Cross functional Social Media engagement: a Utopia?

Having taken quite an interest into Social Media in the last year, I am often confronted with reality: No matter how much I advocate the fact that a proper social strategy, shall be a company exercise involving all key departments, the reality is quite different.
Don’t get me wrong, when I talk to the executive team or when I discuss it with my marketing friends, we all agree that in an ideal world everyone should engage into the social web but what’s in the books or in our fancy strategy plan is unfortunately utopist.

Why? Why on one hand budgets dedicated to social media spend keep increasing but on the other hand a cross functional social media engagement is merely impossible? Where is the Social Hercules that will use his God given powers to make it work?

My belief is that when it comes to social media, many if not all companies face some inherent issues, and in my opinion here are some of the reasons why.

1/ Social media is everyone’s responsibility.

I can’t agree more, but too many companies are appointing social media / community managers, who are not recognized internally. Either because they are too junior (freshly graduated) or because they come from what can be considered by many to be a “lower”job (please read, non business / ROI driven function). The other scenario is the company appointing a “social media consultant / expert /guru” that will in many cases try to impose his vision of social media, without even diving deep into the company ethos and as such will clash with most departments or blame the company for his lack of success.

There are some good social media strategists out there (I know a few so PM me if you need one), but they are usually top notch people that do not need fancy presentations and beautiful offices to get the job done and that will not come to hard sell social media strategy to you, because they know there are no secret recipe to succeed in social.

Also when you delegate something to everyone in the company, without giving them a trusted and respected leader, who will be able to delegate, you enter the vicious circle of “no one does anything”because “everyone thought it was somebody else’s job”.

2/ We do not have enough Social Media experts internally to do a good job.

The good news is a there is no such thing as a social media expert or guru. Social media is still in its infancy and is still trying to find itself as a media. And we have to keep in mind that social web is about the individual and nothing is more versatile than a person with the myriad of human emotion we’ve been blessed with.

Social Media Guru by Scott Hamson via Flickr.

3/ Why should it be my job, I already have enough on my plate.

Many companies are still considering social media as a tick in the box on their to-do list. The “Achille’s heel” of any companies is that they struggle for resources, and as such they tend to add social media engagement on a team or department that is already under pressure. As a result social media engagements are seen as a chore rather than a blessing, and always end up being the lowest priority item on the “to do list”. This is what I would call the “get round to it syndrome” Also, as pointed out in the Forrester research I attended this morning, companies are still “scared”of the negative repercussions of social media ( commonly known – excuse my French – the “what if we screw up –phobia”). Even in the 21^st century it takes companies a lot of courage to encourage customer’s interactions and engagement, outside of the marketing or PR departments (they are used to talk to the customer, they won’t make mistakes). Given the above, it is not surprising that non marketing employees are reluctant to engage in social media.

4/ What about the bigger picture?

How many companies out there, communicate on their social media strategy with everyone in the company? How many integrate social in their overall strategy and financial plans? How many think about a three to five year strategy and align them with the company’s long term plans? To my experience, none the problem is how can you expect every function in your company to engage in the social web, when the company fails to show commitment?

5/ Where is my ROI?

This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back! When it comes to social, your return on investment is not short term incremental revenue. I am often asked, how much is a follower worth? If I increase my “likes” on Facebook by X%, how much can I expect to make in a year? My answer is usually “NOTHING”, a follower or a like is worth nothing unless you invest in them, you make them feel like they belong, that all of them are unique. I would encourage companies to think about “what am I losing, if I do not listen to what my customers have to say” rather than what would be my ROI if I do?

This entire renting monologue to say that given the approach most companies take on Social web, cross functional engagement is a utopia.

Help is on the way though and here are my two cents on how successful companies will come close to the Social engagement Nirvana:

- Demystify Social web: social web is a trial and error media, “gurus” are over rated and a great social web presence is a matter of common sense and takes enthusiasm and passion.

- Identify the experts: who has great product / industry / company’s knowledge? Who is passionate about the customer / brand? Who is happy to dedicate time to become the bearer of the Social web’s flame? Experts are not function or department specific.

- Believe in what you preach: don’t treat social media as a compulsory “tick in the box”, if you decide to invest into social web, make it your “calling” and make sure everyone involves is “building a cathedral” not “carrying rocks”. And most importantly value and recognise individuals that are helping you build the Social Web cathedral.

- Get SMART: as in make sure your social media is backed up by a strategy and some SMART goals that can be measured and communicated.

As a company or an individual in charge of the social media strategy, what advices would you give to other starting in the business?

Why would you say so many companies fail in properly engaging on the social web?

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