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May 30th, 2007 How to create a social media strategy

Melcrum's recently released "How to use social media to engage employees" report shows that only 28% of internal communicators realize that social media efforts need to be part of an integrated communication strategy.

With this in mind, we've made the "Strategy" chapter of the report available to download free, and created a quick checklist of issues to help you in your strategic planning:

1. Assess your organization's cultural readiness.
Before you begin experimenting with social media, it's worth reflecting on whether tools such as blogs, podcasts or wikis have a realistic chance of survival, given your organizational culture.

2. Focus on the people, not the technology.
A common problem that often emerges is the tendency to overlook the needs or preferences of the people who will actually use the tools. Avoid this by focusing on the humans rather than the technology.

3. Think about the business purpose of the tools.
Ask questions like:
Who will use these tools? How can they support the organization? How can they give access to leadership? How can they help global teams to collaborate and communicate better? How can they change the culture?

4. Make sure you grasp the difference between traditional and social media.
Social media tools encourage a way of communicating that is fundamentally different to traditional methods of communication. Without a clear grasp of these differences, it's unlikely organizations will ever really harness their potential.

5. Prepare to relinquish control and share the process.
The way in which social media works means reduced control for communicators and leaders. Employees are invited to take part in a conversation and share information, rather than have information pushed at them.

6. Be experimental and involve employees.
Communicators need to think radically about how they communicate using web-enabled technology. Fortunately, unlike major technology investments made in the past, social media isn't costly to implement.

7. Clarify what employees can and can't do.
Social media may be all about encouraging a more open way of communicating internally. But this doesn't mean that organizations shouldn't lay down clear guidelines. However informal, there's no reason why communication should stray from the usual behaviors.

8. Take a hands-off approach to marketing the tools.
Social media tools seem to work best when they're allowed to develop and grow organically. At IBM, for example, the core focus of the new-media strategy has been on putting together the platforms and software, then consulting with employee groups about how to optimize their use.

9. Work with what you've got and integrate new tools.
Given the fledgling nature of most social media programs, the approach that seems to work best is one of using existing technology wherever possible, learning through trial and error, and developing tools further based on what's working and what isn't.

10. Don't obsess about the numbers.
Measurement is a key element of any communication strategy – but it's too early to measure the financial or business success of social media tools with any real reliability or accuracy. But this doesn't mean we shouldn't be making the link between the tools and the business purpose they serve.

See you next week,

Mandy Thatcher,
Editor
mandy.thatcher@melcrum.com

P.S. As a Source reader, I'd like to invite you to sign up for The
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Its goal is to help you be more effective in your daily work by connecting you with communicators working on the same challenges wherever they are in the world as well as sharing resources that work.

Further reading
How to blog for good, not evil Basic blogging etiquette Top Tips - Cutting-edge podcasts