Social media has traditionally fallen within the remit of marketing. But true success with the channel is increasingly involving cross-enterprise adoption. Victoria Clarke reports
If you’re a marketer, chances are you’re the most likely candidate within your organisation to get stuck into social media. And why wouldn’t you be? The responsibility of social media activity has, rightly or wrongly, always fallen under the wing of the marketing department. The logic for this decision has inevitably come from the fact that social media is a form of communication and, historically, it has always been about brand awareness – two perfectly reasonable remits of marketing, no?
But as more B2B brands buy in to social media, the smart organisations are discovering they’re missing a trick if they only have a select few within the marketing department tweeting, posting blogs and engaging with an online audience. Instead, rather than conforming to a centralised method of working where social media is both administered and controlled in a prescriptive fashion by a single individual or department – these forward-thinking organisations actively encourage multi-departmental engagement with a variety of social channels. Responsibilities are not so much relinquished from someone but rather decentralised. And the result?
These digital front runners are already making the shift from social media to social business, and in doing so are bringing a dramatic change of ownership of social media responsibilities.
This shift was highlighted recently in a new study from the US. According to The 2012 FedEx/Ketchum Social Business Benchmarking Study, the primary objective with social media changed from generating word-of-mouth advocacy and brand loyalty in 2010, to fostering stakeholder collaboration and dialogue in 2012. In particular, the study also revealed a shift from centralised management of social media (38 per cent) to more matrix-structured teams and processes (48 per cent).
Giles Palmer, CEO of Brandwatch, makes a good point for why it might be considered outdated logic to say social media is just for marketers. He reflects, “Saying social media is only for marketing is like saying the internet is only for the people in IT.”
So, there’s an argument to suggest social media should not just belong to the marketing department alone. Which first begs the question, why not? But also, whose job is it then? And – if everyone’s doing it – what should marketers’ role be in it all?
All hands on deck
Unlike when social media mania first hit town and marketers were just using it to promote their brand, HR is now tapping into social channels for recruitment, keeping personnel information up-to-date and conducting climate surveys to feed into annual reports. Engineers and product developers can now answer customers’ technical queries directly and in real-time, provide expert opinions on new developments, and crowdsource as part of research and development. And what’s to stop the sales department using social channels for lead nurturing to engage prospects and customers?
Social has the potential to harness all employees’ expertise and passion, which can then be shared not only across the organisation to facilitate better internal collaboration but also with customers directly. This approach means businesses engage in true conversations that go beyond any ‘shiny’ marketing spiel.
David Petherick, head of marketing at Energysys, rightly points out, “If only one department of a business [e.g. marketing] is doing the talking, then the conversation is not as likely to interest every department of their customer’s business – it’s a conversation with a bias and a limited view. And if only marketing is listening, how are they going to understand the technical or financial questions?”
John Bottom, head of communications and content at Base One, agrees that every role within a business has the potential to offer value to social media engagement. He suggests, “The social organisation needs to give staff that have the potential to exert a beneficial effect on the company’s reputation, the chance to do so. All that is needed is open communication between senior brand guardians and those in customer-facing roles.”
A social committee
The term ‘guardians’ raises an interesting point. If multiple departments are given the go-ahead to tweet away, for example, who coordinates this activity to ensure – in layman’s terms – everyone’s singing from the same hymn sheet?
Most industry experts seem to agree, ultimate ownership and guidance of social media should come from one department or central hub within a business, in order to make best use of resources, avoid siloed activity and protect brand reputation.
Simon McEvoy, planning director at Tangent Snowball, advises B2B brands should set up a ‘steering committee’ made up from cross-departmental personnel. He says, “You will need champions within the organisation, from as far and wide as possible, to take ultimate responsibility for driving things forward,” adding the legal and compliance department should be one of these departments to ensure all activity meets legal requirements.
Marketing consultant, Fraser J Hay, concurs but he adds it’s important for each department to be clear with its objectives. He advises every department should carry out a social media audit to identify exactly what they should be doing, for whom and why. “The results of this should be fed back to a champion from each department,” he says. “This could help decide key problems, issues and priorities, the plan, the resources required, and who from each department will implement any activity.”
Who’s in charge here?
While all agree that a collective should take responsibility and act as social media ‘guardians’ or a central social media hub for a business, opinion is divided as to who that group should be?
Many suggest it should still ultimately fall to marketing. Dawn DeVirgilio, social media manager at Exact Target, reasons, “Marketing is the steward of the brand on social and must move quickly to lead the company through transformation.” Others, however, take a different slant.
Craig Reardon, managing director at The E Team suggests PR should take charge of social, “Given that social media is all about an organisation’s relationship with the public, it is completely the domain of the PR department,” he says.
David Fisher, marketing and business development professional, however, proposes social media should be a “corporate department in its own right, with the head of social media being a direct report to the CEO so there is a cohesive, coherent and comprehensive policy that flows down from the executive suite into the entire organisation.”
Social business success
While there will always be mixed opinion as to who should lead social activity, the fact remains those businesses who still view it as simply a bolt-on to marketing will inevitably get left behind.
Showing businesses how things can be done is cloud computing organisation Bluewolf. The company’s general manager of international, Sue Goble, explains, “By using social media, and making every single one of our employees a brand ambassador, we are demonstrating unique transparency. Bluewolf’s latest programme, #GoingSocial, promotes internal networking and provides employees with a means of sharing knowledge through social tools.
Employees engaged in #GoingSocial become mouthpieces to spread news, information and resources, provide libraries, tutorials, marketing material, company news and press releases, product documentation and strategies.
“The results are simple and measurable – we have seen 100 per cent increase in web traffic to our site and an increase in leads and upselling through brand awareness, SEO and social presence. Collaboration across our teams is up by 57 per cent leading to improved sharing of knowledge and better team working with our customers.
“The key to success is incentivising staff. It takes motivated people to make social enterprise a reality. Our leader board approach and incentives for social engagement give our staff the encouragement they need to get involved, compete and get to the next level in their careers.”
Xerox is another brand that advocates social to all its employees. It now has more than 42 different Twitter handles, for example, which speak to different audiences. Darrell Minards, head of marketing communications of Xerox Europe, reveals how the brand implements a company-wide approach in practical terms. He says, “The key to success is putting structures in place that empower our employees to be social spokespeople for the company. Those who tweet on behalf of the company can register with our social media team. The team then delivers a range of training programmes, starting with a course called ‘Social media fundamentals’, which then leads on to further training and workshops.”
And of course everyone knows how successful Dell has been at its social media efforts, not least because activity is driven from the very top by CEO Michael Dell. The organisation encourages all staff to get involved with social media, supporting the initiative with its own set of guidelines. Bryan Jones, executive director for Europe of public large enterprise marketing at Dell, explains, “We have a very robust and extensive set of courses that leads to a certification level for our people. This programme has really helped accelerate our team’s engagement. It also puts in some much needed accountability and corporate expectations.”
Training and guidance are crucial to achieving a social business. Will McInnes, managing director at NixonMcInnes, says B2B brands should see a good social media policy as a chance to unlock extra potential from the organisation, but warns marketers they “must balance the need to protect the business with the need to empower people.”
He adds, “A great social media policy is devised with the people on the frontline. People that walk that path everyday know what they need from a policy.”
Who should or shouldn’t get involved in social will continue to raise lively debate from all sectors and industries. But more and more B2B brands are recognising that social media needs to be part of an entire business environment, not just a marketing microcosm. As Jones concludes, “Having someone or a specific group exclusively responsible for social media defeats the purpose of engagement and diminishes the value. You want your people engaged, they are the experts and their passion shines through. We do have a social media team in our comms organisation, but they are only part of the ecosystem.”
The business of being social
Five top tips to empower all employees to get behind social media by Bryan Jones, executive director, Europe, public large enterprise marketing, Dell
1. Have a plan. Know what you are trying to achieve and how you want to achieve it.
2. Engage people in the development of the plan. It drives buy-in – you want people to provide perspective to the business.
3. Communicate the plan and set expectations. You want people aligned around the business goals; communicate how you intend to achieve them and measure them.
4. Train people. Invest in your team and they will pay that back with innovation and productivity.
5. Build an infrastructure that will foster social. The Command Centre at Dell, for example, is used to monitor and provide reports on corporation, business units, verticals, products and campaigns. The team monitors conversations and analyses real-time data to better improve the customer experience.
