There are lots of blog posts out there making the case for companies' need for a dedicated Social Media Manager position. Stories about major companies turning around their reputations via social media seem to be popping up all the time: Dell, Comcast and Zappos are just a few examples.
Meanwhile, more and more associations are beginning to, at a minimum, dabble in social media; of course you don't need me to point this out! What starts out as a "let's try it just to see what happens" can quickly blossom into "and how about this? And this?" and before you know it--and whether or not you planned for it--you've got a full-blown social media strategy in place.
Well, actually you can't really call it a strategy because an innocent little experiment--let's set up a group on LinkedIn and a Twitterstream, just to see what happens--takes off and the momentum builds from there without much of a firm plan in place. You're then left to back-track and develop the social media plan you were meaning to develop but hadn't gotten around to it just yet.
Take my association, for example. We started with just that--a group on LinkedIn and a presence on Twitter. Then a page on Facebook for one of our consumer awareness campaigns, followed by another one for the association as a whole. Without even formally announcing these things to members--other than the LinkedIn group--we developed a very sizeable following in a short period of time. I could go on but the gist of it is that, with each iteration of the process, the number of balls in the air increases in terms of staff involvement: handling the requests to join the LinkedIn group, strategically selecting people to follow on Twitter in hopes they'll follow us, researching the ins and outs of what businesses can and can't do on Facebook, etc. etc. And so on, and so on....to quote that 70s commercial for shampoo (V05? Body on Tap? If you're not 40 you probably have no idea what I'm talking about ;)
Are any other associations out there experiencing the same thing? And even if you aren't there yet, what are your association's plans as far as staffing any impending social media plan development and implementation? Do you envision just add the role of social media specialist/manager/coordinator/whatever to an existing position or is there talk of hiring someone to fill that role? Or have you already hired that person--or more than one? And, lastly, what department will that person reside in--Web? Marketing? PR? Membership?
Comments
KiKi says:
Oh my god...this is a great post that perfectly describes my situation with my association! We have a podcast started by me and a guy from our marketing team who decided to create it to fill the need. No line item or budget for it whatsoever...then we started adding to our social media presence. It is a serious part of my job that produces great things, but is a lot of extra work. Now we are creating the social media plan as an afterthought...but there is barely enough time!
October 2, 2008 at 11:26 AM | Permalink
KiKi says:
P.S. I should have looked over my grammar before hitting "post" *whimper*
October 2, 2008 at 11:27 AM | Permalink
Lindy says:
This is exactly why, in a perfect world, the strategy and plan would come first. But we're still working to prove the value of spending time on these projects, so dabbling becomes the fallback strategy.
I would not choose to hire a dedicated person, but rather look for ways to integrate social media into the fabric of the organization as a community building tool. That means everyone needs training. Everyone needs to know enough to be dangerous. A good social media strategy and good social media policies for the staff would keep the focus on end goals as opposed to shiny new tools. Besides, you can always hire a consultant to help pull it all together. (Shameless, I know. teehee.)
Does that make sense?
October 2, 2008 at 11:49 AM | Permalink
Andrew says:
Great post, Maggie! My supervisor approached me recently about implementing the use of social media as part of our strategy. I'm thinking that this may result in some formulation of policy and identification of alignment with strategic goals. We're currently using no social media at all (aside from me YAPping about on here), so I look forward to seeing how it all turns out!
October 2, 2008 at 12:09 PM | Permalink
Maggie says:
Lindy--lmao "everyone needs to know enough to be dangerous"! I think, like you said, it becomes a chicken or egg thing: ideally you should develop a strategy first, but in order to get people to even see the need for a incorporating social media in the first place, you kind of need to just dive in and prove it's even worth spending the time and effort to create the strategy in the first place! Especially when you have senior staffers who have no idea what social media is and what use it could be--it's been helpful to me to be able to give concrete examples: e.g. "PBS's director of online communications is following us on Twitter" or "We got a new member as a result of our Facebook group."
I guess it's a happy accident or whatever you call it when you try something little just to see how it will turn out and it turns into something great, but yes, it definitely puts the pressure on to go back and make sure all your ducks are in a row as far as a plan goes.
October 2, 2008 at 1:07 PM | Permalink
Lindy says:
A good resource for figuring out how much staff time social media will take.
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/10/how-much-time-d.html
October 2, 2008 at 4:00 PM | Permalink
Maddie says:
Great post and comments! I think the beauty of social media, and not strictly speaking a bad idea, is that associations can dabble, dip their toes in the water so to speak, pretty freely. That's why it's so important to start by listening. Once you see that your people are out there, on social networks or talking about you in some way, you can then put a social media strategy in place. Different associations will do that at different stages in the "dabbling" process, but certainly once staff time is pretty clearly involved - that would be a good time to think about strategy and making sure you're doing it appropriately so you get the most out of it without staff feeling completely overwhelmed.
October 2, 2008 at 4:52 PM | Permalink
Ainsley says:
I agree with Lindy that there should not be a need to hire a dedicated person. If social media is about authenticity - at its very core - then hiring one person to be responsible for the social media "face" of your association - is ultimately NOT authentic. My association is going thru the beginning phases of this and although I am spearheading it right now, my ultimate plan is to have select staff pour into the content for each phase of the process. When I finish my plan I will share it on here for others to see and comment on. I think there is usually 1-2 people who are excited about social media and drive the change for an association. Ultimately, the "great hive mind" of everyone must contribute. Even if that means I have to encourage them along the way.
October 4, 2008 at 10:53 AM | Permalink
Peggy says:
Ainsley - love your comment ... I do think that your social media needs be organic! Still there needs to be a "person" who's aware of and nudging or and tracking of... so maybe what we're talking about is creating an awareness within the right dept that's asking how cal we .... And I guess once something gets started, you do need that "person" to be watchful and a reporter.
October 5, 2008 at 7:24 PM | Permalink