I’m still playing catch-up on my podcasts (I’m about a month behind on episodes but catching up quickly). In a (semi) recent episode of SocialPros, they had on Convince & Convert colleagues Lauren Teague and Zontee Hou in an episode entitled “What You Must Adjust in Your Social Media in These Crazy Times.” Great episode, as usual, but I want to talk about one thing.
Towards the end of the episode, when asked what her one tip for becoming a social pro is, Lauren states something along the lines of “Social isn’t a job, it’s a toolset.” I am a huge fan of looking at social media that way.
I remember in the early days of social (and by this, I do mean social media… post-Orkut days); there was a lot of, ahem, conversations about who “owned” social. I started community management officially back in 2000, and I want to say it wasn’t until somewhere between 2008 and 2010 that social media started to really gain mainstream popularity. And, I’d dare say it wasn’t until around 2012 where it became more corporations begin managing and expanding their social presence. It was actually a challenge I had when I worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic because LucasArts Entertainment had a lot of reservations about posting Star Wars content on social media sites (and I understood their reasons), but that is a story for another time.
For me, social media is much like other applications we use (when talking about a corporate or brand presence). It’s a tool, not a job. My job is about managing and serving my communities, and that involves a variety of tools in my day-to-day, such as forums, email, social media, ticketing systems, presentations, etc.
As with anything, I do feel someone needs to have ownership of it. Whether that is Community Management, Customer Service, Marketing, Public Relations, or another section, it shouldn’t matter as long as those who should be using it have access (and it doesn’t take jumping through hoops and red-tape to do so). In my opinion, if you’re consistently engaging with your members off of your corporate website, you probably should be using social media as one of those tools and avenues.
Don’t get me wrong; I do think that there is such a thing as a social media expert. I feel there is a lot of benefits in having someone(s) who’s primary (or sole) focus is using social media. Why? One social network is not quite like another. For example, while I may be reaching out to IT pros about the same thing via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., how I engage with them on each of those is different. It’s somewhat akin to how you might talk to someone over email versus text message versus a real-time chat program. Not only are the features and functionality a little different, but the audience also has different expectations and, many times, even a different language. If you are making social a primary avenue and tool, it is great to have an expert within the building (so to speak) who can stay on top of those trends, ensures a brand’s social presence is moving forward, and helps share best practices with the rest of us.
Where does that person reside (within the organization)? For me, it goes with whatever division has ownership over the social channels (because, ultimately, someone has to be responsible) so they can be consulted as an expert from others who are using social. That way, they can work on best practices together, ensuring there is a solid social media policy, etc.
As with most things, I’m a big fan of finding and using the right tool(s). When you have multiple departments using social, this becomes even more important. For example, at Spiceworks Ziff Davis, we use a social platform to push and track the various things we engage with our members in social media. That way we know who is doing what, aren’t stepping on each other’s toes, and seeing what does and doesn’t work (especially now since the landscape has changed a bit since the coronavirus pandemic started). But, we also use an integration so that the items we’re posting and the responses we get are sent to our internal communication platform (where we talk about work… and post memes to each other). This way, we’re aware of who is posting what and how it is being received.
Anyways, hearing Lauren say that made me go “Hmmm” and noodle a bit on it since it is a conversation I hear my peers having from time to time.
Back to the beginning, while the episode was about something else and this was more of the tail end of it, I’d still recommend checking it out if you haven’t. Like I said, it was a great episode.
AAT: By the way, if you’re looking to add any podcasts to your listening list, here are the podcasts I’m currently recommending.