Social Media Strategy is like any other corporate-wide initiative requires among other things Management support, Policy & Guidelines, Championship and People acceptance that lead to its success. In A Softscape White Paper in 2005, the Author emphasize that after all, it is ultimately the people that define the success of an initiative; without their cooperation and incentive to participate, even the best defined plans never make it off the drawing board.
But to make sure that Social Media Strategy is actually and effectively aligned with the organization strategy and business goals ,we need to step back a little and look at the design phase of the strategy and wither the following factors have been considered when the strategy were drafted:
Strategists have a clear view of the Why, Where, What Questions:
Why social media? Specifically to your business. The answer will dictate everything you do in this drafting phase. Assessment is toevaluatewhere you are,where you want to go and what the wins will be along the way (Kuikka & Äkkinen, 2011). As we previously mention, your audience ‘Employees’ are the key to success so : What they need, what can they do and challenges. And these questions can be answered by surveying you employee’s opinion and perception on these issues. At the end, it is important to sell this strategy to them.
Resources Allocation : any strategy need resources to be implemented and Social Media Strategy is no different (Ex. Professionals, Technical Support) (Macnamara., 2011)
Governance framework: Who is in charge (department) and what its main responsibilities and what authority do they have….(Patel & Jasani, 2010).
Those three factors in my opinion are the most critical factors to consider before you actually make your Social Media Strategy operational. Once you align and address these factors with business executives you will have A Governance Body, Resources and Clear Goal aligned with the overall corporate-wide strategy.
(Please Note. These are not inclusive list; I only list the factors that could be critical at this stage)
References
Kuikka, M., & Äkkinen, M. (2011). DETERMINING THE CHALLENGES OF ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION AND USE (2011). ECIS 2011 Proceedings. Paper 248. http://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2011/248.
Macnamara., J. (2011). Social Media Strategy and Governance: Gaps, Risks and Opportunities , University of Technology Sydney: Sydney, Australia, 2011, Available online:http://79.170.44.76/ amecks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/social-media-strategy-and-governance-report-UTS.pdf (accessed on 11 June 2012). . [Report].
Patel, N., & Jasani, H. (2010). SOCIAL MEDIA SECURITY POLICIES: GUIDELINES FOR ORGANIZATIONS. Issues in Information Systems, XI, 1, 628-634.
It seems so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out and yet it something that is missing from many articles on adopting social media in organisations. This is a poweful strategy to explicitly align the social media strategy to the needs, goals and challenges experience by people who will be implementing the strategy. I’m just not sure on why the governance needs an owner? If we look at personal communities on facebook there’s implicit governance of behaviours but no owner of what should and shouldn’t be done – why do corporations need such an owner?
Hi Amanda
Thank you for your comment.
In response to your question: If you look at how our Group is working on the current project, you will see that we use some sort of a Governance framework! 1) We have a plan (milestones and timeline) 2) each member is responsible to write on a specific subject (Authority-Owner) 3) we use resources to manage this project (Meetings Rooms, Skype, other tools, data collection…) …and many other things.
Therefore, Social Media Strategy needs this framework as a Road Map too since the Social Network Usage inside any organization is different from public use because you are serving other objective & Goals (Ex. Corporate objectives, Department’s objective …) and controlled by other policies, and ..
My argument is that these issues need governance to make sure they are operational and to monitor their progress.
Cheers