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February 7
Geek Love – A Valentine’s Day Poem from the Schipulites
This February, we’re sharing Tips & Tricks we Schipulites love at schipul.com/love. With Valentine’s Day just a week away, we ... | Read on!
Social Media Programs Require Consulting, Training and Recruiting
An Agency can not run a “Social Media Program” for clients. Not without extensive client involvement. In fact I don’t even like the phrase “social media program” as it implies it is an ad campaign like buying a slot on Comedy Central and two supporting advertisements in Entertainment Weekly. As if social media can be planned and measured like advertising?
It ain't that simple.
Specifically you can not run a “Social Media Program” for PR from the outside of a client’s organization. You can only help a client engage in social media through consulting, training and helping them recruit the right people. Once these are accomplished you then, and only then, consider promotion.
Let me repeat that – helping someone with social media is not a program. It is a consulting, training and recruiting assignment. Social media is fundamentally human resources.
Specifically you can not run a “Social Media Program” for PR from the outside of a client’s organization. You can only help a client engage in social media through consulting, training and helping them recruit the right people. Once these are accomplished you then, and only then, consider promotion.
Let me repeat that – helping someone with social media is not a program. It is a consulting, training and recruiting assignment. Social media is fundamentally human resources.
Consulting
Objectives - Define objectives within the bounds of reality. What is the client trying to accomplish? Help them develop their own idea of 'success' in the Social Media arena and be sure to recognize the importance of finding a custom-tailored metrics system to gauge their Social Media progress and triumphs.Surveys - What is the baseline of the organization? Poor customer service will be blogged about, but it isn’t a “blogging issue” it is a “poor customer service issue” that got blogged. So ask your customers!
Willingness – Will the team *inside the organization* commit the time and resources needed? Or are they trying to “throw money at the problem”? You can’t pay someone to read ClueTrain and Naked Converations for the CEO. They must care at a personal level.
Participation – Are they engaged? Interested at all? You can’t do social media for long if you aren’t legitimately interested in people. Ask anyone who has quit a high paying yet unfulfilling job. If the passion and genuine interest isn't there, things are going to fall flat.
Etiquette - Walk clients through the subtle nuances of online interaction and communication. This may have to be on a case-by-case basis until clients find their sea-legs, but hand holding when it comes to online etiquette is a very desirable and crucial element to a Social Media plan in its infancy. This is a very unforgiving media outlet.
Training
Students – Do you have willing students within the organization who are genuinely interested?Team – Is the larger sphere of influencers on board at least with the importance of engaging the publics where the public wants to be engaged on their terms?
Offline – One way to engage bloggers is through front line workers. Having clean checkout stands prevents negative blog posts about cleanliness. Providing amazing service creates an army of Social Media defenders! Again so much of social media, from a PR perspective, can be taken and resolved completely offline!
Patience – Even with the best students, understanding social media yourself is not enough. Do you have the patience to work with your students? The budget and time? Just because a business opportunity exists doesn’t mean you should chase it if this isn’t your thing.
Recruiting
It comes from within - Recruiting within the client organization for someone to be the inside social media "participant" is critical. If you can't find someone inside the client organization, make sure they budget to hire someone besides you to join their team.
How to recruit? - Recruiting means being a part of a group yourself and simply observing others. Noticing that person who you want to be around. People who respect and value other people invariably do well in Social Media.
Humility – The world is a funny place. I could be working for you tomorrow, even though I'm running a business today. This isn’t so much “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” but rather “do unto others as THEY want to be treated.” Recruit people with humility and double check yourself!
Fit to be Open – Do not recruit anyone for a client that doesn’t understand that Gmail and Facebook are a part of the new business world. People may work a bit longer, but they also do personal stuff at work and work stuff at home. Most people who enjoy Social Media like feeling connected. They don’t like radio silence 10 hours a day. So don’t recruit an open person for a closed organization.
How to recruit? - Recruiting means being a part of a group yourself and simply observing others. Noticing that person who you want to be around. People who respect and value other people invariably do well in Social Media.
Humility – The world is a funny place. I could be working for you tomorrow, even though I'm running a business today. This isn’t so much “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” but rather “do unto others as THEY want to be treated.” Recruit people with humility and double check yourself!
Fit to be Open – Do not recruit anyone for a client that doesn’t understand that Gmail and Facebook are a part of the new business world. People may work a bit longer, but they also do personal stuff at work and work stuff at home. Most people who enjoy Social Media like feeling connected. They don’t like radio silence 10 hours a day. So don’t recruit an open person for a closed organization.
Freelance is sometimes good – It can be frustrating as a manager to see someone literally working for someone else on your dime. Accept this within reason as cross promotion if you are treating your people well (yeah, I realize this is hard to articulate to a client). Think about employees posting on a community Blog, like Houstonist for example. Yes, company resources. Yes, personal development. Yes, good.
Promotion
So far we've touched on consulting, training and recruiting. These are all people skills. So let's take it one step further and talk about Promotion.
Disclosure is essential – In Social Media, promotion means advocacy with disclosure. If you or your client are an active member of the community, it is okay to talk about what you believe in. Just be sure to disclose at each instance and keep it less than 10% (or lower) of your posts, to make sure you don't lose your audience's ear.
Reaching out to your client's communities - With all of the
online social networks waiting to incorporate into a Social Media
Marketing strategy, learning where your clients are congregating is
crucial. For most organizations, it isn't about 'building' a
community. This implies starting from ground zero, tinkering with
technologies and, in many cases, trying to maintain complete control.
Just don't go there. Instead, hook up with established communities
that your audience and clients are familiar with, excited about and
active on.
Get ready to connect - Is your client ready to roll up their sleeves to network and interact online? Social Media promotional campaigns go far beyond a blog post here and there, with real commitment to connecting with colleagues and clients on their preferred online stomping grounds.
It's not all about you - Just as you wouldn't spend all of your in-person networking time being completely self-promotional, don't utilize your online networking time blasting out PR-speak. Connect in thoughtful ways - see an interview in your local business paper about a client? Send them a link with a congrats message on their Facebook wall. Heard a prospect speak at a recent conference? Shoot them a Twitter or a brief mention on your blog about the knowledge your received from them.
Get busy with the 'invite friends' button - Bring late-comers to the party and help promote them! Identify the social networks your target audience is most active on, become an active member yourself and then train others on the benefits and basic etiquette to encourage even greater participation. Make sure you're their very first friend and grow your relationship from there.
In closing social media is more than a "program". Social Media is a consulting, training and recruiting assignment that then opens up opportunities for ethical promotion. Social media is fundamentally human resources and humans are complex!
Get ready to connect - Is your client ready to roll up their sleeves to network and interact online? Social Media promotional campaigns go far beyond a blog post here and there, with real commitment to connecting with colleagues and clients on their preferred online stomping grounds.
It's not all about you - Just as you wouldn't spend all of your in-person networking time being completely self-promotional, don't utilize your online networking time blasting out PR-speak. Connect in thoughtful ways - see an interview in your local business paper about a client? Send them a link with a congrats message on their Facebook wall. Heard a prospect speak at a recent conference? Shoot them a Twitter or a brief mention on your blog about the knowledge your received from them.
Get busy with the 'invite friends' button - Bring late-comers to the party and help promote them! Identify the social networks your target audience is most active on, become an active member yourself and then train others on the benefits and basic etiquette to encourage even greater participation. Make sure you're their very first friend and grow your relationship from there.
In closing social media is more than a "program". Social Media is a consulting, training and recruiting assignment that then opens up opportunities for ethical promotion. Social media is fundamentally human resources and humans are complex!
