credit, David Armano
I just wanted to share this great illustration that David created. I think it definitely speaks volumes of how large corporations approach social media (some, not all of them). The problem with a lot of large corporations and social media (and SEO and pretty much anything else you can think of) is that there is not smooth transition and there is no ownership.
In a large corporation if you want to start a blog it needs to get approved by the marketing team, and/or the sales team, and/or the legal team, and/or senior managers, and/or the product guys, etc. Not to mentioned that each team usually has several people that need to approve the project. Basically the corporation kills its own social media strategy and ends up churning out some kind of garbage that fails miserably. Then, the corporation gets upset that the social media strategy didn’t work and therefore dismisses it.
I think that before we begin looking at where the corporation conversations are going on, what technologies corporations should use, and how corporations should engage with their users; we should first examine the barriers and limitations. Before a company jumps into a social media campaign they need to know who is going to take ownership, how many channels the campaign needs to go through, what teams/people need to approve, etc. In fact, if your company has to ask all of these questions then social media is probably not going to work for you.
Corporations need to figure out a simple and easy way to launch and grow their social media campaigns without hindering their own success, otherwise what’s the point?
what’s your take on how corporations view and engage in social media?
thanks for reading
Engagement into social media is a viable marketing strategy but should not get sidelined by fear. My advice would be for your company to go with a corporate blogging platform such as Compendium Blogware, that has some controls within the application. Most of all Compendium also supplies you with the coaching your business needs to execute a successful, measurable, fearless strategy.
hi douglas,
very well said and i couldn't agree with you more. im actually going to put up a video tomorrow by fellow who believes we are educated to fear being wrong, we look down on it and if you want to be creative (which is crucial for social media) then you have to be prepared to be wrong.
im familiar with compendium, have you used them before for yourself or for clients?
thanks again for commenting
Hi Jacob,
I was a co-founder of the original concept behind Compendium's 'compending technology' and recently joined the leadership team as VP of Blogging Evangelism. I did utilize the platform for 2 of my personal clients before joining the company and the results have been great for them. I'm proud of the platform and look forward to some exciting growth there!
Companies NEED the help… you just can't throw them on a platform and expect it to work. That's the gap that we are filling. It's incredibly exciting!
well congrats on that!
companies definitely need help, and it's great that you are offering that to them. im a bit curious about your seo as I have a strong background in seo and currently run a team of technical seos, so far i have not seen anyone with the data or information we have from search engines, testing networks, semantic analysis, competitive intelligence, etc.
do you have a team running your seo and testing your templates?
Thanks Jacob!
Yes, we're constantly updating and enhancing the SEO of the published templates and have quite a busy backlog here. I'm working hard to ensure that SEO takes a the #2 spot right behind bugs since acquisition via SEO is a key reason folks are joining us.
Would love to have your perspectives as well! We partner with a number of SEO companies and probably subscribe to every third party app out there. 🙂
Doug
My personal view is that by running social media strategies through business unit after business unit for approval, the content therein invariably becomes stale. Stale content is unlikely to appeal to anyone, and under such circumstances it may actually be worth foregoing a social media strategy.
I agree with the points made in the comments sections; social media evangelists are required to take ownership of the organisation's social media efforts. The organisation however must simultaneously be willing to allow the individual the space to actually do so.
I think this all comes down to transparency at the end of the day. If it is perceived that the content is genuine and transparent, then users are likely to embrace and engage with it accordingly. On the other hand, if the content is perceived to be merely a stale, overly regulated corporate offering, then the contrary is true. The social media allows organisations to represent themselves as human, and this is where I see the social media providing the greatest benefit to the organisation.
you've got mail 🙂
One thing that some execs don't seem to understand is that social media is not a solution. It's a part of a sales, lead generation, marketing, etc toolkit, and it doesn't really matter whether or not your company likes it. It exists; there are potential relationships to be built with it; and perhaps above all, search engines love social media because it creates fresh content and links. Would your company rather play it safe, not expose itself to potential negatives, and sit on the sidelines while others reap the benefits? Or, can it afford to dip its toes a bit and see what might come of these new communications channels?
ah sorry for taking so long to reply!
nobody likes stale content, it;s not even the fact that it's stale but it gets stripped of its voice and personality. i worked for a marketing agency a while back and i wrote an article on presidential marketing, after the marketing director “edited” it, it was destroyed, my voice was stripped, the point was gone, it was no longer valuable. if you're in the social media game you have to have your voice and personality come through.
it's still a new space, it will change.
thanks for reading and commenting chris (it is chris right?)
hey eric,
yes good point, social media is not a means to an end, it isn't going to solve all the problems that a company faces. it is merely one medium to get things done. eventually i think we are going to see more and more companies catch on, they will have to. as the customer's voice grows so will the ears of the companies.
thanks for reading and commenting eric!
ah sorry for taking so long to reply!
nobody likes stale content, it;s not even the fact that it's stale but it gets stripped of its voice and personality. i worked for a marketing agency a while back and i wrote an article on presidential marketing, after the marketing director “edited” it, it was destroyed, my voice was stripped, the point was gone, it was no longer valuable. if you're in the social media game you have to have your voice and personality come through.
it's still a new space, it will change.
thanks for reading and commenting chris (it is chris right?)
hey eric,
yes good point, social media is not a means to an end, it isn't going to solve all the problems that a company faces. it is merely one medium to get things done. eventually i think we are going to see more and more companies catch on, they will have to. as the customer's voice grows so will the ears of the companies.
thanks for reading and commenting eric!