A few weeks ago, my colleague, Caroline Dangson, wrote about when to outsource social media responsibilities. Many companies outsource large portions, if not all, of their social programs to their agencies. Outsourcing happens for a few reasons, with the lack of internal resources and expertise being at the top of that list. However, as Caroline points out, companies should make the right investments in-house to maximize the return on their investment in social programs.
A few key elements of Social Business Design include a staffing model and a policy that integrates with your business. At a smaller company one person may be able to coordinate a successful social strategy; at larger and more complex organizations, there is a need to implement a model that not only gets the job done, but also allows for scale.
Creating a cross-functional team is a way to scale your strategy and create a strong foundation for a social media program. Each member of the team should bring relevant expertise to the table. Most people turn to the “usual suspects” when putting together a social team: Marketing, PR, and Customer Service. However, there are other job functions to be considered, such as:
- The Sales team as you incorporate Social CRM
- HR as you begin to craft corporate policies
- The IT and Information Security groups as you consider social platforms
- Consumer Insights as you develop your listening program
- Product Innovation/Development as you glean insights from listening
- The Legal/Compliance teams who can help avoid potential legal roadblocks
It doesn’t necessarily matter which group leads the team of social experts and enthusiasts so long as they are smart and knowledgeable; the key factor is that the people on the team be embedded across the organization. A cross-functional team would be responsible not only for creating resources to help the organization participate socially, but spreading them as well. As a result, people from disparate areas of the business are meeting regularly, sharing ideas, and spreading those ideas across the organization. This could increase knowledge sharing and openness in a coordinated and intentional way. In addition to developing your outward-facing social media program, you would also set the stage for collaboration and emergent outcomes.
When it comes to your company’s social team, who will you include? What barriers do you want to break down?
Great post – wholeheartedly agree.
In fact, I wrote an eerily similar piece earlier this year. http://www.danpontefract.com/?p=343
cheers
dp
Kate,
I understand what you’re trying to convey, but is it perhaps a tad idealistic? Maybe it just requires some clarity around what size organizations are able to operate this way. Larger, enterprise class companies have the resources. Smaller to medium sized firms, on the other hand, will struggle.
The larger the team becomes the slower and less effective it will become as “death by committee” takes hold. Additionally, every executive and the business unit(s) they’re responsible for will be driven by different priorities at different times, resulting in resource allocations that aren’t aligned very well and bog things down even more. They all have different agendas at different times. Some own a P&L, some don’t. Some have enough bodies, some don’t. Some have a clue, some don’t.
In my view it’s far more important that there are simple, well defined business processes followed by a small, nimble team with clear executive ownership. The goal of enabling attainable and measurable results for the business is what matters most so adjustments in strategy, tactics, and overall approach can be made to suit changing conditions.
Put more simply – you’ll struggle getting them all in a meeting room at the same time, let alone get anything accomplished. Keep it small. Keep it focused. Keep it agile.
Jay- Thanks for sharing your opinion. I agree with you on some points… the more cooks there are in the kitchen, your likelihood of being actionable does decrease given the number of opinions, minds, and motivations in the room. However, we’ve seen and helped companies develop these governing bodies that range from 5 people to upwards of 30.
There are ways to keep everyone involved, participating, and aligned in the right direction. For instance, you could create work groups, composed of relative specialties, that pertain to specific organizational tasks- e.g. servicing, listening, collaboration.
In my opinion, the role of this committee isn’t always gaining consensus. The individuals that comprise it should act as evangelists within their business units, in addition to completing the duties they’ve been tasked with.
Thank you so much for posting this POV!!!! To take it a step further this is your everyday working team strategy, planning, execution, tactics and operations\support. not a team of representatives that get together once a month to discuss their initiactives within their macro or microsilo. This ecelectic group of individuals will instantly find natural leadership, solutions, innovations, and real return in the salaries you are already paying them.
I appreciate this post and 2nd it. Plus I have done some spare time business models and org structures that support…..
So thank you Kate
Kate,
In my experience working internally with a large corporation, I found that it helped to be “strategic” with the people who are included on the SM team. It definitely helps to include specific people from the more conservative functional areas such as legal or finance who you know are progressive and interested in trying new things. They will help position new initiatives within their functional areas so anyone who is more resistant to change can have a trusted voice telling them it’s OK.
Further, if anyone asks about what those crazy folks in Social Media are doing, you can say with confidence that you’ve got the backing of legal/regulatory/finance….all the functional areas that are traditionally charged with risk mitigation for the organization. And they’ll help identify possible risk areas so you don’t hang yourself out to dry with new initiatives.
Great post. Always amazes me when companies that are savvy to include a social media monitoring program don’t involve consumer insights.