Q&A Session: Addressing Social Media Culture

I recently presented at an Enterprise Company forum on the topic of - Social Media Culture to support Business Development activity.

The most interesting part was the interactive Q&A session with the audience. Thought it might be useful to list out some of the most popular questions and answers to help support your own social media activity.

Question:
Who typically retains social media ownership within a company?

Answer:
Typically, we see that a high percentage of social media ownership driven from within marketing or PR departments. However, in reality you have to ask "Who owns the customer relationship? ". The answer tends to be various departments that are effected by customer behaviour. Therefore, if social media exists within one department it is never going to serve the needs of the greater customer base. Companies that distribute social media activity across departments with a supportive neutral central division that empowers social strategy, governance, policy, education, training etc. tends to be successful in supporting the needs of the customer.

Question:
How do I justify budget spend to support social media activity?

Answer:
The cost justification is NOT about how great the social media tools are or the fact that your major competitors are using social media tools. It's all about how you can use social media to enable your company's objectives and priorities. If you can demonstrate how you can meet your company's objectives by using social media and it is seen as an enabler, this should give you a clear indication of how you can endorse top down management support to provide clear return on investment programs.

Question:
What are usually seen as the first steps to support social media activity?

Answer:
Before you collaborate externally within your chosen communities, you have to collaborate internally first. For example, you cannot have marketing respond to an existing customer support complaint via tweeter, without involving the support department first. Companies needs to internally collaborate within the various departments, for example provide a key stake holder within each department that feeds into a central social media office. This way you can manage your communication flow to better and support your customer needs. Establishing internal collaboration first is often seen as first steps to adopt successful social media activity.