The Social Enthusiast

Since the core of what we do at Doe-Anderson is building relationships between consumers and brands, we thought it would be cool to use relationships as a theme. So in honor of Valentine’s Day, all this month we’ll be sharing 28 Days to Make People Fall in Love with Your Brand. We hope you enjoy it.

img courtesy Watje11 on sxc

Do you remember your first couples dance?  I bet I can sum it up in a word: awkward.

Back when you were swaying an arms-length away from your middle school crush, you discovered something that actually has applications far outside the cafeteria dance floor:  if someone doesn’t lead, the results aren’t going to be pretty.

If you’re working on setting up a corporate social media policy or initiative, this is critical information.  Because social media touches so many disciplines (IT, marketing, advertising, ecommerce, public relations, human resources, just to name a few) it can be really hard to know who is “in charge” of social media at your company internally.

When you add separate consultants, PR firms and branding agencies into the mix, it becomes less like an elegant waltz and a lot more like one of those really complicated line dances that were wildly popular in the 1990s.

[Brief Sidebar Rant] Despite the fact that I love dancing, I hated line dancing. I have poor coordination, and invariably ended up facing the opposite direction as everyone else.  [End brief sidebar rant.]

Is there one right answer for who should lead your social media efforts?  No.  It will look different depending on a wide variety of circumstances specific to your company’s structure, internal and external resources, and other factors.  But the right point of accountability will have these things in common:

• A genuine love of and fluency in social media tools and culture. No amount of training can make a person who disdains these tools and the people who use them the right person to be in charge.
• Sufficient empowerment to make on-the-fly decisions on posting, responses, and when and where to escalate an issue.
• A deep enough understanding of the DNA and character of your organization to act as it’s effective voice in social media.
• Willingness to loop in the right other interested parties when and where it’s appropriate.  It can be tempting to try to control everything, and to keep other people, departments, and partner organizations out of it.  But social media is by its very nature inclusive and is at its best when it permeates a company and its culture.   No Grand Poohbahs of Social Media allowed.

When there’s a great person in the lead, and the fundamental steps are shared with everyone (with a clear social media policy), opportunities to improvise with positive contributions appear, and before you know it–your brand is confident, social, and having the time of its life.