Social Media Policy, is this a barrier to wider employee customer engagement
Some companies today are fearful of allowing their employees to engage in dialogue with their customers on social media. Worried that their employees may say the wrong thing and engage in discourse that could lead to viral negative sentiment, potentially wiping out there reputation, damaging the brand or leading to compliance and lawful issues.
Companies therefore either stand back and just listen to the social media channels, or manage the risk by only allowing a few approved marketing/PR and contact centre employees to engage in customer dialogue. This is backed by social media policies and guidelines for their employees to follow.
Here is a list of some of the “social media guidelines from a variety of early thought leaders in social media for business”, compiled by the social media academy (SMACAD).
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com/index.php/resources/social-media-guide-lines/
However human beings can and do unintentionally make mistakes, would a policy or guideline stop this happening? Are social media polices and guidelines (rules and best practices, governed by enforcement) in fact barriers to wider employee customer engagement via social media? Are our employees now fearful of doing the wrong thing, does this drive them to actually stand back and in some cases not engage in customer dialogue at all.
Do you see this within your organization; are ALL your employees actively engaging with your customers via corp. social media? Is this engagement effective, are they building relationships with customers or do they fear doing the wrong thing? Would recommendations for social media engagement be better than adopting and enforcing policy or guidelines, and should your employees contribute to building these recommendations in the first place.
What do you think? Could we encourage wider engagement through social media recommendations (a course of action that is advisable); maybe this is just word play. Can we manage potential mistakes by monitoring and correcting on-line errors? Would this be a better approach to drive wider employee engagement with our customers? Dare I say, “Let them learn by their mistakes”
Like this:
Become extinct like the dinosaurs or evolve, adapt and change to “Cross functional social media engagement”
Today many companies moving to embrace social media have gravitated to and adopted one of two organisational approaches (1) outsource social media to a 3rd party agency and (2) social media owned by the marketing department. In my opinion both organisational approaches are flawed and not an effective strategy for social media engagement. They could potentially lead to the extinction of sales, and inhibit the true business value that social media could bring to your business for the following reasons…
In the case of (1) outsourcing, you do not outsource your customer relationships. This is a bit like saying to the family “I’m sorry kids and Mrs F mega busy at work this weekend can’t make that trip we
planned for ages, but hey no problem… I rented a spare dad to go with you” no way! I hear you cry, you just would not do that, right? So why would you outsource your customer relationships to a 3rd party! You own and need to maintain these relationships directly via your sales team. Remember the best sales people are those that build personal relationships with (your) customers, not relationships built and owned by a 3rd party. This has epic fail written all over it, don’t believe me then go and ask your sales people if they want a 3rd party responsible for their revenue targets and personal bonus. Just make sure you get HR ready to hire some new sales people when they up and leave. Ask yourself do I want a 3rd party owning my account list and customer relationships; well …it is your business, revenue and success after all. To succeed keep this one close and in house.
Now let’s consider (2) Marketing owning social media, on face value this looks like a really good idea, and to some extent it is … for “Marketing”. There are lots of potential savings and efficiency gains
by leveraging social media for Marketing alone. But and hears the point, this is just a single point of customer contact, interaction and relationship management in your organisations ecosystem. A customer relationship that is essentially decoupled from other key areas of your business, ask marketing how does your social media engagement strategy link to customer service, sales, HR,
product management and logistics? Grab a coffee for this one and sit back, marketing will have some of the best multimedia power point for you to enjoy. I’ll help you out “It frequently doesn’t” is the answer. But social media engagement with your customers in these key areas can also have a significant business impact. A social media marketing strategy in isolation of these key business functional areas is really a missed opportunity and route to even greater business value.
To fully realise true business value from social media engagement with your customers you will need to adopt a cross functional engagement strategy. Think of this as an organisational structure built around a hub and spokes. At the centre are the social media strategists providing governance, with the spokes reaching out organisation wide across key functional areas such as marketing, product management, sales, support, HR and logistics. A holistic social media organisational structure based within your business that you own, to maintain and grow your customer relationships. This is an effective eco system for success that can drive real business value and sales revenue from social media.
In what scenarios do you see one or the other viewpoints discussed been successful?
Outsourcing Social media engagement and/or owned by Marketing vs an in house “Cross functional social media engagement strategy”
Like this:
Flight grounded, its twitter time
It has not been a good day for @stephenfry when his Qantas flight from Australia was grounded due to an engine shut-down, it was time to TWEET. With 3.3 Million followers see what a tweet can do.
Here are some highlights from the day in a edited down TWITTER time line
That’s it. Phone off now. Starting to taxi. See you all the other side. Singapore first. Then London. Farewell and thank you, Australia
….
Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play.
My flight. Still on board. Not sure of we’ll be bussed to the airport lounges or kept aboard while they work on it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15587519
[At one point this hits the number #1 most popular read on the BBC1 UK web site ]
Still stuck on Dubai tarmac. No one seems to know how long we’ll be here. Should’ve landed in London at 6:20. That won’t happen! #qantas
@ABCNews24
Looking for passengers who were on-board the #Qantas A-380 forced to land in Dubai after engine trouble – please get in touch via Twitter
[ABC News 24 8.762 twitter followers, and provides news coverage from Australia and around the world http://www.abc.net.au/abcnews24 ]
@abcnews24 We’re just stuck on the Tarmac: have been for an hour or so. Give my Liverpool Tony Jones – enjoyed the Lateline chat
@abcnews24 I think plan is to bus us to the transit lounge and await International Rescue. This plane, the crew tell me, is going nowhere
@abcnews24 So either Sydney send another one out or they come to an accommodation with Emirates. Either way not a great week for #qantas
@abcnews24 I should in all conscience add that staff are being wonderful & that morale is high and the passengers understanding & cheerful
On a bus from the plane to the terminal now. Who knows what treats lie in store? #qantas
@abcnews
It seems @stephenfry was on board the #qantas A380 RT @stephenfry: Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play.
[ ABCNEWS has 91,569 followers, news updates from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. http://www.abc.net.au/news ]
@abcnews and I’ve left my wallet on the plane – all my ID cards, money passes etc. I’m going to be siting here for ever and ever and ever
Well, SMH, not so much “upset” as bloody furious. But with myself for leaving so hurriedly I forgot my wallet: me=twat http://m.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/stephen-fry-stuck-as-qantas-a380-superjumbo-forced-to-shut-down-engine-20111104-1mz06.html
Reunited with wallet & cards so v relieved ! Hurrah. Qantas have gone to the trouble & expense of this: which is nice http://pic.twitter.com/3sStwLfV
I seem to have made Gulf News http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/celebrity/stephen-fry-tweets-aboard-diverted-qantas-a380-in-dubai-1.924094
[Gulf news picks up the story]
There is be a faint chance that in 4.5 hours time I might get to Munich and then have a scramble to connect for home. Luggage? Ha! #QANTAS
Well it looks as tho someone’s wonderfully finagled a seat on an Emirates flight direct to London this afternoon. Should only 16 hours late
@stephenfry Apologies for the delay Stephen & thanks for keeping your sense of humour as always. Australia & Qantas have enjoyed your visit
[ @QantasAirways 66,192 twitter followers ]
Finally taking off now. Thank you Emirates.
Touchdown! 14 and a half hours later than expected, but touchdown! An exciting day .. .
Social Selling 101
As sales people we need to be where our customers are, today the new landscape is social spaces and places. However social networks can be a vast engagement area and potential a huge waste of time, impossible to cover effectively. Remember the most successful sales people are those who build relationships. In the new social world we need to change our engagement and focus onto PEOPLE not the social network itself. Build out our network of people in social spaces/places, contribute and participate (the NCP Model). “Care – but do not sell”, the sale will come through the social engagement and relationship. However social time management will be a key area for us to focus on, and the tools that can help us manage these relationships. I have been reviewing Xeeme “Flights” (http://xeeme.com) as part of my certified social media strategist course (SMACAD), think of it as a social spreadsheet where we onboard sales contacts from our social address book. Create objectives (a sales campaign if you like), reach out to your social contacts on a daily basis, gain wider coverage and engagement, be more effective and engage with those who count by monitoring the times when you touch base. This has the potential to increase your reach and focus your time effectively in the social world. The old school way of sales engagement by phone, cold calling and email has very low contact and conversion to sales rates. The new social engagement model however can potentially increase this by a factor of tenfold. More to come…
Insight from my recent Social Media Strategist class (SMACAD)
