It implement-a-social-media-program-storyboard-ver3

Implement a Social Media Program
Develop, execute, and govern a cohesive social media program across your entire
organization to unlock the full potential of your social media strategy.

Info-Tech Research Group 1

Introduction

Most organizations understand the value of leveraging social media for customer interaction, but
executing an effective strategy can be a daunting task. Successfully coordinate and align the social
initiatives of different business process domains by including a steering committee, process
workflows, and determining if a physical command center is appropriate.

This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
 IT managers advising the business on  Implement an appropriate social strategy
technology and information security issues based on your organization’s size, industry,
around social media. and business model.

 Determine your organization’s maturity level,
 IT professionals involved with selecting and and put governance structures, like a Social
managing social media technologies – the
Media Steering Committee, in place.
services themselves, as well as CRM suites,
and social media management platforms.
 Outline and delineate departmental
responsibilities for social media initiatives.
 Sales, marketing, and customer service
professionals tasked with integrating social  Incorporate a Social Media Command Center
channels into their business processes. into your strategy to drive in-band
engagement and analytics to the next level.


Executive Summary

• IT has an invaluable role to play across all social media maturity stages. It’s a crucial advisor for technology enablement
and risk mitigation. It can also help start the business thinking about social media coordination.

• Before launching a social media program, clearly define the business objectives. Social media can be used to achieve a
variety of goals across marketing, sales, and customer service. After goals have been defined, a formal social media
program can begin. Failing to put strategic forethought behind this program is a major blunder that organizations make.
Don’t let your company run a disorganized and uncoordinated social media program!

• Identify where your organization falls on the spectrum of social media maturity, and plan program implementation
accordingly. Most companies begin their social media initiatives in a distributed stage (departments acting independently),
then transition to a loosely coupled model (greater coordination between departments), and finally move to having a Social
Media Command Center (highly centralized oversight of social media initiatives, often with a physical office component).

• Moving from the distributed stage to the loosely coupled stage will create significant gains for organizations pursuing a
social media strategy. In particular, putting a Social Media Steering Committee in place will provide coordination and
shared governance that allows companies to effectively address customer interactions over social channels. A Steering
Committee must work to coordinate the efforts of different business units and departments.

• Executing the social media program consists of four critical steps:
o Creating strong leadership
o Optimizing process workflows
o Enabling the right social media technologies
o Putting prudent governance policies in play.

• When warranted by sufficient volume and complexity of social interactions, consider building a physical Social Media
Command Center to handle all monitoring, analysis, and inbound/outbound social interactions.


The Info-Tech Social Media Research Agenda
Info-Tech’s social media research covers all the bases of running a best-of-breed social media program.
If you’re at the greenfield stage, start with the first set, which covers program deployment and governance.

Social Media Strategy &
Social Media Implementation
Technology Selection

Leveraging Social Media VL Plus: Social Media Formulate a Social
Implement a Social
for Customer Interaction Management Platform Analytics Strategy
Media Program
• Build a social media • SMMPs empower • Social analytics can
• Creating a structured
strategy that adds managers with a help companies
program that unifies
social networks to your variety of tools for measure and
the social media aims
existing multi-channel analyzing and influence their efforts
of IT and different
customer interaction managing social to strengthen their
business domains is
framework. media. brand, drive sales,
vital for success.
and improve service.
• Select the social media • Selection involves
• As needs mature, firms
services that best defining functional • This set will help you
need to implement the
complement your requirements, understand the
right governance and
existing channel creating a shortlist, importance of social
process management
interaction strategies in evaluating offerings, analytics and how to
capabilities for the
marketing, sales, and and choosing the form a strategy to
social media program.
customer service. vendor. manage your efforts.


Adopt a Roadmap for Your Social Media Program

What’s in this Section: Sections:
• Create and follow an overall roadmap for managing Adopt a Roadmap
your organization’s social media program. Assess Maturity
• Identify opportunities to leverage social media in a Build a Steering Committee
variety of business process domains.
Execute the Program
• Understand why it’s necessary to avoid the pitfalls
Create a Command Center
of poor social media execution.
• Begin thinking about how to confront the challenges
posed by social media program execution.


Having a world-class social media program doesn’t happen by
accident: take a structured approach to program management
Companies that excel at interacting with prospects and customers through social channels take a carefully
planned approach to managing their social media initiatives. They start by determining their business goals
and opportunities, then put the right social media governance structures in place. They build a cross-
functional team to manage social media, and fine-tune processes in marketing, sales, and customer
service. When the volume and complexity of social media interactions warrants it, they build a centralized
Social Media Command Center (SMCC).

Info-Tech’s Five-Step Social Media Program Management Roadmap

An important note: This research assumes that your organization understands the business value of
social channels and has already completed the first step – defining goals and opportunities. The focus of
this set is ongoing program management, not the initial business case.
If your organization hasn’t determined goals and opportunities, refer to this solution set first.


Put strategic forethought behind executing your social media
program, or fall into one of the many pitfalls that awaits you!
Failing to plan is planning to fail. While Info-Tech found that nearly 75% of organizations are
leveraging social media, many have not put the necessary planning and governance structures in
place to unlock the full value of their social media initiatives.

• Most organizations are now leveraging social media for customer Pitfalls of a Poorly Executed
interaction in one or more business process domains Social Media Program
(e.g. marketing, sales, customer service, and/or public relations). • Lack of necessary coordination:
The enterprise use case for social media is now widely understood. Insufficient shared planning between
departments leads to social media programs
• However, social media programs face a number of challenges on the that are inconsistent or ineffective in their
road to success. Deciding to move into social media is easy – messaging. This directly undermines the
executing a world-class program that fully realizes your specific customer experience over social channels.
business goals is not.
• Redundant effort: Unnecessary duplication
• As companies increase their investment in social media, there needs of social media effort across departments,
to be corresponding steps taken to protect that investment. and wasted opportunities for realizing cost
efficiencies (e.g. volume licensing of social
• Organizations must establish cross-functional governance structures media management tools).
and fine-tune their social media processes. See the list on the right
for some of the most common challenges facing managers involved • Inadequate risk mitigation: poorly trained
with social media. end users who inadvertently open social
channels up as a malware vector.

IT has an indispensible role to play in advising the business on a social media program. Acting as a
champion for social media governance and process execution will help steer the business clear of the
pitfalls, and strengthen IT’s reputation as a valuable partner for getting the most out of enterprise apps.

Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group ‹#›
7

A variety of organizations are rapidly implementing social
media, furthering the need for strong program governance
A recent survey by Info-Tech revealed that there is no difference in the rate of social media implementation by company size
or industry/vertical. Don’t discount the value of undertaking a social media program just because your company is not a
large enterprise – SMBs also stand to realize significant value from social media.
Info-Tech estimates that the highest implementation rate of social media programs is in North America (86%), with Europe
trailing not far behind (79%). Adoption of social media services in Asia-Pacific lags noticeably behind North America and
Europe at only 50% – however, adoption is gaining speed, and Info-Tech predicts that Asia-Pacific will rapidly close the gap
over the next two to five years. As program adoption increases, it’s time to understand how to manage your efforts.

North America leads the pack in However, over 40% of organizations have yet to put
social program implementation strong social media governance structures in place
Estimated Social Media Adoption Rate

90 86%
79%
80
70 -37% Command
60 Center
50% Stage, 26% Distributed
50 Stage, 42%

40
30 Loosely
Coupled
20 Stage, 33%
10
0
North Europe Asia-Pacific
Social Media Maturity Index : Info-Tech Research Group
N=75 America N=89


Identify the most common risks of executing a social program,
and take an aggressive and proactive stance to mitigate them
A recent survey by Info-Tech identified the top risks faced by managers executing a social media
program. Lack of buy-in by end users was ranked highest, followed closely by lack of business process
domain integration. The latter highlights the need to build shared planning processes between
departments. Interestingly, lack of executive support and insufficient tools were the least likely to be
rated as serious concerns. The former can be attributed to increased awareness of the social media
value proposition by senior executives. The latter owes to the robust market for social media
management tools that has emerged in the last 18 months.

Over half of organizations agreed lack of domain integration was their most serious challenge.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=75


IT has an integral role to play in advising and supporting the
business across the entire spectrum of social media maturity
Ownership of social media processes is typically spread Who should be responsible for what?
across multiple business units (even when there is
coordination), with IT in a critical support role. Business
• Executive oversight of social media initiatives should Initial Strategy:
come from a Social Media Steering Committee with The business stakeholders must create the overall
deep familiarity of social media services and tools. strategy for using social media. This involves specifying
the business objectives and social media services to be
• IT must have a seat at the table. IT should
used.
conceptualize itself as a critical advisor in two key
areas: technology enablement and risk mitigation.
Ongoing Use:
The day-to-day use of social channels will be most
effective by the individual business domains. Major
operational changes belong to the business.

IT
Initial Strategy:
IT should be involved with creating the strategy, but
should not be driving it. A knowledgeable member of IT
should serve as a resource for educating the business on
the basics of social media services, social media
management tools, and acceptable use policies.

Ongoing Use:
IT needs to serve as an advisor for technology
enablement, as well as a consultant for risk mitigation and
governance best practices.


Assess Your Organization’s Social Media Maturity

• Determine your organization’s level of social media Adopt a Roadmap
maturity, and how to move to the next level. Assess Maturity
• Identify what the business needs to do at each Build a Steering Committee
maturity stage.
Execute the Program
• Identify what IT needs to do at each maturity stage.
• Establish how IT can serve as a central
coordinating force for the social media program.


Organizations fall along a spectrum of social media maturity:
assess your present state and how to move to the next level
Social media initiatives typically start organically – from the ground up in one or more
departments. You must coordinate efforts across constituent stakeholders or your
program will fail.
• Social media maturity refers to the degree of organizational integration from a governance
perspective. Mature organizations have permanent governance structures in place for managing
social media. For example, mature companies leverage Social Media Steering Committees
(SMSCs) to coordinate the social media initiatives of different business units and departments.
Large organizations with highly complex needs may even make use of a physical command
center.

• Compared to traditional apps projects (like CRM or ERP), social media programs tend to start as
grassroots initiatives. Marketing and Public Relations departments are the most likely to
spearhead the initial push.

• This organic adoption contrasts with the top-down approach many IT leaders are accustomed to.
Bottom-up growth can ensure rapid response to social media opportunities, but it also leads to
insufficient coordination. A conscious effort should be made to mature your social media
strategy beyond this disorganized initial state.

Social media maturity is directly linked to overall maturity of customer interaction strategy. If your
organization silos other channels (e.g. telephony and email) across departments, then integrating social
media initiatives will require more effort than if there are already shared planning processes in place
between departments. Whenever possible, take advantage of pre-existing departmental relationships and
committees to help build the case for social media cooperation.


Assess your organization’s social media maturity to determine
where you are starting and where you need to go
Organizations pass through three main stages of social media maturity: distributed, loosely coupled, and command center.
As you move along the maturity scale, the business significance of the social media program typically increases. For
example, organizations move into the command center stage because social media is considered a mission-critical
business activity. Companies at the distributed stage place less business significance on social initiatives.

Loosely Coupled Stage Command Center Stage
33% of Organizations 26% of Organizations
Distributed Stage
42% of Organizations

Sales Sales
Customer Customer
Business Significance

Sales Service Service
Customer
Service

Marketing Marketing
PR PR
Marketing

• More point solutions are • There’s enterprise-level
• Open source or low-cost implemented across the steering committee with
solutions are implemented organization. There is a formal representation from all areas:
informally by individual depts. cross-departmental effort to execution of social programs is
for specific projects. integrate some point solutions. handled by a fully-resourced
• Solutions are deployed to fulfill • Risks include failing to put physical (or virtual) center.
a particular function without an together an effective steering • Risks include improper
organizational vision. The committee and not including IT resource allocation and lack of
danger of this stage is lack of in the decision-making process. end-user training.
consistent customer experience
and wasted resources.

Maturity Stages Source: Info-Tech Survey, January 2012, N=89


Begin in the distributed stage in order to kick-start an
enterprise social media program, but don’t linger too long

The majority of organizations begin social media initiatives in the distributed stage.
Sales
During this phase, independent departments pursue disparate social media goals without
Customer
Service
central coordination. While the distributed approach is not as effective or efficient as later
stages, it’s often necessary to kick-start a social media program. Centralized coordination
takes time to implement, so organizations at the greenfield decision level should not
Marketing discourage social media initiatives by individual departments. However, as the scope of
distributed initiatives proliferates, steps must be taken to coordinate the overall program.

What the business must take ownership of: How IT creates value at the distributed stage:
• Each business unit must determine their own social • IT owns the role of advisor to the individual business
media opportunities and goals. Enterprise use of social units. Early on, IT should identify an employee with
media should be directly linked to specific business above-average familiarity with social media services. This
requirements (e.g. increasing brand awareness). individual should be prepared to explain the basics of
social media to decision makers unfamiliar with the
• Each business unit determines their specific process underlying services.
execution strategy (e.g. the workflows for dealing with
posts on social networks). • IT should also provide consultation around the risks of
social media, and offer to provide end-user training for
• Each business unit independently engages IT as mitigating the risks of malware and unacceptable
necessary for security and technology issues. corporate use.
• Where requested, IT should provide selection assistance
• The business must own the data generated from social with social media management tools.
media initiatives (e.g. marketing collateral and brand
positioning/messaging). • The best IT can do in this stage is coordinate the different
business domains. IT should seek out a champion in the
business who can help with forming a steering committee.


Move to the loosely coupled stage to build a consistent social
customer experience and take advantage of economies of scale
As social media initiatives mature, organizations move to the loosely coupled stage of
program governance. At this stage, different departments and business units begin to
coordinate processes with one another to deliver a consistent, coherent message over
social channels. The goal of this stage is to have all departments actively
participating in a unified Social Media Steering Committee. The greater the
integration, the more consistent the program, and the lower the overall costs. The end
result of the loosely coupled stage should be the ability of the organization to function as
a virtual Social Media Command Center, supporting central process orchestration.

What the business must take ownership of: How IT creates value at the loosely coupled stage:
• Social media champions across different departments • IT needs to continue its risk mitigation role from the
must band together to create a steering committee. distributed phase.
• The steering committee must identify target segments • At this stage, IT plays a key role in facilitating all of the
and how to best interact with them through social media business stakeholders to develop shared business
channels. This involves setting common escalation requirements to be used for technology selection.
processes and workflows.
• IT will lead any technology selection projects (e.g.
• The steering committee must be the sponsor for all social social CRM, SMMP) to help the business stakeholders
media technology selection projects, and represent all understand what different technologies will and will not
stakeholder requirements with as many common do for the business. IT will ensure that economies of
technologies as possible. This will drive cost- scale are realized in technology selection by selecting
effectiveness in implementing social media programs as few tools as possible.
across the entire company.
• IT must assist with physical technology
implementation and operation of any procured social
media platforms.


When needs warrant it, build a physical Social Media
Command Center as the pinnacle of a social media program
Businesses with highly complex social media needs should move from the loosely
coupled model to creating a physical Social Media Command Center (SMCC). An
SMCC is an organizational structure with complete control over inbound and outbound
Sales
Customer social media interactions across marketing, sales, customer service, and PR according to
Service agreed-upon workflows. An SMCC provides centralized reporting and analytics
capabilities. A physical SMCC is not a mandatory requirement. Typically, a command
center is warranted when the volume and complexity of social interactions (or “share of
Marketing
PR voice”) relevant to the company hits a certain saturation point (see the last section of this
storyboard for specific guidance on when to move to the command center phase).

What the business must take ownership of: How IT creates value at the SMCC stage:
• The decision to create a command center rests with the • IT’s role in technology enablement takes center stage
business. Companies with lower-order social media needs will with an SMCC. IT will need to provide extensive
be best served by the loosely coupled model, as a command assistance for the selection, implementation and upkeep
center requires significant investment. of the technology leveraged by an SMCC (both hardware
and software).
• The business must determine the high-level strategic intent
and objectives of a Social Media Command Center. It must • For large command centers, a dedicated IT resource
also decide how to allocate resources (especially people) to (such as a systems analyst and/or technicians) may be
the SMCC. necessary.

• The business must specify how the SMCC fits into a broader • IT can also serve as a valuable sourcing ground for
customer interaction strategy, and determine specific cross- employees to staff aspects of the social media command
channel escalation policies. center (e.g. business analysts with prior social media
experience).
• The business must define the leadership and management
reporting structure of the SMCC. The business must also • IT should continue to assist with end-user training, and
provide the necessary staff for the command center. have a seat at the table for SMCC governance.


Case Study: Dell’s Command Center is now a textbook
example of leveraging the full potential of social media
With a truly global customer base, Dell gets about 22,000 mentions on the social
web daily, and does not sit idly by. Having established a physical Social Media
Command Center in December 2010, Dell was one of the companies that
pioneered the command center concept.

Today the company claims impressive results, including:
• “Resolution rate” of 99% customer satisfaction
• Boosting its customer reach with the same number of employees
• One third of Dell’s former critics are now fans
Tools:
The center categorizes interactions into three categories, depending on the most • Radian6 SMMP
effective approach: • Three rows of monitors, offering
instant insights into customer
 Customers seeking help sentiment, share of voice,and
 People sharing ideas geography
 Customers reinforcing success Staff:
The command center carries out the following activities: • The center started with five people;
today it is staffed by a team of 15
• Tracking mentions of Dell in the social cloud interacting with customers in 11
• Sentiment analysis languages.
• Dell values human interaction; the
• Connecting customers who need assistance with experts who can help them center is not running on autopilot,
• Social media training and any ambiguous activity is
analyzed (and dealt with) manually
• Maintenance of standards for social media interactions
on an individual basis
• Spreading best social media practices across the organization
Sources: Bazaarvoice.com,1on1media.com, ft.com, Mashable.com


Determine your organization’s social media maturity
level with Info-Tech’s Maturity Assessment Tool
Are you trying to put together a Social Media Steering Committee? Perhaps you’re having trouble positioning your
organization’s efforts relative to your competitors? Or are you looking to invest in a Social Media Management Platform
(SMMP)? There should be one major consideration behind any steps you take: how mature are you with respect to your
social media program? The question is simple, yet more than often, top executives struggle with the answer.
You can't know what to do and where to go if you don't know where you're starting from.

It’s not easy to objectively evaluate your
organization’s level of maturity. Sometimes it’s a
matter of collecting enough information about the
divergent initiatives across multiple business
domains. Sometimes, even having all the
information on your hands, it’s not easy to assess
your maturity level – either because you are not
sure which criteria to look for, and how to weigh
those criteria, or even because you find yourself lost
in the details, unable to decipher the big picture.

Info-Tech’s Social Media Maturity
Assessment Tool will help you determine
your company’s level of maturity and
recommend steps to move to the next
level or optimize the status quo of your
current efforts.


Build a Social Media Steering Committee

• Understand how IT is in a unique position to fan the Adopt a Roadmap
embers of a Social Media Steering Committee Assess Maturity
(SMSC).
Build a Steering Committee
• Create an SMSC charter to define the structure and Execute the Program
composition of the committee.
• Recognize the four main functions that an SMSC
provides: leadership, governance, process
integration, and technology procurement.


Take advantage of IT’s centralized position to get other
departments thinking about social media coordination
If several departments bypass IT’s input and manage social media initiatives autonomously, they fail to
unlock cost synergies between different process domains – there’s duplication of effort, no volume
discounts, and contradicting security policies. The faster you can govern initiatives between departments, the
faster cost and effectiveness synergies will be realized.
In many organizations, IT tends to be more centralized than its counterparts in the business. This makes it
uniquely positioned to encourage greater coordination by helping the business units understand their shared
goals and the benefits of working together.

IT should use the following tactics to get business stakeholders onboard:

• Ask about their goals. Demonstrate how other departments have complementary objectives.
Outline their gains
• You can help them get a better deal on their SMMP solutions (e.g. volume discounts).
and shared goals
• You will guide them through implementation and help out with end-user training.

Describe the ROI • It is difficult to calculate the exact ROI on social media in general, but it is possible to set cost
using specific cutting goals for specific projects. For example, stress that buying an SMSC-approved social
examples media management platform will save 20% over procuring it independently due to bulk prices.

• Using stories that resonate with your organization’s current challenges will help your business
Share success partners visualize how buying into centralized coordination will help them. Use success
stories stories from departments working together in your organization, from your contacts at other
firms, or from the quotes and examples provided in this report.

Info-Tech’s recent survey showed that the “urge to silo” is the second most sensitive pitfall in implementing
social media programs, with 51% of respondents agreeing that lack of process integration between
departments blocks success. In this way, IT’s role as a “salesman” for the loosely coupled stage is just as
important as IT’s role as an initial advisor on the technologies and risks.


Leverage a Social Media Steering Committee to provide
executive participation and cross-departmental alignment
Creating a Social Media Steering
Info-Tech Insight
Committee is a reliable
governance technique for moving
The Social Media Steering
from the distributed stage to the Committee must have high-level
loosely coupled stage. Create a executive sponsorship and
committee to boost cooperation support, or it will likely fail!
and better realize social goals.

Purpose of the Committee
In addition to aligning the organization’s social media goals and messaging, Key Functions of a Steering Committee:
the composition of the team serves as an ideal channel to drive 1. Providing strategic leadership, by
organizational buy-in. Involving multiple stakeholders across different mapping social media goals to
business process domains will help gain recognition of the committee as a business objectives.
critical player in the social media program.
2. Prioritizing social media initiatives
Composition of the Team and coordinating process
The team should consist of departmental stakeholders and decision integration.
makers: all permanent members of the SMSC should have the authority to
make decisions for the business unit(s) they represent. Ensuring broad 3. Leading technology procurement
participation from the executive side is critical because large-scale projects efforts, with IT, to satisfy as many
will cross many different departments and business units. Key executives shared requirements with as few
include senior managers in marketing, sales, customer service, PR, and IT. tools as possible.

4. Act as a governing body for the
We’ve put a [Social Media Steering Committee] in place… and it has ongoing social media program.
worked out quite well for us.
- Robyna May, IT Manager, Barea Pty Ltd.


Don’t skip out on a steering committee: social success is
greatly boosted by bringing multiple departments into the fold
Info-Tech’s research shows that the more departments get involved with social media implementation, the higher the
organization’s success score (calculated based on respondents’ report of the positive impact of social media on business
objectives). On average, each additional department involved in social media programs increases the overall social media
success score by 5%. For example, organizations that leveraged social media within the customer service department,
achieved a higher success score than those that did not.
The message is clear: encourage broad participation in coordinated social media efforts to realize business goals.

High 80 Customer Service Involvement
70 Boosts Success

Customer Service
60

Involved?
Yes 68%
Success Score
Social Media

50
No 47%
40
30 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Social Media Success Score
20
Our research indicates that the most important
10 stakeholder to ensure steering committee success
is Customer Service. This has a major impact on
Low 0 CRM integration requirements – more on this later.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of Departments involved
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=65

Having a clearly defined Social Media Steering Committee
Charter defines roles and ensures the committee delivers value
Leaders must ensure that the SMSC has a formal mandate with clear objectives, strong
executive participation, and a commitment to meeting regularly. Create an SMSC
Charter to formalize the committee governance capabilities.
Developing a Social Media Steering Committee Charter:

• Outline the committee’s structure, composition, and
responsibilities using the Info-Tech Social Media
Steering Committee Charter Template.

• This template also outlines the key tasks and
responsibilities for the committee:
o Providing strategic leadership for social media
o Leading technology procurement efforts
o Providing process integration
o Governing social media initiatives
o Ensuring open communications between
departments with ownership of social media
processes

• Keep the completed charter on file and available to all
committee members. Remember to periodically update
the document as organizational priorities shift to ensure
the charter remains relevant.


The SMSC must provide strong leadership and advocacy for
enterprise social media initiatives – this is its foremost task
A Social Media Steering Committee shouldn’t be a figurehead organization. It must
take an active role in charting the strategic course of the social media program.
• The SMSC should be the driving force in the organization for Common strategic planning topics that should
all major social media initiatives. Regardless of business
be a central focus of the SMSC include:
process domain, high-level issues pertaining to social media
should be addressed primarily through the SMSC. • Identifying the business objectives to be
achieved through use of social channels.
• The committee’s objective should be the oversight (and, if
necessary, consolidation) of all social media programs. • Mapping business objectives with specific social
media services (e.g. Facebook and Twitter).
• The value proposition of the loosely coupled model is • Determining the target markets the organization
negatively impacted when departments or project teams
hopes to reach via social channels.
bypass the SMSC. Accordingly, only SMSC leadership should
have the authority to approve new social media projects. • Establishing high-level positioning, branding,
and communication plans for social channels.
• A steering committee must take the lead for signaling • Creating inter-departmental communication and
commitment to social channels to the rest of the organization. escalation rules for social interactions.
The committee must be the governance organ executives go to
for information on a social strategy. • Assessing corporate access policies for social
media (e.g. who should receive open access vs.
who should be blocked).

The SMSC should be transparent in its decision making. Strategies formulated by the SMSC should be
clearly communicated to both executive sponsors and departmental stakeholders. Memoranda from each
meeting should be kept and distributed to constituent departments.


Map your social media program to specific processes within
each business domain to boost program effectiveness
Determine when, where, and how social media services should be used to augment existing
workflows across (and between) the business process domains. Establish escalation rules and
decide whether workflows will be reactive or proactive.

• Once a social media program has been put in place, fine tune
your efforts in each business process domain by matching social
technologies to specific business workflows. This will clearly
delineate where value is created by leveraging social media.

• Common business process domains that should be targeted Marketing Sales Customer
include marketing, sales, and customer service. Public relations, Service
human resources, and analyst relations are other areas to
consider for social process support.

• For each business process domain, IT should advise on the
tools of the trade that must be employed, and assist with
technology enablement and execution. For example, if Sales
wishes to leverage social contact information, IT must turn on Public Human
the requisite features (or purchase the necessary third-party Relations Resources
modules) in the company’s CRM suite.
A well-oiled social media program leverages
social workflows in these domains.

The Social Media Steering Committee should have high-level supervision of process workflows. Ask to see
reports from line managers on what steps they have taken to put process in place for reactive and
proactive customer interactions, as well as escalations and channel switching. IT helps orchestrate these
processes through knowledge and expertise with social media tools of the trade.


The Social Media Steering Committee, together with IT, should
lead requirements gathering and technology procurement
• The steering committee should sponsor social media technology enablement projects; the most common projects
include selecting and deploying a Social Media Management Platform, and/or augmenting the CRM suite with
social media extensions and plug-ins. High-level business requirements for technology selection projects should be
discussed in the committee. More granular requirements should be uncovered by a business analyst from IT working
with the individual departments.

• Decide whether an ad hoc or platform-based approach is right for you. The decision will likely depend on your
organization’s maturity level and social media ambitions. Unless you are in the distributed stage (and don’t mind
being locked in it for a long time), you should seriously consider the platform-based approach.

• IT should gather end-user requirements through defining processes, actual data, and each participant's functional
needs. Basing feature requirements on actual data collected through user research reduces the risk of investing
resources in unwanted features and increases the likelihood of adding useful ones. It is beneficial to create a
requirements document through the three-step User Experience Engineering (UXE) process.

1. Define business 2. Complete user research 3. Identify where business objectives
requirements to determine user needs and user needs overlap

Your requirements should Watch users work and notice Example: the business goal is to increase
be pain points, time wasters, and customer recognition of a particular sales
Specific, Measureable, Ac unmet needs. It is also useful campaign, and users have identified that
tionable, Realistic, and to interview targeted users to effectively updating tab content on Facebook
Time-bound fully understand their level of takes too long to do manually. A feature would
(SMART), e.g. to maximize proficiency with applications be an SMMP that offered tools for social
customer retention rate. currently in use. property management.

Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group ‹#›
26

Leverage the SMSC as a governance mechanism to set policies
around social media training, security, and acceptable use
Ongoing governance of social initiatives should be another key priority of the
steering committee. IT can lend a strong hand to the governance function.

• The SMSC should be involved with all aspects of ongoing Ongoing governance activities that should be
program governance. The committee’s governance role
under the purview of the SMSC include:
should focus on creating policy (e.g. an Acceptable Use
Policy), rather than direct execution and enforcement; these
tasks should be left up to individual departments/business line • Creating an end-user training program on
managers. proper enterprise use of social media.
• Identifying and mitigating operational risks.
• The IT department has a pivotal role in supporting the SMSC
in governance activities. IT will be familiar with writing • Creating an Acceptable Use Policy.
documents, such as acceptable use policies. Mitigating • Creating guidelines for subject matter expert
operational risk (i.e. malware threats) is also an activity that IT (SME) participation in social channels.
is intimately familiar with. IT can also assist with providing
• Drafting a list of key business metrics that
technology training to end users.
departments should be tracking to gauge their
• The CIO or IT Director on the committee should be sure to social media success.
offer their department’s services in supporting governance
execution.

As social media evolves, it’s very important to
also evolve [your organization’s] internal policies.
- Jeff Lewis, IT Director, Pathstone Inc.


Execute the Program

• Successfully executing a social media program Adopt a Roadmap
means putting the right leadership in place, Assess Maturity
optimizing process workflows, procuring the right
Build a Steering Committee
technology, and governing effectively.
Execute the Program
• Move from ad hoc management to platform-based
management to boost workflow efficiency. Create a Command Center
• Provide comprehensive training to end users to
increase their efficiency and mitigate risks.


Follow a step-by-step program tactical framework that mirrors
the responsibilities of the Social Media Steering Committee
Follow this framework to organize your efforts and achieve better results.

1 2 3 4
Leadership Processes Technology Governance

Prioritize social
Provide strategic Lead technology Provide training, mitigate
initiatives and map
leadership by setting procurement efforts with risks, establish best
social media services
business objectives IT to satisfy as many practices for SME use of
and technologies to
and aligning the business requirements social media, and track
specific business
needs of different with as few social media metrics to benchmark
process in
departmental management tools as the success of the social
marketing, sales, custom
stakeholders. possible. media program.
er service, and public
relations.


Ensure that your social media leadership originates
in the SMSC and flows down to constituent business units
The Social Media Steering Committee should take ownership of high level strategic
decisions, policies, and interdepartmental coordination. Tactical and operational
execution should be left to leaders in IT and the individual business units.
• Strong leadership from the SMSC sets the tone for the social
media program, but the SMSC is usually comprised of managers
at the senior or executive level. Competent leaders are also Social Media Leadership Structure
needed in each business process domain to handle the day-to-
day tasks that arise from using social media. Strategic: Steering Committee
• Delegate a social media team lead in each business process
domain. This individual has ongoing operational responsibilities
Tactical: IT and Dept. Project Leads
for leading social initiatives within their own department. The
team lead should work with their associated steering committee
executive to translate the strategic edicts of the SMSC into day-
Operational: Project Teams
to-day business processes.

• Depending on company size and resources, the team lead can
be a full-time social media manager, or an existing role (e.g.
marketing manager), preferably with prior social media
experience.

Select outgoing individuals with deep subject matter expertise and previous experience managing social
channels as team leads. Don’t thrust the position onto someone – departmental team leads need to have a
genuine passion for enterprise social media. Employees who have less overall tenure, but a track record of
social media performance, can outperform those with much more traditional experience.


Understand how to construct a social media workflow,
then apply your workflows to day-to-day customer interactions
When building a workflow there are three key components to be aware of: roles, routing, and rules. Each of these
components adds depth to workflow. Roles are the obligations and responsibilities of an individual or group as defined by
the organization. Routing is the process by which a path for a given issue is chosen. Rules are the constraints and
structure by which the workflow operates.

1. Model: A traditional multichannel approach to social media workflows is
reactive – responses are customer-initiated – and requires an SMMP that Reactive Proactive
monitors your own social properties and can respond in-band. A proactive
1 Input Input

multichannel approach does not depend solely on the customer and relies
heavily on “listening” and looking for customer inputs on an organization. This
model requires the use of an SMMP with listening capabilities for the entire
Processing
Cloud. Channels of communication could include, but are not limited to, 2 inputs
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

2. Processing inputs: Inputs have many factors that contribute to their
composition and complexity. These factors need to be assessed to be able to
provide an accurate and appropriate response plan. Factors such as 3 Routing
sentiment, urgency, and customer base can all be used to develop an
understanding of influence and help you to prioritize and categorize
responses. Parts of this step can be managed through an SMMP.

3. Routing: Deciding who should be responsible for an input is crucial to the 4 Response

success of social media communication. Assigning the right individual or
group to take action on inputs influences the experience of the customer. The
decision to assign an input to PR, customer service, product groups, or any
other domain will be based on the results of the processing inputs stage.
Contrasting and comparing knowledge bases is a key component of this
5 Archival

stage.
(Continued on next slide)


Understand how to construct a social media workflow (cont.)

4. Response: This component can range from one interaction to a series of interactions. For non-customer service and
support issues, response should be in-band in the SMMP, regardless of which responsible business unit responded. But
for customer service and support issues, these should be electronically handed off to the customer service management
platform, if one exists.
5. Archival: Archive final dispositions in the SMMP. If passed on to a customer service management platform, the case gets
archived in that system as well.

How does this relate to your organizational model?
Before trying to integrate and customize a social media workflow for your organization, it is important to understand the basic
framework of a generic social media workflow. This framework will set the stage for further development and success. Three
basic structures will be outlined: centralized, distributed, and agency. After comparing these to your own organizational
model you can begin to create and customize your own workflow template.

An example of reactive vs. proactive customer service

Reactive Proactive


Design around the centralized deployment model when
SMMP functionality rests in the hands of a single department
Centralized Model
In the centralized model, a single SMMP workspace is owned
and operated by a single business unit or department. Unlike the
agency model, the SMMP functionality is utilized in-house. The
centralized model lends itself well to a loosely coupled structure Social
with a Social Media Steering Committee.
Cloud
Primary Role

Information from the SMMP may occasionally be shared with
other departments, but normally the platform is used almost
exclusively by a single group in the company. Marketing or public
relations are usually the groups that maintain ownership of the
SMMP in the centralized model (with selection and deployment SMMP
assistance from the IT department).

Impact on social media workflows:

• When determining the appropriate responsibility for
engagement, all parties can use the same SMMP for a
response. Marketing Sales Service
• If the organization has a formal customer contact
center, customer service issues should be handed off to
the CRM system through integration.
In this example, marketing owns
and manages a single SMMP.


Design around a distributed deployment if multiple
business units require advanced SMMP functionality
Distributed Model
In the distributed model, multiple SMMPs (sometimes
from different vendors) or multiple SMMP workspaces
(from a single vendor) are deployed to several groups (e.g.
Social multiple departments or brand portfolios) in the
Cloud organization. Not surprisingly, the distributed model for
SMMP management is typical seen at the distributed
maturity phase. This phase potentially wastes opportunities
for gaining economies of scale via centralization.


• Because you have multiple SMMPs, you now have
multiple points at which routing has to be done.
SMMP SMMP SMMP SMMP
• Archival will also be in these discrete systems,
divided between domains.

• Customer service issues still need to be handled by
Marketing

Customer

any existing contact center, but now there are
Relations
Service

Public
Sales

multiple points of integration.

For more information on deployment
models, look at Info Tech’s Vendor
Landscape Plus: Social Media Management
Platforms.


Design around the agency model when part (or all) of
your social media program needs to be outsourced
Agency Model
The agency model of social media management uses a contracted
third-party to provide social media management and analytics.
Ideally, an SMSC should still be giving direction to the agency.
Outsourcing social media management to an agency makes sense
for small firms unable to afford the support staff to run the daily grind
of a social media program. Social
Cloud SMMP
Primary Role
This model serves as a touch point for the client organization: the
client requests the types of market research it wants done, or the
campaigns it wants managed. Then the agency uses its own Agency
SMMP(s) to execute the requests. (e.g. marketing or public relations agency)

Social Analytics Reports and
The agency may be the owner of the SMMP, therefore, the agency has
to be intimately involved in creating and changing workflows. Scorecards

• When routing, the input may have to go to the agency, not your
organization’s internal business units Client Organization
• If customer service isn’t set up, you’ll need to temporarily extend
service control to the agency to ensure interactions are logged. Marketing Sales Service PR

• The agency model may also be deployed in hybrid with the
decentralized model to have 24/7 coverage without depending fully
on your internal employees.


Incorporate social media into marketing workflows to gain
customer insights, promote your brand, and address concerns
While most marketing departments have used social media to some extent, few are
using it to its full potential. Identify marketing workflows that can be enhanced through
the use of social channel integration.
• Large organizations must define separate workflows for
each stakeholder organization if marketing’s duties are
divided by company division, brand, or product lines.

• Inquiries stemming from marketing campaigns and
advertising must be handled by social media teams. For
example, if a recent campaign sparks customer questions
on the company’s Facebook page, be ready to respond!

• Social media can be used to detect issues that may indicate
product defects, provided defect tracking is not already
incorporated into customer service workflows. If defect
tracking is part of customer service processes, then such
issues should be routed to the customer service
organization.
I’m typically using my social media team as a
•

• If social listening is employed, in addition to monitoring the proactive marketing team in the social space,
company's own social properties, marketing teams may whereas I’m using my consumer relations team
elect to receive notices of major trends concerning the as a reactive marketing and a reactive
company's products or those of competitors. consumer relations taskforce. So a little bit
different perspective.
- Greg Brickl, IT Director, Organic Valley


Public Relations should leverage social media as part
of an integrated corporate communications strategy
Alongside marketing, public relations stands to gain considerable insight from the use
of social workflows. PR can use social media as a bidirectional channel for
communicating with the media, analysts, and members of the interested public.

• In a mature social media strategy, Public Relations/Corporate
Communications should be able to return to their primary duty of
monitoring the company at the highest level, and responding to the
same generic inquiries they respond to through other channels.
The role of being the Level 1 responder to all inquiries through
social media is not sustainable, and non-generic inquiries must be
gradually turned over to the other business units for response.

• Typical inquiries that the SMMP should route to PR/Corporate
Communications include:
◦ Company leadership/management
◦ Company mission/values
◦ Political/regulatory questions
◦ Investor relations (if public), if a formal IR department is not a
social media stakeholder
◦ Media inquiries

• If social listening is employed, in addition to monitoring the
company's own social properties, PR may elect to receive notices
of major issues concerning competitors.


Leverage social media in sales workflows to generate,
qualify, and close leads and keep up-to-date on client activity
Use of social media by sales and business development departments lags behind that
of marketing and service, but organizations are leaving considerable money on the
table by failing to adequately support sales processes with social media. Don’t fall into
this trend!
• Large organizations must define separate workflows for each
stakeholder organization if sales duties are divided by company
division, brand, product lines, geography, or sales channel.

• In business-to-consumer organizations, most sales inquiries
should be handled by Level 1 social media reps. This usually
involves direction to product and sales websites.

• In business-to-business organizations, social channels must be
integrated with existing lead management processes, to route
potential leads to the sales and/or marketing process for lead
qualification and nurturing. For more insight on lead
management processes, see Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape
Plus: Lead Management Automation.

• Tier 1 sales representatives can leverage professional social
networks (such as LinkedIn) to screen prospects, keep up to
date on their account base, and communicate with prospects
and customers. Where reps are using social media in this way,
management must establish guidelines and provide training for
acceptable use.


Customer service departments should design proactive social
media workflows to identify and address customer concerns
Reactive service over social channels can drive engagement, but truly world-class
customer service is provided by identifying social customers with legitimate product
issues or concerns and offering to help them before they ever have to reach out over
traditional e-channels.
• If an incoming social inquiry, or one discovered through social listening, can be
identified as a request or opportunity concerning support for a product or service,
that should be routed directly to the customer service organization. Customer
service must not be performed by two different organizations or you will loose the
capability for a 360 degree view of customer and prevent the customer service
organization form learning valuable feedback on their support processes and
knowledge-base articles.

• Defect tracking should be employed for social channels, and routing defect issues
to a product marketing or product engineering group may be necessary,

• If customer service reps resolve an issue received through social channels, they
may need to respond in-band using the same social channels, or they may decide it
is more appropriate to switch channels, such as communicating via email or phone.
Channel switching is usually required when an issue or resolution is private and
should not be shared in a public social media setting. However, all customer
service case resolutions must still be recorded and closed in the customer service
or CRM application.

• For more information on customer service workflows and interaction channel
switching, see Info-Tech’s Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the
Social Customer.


Take advantage of insights; craft a plan for social analytics to
gain “in the flow” insight from social workflows
Undertake a social analytics project to provide insight into social media and help your organization
navigate its way to success. There are two main types of analytics: those that pull insights from the
social cloud, and those that measure the effectiveness and efficiency of internal workflows. The former
provide information on the demographics, sentiment, and influence patterns of social contacts. The latter
track volume and average time-to-resolution of social efforts.

Look into supplementing your social media efforts with Adoption of Social Analytics
a social analytics project if:
No Plans to Monitor 34%
• Your organization already has a large social footprint; you
manage multiple feeds/pages on three or more social
media services.
Planning to Monitor 24%

• Your organization operates in a predominantly B2C Monitoring 41%
context, and your target consumers are social media
savvy. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
• The volume of marketing, sales, and service inquiries Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N=90
received over social channels has seen a sharp increase
in the last 12 months. • 41% of organizations are currently monitoring social analytics,
with 24% planning to in the next 18 months.
• Your firm or industry is the topic of widespread discussion • If you are diving into social media, a social analytics initiative
in the social cloud. should follow close behind.

For more on using social analytics for customer and competitive intelligence,
refer to Info-Tech’s solution set Formulate a Social Analytics Strategy.


When it comes to technology, verify that using social media
management tools is the right approach for your company
• Effectively managing social workflows is an increasingly
complicated task. Proliferation of social media services and Ad Hoc Management
rapid end-user uptake has made launching social campaigns a
challenge for small and large organizations. Social Media
Steering Committees must decide whether to use specialized
software tools that assist with managing social channels.

• There are two methods for managing social media: ad hoc
management and platform-based management.

◦ Ad hoc social media management is accomplished using the
built-in functionality and administrative controls of each social Platform-Based Management
media service. It is appropriate for small organizations with a
very limited scope for social media interaction.

◦ Platform-based management uses an SMMP or CRM suite to
provide a layer through which multiple services can be easily
managed, monitored, and analyzed.
SMMP
• Companies in the distributed maturity stage can squeak by using
ad hoc management in many cases. But those in the loosely
Ad hoc management results in a number of social
coupled stage should take a close look at platform-based
media touch points. SMMPs serve as a single go-
management. For command centers, a platform is a must.
to point for all social media projects.

With the exception of smaller firms with basic needs, Info-Tech recommends looking at a Social Media
Management Platform. “Freemium” SMMPs, like TweetDeck and Hootsuite, are available for those who
want platform-based management on a budget.


Reign in social media by choosing an SMMP to
streamline and turbocharge social initiatives
• Social Media Management Platforms (SMMPs) reduce the End Users
complexity and increase the outputs of enterprise social media. (e.g. marketing managers)
• The value proposition of SMMPs is around enhancing the efficiency of
social media. Using an SMMP to manage social media is more cost-
effective than ad hoc (manual) management. Account & Campaign
Management
• SMMPs provide feature sets for managing social campaigns,

SMMP
responding to conversations, and carrying out monitoring and
analysis. The typical SMMP integrates with two or more social media In-Band Response
services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter). SMMPs are not simply a revised
“interface layer” for a single social media service: they provide
significant capabilities for advanced management and analytics. Social Monitoring/Analytics

• The typical TCO for an SMMP for three years ranges from 50k-80k.
• The Social Media Steering Committee should work with IT to
successfully evaluate and select an SMMP vendor. Prominent vendors
include Radian6 and Syncapse.

• The actual implementation of an SMMP should be handled primarily
by IT, with the steering committee acting as a sponsor.

• Having one SMMP vendor for multiple departments results secures SMMPs mediate interactions between
economies of scale and reduces training costs vs. when departments end users and the social cloud.
are not coordinated and buy independently.

For a complete overview of how to understand, evaluate, select, and implement an SMMP, please
see the solution set Vendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms.


Use SMMP feature sets to automate and simplify
significant portions of your social media processes
SMMP
Feature Basic Feature Description Advanced Feature Description
Bucket
Social Integration with social media services beyond
Ability to track and monitor popular social
Channel basic features – for example, integration with
channels, particularly Facebook and Twitter.
Integration LinkedIn and YouTube.

Social Basic monitoring and analysis: for example, Advanced abilities such as sentiment analysis,
Analytics frequency analysis and demographic analysis. influence analysis and/or content-centric analysis.

In-Band
Ability to engage social stakeholders from an
Response Ability to interact with stakeholders over social
established contact list; ability to use analytics for
and channels using the platform itself.
engagement purposes.
Engagement
Account and Advanced management of social campaigns: for
Robust management of multiple social media
Campaign example, ability to quickly create custom tabs on
accounts across multiple services.
Management Facebook pages.
Social Ability to maintain a history of social
Integration with third-party archival solutions.
Archiving interactions.
Dedicated mobile applications for one or more
Mobile
Compatibility with popular mobile browsers. major mobile platforms (e.g. iOS, BlackBerry,
Access
Android).
Advanced integration with social media services
API access for social media service
Platform via dedicated connectors; integration with CRM
integration.
suites.


Integrate social media processes (and SMMPs) with
your CRM suite to strengthen overall goal achievement
• Linking your social media program to existing CRM solutions
can improve information accuracy, reduce manual effort, and
provide more in-depth customer insights.
◦ Organizations surveyed by Info-Tech reported that integrating
social media management tools with CRM suites boosted
goal achievement by 68%.

• Several major CRM vendors are now offering products that
integrate with popular social networking services (either natively
or by providing support for third-party add-ons).
◦ For example, Salesforce.com now allows for native
integration with Twitter.

• Regardless of deployment model chosen (centralized,
decentralized, agency), establishing points for data interchange
between social media management tools and CRM is highly
desirable. Doing so opens up the databases of one to the other,
allowing more advanced analytics – more on this on the next
slide.

For companies that have not formally integrated social media with CRM, IT should develop the business
case in conjunction with the applicable “business-side” partner (e.g. Marketing, Sales, Service, PR, etc.).
Actual integration of information between SMMPs and CRM suites can often be accomplished out of the
box, or with a third-party connector.


Linking your SMMP to a CRM suite builds a
360-degree view of the customer
• Social media is a valuable tool from a customer insight • New channels do not mean they stand alone
perspective, but its power is considerably magnified when it’s and do not need to be integrated into the rest
paired with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite. of the customer interaction architecture.

• Many SMMPs offer native integration with CRM platforms (e.g. • Challenge SMMP vendors to demonstrate
Radian6 and Salesforce CRM). IT should identify and enable integration experience with both CRM
these connectors to strengthen the business value of the vendors and multimedia queue vendors.
platform.
• Manual integration – adding resolved social
inquiries yourself to a CRM system after
closure – cannot scale given the rapid
increase in customer inquiries originating in
the social cloud. Integration with interaction
management workflows is most desirable.

These tools are enabling sales, and they
help us serve our customers better. And
anything that does that, is a good
investment on our part.
An example of how an SMMP linked via CRM can provide
– Chip Meyers,
proactive service while contributing to insights for
Sales Operation Manager, Insource
sales and marketing.

SMMPs are a necessary single-channel evolutionary step, just like there used to be email-only and web
chat-only customer service options in the late 1990s. However, they are temporary. SMMPs will eventually
be subsumed into the larger CRM technology ecosystem. Only a few best-of-breed will survive in ten years.


Case Study: Intel demonstrates its social technologies by
building a Social Cockpit for the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show

During the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas, Intel presented its own Adobe-Air based desktop
application that monitored the CES talk in the social
cloud. The application was custom-built for the event and
operated similar to tools like Radian6.

Goals: A team of dedicated staff worked to monitor and
measure real-time social media activity at the event. The
goal was to gain a deeper understanding of how users
engage with not only the Intel brand, but technology
overall.

Staff: The staff consisted of Intel’s social media team and
a small team from WCG, a Texas-based digital
communications agency.
Intel tracked not only hashtags, but
Results: The monitoring and analysis showed a rising also the following:
consumer interest in ultrabooks. Brands such as • YouTube views
Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung were on top throughout the • Facebook posts, fans, and likes
week. Mentions of mobile, especially Android, were • Twitter follower growth
significant as well, according to Aaron Strout of WCG. • Tweets on leading technology
• Blog and forum posts

Sources: mashable.com, newsroom.intel.com, freepress.intel.com, freepress.intel.com, siliconvalleywatcher.com


Social media training is important at all times –
during program genesis, as well as on an ongoing basis
Training Stage Length of Training # Attendees Delivery Method Info-Tech Tip
• Depending on complexity • 10–15 per
Tailor training to group
Initial of tools, anywhere from 60 session • In-person or via web-
demographic (i.e. younger
Training – 90 minutes, however no • Keep #s conferencing
employees will often get
longer as trainees will lose low to allow • Structured format
social tools faster).
focus after 90 mins for 1:1 help

• Informal, online forum for
Ensure all users have
people to ask colleagues • Online, discussions
access to minimum
Community or IT questions, start started by IT or
manuals for CRM and
Development discussion groups, etc. Unlimited users, and answered
SMMPs. Helpdesk costs
• Knowledge sharing of by anyone that can
are minimized by self-help
best practices, tips, and help
and peer help.
tricks

• 15–30 mins, depending • 15–20 per
Renewal on feature complexity session • In-person, or via web
• Users more Center renewal trainings
Training & • If users know the conferencing
on new social media
Training on training will be comfortable • Should be informal
& may ask processes or underutilized
New Processes quick, they will be more and allow lots of time
questions at SMMP feature sets.
apt to attend for questions
this point

People must be trained, especially in teams. This While most younger employees are familiar with how to use
offers counter balances and checks as once social media, they are not trained in how to use it for formal
information has been made public it is difficult to business interaction, much like many younger employees are
change or refute. not trained post-high school in casual business writing.
- Joan, Info-Tech Survey Respondent - Info-Tech Survey Respondent


Good governance means being proactive in mitigating
the legal and compliance risks of your social media program
Risk Category Probability Risk Suggested Mitigation Strategy

 Whenever possible, implement separate social network accounts for
business, and train your employees to avoid using personal accounts
at work. Sometimes you would want some of your employees to use
Risk of inappropriate exchange of their pre-existing accounts for your organization’s benefit. Have a
information between personal and policy in place for how to treat pre-existing accounts versus newly
business contacts. created ones for enterprise use.
 Train the end users to find and use privacy controls on social media
Privacy & websites.
High
confidentiality  Taking into account domestic and international privacy laws, your legal
Abuse of privacy and confidentiality department should be able to decipher which regulations need to be
laws. introduced around employees’ access to information, as well as social
media content archiving.
 In terms of communication with customers, clearly state the applicable
privacy rules on every social media site where the organization
maintains a presence. Introduce a disclaimer against customers
sharing their personal information on social media sites.

 The legal department should conduct training to make sure
Trademark & Copyrighted information can be used
organization’s Social Media Representatives only use information in
intellectual Low for promotional and other business
the public domain, nothing privileged or confidential. This is particularly
property purposes.
sensitive for Marketing and PR.

Employees representing the  Select the team carefully and ensure they are fully trained on both
Control over
organization on social media official company policy and social media etiquette.
brand image
channels may post something  Ensure consistent monitoring by business units and escalation system
& High
inappropriate to the nature of your for non-compliance issues.
inappropriate
business. If you are a professional  Train every person charged with interacting with customers and
content
services firm, employees can post prospects via social media regarding what constitutes acceptable
something that compromises the brand presentation. Ensure the legal department reviews any social
industry ethical standards. media content that may be interpreted as professional advice.


Don’t neglect the following operational risks

Risk Category Probability Risk Suggested Mitigation Strategy

 Implement policies that outline appropriate precautions by
employees, such as using effective passwords and not
Risk of employees downloading or downloading unauthorized software.
being sent malware through social  Install security on the employees’ computers, database files, and
Security High media services. Your clients are also hard drives.
exposed to this risk; this may undermine  Monitor network traffic and restrict access to websites that can
their trust of your brand. pose substantial risks.
 Introduce a disclosure policy that your organization does not
recommend following third-party links outside its social pages.
Increase in bandwidth needs to support
social media efforts, particularly when
Bandwidth Low  Plan for any bandwidth requirements with IT network staff.
using video social media such as
YouTube.

 In a public social network, you cannot prevent this. Monitor your
Competitors The ability for a competitor to view lists
own brand as well as monitor competitors. If client secrecy must be
Poaching Low of clients that have joined your
maintained, then you should use a private social network, not a
Client Lists organization’s social media groups.
public network (Socialtext, Lithium, private SharePoint site, etc.).

 Augment existing customer service responsibilities with social
Increased
Additional resources may be allocated media requests.
Cost of
Low to social media without seeing  If a dedicated resource is not available, dedicate a specific amount
Servicing
immediate ROI. of time per employee to be spent addressing customer concerns
Customers
via social media.

It’s not uncommon for the Legal and IT departments to be overly cautious, which has the unfortunate
implication of the business bypassing their expertise. The job of Legal and IT should be to inform the
business of the possible risks. The business must then decide when to take these risks and when to stay
risk-averse.


Establish and track social media metrics to ensure
you’re creating business value through social initiatives
Determine key metrics to periodically gauge the success of the program. Set unambiguous targets so that you can take a
proactive stance toward problems. Your goals have to be S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-
bound). That way, you will be able to tell if a performance metric is lagging, and conduct a root-cause analysis to find out
why. Which exact metrics you want to track depends on your departmental goals. Consider tracking the following:

Marketing Sales Customer Human Public
Service Resources Relations
▲ leads ▲ average deal ▲ customer ▲ quality of ▲ brand
attributed to size retention applicant pool awareness:
campaign ▲ sales per percent ▲ number of number of
Increase ▲ sales agent ▲ upselling qualified hires friends, follo
revenue attributed to ▲ share of oppor- wers, likes, e
campaign wallet tunities tc.
▲ ROI on
opportunities
▼ costs of ▼ average time ▼ channel ▼ cost of hiring
campaigns to resolution escalation process
▼ agents per ▼ cost of data rate
Decrease
campaign inaccuracy ▼ assisted-
costs
service: self-
service ratio
▼ cost to serve

In 2012, 59% of Info-Tech survey respondents agreed that their organization’s “brand image has been
In 2012, overwhelming 59% of Info-Tech survey respondents agreed that their organization’s “brand image has
strengthened” through social social media initiatives – much higher than metrics. This is not the first time this
been strengthened” through media initiatives – much higher than other other metrics. This is not the first time
criteria came out on top: the 2009 survey similarly cited brandbrand image strength as the “achieved” goal. goal.
this criteria comes out on top: the 2009 survey similarly cited image strength as the most most “achieved”


And lastly, the steering committee must set policy for
social media usage by employees

If you achieved the level of maturity where you have a Info-Tech Insight
Social Media Steering Committee, part of the committee’s
governance duties must include policies for social media The steering committee’s responsibility is to
establish social media policies for all
usage by employees for company business (e.g. blogging scenarios, both process-driven engagement
or tweeting by subject matter experts). and SME participation in social
conversations.
These guidelines have to be addressed as complementary This isn’t a technology issue, it’s a
to the procedural process guidelines and address issues governance issue.
around social media best practices. However, SMEs do not
need to leverage SMMPs – so technology selection is not
in scope of the policy.

Kick-start a blogging campaign by
referring to Info-Tech’s Blogging
Blogging and and Microblogging Policy
Acceptable Microblogging
Use Policies Policies Template.
Examples of
Employee
Usage Policies
Editorial Account
Review Ownership
Policies Policies


Address these aspects in an Acceptable Use Policy to
create a comprehensive and effective document

Acceptable Use Scope Unacceptable Use Cases Account Ownership Guidelines
Business building activities: Using social media for illegal or Info-Tech recommends giving
 Building positive brand image unlawful purposes (e.g. copyright ownership over business accounts to
infringement, slander, fraud, and employees, provided that upon
 Increasing mind share plagiarism) departure they announce their
 Improving customer Excessive personal use during separation from the company on the
satisfaction work hours account.
 Increasing customer retention Using business accounts for The alternative scenario, where the
personal purposes company owns the accounts,
 Customer acquisition
provides less motivation to make
 Reducing cost-to-serve Opening unknown sources through meaningful connections and
social media sites, which may contributions.
 Gaining customer insight
expose computers to tampering or
malware

Additionally, provide penalties and repercussions for violation or non-compliance, and include the legal
framework for IT to approach content archival based on security and confidentiality concerns.

For more information on creating a social media acceptable use policy see Info-Tech’s Social
Media Acceptable Use Policy template.


Build a Social Media Command Center

• Understand the difference between a physical, Adopt a Roadmap
virtual and hybrid SMCC. Assess Maturity
• Assess if an SMCC is a fit for your organization. Build a Steering Committee
• Structure the governance of an SMCC. Execute the Program
• Establish a plan for staffing your command center. Create a Command Center
• Build and implement SMCC technology.


Build a Social Media Command Center for unrivalled analysis
and response capabilities for mission-critical social programs
Companies at the peak of social media maturity will want to consider building a Social Media Command Center (SMCC).
A command center is both an organizational structure, as well as the people and technologies that support it. Command
centers can be physical, virtual or a hybrid. Notable examples of organizations that leverage physical SMCCs include Dell,
Adobe and the NFL. IT should have a strong role in the command center. A seasoned IT professional with previous
contact center experience is a huge asset for implementing and managing SMCC technology.

Physical Command Center
This kind of command center occupies an actual physical space. Often bearing a
resemblance to an air traffic control room, the physical command center makes
extensive use of visual displays and SMMPs to track, monitor and respond to real-
time social conversations around the globe.

Virtual Command Center
A virtual command center has the same management structure as its
physical counterpart, but teams are physically dispersed, relying on
collaboration technologies to interact.

Hybrid Command Center
A hybrid command center combines aspects of both – typically, there will be a
physical location that houses the core of the social media team, but team members
will also be dispersed across different departments as well.


Determine whether your organization should invest in a
command center
A physical Social Media Command Center can be tremendously beneficial to organizations heavily involved in social
media, but it represents a significant investment of time, money, and organizational effort. Organizations with lower-level
social media needs can typically realize the most value from the loosely coupled stage with a robust Social Media Steering
Committee. Here are some guidelines around when to consider making the investment in a command center:

Adopt a Social Media Command Center if… Bypass a Social Media Command Center if…

• You have a very high volume and/or complexity of • The volume and complexity of your social interactions
social media interactions. are relatively modest.

• Your social media prospects and customers are globally • Most of your “social constituents” are located across a
dispersed. small geographic area.

• You have a well-known, high-profile consumer brand. • You operate in the business-to-business sphere and/or
For example, consumer packaged goods companies have a brand that is less well known.
often lead the pack with respect to adoption of a physical
• Your customer demographics do not lend themselves
command center.
well to interaction through social channels. Traditional
• Social media strategies are central to your interaction channels are your customers’ preferred
organization’s business goals. For example, the bulk of means of communicating with your company.
your marketing efforts occur through social channels.

Someone should have a big-picture view of We will continue to invest in social channels -
how social media is being used. primarily through a marketing front.
- Info-Tech survey respondent - Info-Tech survey respondent


After the decision to adopt a command center has been made,
evaluate which model makes the most sense for your needs
An SMCC can unify and integrate all process domains into one approach. Choosing a type of Social
Media Command Center is important to ensure the most appropriate investments are made. Factors such
as size, customer base, structure, and social media deployment stage all come into play when
determining which kind to go with.

Choose Physical If... Choose Virtual If... Choose Hybrid If...

 Your organization is a large  Your organization is a small to  Your organization is large
enterprise that serves a medium enterprise that doesn’t enough to require a physical
considerable volume of global have significant resources, but command center in some
customers. has deemed social media to be areas, but not all areas.
mission-critical. Delegate
responses to different entities.
• A physical command center is • In a hybrid command center, some
invaluable for top-tier, real-time processes are centralized in the
monitoring and response. All • By not requiring a physical base physical structure while others are
processes should be housed under for actions, the virtual command housed off site. This allows for
one roof in a physical center. center is a better fit for smaller more flexibility if a large enough
organizations who don’t serve a center can’t be built.
large customer base.


Determine if a combination of on-site and mobile staffing can
save on the costs of around-the-clock SMCC staffing
Optimizing the operations of the SMCC is just as important as hiring the right people to do the job. There are two
options to consider before planning out the operational schedule of the command center.

When to opt for 24/7 operations: Social media is a How to approach staffing around the clock
communication channel that often warrants constant
monitoring and engagement. Larger organizations that By creating multiple shifts (two to three per day, 8–12
have an intercontinental customer base should consider hours each) your SMCC can be functional and
staffing their command center for 24-hour service. Since operating for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
social media interactions are most effective when
addressed in a time-conscious manner, these The number of staff required per shift can be
organizations will need their full capacity to engage with determined by the peak hours when most interactions
social conversations in multiple time zones. take place, allocating more representatives during
these times.

When to limit your command center’s business How to approach combination of
hours: If your organization’s customer base is generally on-site and mobile staffing
located within a few adjacent time-zones (likely resulting Conduct research and analysis as to when your target
in periods of time with low volumes of customer prospects and customers are most active on social
interactions) you won’t need 24-hour service. media services. Don’t assume anything when
determining the operational schedule; your
However, having “on-call” mobile representatives will assumptions could be costly.
ensure that high-priority customer interactions are
addressed in a timely fashion, even outside the Provide tablets and smartphones to your employees
command center’s normal business hours. (and incorporate off-site activity into their job
descriptions) to leverage customer interactions after
business hours.


Aim to staff the SMCC with internal candidates;
hire external talent only when there is no perfect fit
As a general rule, hire internal candidates when possible, particularly for higher level managerial
positions.

Your internal candidates may not necessarily have Social media can be learned by anyone in the organization. It
social media-specific backgrounds, but their certainly takes more resources than expected, and employees
understanding of the organization’s vision and engaged with these tools should understand and prioritize
social media ambitions gives them a competitive social media within their regular tasks. It is helpful, however,
advantage. Look for candidates with previous to have an overarching business unit dedicated to providing
social experience, but provide promising support to employees (sales, marketing, executives, etc.); this
candidates with formal experience the opportunity makes communications more consistent and employees find
to build their social media skill set. the tools easier to adopt.
- Dave Frederickson, Hewlett Packard (Canada) Co.
For high level managerial positions (e.g. Social
Media Manager), it’s essential to fill the position The best front-line social media managers are those who
with someone who has experience managing are most familiar with the company
social media initiatives in other departments, but (brand, demographic, industry, etc.) and the
not necessarily centralized efforts. Good products/services of the company. This knowledge and
candidates may have previous experience as a background is superior to a "dedicated, specialized team" to
Business Analyst, or a marketing/PR manager. handle social interactions on the front lines. . .
- Info-Tech survey respondent

Hire external candidates to supplement internal skills:
It’s a good idea to supplement internal skills with a fresh perspective if nobody stands out as a perfect fit within the
company. In a small or fast-growing organization, hiring externally will provide the benefit of additional talents which may not
be available within the organization. With a fast-evolving communication channel like social media, aim to hire strategic
problem solvers with specialized training in marketing, communications, PR, or emerging technologies.


Job openings for social media professionals are multiplying;
refer to these complete job descriptions to build your own
The role of the Social Media Manager is to help define The role of the Social Media Representative is to work
the organization’s social strategy and provide day-to-day as part of a dedicated team for handling inbound and
command center management. outbound customer interactions over social channels.

This individual is involved with: This individual is involved with:

• Implementation of policies and procedures to ensure a • Analyzing conversations occurring in the social cloud
social media presence that is consistent with company
goals, industry best practices, as well as legal and risk • Responding in a manner that improves prospect/customer
mitigation requirements satisfaction while strengthening brand image

• Monitoring and analysis through social channels to gain • Leveraging social media management tools to mediate
customer insights and competitive intelligence customer interactions

• Coordination and integration of cross-departmental social • Identifying and reporting trends and recurring issues
media initiatives and management of the SMCC pertaining to customer sentiment

This individual should have experience with: This individual should have experience with:
• Digital marketing strategies • Customer service (ideally through social channels)
• Social media channels (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) • Social media channels (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• SMMPs (e.g. TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Radian 6) • Project-based work structures

For full job descriptions of the Social Media Manager and the Social Media Representative refer to
Info-Tech’s Job Descriptions – Social Media Manager and Social Media Representative.


Create an SMCC training matrix based on social media roles
Lack of end-user training came out as a top pitfall in Info-Tech’s recent survey, with 40% of respondents agreeing
that that it was an impediment to the success of their organizations’ social media initiatives. IT must help the business by
creating and executing a role-based training program. Training sessions for targeted end-user groups should be
established, and provide concrete guidance on using social media services and management tools.
Use the table below to help identify which roles should be trained on which SMCC features .

Marketing Product
Customer IT Social Social
PR Brand, Product Development
Service Reps Application Media Media
Professionals & Channel & Market
& Manager Support Manager Rep
Managers Research

Account
Management
Response &
Engagement
Social
Analytics &
Data Mining
Marketing
Campaign
Execution
Mobile
Access
Archiving

CRM
Integration


An SMCC project can be split into initial technology
investment and ongoing operating costs – be aware of both
This pricing scenario will give you an approximate three-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a physical SMCC for large
enterprise. Info-Tech broke it down into initial (first year only) and ongoing investments, to give you an idea how far the
figures below go.

Investment Initial Investment Ongoing Investment
Category (first year only) (over three years)
Technology 6 servers 35 CRM licenses*
24 desktop stations + 11 notebooks + 5 iPads 35 SMMP licenses*
3 LED monitors
1 business class projector
35 MS Office licenses *Assuming that you will use SaaS (Software-as-
35 VoIP phones a-Service) vendors
35 headsets
2 printers
Staffing Hiring process 1 social media director
End-user training 4 social media managers
6 social media analysts
24 social media representatives
Other Floor planning (including office furniture)* Ongoing training and development
*Assuming you already lease or own space for
a physical command center
Total: $186,845 $6,962,250

Total Three-Year TCO: $7.15M

For a detailed breakdown of the assumptions made, see Appendix B: Social Media Command
Center Pricing Scenario (3 year TCO).


Structure an optimal physical layout for your SMCC
Large Overhead Monitors Command Center Layout
The displays need to be located where everyone
assigned can comfortably see them. They will function
as dashboards, displaying the following trends:

• Overall sentiment about the company
• A composite trend of parameters related to select
brands or products
• Most active keywords being monitored
• Competitor trending
• Response queue status

For advanced capabilities, consider making some of
these monitors switchable to one of the PCs in the
SMCC, for sharing up-to-the-minute trends discovered
by Social Media Reps.

Low Cubicles for Social Media Representatives
The cubicle walls must be low enough to allow comfortable viewing of the overhead displays. Each Social Media Rep needs
their own workspace. Each workstation needs the following:
• Access to the main SMMP (as well as any other tools used social media monitoring, management and engagement)
• Standard knowledge worker desktop, including email, instant massaging, and Microsoft Office
• Access to telephony systems. They do not need formal computer-telephony integration (CTI) unless the SMCC is being
assigned traditional customer service and support duties.

Info-Tech recommends that traditional customer service and support issues are resolved by the existing customer service
contact center(s), which requires SMMP to CRM integration. Treating social media channels as a silo for customer service
issues is a bad habit to start with. Your contact center(s) should own true customer service and support resolution. The
SMCC should own non-customer service engagement through social channels.


Structure an optimal physical layout for your SMCC (cont.)

Command Center Layout:
Common Workspace
If space permits, provide a common
workspace for daily or shift updates, as well
as for working with business stakeholders
needing support from the SMCC.
This function can be accomplished by a
nearby meeting room, but the presence of
the overhead displays can help facilitate
such meetings.

Supervisor Workspace
Social media managers (or SMCC supervisors) need to have their own workspace to orchestrate the
day's or shift's activities. They need to be able to comfortably view the overhead displays and be able to
see the social media analysts, especially to see hand raising for assistance.
The supervisor desk needs the following:
• Telephony access
• Full access to the SMMP and all social media tools
• Standard knowledge worker desktop with standard productivity and collaboration applications


Case Study: Super Bowl XLVI broke new ground with a
physical Social Media Command Center for game day
Super Bowl XLVI engaged the digital marketing agency Raidious to integrate
the first SMCC that managed the largest NFL event of 2012. The goals of
the command center were three-fold: to ensure great service and
safety, to gather visitor insights, and to amplify the fans’ experience
beyond the Super Bowl stadium. The command center answered visitors’
questions in real-time, provided parking tips, advice on things to do in the
city, and monitored social channels for safety hazards – it also stood ready
to use social media to provide instructions in case of emergency.

The command center value proposition for the NFL was two-fold.
1. Constant monitoring of the social cloud is 2. Social campaigns can reach far more
something that every larger firm needs to invest people and garner far more responses than
in. In the case of the Super Bowl, this is traditional marketing campaigns. They can
particularly sensitive given the active presence make social event marketing easier to
that sports fans maintain in the social cloud. execute and monitor.

Although the command center was event-oriented, it served the NFL and NBC well in all of its efforts. It
can now be leveraged for future events. Process refinements will make social management through the
SMCC even easier in the future.
Sources: cnn.com, socialmediatoday.com

A Social Media Command Center offers many opportunities for firms that have regular or
frequent events or major social campaigns. The NFL’s SMCC was able to handle the massive
volume of social interactions on game day.


This is how Super Bowl XLVI set the gold standard for
using an SMCC to manage a large-scale event
Geo-targeting Indianapolis area activity, the team of 50 Social Media Representatives
concentrated on key-based monitoring to connect to over 150,000 visitors through
platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Tools that made it all possible
• Social Media Management Platform: Awareness, Inc.
• Apps: Google Analytics (beta), Social Mention, NewsMap,
WeFeelFine.org
• Other: Video recording kiosks on-site (Nsixty), pre-built list of responses
to visitors’ inquiries (using Indianapolis-based company ChaCha
Answers)

Super Bowl XLVI SMCC in numbers
• ≈20 people working at a time, 15 hours/day for two weeks until the event
• 2,800 square-foot SMCC in downtown Indianapolis
• Over a mile of Ethernet cable in use
• Nine-screen monitor wall (over 100 square feet of monitor space)
• 4,064 Tweets per second (TPS) in the final moments of the game (a
global record for sports events!)

Sources: Socialmediatoday.com, blog.twitter.com,
cnn.com, digitallife.today.msnbInc.msn.com


Summary

Recommendations Commonly Used Acronyms
• Define your business objectives and map them to specific social • CRM: Customer Relationship Management
media goals and opportunities.
• SMMP: Social Media Management Platform
• Assess your maturity; organizations in the distributed stage should
look for opportunities to increase social media cooperation and • SMSC: Social Media Steering Committee
governance. • SMCC: Social Media Command Center
• Put a Social Media Steering Committee in place. Give the
committee authority for all cross-enterprise social media initiatives.
• Execute the program. Focus on creating strong leadership,
optimizing your social media workflows, implementing the right
technologies, and putting effective governance procedures in place.
• Evaluate and build a Social Media Command Center to take your
social efforts to the next level.


Appendix A: Survey Responses

• Survey Respondents - Industry
• Survey Respondents - Continent
• Survey Respondents - Country
• Survey Respondents - By Department
• What best describes your organization’s adoption with respect to social media for interactions?
• Which option best describes your organization?
• Which departments in your organization have direct responsibility for social media processes?
• Which option best describes IT’s involvement with social media initiatives?
• Rate the following statements about pitfalls encountered in implementing a social media program
• Rate the following statements about the positive impact of your social media initiatives


Survey Respondents - Industry


Survey Respondents - Continent


Survey Respondents - Country


Survey Respondents - By Department


What best describes your organization’s adoption with respect
to social media for interactions?


Which option best describes your organization?


Which departments in your organization have direct
responsibility for social media processes?


Which option best describes IT’s involvement with social
media initiatives?


Rate the following statements about pitfalls encountered in
implementing a social media program


Rate the following statements about the positive impact of
your social media initiatives


Appendix B: Social Media Command Center Pricing Scenario
(three-year TCO)
Staffing over three years:
1 social media director @ 120k/year + benefits
4 social media managers @ 80k/year + benefits
6 social media analysts @ 55k/year + benefits
24 social media representatives @ 40k/year + benefits
Total for three years: $6,747,000

Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) procurement cost:
35 CRM licenses @ $1500 / user / year
35 SMMP licenses @ $550 / user / year
Total for three years: $215,250

On-premise capital investment (first year only):
6 servers @ $1500 (the need for storage will scale up or down based on whether you are using hosted or on-premise CRM and SMMP vendors)
24 desktop stations @ $800; 24 22” LED screens @ $200
11 notebooks @ $1600
5 iPads for mobile access @ $599
3 LED TVs @ $1000
1 business class projector - $3000
35 MS Office licenses @ $500
35 VoIP phones @ $200
35 headsets @ $50
2 printers @ $500
Total: $86,845

Other initial investments:
Floor planning (including office furniture) - $50,000
- Assumption is being made that your organization already has physical space to dedicate to the Social Media Command Center.
Hiring Process + End-user Training - $50,000
Total: $100,000


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