Digital Digest: Social Media Governance

Digital Digest: What Edelman Canada is reading in digital marketing, technology and strategy. Fresh links served up Fridays.

A recent IBM survey of 1,700 Chief Marketing Officers paints a picture of constantly evolving challenges at the top. Today’s CMO must ensure their organizations have the expertise to make the most of channel and device proliferation, consumer co-creators, a big data explosion, and of course social media. “Today’s CMO has a pivotal role in determining how companies react to industry trends,” concludes Edelman Digital SVP Michael Brito.

But two thirds of CMOs feel unprepared for social media in their organization. To evolve their social media strategy, communications and marketing leaders need the support of a social media center of excellence. Implementing a social media governance model – a toolbox of educational resources, guidelines (see fifth item), internal experts and agency partners – is a key tool for CMO’s bringing social media into their organization. That’s why this week’s edition of Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest looks at how organizations are structuring and motivating their social media teams.

- Matthew Hayles, Editor

Don’t wait to establish a Social Media Governance Model

“A sound social media governance model empowers your employees while keeping them accountable,” reports PC World. This article outlines five components organizations should consider when developing their own social media governance – from a training program to crisis management.

PC World: 5 Components of a Social Media Governance Model

Disclosure: Nokia, mentioned in this article, is a business partner with Microsoft, an Edelman client in the U.S. and other markets. Toyota, mentioned in this article, is a competitor with Chevrolet, an Edelman client.

Hire smart people and make them smarter

Most management is of the “command and control” variety, but creatives and knowledge workers find shutting up and taking orders to be demotivating, writes blogger Joel Plosky. Sound governance, like sound management, should fulfill a support function that empowers employees to “use their brains 24/7” to be the best at their job – whether that’s community management, project management or data analysis.

AVC: The Management Team

Don’t Ask Community Managers to be Business Strategists

In the jargon, there are both efficiencies of scale and efficiencies of scope. Highly functioning social media teams make use of both by allowing specialists to focus on one task (scope) and execute it over and over again (scale). With the right mix of specialists, social media teams can produce a lot of work of high quality very quickly. A highly functioning social media team requires a team structured for success, argues Leader Networks CEO Vanessa DiMauro, so that community managers and business strategists can focus on their respective areas of expertise.

Leader Networks: Don’t Ask Community Managers To Be Business Strategists

Walking Your Social Roadmap

“We are adept at quoting business legends about the importance of change,” but we rarely have the gumption to enact change at our own organizations, writes social business strategist Amber Naslund. But there are organizations that are walking their social roadmap one step at a time. They are listening to their customers and evolving their culture and operations. Sound oversight, through social governance, is a key component to ensure your organization stays on the path and continues moving forward.

Brass Tack Thinking: Change Is Sexy, Until it Costs

Case Study: Navigating pitfalls of social media guidelines

Every organization will bring social media into the workplace in a slightly different way. This means employers should outline clear social media policies and guidelines that set expectations for management and employees. The alternative is confusion and a potentially sticky legal situation. In one recent example, a U.S. federal judge last week allowed a case to proceed against Noah Kravitz, a former employee of PhoneDog, a mobile gadgets news site, who is being sued by his former employer for taking his company Twitter handle with him. With little legal precedent on many aspects of social media at work, “every year something new is going to pop up that is going to catch employers’ attention,” argues Jesse Dill, a Milwaukee attorney specializing in labor and employment issues.

CNN Tech:  Navigating pitfalls of social media guidelines

Disclosure: Microsoft, mentioned in this article, is an Edelman client in the U.S. and other markets. Chrysler, mentioned in this article, is a competitor to Edelman client Chevrolet.

Video of the Week: “Without sun there wouldn’t be artwork.” 

In Rio de Janeiro, artist Simon Fernandes creates an outdoor mural using beads that change colour in the sun and NIVEA sunscreen, leaving the audience with a clear message: when the sun comes out, make the most of summer.

NIVEA: Sun Art

Edelman Canada’s Digital Digest is a weekly bundle of links, served up on Edelman Canada’s Our Ideas blog on Fridays. It’s also available by email. If you know someone who would like to be added to the mailing list, have any questions or just want to share some thoughts on anything you read here, email me. Let’s get a conversation going.

Digital Digest is edited by Matthew Hayles.