What makes for a successful organisational social media strategy? Ask George!
What makes for a successful organisational social media strategy? Well, as with almost everything organisations do well, it’s all about people. When it comes to Twitter, I follow a host of organisations I have some connection with or where I think there might be something that will interest me. To be honest, however, I probably click through to less than 10% of the published content. Why is this? Well, to be frank, personality bereft corporate communication bores me senseless. Take the following typical example (name and url changed to protect the guilty):
CorpComm Corporate Communications
CorpComm publish survey into the social media preferences of professionals working in corporate communications sector - http://bit.ly/qW!m1£
Totally devoid of any human interest. If it finds me in one of those rare ‘brain dead’ moments when I am between tasks and not thinking creatively I suppose, just suppose, I may find myself wondering about the ‘social media preferences of professionals working in corporate communications sector’. But in all likelihood it will probably pass me by. But what about:
George House CorpComm CEO
Ha! Just spilled my coffee. Bugger. All over our latest survey into the online habits of communication professionals! - http://bit.ly/qW!m1£
Now I’d probably follow George.
He tweets regularly, maybe 30 – 40 each day. Mainly about CorpComm or his working day, sometimes about his professional interests, now and then about what pub he is lunching in or what event he is at and sometimes what he is listening to on his iPod, what book he is reading or the music he is listening to. He gets Twitter. It is important for his company and it is important for his own personal brand.
George knows that it isn’t about how many people follow him, though he has a few hundred; it is about the quality of the content he is able to squeeze into fewer than 140 characters. It is also about the online relationships he is able to build. That’s why he follows back those who take an interest in what he has to say and takes the time to have conversations. Oh, and George also has a personal blog. It isn’t all about CorpComm. He writes about the things that interest him personally and professionally and drives traffic to his blog through shortened links on Twitter, Facebook and other social spaces.
Cleverly, George’s marketing and communication team support his personal use of social media and encourage him to do more. They allow him to update the corporate Twitter account and he is an administrator of their Facebook page. When George puts out a link, be it professional or personal, he uses CorpComm’s bit.ly url shortening account. This way the marketing and communications team can keep track of what’s working well and help George develop really successful content.
CorpComm is considered to be at the leading edge of corporate social media engagement, but it is vulnerable. It’s a fairly small organisation with just under 50 staff. There are only three or four others really active in social spaces and none as active or successful as George. One day George is going to leave and really CorpComm needs to build into its succession planning how it is going to fill the void not just in terms of organisational leadership, but how it fills the equally important void of the organisation’s presence and influence in social media.