Olivier Blanchard has written the most useful post I have read anywhere on building a corporate social media program.
For the past several years, self-proclaimed social media experts have been tossing buzzwords around and asserting how important it is for companies to “engage in the space” without really taking the time to explain what that means, if they indeed know. That’s not Blanchard.
In fact, Blanchard doesn’t hide his frustration with these people, who seem able to talk themselves into high-level positions with clueless companies despite the absence of any meaningful plan to help those companies achieve their goals. Heaven forbid they ever be asked to measure their success.
Blanchard’s post lays out a positive alternative to this “fling it all at the wall and see what sticks” approach. He outlines a step-by-step process for the social media program manager, whose job ultimately is to “understand all of the ways in which Social Media fits into our organization – in other words, how it can benefit the organization, – and second, properly implement its use in support of key business objectives.” (Emphasis is mine.)
Blanchard’s main point is that you need not agonize over whether social media is supposed to be used primarily for marketing, or customer service, or promotion of the brand, or public relations. Realize that it’s just a tool that can be used for any or all of these things, and can be applied in a different way for each of these functions. The important thing is that the objectives be well defined before you decide how to apply it.
