, resembling bulletins instead of full publications.

In this internet-charged society, we rely on news websites, Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines for our news. If we were to get around to watching a nightly newscast or picking up a newspaper, we’d be consuming yesterday’s (or this morning’s) news.

And even news websites and social media only give us the broad-stroke reporting on what’s going on in the major areas of our cities.  The most heinous, shocking or quirky local news stories are the ones covered and shared. So if a family’s home on my street is burglarized, if someone in the community dies or if there are issues before small-city government that I need to know about, these stories won’t always be covered through these channels.

We thought that America Online’s Patch would be the web-based, hyperlocal solution to the local newspaper’s demise, but it has long been criticized for overworking and underpaying its staff and pushing for click-bait style content.  In January, Patch President Warren Webster revealed that the company is testing the idea of moving toward a “community hub” in five Long Island towns, meaning that neighborhood residents would be driving and creating content instead of Patch’s journalists.

As a broader solution to the problem local news’ death creates, can we rely on the community, especially in rural areas like say Nathalie, Virginia (Go ahead and check Patch. This town and others like it aren’t listed.), to provide accurate and unbiased reporting about what’s going on in our neighborhoods? Or does this leave the door open for brands, local and nationwide, to step in and fund the local news reporting efforts for us?

Think about it. Car dealerships and grocery store chains were probably some of local newspapers’ most lucrative advertisers. What’s to stop Jim Koons Automotive Companies and Giant Food here in the Washington, D.C. metro area from banding together to create a media company that has a staff of paid reporters that cover various community beats and produces print and online versions of a newspaper based on demographics and demand? This model would provide them unlimited earned and paid media placements for their own companies and generate ad revenue from other companies in the area.

It’s doable. As newspapers continue to keel over, transition their content and ad revenue online, struggle to fund their operations and give in to the trend of pay walls and branded content, grocery, automotive and other companies like these have scrambled to figure out where and how to get the most out of their ad buys when they used to lean so heavily on print.

I wouldn’t be surprised if these brands are tossing around the idea of banding together to become publishers themselves as we speak.

Read Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind

blindsidedIn his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences. Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Permalink to 5 Reasons Why There’s Limited Age 30+ Digital and Social Media Talent

5 Reasons Why There’s Limited Age 30+ Digital and Social Media Talent

by Angie Sanders|on April 1, 2013 |in Content marketing, Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

30 plusArik Hanson, principal of ACH Communications, pointed out that when recruiters are searching for strong digital/social professionals over the age of 30, they’re facing a virtual drought.

“I get emails from friends/colleagues around Minneapolis/St. Paul and they’re all looking for the same person: A mid- to senior-level digital/social media counselor/director with deep experience in marketing and some experience in digital/social,” he writes. “They don’t exist, at least not in big numbers.”

Why are recruiters hard-pressed to find a communicator who not only possesses solid experience in traditional public relations and/or marketing strategy but knows her way around digital strategy and execution? And, to top it off, a communicator who can measure digital successes extensively, understand the infinite flow of data that analytics tools provide and use this data to help her employer pivot strategically and tactically.

Well, here are five reasons we thought of off the top of our heads:

The strong digital stars in the 30+ age bracket are running companies.
A 30+ communicator who possesses all the above qualities knows her worth. If agencies aren’t offering top (and I mean six-figure) salaries, flexibility and options like potential partnership, then those agencies can’t convince her that working for them as a W-2 employee is worth her time. Because she has these skills and can prove successes, she knows her best bet is to spread herself thinner by working with a number of clients. At least with the money she makes, she can scale her staff as her business grows.

Twenty-somethings consider terms like “social media” and “digital strategy” workplace norms.
If you’re a 30+ communicator, then the internet, email and the Adobe suite were the coolest technologies available when you were in college. Social media emerged as workplace norms as we were well into our careers (or getting that second or third degree). However, 20-something professionals are barely aware of a world in which these technologies didn’t exist.

Companies just got over the “let the intern deal with it” syndrome.
Because 30+ professionals aren’t digital natives, they’ve been taking the easy way out in the workplace: “Let the intern handle it. She’s younger and knows this stuff better than us.” Companies are just now moving beyond entrusting their digital strategy to interns and seeing it as an integral component of their overall communications and business plans.

Seasoned communicators have to be committed to independent professional development.
When looking for professional development, communicators over the age of 30 are accustomed to attending classes, conferences and seminars in person or online. But when it comes to in-depth digital strategy and analytics training, it just doesn’t exist in large numbers. To get up to speed on these topics, communicators have to be their own teachers and embark on independent study. This professional development route can be difficult to fit into these professionals already hectic schedules.

Companies need seasoned communicators and younger professionals to work together to remain viable in the marketplace.
As social media permeated the business world, companies realized that they needed the expertise of both younger and older professionals to keep up with and surpass the competition. Companies are relying on seasoned communicators to share traditional marketing and public relations experience with younger professionals beyond what they learned in college. In turn, seasoned communicators should be learning all they can from the younger professionals so that as team leaders, they can make the best decisions for the organizations and companies they represent.

Share with us: Do the 20-somethings run your company’s digital strategy teams? Do seasoned, senior employees play active roles in crafting and executing your company’s digital strategy?

Read Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind

blindsidedIn his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences. Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Permalink to SwitchPitch Start-Up Event Made These Two Things Apparent

SwitchPitch Start-Up Event Made These Two Things Apparent

by Angie Sanders|on March 24, 2013 |in Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , |Leave a comment

switchpitch credit @startupamericaLast Thursday, I attended SwitchPitch, hosted by start-up hub 1776 at their unfinished 12th floor office space on 15th Street in the District. The event’s premise turns the traditional start-up pitch gathering on its head. Instead of entrepreneurs pitching groups of venture capitalists for funding, local companies like Motley Fool and LivingSocial pitched projects to qualified treps who are more than capable of getting the work done.

Not only was it fun to get better acquainted with the DC tech scene and infiltrate all-male clusters of entrepreneurs networking and flexing their self-employment prowess, but I enjoyed hearing America Online co-founder and former CEO/chairman Steve Case’s keynote moderated by serial entrepreneur and SwitchPitch brain-father Michael Goldstein.

Sitting smack dab in the middle of DC’s startup movement, (Mayor Vincent Gray told us that there are 420 startups in the city of DC alone.) made me realize two things.

One, large companies—much like the small to midsized communications firms aiellejai talks about in our latest white paper Blindsided!—know that they need the right talent to drive the innovation that’s crucial to these companies’ survival. And when these companies can’t identify that talent in-house, they begin to look for smaller companies to acquire that already have this talent in place. Though entrepreneurs shouldn’t build companies with the sole purpose of selling out big-time to titans like Google, (Steve actually said he prefers to invest in “built to last companies,” not “built to flip.”) large companies are definitely on the lookout for smaller companies with insanely smart staffs/leaders and viable products that can augment large companies’ offerings.

Two, a few hundred attendees at the SwitchPitch event and the Startup America frenzy slowly blanketing the nation are both evidence that people are convinced that running a company is sexy and relatively doable. But it was refreshing to hear Steve tell a different story about his beginnings with AOL. He explained that while everyone saw the company as an overnight success, the company as a whole had been grinding away in anonymity for 10 years.

As a trep (I picked that term up from other articles and blog posts. I’m trying it out for the first time here.) who has been in the game for a minute, I know it’s important to tell newer treps that this game is often lonely, thankless and the furthest thing from sexy imaginable. Of course, that statement will probably prompt new entrepreneurs to ask me, “Well, why do you do it?”

My answer? Because the nagging allure of making a greater impact—and a larger return on my skill set—outside of the 9-5 world just won’t leave me alone.

Seasoned entrepreneurs, what’s your answer?

Photo credit: @startupamerica

Read Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind

blindsidedIn his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences. Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Permalink to Over Lunch: The digital strategy and execution gap

Over Lunch: The digital strategy and execution gap

by Angie Sanders|on March 18, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

strategy and execution gapOn Feb. 10, we discussed big brands bringing social media engagement and community management in-house. We applaud this new, increased ownership of digital strategy and execution. But what happens when the company’s needs grow and change? Can they scale the efforts of their digital strategy teams to meet the growing demand? In our latest segment of “Over Lunch,” Chief Content Architect Angie Sanders shares a colleague’s concern about this issue within her organization and points out the obvious gap between digital strategy and actual implementation.

6MythsRead “6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement”
This paper addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started.

Permalink to 3 Examples of How Graphics and Social Media Create Magic

3 Examples of How Graphics and Social Media Create Magic

by Angie Sanders|on March 17, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , |Leave a comment

someecardsAs if engagement and metrics weren’t enough to keep up with, guess what? You’ll now have to work on your camera shots and Adobe Photoshop skills.

In January, content strategist and speaker Jay Baer told us that “now, to be a ‘do it all’ social media practitioner you must have some experience and expertise with photography and graphics production.” I totally understand Baer’s point, but what I’m concerned about are a proliferation of purposeless graphics—or cute photos with inspiring, “oh, that’s nice” quotes.

This reminds me of the early 2000s when graphics programs like the Adobe Suite were readily available so everyone thought they were graphic artists.

Graphics in social media only work under two circumstances: if they’re informative (meaning they give us information that we genuinely care about or find interesting) or if they’re funny. Graphics, photography and social can all work together if social media managers put some thought behind what they’re sharing, not just posting photos to get eyeballs or for the emphasis Facebook places on them in the timeline.

Here are three examples we’ve noticed of graphics and photography used effectively in the social media space:

Grammarly (Facebook)
I identify with the graphics on this hilarious Facebook page—especially the one about “The Pop-Up Book of Phobias.” This page makes me feel like more of a word snob than I already am. But the quotes are great and they resonate immediately.

someecards
You’ve seen these on Facebook—the black-and-white drawings next to funny quotes against a solid color background. It sounds pretty simple when you describe it, but what makes these e-cards so great is that the quotes are really funny.

The Oatmeal
Instead of making a desperate plea for all of us to pick up newspapers again, Doonesbury should take a cue from this site. The Oatmeal mixes the hilarious antics shared by Grammarly and someecards with the informative nature of the infographic. With crude but cleverly created graphics, this site actually teaches us something about grammar, technology, food and other subjects.

Share with us: Is there growing expectation on your social media team to become photographers and graphic artists? How do you deal with this while still sharing content that your readers will enjoy and share with their networks?

blindsidedRead our newest whitepaper, “Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind”
In his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences.Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

 

Permalink to Social Media Budgets Have Plateaued. Here’s What Communicators and Digital Strategists Should Do.

Social Media Budgets Have Plateaued. Here’s What Communicators and Digital Strategists Should Do.

by Angie Sanders|on March 11, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , |Leave a comment

plateau credit commonsdotwikimediadotorgRussell Working with Ragan.com told us in January that social media budgets won’t increase in 2013.  According to a Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions survey, “only 28 percent saw their budgets—excluding salaries and benefits—increase in 2012, while 69 percent stayed the same. Prospects were only slightly better in 2013, with 62 percent of budgets projected to remain static.”

Although this may sound like unfortunate news, this budget plateau tells us two things. One, companies must either be happy with the results they’re currently getting from their social media efforts or they just don’t have an understanding of how an increased spend could improve these results.

Two, it tells us that the days of easy social media money—making a living from providing strategy sans execution, evaluation and results—are gone. As social media has matured, companies have moved through three stages:

  1. What is social media?
  2. Social media could probably help our business. Let’s give it a try.
  3. We’ve been using social media for a while, but what’s it really getting us? How’s it affecting our bottom line? What kinds of things can we do to maximize our results? What kinds of data and analytics can we use to verify our successes?

Patrick Coffee with PRNewser told us that big brands are starting to bring social media efforts in-house. This move is possibly prompted by a desire to monitor these efforts closely and charge people with social media who have a closer connection to the company and brand.

Working’s article also shows us that though social media budgets are leveling off, the size of these budgets lie on opposite ends of the spectrum. “Twenty-three percent of budgets are below $1,000, while 14 percent top $100,000.”

“Social media manager” salaries run as low as $25,000 and as high as $125,000. (“Survey respondents ranged from “nonprofits to multinational social media sophisticates.”) This tells us that expected outcomes of social media strategy/tactics range as widely as budgets and salaries. For example, a social media budget of $1,000 says that an employee has been assigned the responsibility of handling social media — in addition to her normal duties —and “brand awareness” is probably the primary (or sole) goal of these efforts. On the other hand, budgets of $100,000 and above probably account for salaries and paid social media tactics. The primary goals of these efforts are directly tied to the company’s bottom line.

So what can communications professionals and digital strategists do to work within these fixed budgets, especially when they’re closer to $1,000 than $100,000?

  1. Set goals and expectations from the beginning. Be clear about what the client wants to achieve and what’s realistic for the money they have to spend.
  2. Don’t overpromise. If anything, under-promise and over-deliver.
  3. Work from where the client is right now. Clients’ understanding of social media and what’s possible may vary. Work with their current aptitude levels and slowly educate them on the tools and tactics that can maximize their results.
  4. Don’t be afraid to say “no” or to scrap client ideas from the budget if funds are limited. Don’t tell a client that their idea is possible when their budget says otherwise.

Share with us: Have you seen an increase, decrease or plateau in your clients’ or employer’s social media budgets? How do you deal with decreased budgets and increased expectations?

monarchMonarch is our content marketing and community engagement support product—a resource that backs you up and leaves you to free to do the job you’ve always done successfully. Monarch breaks engagement efforts into four packages that allocate set hours per month for content creation, community building and engagement. When you choose the package that works best for you, you know exactly what you’re getting per month and how much you’re paying for it.

Permalink to Why Marketing Entities are “Eating the PR Industry’s Lunch”

Why Marketing Entities are “Eating the PR Industry’s Lunch”

by Angie Sanders|on March 3, 2013 |in Content marketing, Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , |Leave a comment

brown bag credit tutordoctordotcomFor the past two years, I’ve served as the director of the independents special interest group for the International Association of Business Communicators DC metro chapter. We kicked off this year’s programming for the group on Feb. 19 with a panel discussion titled, “The State of the Communications Industry for the Independent Practitioner.”

Our panelists Eileen Kessler, Founder/CEO of OmniStudio; Brenda Foster, Vice President/Account Services at Vanguard Communications; Donna Vincent Roa, PhD, ABC, CSR-P; Managing Partner & Chief Strategist at Vincent Roa Group; and Cindy Stevens, Senior Director of Publications with Consumer Electronics Association addressed indies’ questions about best practices for soliciting business from companies and organizations like theirs, acquiring federal work and the hurdles we expect to jump this year as independents.

During the session, Eileen spoke about the emergence of inbound marketing and predicted that in the next five years, digital media companies will be the norm, forcing the traditional communications consultancy to adapt. In his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes a similar argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences.

“Other ‘marketing’ entities have eaten the PR industry’s lunch through their ready embrace and leverage of new digital content strategies, channels, and data analytics tools,” he wrote.

Himler’s article prompted us to write “Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind.” In this paper, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Read Himler’s article, read “Blindsided!” and let us know what you think. What must PR agencies and independent communicators do to constantly adjust to the communications and technology convergence?

Permalink to Brands Are Taking Social Media In-House. Is it Only a Test?

Brands Are Taking Social Media In-House. Is it Only a Test?

by Angie Sanders|on February 10, 2013 |in Content marketing, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , |2 Comments

social inhouse credit searchenginelanddotcomPatrick Coffee with Mediabistro’s PRNewser is noticing a trend of large, well-known brands taking their social media engagement efforts in-house.

“The sneaker king {Nike} isn’t the only company to take a greater degree of responsibility for its own social media efforts in recent months,” Coffee writes. “Competitor Reebok conducted an internal audit of all its social channels after rejecting contract offers from agencies, and Digiday reports that other big names like Ford and Campbell’s Soup have done the same.”

So should contract public relations and digital strategists be worried about this trend? Not exactly.

In a Utopian society, all brands would handle their social networking and community management in-house. After all, who knows the company’s voice better than the staffs themselves? Unfortunately, this isn’t always practical.

Expecting all companies to handle social media engagement internally is like expecting them to handle all writing, public relations and advertising in-house. And that’s just not going to happen. Most of the time, it’s these entities that give and develop companies’ voices and make them resonate with customers.

Smaller brands will continue to struggle with this dilemma. On one hand, they may not think they can afford to outsource their social media efforts. But because they’re balancing social networking with the other daily tasks it takes to run their businesses, engaging customers and other audiences via social media will always suffer.

The big brands like Nike and Reebok are testing the waters and appointing internal teams to handle social media—and they have the budgets to do so. The question are going to be how large are these teams and how is the work being distributed among the members.

In a previous post, we talked about how a small, internal digital team could benefit from outsourced support. This is a prime example. An internal digital team at Nike or Reebok might be able to handle company-wide social media efforts on its own, but what happens when the needs of the company grow or when individual product lines within the company require their own social media management? Will this team be able to scale with the needs of the company and keep abreast of technology that seems to change by the second?

Successful social media engagement requires strategy that aligns with company goals, consistency, awareness of the latest trends and execution. Situations like these are the prime reason why we developed our Monarch product. The packages cover the smaller organization that’s just looking to get its feet wet using social media all the way to the more sophisticated and technologically savvy company that’s looking for a customized solution.

Coffee says that “insiders worry that this industry-wide shift will eventually bring PR/marketing firms’ profit margins down as brands hire more internal social media managers and outsource fewer and fewer tasks.” Only time will tell how permanent this shift will be.

In the meantime, he points out that Nike never said it was planning to “sever ties with all third-party firms.”

Share with us: Does your company outsource its social media engagement or is it looking to bring these duties in-house. If your company manages its social media internally, do you think the support of an external team could benefit your efforts?

 

monarchMonarch is our content marketing and community engagement support product—a resource that backs you up and leaves you to free to do the job you’ve always done successfully. Monarch breaks engagement efforts into four packages that allocate set hours per month for content creation, community building and engagement. When you choose the package that works best for you, you know exactly what you’re getting per month and how much you’re paying for it.

Permalink to (Over Lunch) Blogging: Reading is Fundamental

(Over Lunch) Blogging: Reading is Fundamental

by Angie Sanders|on February 5, 2013 |in Content marketing, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

OL-bloggingReading and consistency are both critical to maintaining an intelligent blog. In this week’s episode of “Over Lunch,” Chief Content Architect Angie Sanders explains how reading industry news and the blogs of other thought-leaders helps her generate ideas for the aiellejai company blog. Check out her “old-school” method for digesting and interacting with the vast amount of online content she consumes.

Permalink to What Content Management Systems Should be Today

What Content Management Systems Should be Today

by Angie Sanders|on February 4, 2013 |in Content marketing, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

content management credit arnimadotcomWhen you hear the term “content management system” what comes to mind? Probably a web-based system that allows you to log in and manage your company’s website content using a WYSIWIG editor. This editor looks similar to a Microsoft Word document and provides you text editing tools and options for adding links and graphics.

Systems like this gained popularity when everyone was concerned about having a nice website. We all still want websites that are aesthetically pleasing and make it easy for visitors to find the information we want them to consume. But in the past few years, the word “content” has taken on a new life.

Now, content is not limited to the pages on your company website. It includes written content you share via social media, whether it’s actual tweets, statuses or links to PDFs or other pages you share. It includes short videos you’ve shot in-house. It includes slideshows packed with actionable information. It includes the email communication you send out to your customers.

Where is all this content being stored at your company? On an office-wide shared drive? And when you’re creating a piece of content—say a white paper or annual report—how do you control versioning? How do you manage and differentiate the document changes your communications director gave you from the edits your vice-president of marketing provided?

And taking our thoughts of content one step further, how are you tracking how this content is distributed? How do track which segments of your audiences received which pieces of content?

In a business world where the term “content” has not only catapulted in importance but has varied meanings, the technology we use to manage this content must adapt.

In a recent blog post, Marketing Consultant and Coach Jeff Bullas listed 10 characteristics of the ideal “social media at scale technology.” The first two characteristics—one repository and database for all content (including video) and the ability to plug into cloud-based video platforms—are also important for any standard content management system.

See Jeff Bullas’ blog post and his entire list of the perfect social media at scale product.

Share with us: Do you agree with Jeff’s assessment that we’re 2-3 years away from seeing the type of product he describes in his blog post?

retaingo logo

 

 

 

We’ve seen a mad dash toward social media marketing, but did you know that 35 percent of marketers still use direct mail to stimulate sales? Ninety-seven percent of businesses use email marketing to convert subscribers to buyers. More than half of business owners are even interested in sending text message reminders to their customers. To a consultant, a client campaign that encompasses direct mail, email, text and social media can be a tall order. You’re going to need at least four different web-based systems and a small tanker full of time to get it all done, right? Not so fast.

esolutions360 (aiellejai’s parent company) is seeking beta testers for RetainGO, a new automated marketing campaign solution that allows you to manage all four of these tactics within one web-based system. Beta testers get exclusive access to the software and use of features prior to release. They also provide feedback to shape a product that could ultimately help streamline their business processes. Beta testers’ monthly usage fees are waived. For more information, call (703) 229-6249 or email info@retaingo.com.

Permalink to Why Auto-Tweeting Blog Content is Completely Okay

Why Auto-Tweeting Blog Content is Completely Okay

by Angie Sanders|on January 27, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

Let us start by saying that auto-tweeting blog content is completely okay, but there are some purists out there that frown upon automatically and repeatedly sharing “old content” on Twitter.

Okay, what are we considering “old content”? Unless our blog content falls into the TENS category—time, event or news-sensitive—we let it live for months. When we’re compiling research for an industry-specific e-book or white paper, we stick with content that’s been written in the past year, but of course, we’ll take a more recent article or blog post over one that was published earlier in the year.

The reason we, along with everyone else, auto-tweet our blog content is because the Twitter sphere is a never-ending vacuum of content. When you look at your timeline, you’re only capturing a snapshot of all the content the people you follow have published. Auto-tweeting ups the chances that our content will be seen by more members of our audience.

So which auto-tweeters irritate us the most? Two types: people who auto-tweet the same content every 30 minutes and people who do this without any other engagement with their followers.

The top three functions Twitter serves for us is sharing content, consuming content and interacting with others. Although I can see why some are annoyed by the auto-tweet function, sharing content automatically doesn’t take the place of engagement.

What suggestions do we have for bloggers and other content creators on how to use the auto-tweet function correctly? First, continually evaluate your content. The auto-tweet tool you use should allow you to pull posts from the rotation. Remember the TENS rule—any content that’s time, event or news-sensitive should probably be taken out of rotation a few weeks to a month from its original publication date. Or else your audience will be wondering why you’re still talking about that when they’ve clearly moved on to the next hot story.

Second, you should continue to share content that provides how-twos and strategy. If there have been any updates or changes to the advice you’ve given, write an update post, link back to the original post, but replace the original post with the new post in your auto-tweeting rotation.

Third, Twitter isn’t a set-and-forget medium. Read others’ content and share it. Ask them questions. Respond to others’ questions to you. Thanks folks for re-tweeting your content. And follow through on your social media strategy.

Wait, you do have a strategy, don’t you?


Share with us: Do you auto-tweet content? How do you decide which content to continually share?

 

Read 6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement, our special report that addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started.

 

Permalink to How to Use Content to Build Thought Leadership in 6 Steps

How to Use Content to Build Thought Leadership in 6 Steps

by Angie Sanders|on January 21, 2013 |in Content marketing, Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

thought leader credit damiencummingsdotblogspotdotcomAt a Washington Network Group entrepreneurs roundtable event last Wednesday night, speaker Angelique Rewers, also known as The Corporate AgentTM used two terms during her talk that caused some audience members to look at her like she’d sprouted eight arms: Content marketing and thought leader.

She explained that content marketing involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable information to attract, acquire, and engage your target audience and lead them to a desired action. “You want to be a thought leader,” she said.

“But the challenge is how do you provide good content without giving away all your strategy, right?” asked an audience member.

You may remember that I wrote a blog post a while back that reassured you that you can afford to give away some of your ideas without fearing that a potential client will run with them and never give you or your business a second thought.

The keys to content marketing and framing yourself and others in your company as thought leaders are to: 1. Give your audience simple information that they can either act on right now or that answers pressing questions and 2. Plant a seed in the audience’s mind that you and your company are the leading authorities on this subject.

Face it. If your audience doesn’t get this information from you, then they’ll perform a Google search and find someone else who’ll give them the answer.

Business owners think that being a thought leader means that you have spout Confucius-like, life-changing tidbits that no one else is close to even thinking about. If you can do this, then congratulations. But there’s not much new under the sun. It just has to be new to your audience.

So here are six steps toward establishing yourself and your team members as thought leaders online.

  1. Think about the pillars on which you operate your business.
    What are your company’s top business offerings? Why do you offer these services? Why should your audience come to you for these services?
  2. Define who you’re serving with those pillars.
    This is an important one. Who is your audience? Who usually buys the services you offer? Be very specific with this description. What do these people do for a living? What do they look like? What do they read? Even better, identify actual points of contact at your client organizations and use them to create a detailed profile of your target audience for each of your services.
  3. Determine what questions your audience asks.
    When potential clients approach you, or your ears perk up after meeting a potential client, what is it that they’re seeking? What problems do they tend to come to your company to solve before they become a client? What are their pain-points?
  4. Consider how you can help your audience answer these questions quickly and the best ways to present the information.
    Now that you’re familiar with your audience’s common questions and pain-points, how can you address these in succinct and interesting ways? Should your company start a blog? Which team members should contribute? Perhaps you should begin shooting short videos? Is there information that could be presented in infographics? Do you have PowerPoint presentations that you can upload to Slideshare?
  5. Create an editorial calendar.
    This step is tricky, but helpful. Determine all the channels through which you’d like to share content (blogging, video, e-books, etc.). Then create a calendar that details when these items will go live and be available to share. For example, you may decide that your company will publish four blog posts and create four short videos per month, release one e-book per quarter, and curate content via social media on a daily basis. Your editorial calendar should provide a brief description of subject matter for each piece of content, estimate when each will be completed/posted, and how all content will be shared.
  6. Be consistent.
    I realize that we live in an instant-results kind of society, but this process takes time. Be consistent with your content creation. Monitor what kinds of content resonate best with your audience and keep giving them what they want.

Share with us: How do you define thought leadership? How are you using content to raise your/your company’s professional profile in your field?


Read 6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement, our special report that addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started. 

 

Permalink to 3 Gems: The Top 3 Things You’re Missing By Not Using Google+ (Cynthia de Lorenzi)

3 Gems: The Top 3 Things You’re Missing By Not Using Google+ (Cynthia de Lorenzi)

by Angie Sanders|on January 15, 2013 |in Social Media, What's on TV |tagged , , , , , , |Leave a comment

CDLAre you on team Google+ yet? This platform is dynamic and helps to boost great content in the Google search rankings. But why is a tool developed by the undisputed champion of all things search and web related still treated like a social media stepchild? In the debut episode of our new web series, “3 Gems,” Cynthia de Lorenzi, gives us three reasons why we should all be riding on the Google+ bandwagon.

Cynthia is the founder of Success in the City, a networking organization for senior level women executives and CEO of Success in the City TV. She’s a frequent speaker, emcee, panelist and media guest on issues related to social media, public policy, workforce and technology and women’s issues.

Check our website monthly for episodes of 3 Gems in which we ask seasoned communicators three questions about their profession or specialty. Also, check out Over Lunch featuring Chief Content Architect Angie Jennings Sanders’s opining on all things business and content related. 

Permalink to 5 Ways to Distribute Social Media Responsibilities Among an Internal Team

5 Ways to Distribute Social Media Responsibilities Among an Internal Team

by Angie Sanders|on January 14, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

team credite onemillionskatesdotcomWorkflow management is crucial to any social media team supporting a small-to-midsized organization, including yours. A team of four or five people maintains all your organization’s social media accounts, but small tasks can accumulate and overwhelm. Just like your communications team, your social media team needs the support of all departments to succeed.

Which team member handles which social media account(s)? How will the team get content to share? What are the ground rules for speaking to journalists through a social media platform? These are all examples of important questions that need definite answers so that your organization’s social media strategy is deployed effectively.

Here are five ways that your internal social media team can distribute work among the group and execute your organization’s strategy seamlessly:

Designate department social media liaisons.
If your team handles organization-wide social media engagement, then they’ll need content from just about all departments to provide your audience(s) with a composite picture of your organization’s work. The team should work with these departments to designate at least one person within who will flag shareable content and funnel it to the team.

Set deadlines.
Department liaisons should be clear about when and how often the social media team needs content. The amount of content to be shared will be left to the departments’ discretion. However, if those staff members care about the visibility of their work, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

Divvy up social platforms.
Your social media team should be assessing their workload and making clear determinations on which team members will be responsible for what. Maybe your organization holds multiple Twitter accounts, so two team members may split those and handle an additional two or three other social media accounts each.

Revisit the social media guidelines document with department liaisons.
Your social media team should review this document with department liaisons so that they understand how content is shared, what content is appropriate and how the team responds to a variety of situations like speaking to members of traditional media, customer complaints and negative comments.

Create a workflow diagram.
Your department liaisons know their deadlines. Your social media team has split responsibilities among team members. Department liaisons and the social media team are clear on engagement guidelines. Now it’s helpful to diagram the workflow so that an easy-to-understand visual exists of how content moves from department staff to your audience(s). This diagram will also help your team see and correct holes or stumbling blocks in the workflow.

Share with us: What techniques does your social media team employ to obtain and share content? What roadblocks do you encounter and how do you overcome them?


Read 6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement, our special report that addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started. 

 

 

 

Permalink to 4 Things to Consider Before Opting for Multiple Social Media Accounts

4 Things to Consider Before Opting for Multiple Social Media Accounts

by Angie Sanders|on January 6, 2013 |in Content marketing, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

IMG_2190Right now, you’re working on either crafting or revamping your company’s social media strategy. Among the many details you’ll need to work out is whether or not individual divisions within your company should start their own accounts.

The company engages (or plans to engage) audiences on roughly 3-5 platforms.  Sure, there are tools out there that will help to manage a number of accounts across multiple social media platforms, but agreeing to the idea of each department holding its own account(s) could still compound your workload by 5, 10 or 20. Saying no could affect your company’s diverse messaging.

So what do you do? When faced with this dilemma, here are a few things to consider before you make the final decision:

Company size
Consider how big your company is, how many divisions it comprises and how the audiences these divisions serve differ. If your employer is a large company with thousands of employees, offices that are dispersed geographically, a company that produces various products, then yes, multiple social entities would benefit you.  Most likely, these audiences don’t overlap, so maintaining separate accounts will help your employer communicate with these different groups.

Effectiveness
Would your messaging benefit from a siloed approach in the social space? Are you speaking to a number of audiences? Are you using social media for different reasons? For example, one division may use social media to communicate product offerings, while another could be communicating breaking news and information to the media. Determine if all the messages your company disseminates would be better served if they were pushed from one account or spread over separate ones.

Manpower
Does your team have the capability to handle many accounts? If not, are these divisions able to appoint staff within to handle these accounts? And if the departments handle their own social media engagement, how will their activity be governed? Do you have a social media guidelines document? How will these guidelines be enforced?

Content
Before you vote to allow these divisions to hold their own accounts, determine what content they’ll be sharing and where their content will come from. Do they have their own library of relevant content to share or will they be depending on other departments to create or supply it? What will be the workflow process to ensure that content gets to the appropriate person who’ll be managing the account(s)?

Share with us: How active is your company on social media? Do you maintain one account per social platform or multiple accounts for each of your company’s departments? Are these accounts maintained by a centralized team or do these departments take responsibility for their own social media engagement?

6MythsRead 6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement, our special report that addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started.

Permalink to 4 Ways Internal Social Media Teams Can Benefit from Outsourcing

4 Ways Internal Social Media Teams Can Benefit from Outsourcing

by Angie Sanders|on January 2, 2013 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , |1 Comment

social team overload credit business2communitydotcomYour social media team is overextended. Yep. I said it.

You don’t believe me, do you? You’re thinking, “A four-person team should be able to adequately manage our social media presences, funnel content from necessary departments, write content when needed and track and measure the results of their work.”

If this same team worked for a small or mid-sized organization, then yes. But they serve the behemoth which is your organization. Not only is this team charged with maintaining your presences across numerous social platforms, but they’re responsible for a staggering number of accounts on these platforms. They must figure out an airtight content flow from millions of silos within the office, devise and enforce guidelines for a million more silos that insist on managing their own social media accounts, and even write original content from time to time.

But a small social media team like yours could benefit from outsourcing a portion of the workload to an outside team. I know. You’re thinking, “We hired a social media team so that these duties can be handled in-house.” True, but the social media space and your engagement goals are ever-changing and have probably expanded beyond your internal bandwidth.

There are four ways that a contract digital team can make your internal team’s workload more manageable and ensure that your social media strategy is executed more effectively. An outside team can:

Fine-tune your social media strategy.
Perhaps your team has been working from the same social media strategy since 2009. Although I applaud them for even devising a strategy and sticking to it, this strategy was probably written to be a working document. Unfortunately, your team may be too close to this document and the parameters it has set to make necessary changes. An outside team can provide a fresh perspective, reviewing it against your fluid communications strategy and making some much needed adjustments.

Assist with the execution of your social media strategy.
Social media may or may not be your team members’ only jobs. Perhaps other duties—most likely ones that are communications or marketing related—have fallen in their laps or were there from the beginning. Even if maintaining the organization’s social media presences is their only function, frequency of posting, response to customer inquiries, effective measurement or other duties may have waned. An outside social media team can help pick up the slack and perhaps make suggestions for how social media work can be better distributed among the team.

Distribute workflow across platforms.
Your organization may only be engaging audiences on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but each division within your office has its own account that it expects the social media team to maintain. And you know that your office is heavily siloed. Funneling relevant news and information from these divisions and posting to social platforms in a frequent and timely manner is a considerable challenge. An outside team can shed light on ways to improve the information flow.

Help manage multiple properties.
Revisit the above example. Your four-person team is responsible for managing multiple accounts for each platform on which your organization engages. Not to mention that there are at least three other social platforms in which divisions within your office have expressed interest in experimenting. Again, this is a considerable challenge for a small team. However, an outside team can assume the maintenance of at least one of these platforms and explore the viability of the new platforms that interest some in your office.

Share with us: Does your office have an internal social media team or does this team comprise employees from other departments? How are you handling the rapidly changing social media climate and the diverse needs of your organization?


Read 6 Myths Blocking Your Social Media Engagement, our special report that addresses misconceptions that are keeping your company from investing time into tools that will can help increase two-way communication with your customers—current and potential. Print this report. Read it on the train ride home. Highlight key points. Share it with your colleagues. And please, jump in the social media marketing game and get started. 

 

Permalink to Why Facebook Engagement Beats Television Advertising

Why Facebook Engagement Beats Television Advertising

by Angie Sanders|on October 17, 2012 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , |Leave a comment

“Brands with more than 1 million fans reach only 3% to 5% of them a day,” Jeff Widman of PageLever, a Facebook page analytics solution, told Fast Company. The magazine labeled this their Unpleasant Truth No. 4 as part of their special “The Social Media Road Map” section in the September 2012 issue.

But is this truth really that unpleasant? Maybe not. Engaging 3-5% of one million fans works out to 30,000-50,000 Facebook fans talking about a given brand. These people may represent a small sample of the total Facebook fans this brand has, but these are people the brand knows detailed demographic information about and has engaged in two-way communication. And 30,000 to 50,000 is a lot of people.

Compare this level of communication, demographics and engagement to television advertising. Lucas Donat—founder of Santa Monica advertising agency Donat Wald—explained in a December 2009 Ad Age article that, “When it comes to measurement, most TV advertisers know audience reach, some demographics and probably some level of top-line results.” This information doesn’t match “the depth and granularity of data we can get for online campaigns, where we know who’s responding to our ads, what they’re doing on our websites, how much time they spend there and whether or not they complete a purchase.”

However, Donat says his agency has developed a method to gather and interpret data from television advertising that fills in the gap between imperfect, incomplete information and a clear picture that communicates the results of an advertising campaign.

“To deal with the relative ambiguity of TV ad measurement, my agency adapts the concept of fuzzy logic into what we call ‘fuzzy analytics,’” Donat says. “Here’s how it works: Find a level of tracking we can do, accept its imperfections, gather data, analyze it and improve our ability to understand it as we go. It evolves into a system that is nearly as accurate as following a click online.”

As an explanation for the “low” Facebook engagement numbers, Widman asked social marketers if they ever visit fan pages as users. “Oh, never,” they replied. This information could be viewed two ways: either social marketers don’t have a clear picture of how to engage Facebook fans because they’ve never visited fan pages themselves, or the social marketer isn’t an accurate representation of the audience set that would visit and interact in this space.

Whatever the reason, these numbers probably shouldn’t be viewed as “low” or a “failure.” Demographic information, two-way communication and any type of engagement and attention from 30,000-50,000 people is a win.

Share with us: How does your company use its Facebook fan page, or does it have one? Can a brand achieve a high number of fans and a high percentage of engagement, too?

This post is the fourth in a series of five posts discussing ideas presented in Fast Company’s “The Social Media Roadmap” section (September 2012 issue).

Permalink to Fast Company: A Social Media Executive’s Biggest Gripes about Working with Brands

Fast Company: A Social Media Executive’s Biggest Gripes about Working with Brands

by Angie Sanders|on October 15, 2012 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , , |3 Comments

For our past few blog posts, we’ve been pulling interesting tidbits from Fast Company’s “The Social Media Road Map,” featured in the magazine’s September 2012 issue. First, we discussed 13 key takeaways from the special section. Then we talked about why social media engagement responsibilities will always fall into the hands of a chosen few individuals inside or outside the company.

We’ll continue rocking with the Road Map today by discussing another short article from the section (Insiders’ Secret No. 5) titled, “You Hired the Wrong People.” In the article, an anonymous executive at a social media platform reveals some of his (I’m only assuming this person is a man) biggest gripes working with brands.

“Their CEOs now articulate their social media strategy,” he said. “They track how they’re doing against their rivals But by the time they come to someone like me, whose job is to actually put their plans into action, they have no idea to get what they want.”

The executive’s problem is one that we’ve been noticing lately with our potential clients, which is a huge gap between social media strategy and implementation. Consultants and even internal employees are getting a better grasp on social media and its capabilities. But when it comes to acting on those capabilities, setting reasonable goals and producing results based on those goals, these teams are clueless as to how to proceed.

However, the executive in this article is concerned with the lack of qualified counterparts to work with on the client side to execute strategy. “Companies haven’t empowered the right people, and they’re not hiring or training or converting the right people for these jobs. To be a good social media person at a brand, you have to have a background not just in digital or marketing but also in your product. There are so few people with that kind of blend of experience.”

To the client’s credit, if employees existed with this perfect blend of social, marketing and brand experience, then there’d be no need to contract with the social media executive. There may be employees on the client side with one or two of those characteristics, but it’s unrealistic to expect a counterpart with all three because social media is still just a toddler.

Companies won’t invest in hiring or training or converting the right employees until they can see value in social media overall. It’s the consultant’s job—in this case the griping executive—to show this value until the client decides to invest in internal staff or it continues to pay the consultant’s retainer.

On the other hand, this executive seems bothered by clients who shove social engagement responsibilities into one department. “People are always shoving social into marketing, or they’re shoving it into digital. It’s actually all this stuff: It’s marketing, it’s digital, it’s creative.”

We discussed in last week’s post why this shoving is to be expected, but just to reiterate: Social media will always be shoved into any department that serves an external communications function simply because these are the people within the organization who are deemed best equipped to handle it.

And we should look on the bright side. At least we’re slowly moving beyond leaving social media to the interns.

Share with us: How does your company handle its social media engagement? Is it the responsibility of the marketing communications department or a separate digital strategy team? Social media strategists: do you also struggle with the lack of a counterpart on the client side? How do you work around this?

This post is the third in a series of five posts discussing ideas presented in Fast Company’s “The Social Media Roadmap” section (September 2012 issue).

Permalink to Why a Chosen Few Will Always be Responsible for Company Social Media Engagement

Why a Chosen Few Will Always be Responsible for Company Social Media Engagement

by Angie Sanders|on October 10, 2012 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |2 Comments

In last Wednesday’s post, we gave you 13 key takeaways from Fast Company magazine’s “The Social Media Road Map,” that ran in their September 2012 issue. However, their Insiders’ Secret No. 3, an article titled “What Your Social Media Consultant Should Tell You,” warranted a post of its own.

Anjali Mullany, the magazine’s social media editor, says, “If social media consultants are doing their jobs, they should put themselves out of business. Your company will never be truly social if you silo social activity within a consultant or staff manager.”

Well, yes and no.

Saying that a company isn’t truly social if one person, small team or outside entity handles this function is like saying that that same company doesn’t really perform marketing or communications functions if everyone in the company isn’t doing it, too.

Shared responsibility for the actual act of engagement is a respectable goal, but it may be a bit lofty and impractical. Communications and marketing departments have a hard enough time getting buy-in from other departments to reach out to the company’s audiences outside of social media. Expecting all employees to participate in social may be a stretch.

Plus, by keeping responsibilities for social media engagement with a certain internal team or outside consultants keeps a good handle on messaging within the social space.

Because social media engagement is an external communications tactic, it will probably always remain in the hands of those who are already responsible for external communications—unless the company decides that developing a designated digital strategy team is warranted.

Now we’re not saying that the rest of the company should take a completely hands-off approach to social media because it shouldn’t be taking this approach to its overall marketing strategy. Whichever team(s) is responsible for both marketing communications and social media need support from the rest of the company in the form of free-flowing information.

The only way these teams can tell your company’s story to the audiences that live outside the four walls of your office is if you funnel the information to them that’s necessary to tell this story in a compelling way. This involves keeping these teams abreast of company milestones, achievement and impact.

If there’s a new product launch or breakthrough, new clients or partnerships, client or customer testimonials, video or photos from the field, or any other groundbreaking information affecting your current or potential clients, your marketing communications and social media teams need to know. The success of both these teams depends heavily on your ability to ensure that these teams get the compelling information they need to engage your audience and get them excited about your brand.

Share with us: How does your company funnel information through to your marketing communications and social media teams and out to your external audiences?

This post is the second in a series of five posts discussing ideas presented in Fast Company’s “The Social Media Roadmap” section (September 2012 issue).

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