Social Media Champion or Lost Relationships
Posted: September 10th, 2009 | Author: Paul Miser | Filed under: champion, communications, social media, strategy | Tags: champion, communications, social media, strategy |
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Are you putting too much in one person’s hand in social media? As we scour the interwebs to identify the best practices for social media for business, we see a lot of people saying that you need a social media champion that is either in charge of social communications in the company or leads the way for different individuals in the organization to adopt social media communications. Not a bad idea on the surface. It gives your brand that personal flair which is embraced by consumers and builds that trust and loyalty we’re looking for. The thought, “the more human personality you have on social media the better” reigns true throughout this time of strategy. After all we see this working well for Ford and @scottmonty on Twitter.
One question comes to mind… Where does the loyalty actually lie in this type of strategy? Is it with the company the individual is from, or is it with the individual herself?
With that being said I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate. What if…something happens with your social media champion or your social media personality? What would happen if they left your company? What would that do to your social media strategies? If the followers are, in fact, loyal to the company, it won’t make that big of a difference. They will just begin a new relationship with your next social media champion or personality. But what if their loyalty was with the social champion or personality? They have no real connection to your brand, but rather a connection to that individual and will continue to follow them, regardless of their next venture or the relationship will defect.
For example, Ford’s @scottmonty has a shade under 30,000 followers on Twitter. He talks a lot about Ford which is the main reason for people to follow him. He builds the brand, answers questions, and puts out fires all around the social realm. A highly valuable individual in the Ford organization. What would happen if he left Ford? Do you think Ford would continue to engage these 30,000 individuals the way Scott has? I highly doubt it.
All-in-all, we have to be careful of where we put our social media control in our organization. We need to make sure that we are not only creating a social personality for our brand, but also building loyalty for our BRAND. It’s human nature to change and grow. If we put all our social media control into one person’s or a handful of people’s hands, we run the risk of building loyalty in the wrong aspect of our company as well as losing these valuable relationships of followers and friends upon employee departure.
Definitely something to think about… What are your thoughts?
Paul -
Good stuff. Every time I do a social media training workshop and talk about humanization, this question arises.
While I don’t believe this approach is entirely risk-free, here are the four reasons I’m not alarmed. Note that some of my thinking on this came from Scott Monty himself, whom I interviewed about it for my Twitter20.com series.
1. A humanization strategy isn’t always just one human. True, Scott is more or less the face of Ford, but other companies (Radian6 and Dell come to mind), have several people building personal connections in social media on behalf of the brand.
2. You have to have a bench. This is true of any staffing and personnel matter. You have to expect the best, and plan for the worst. Know whom on your team you would elevate if your primary face left.
3. Symbiosis equals loyalty. Scott knows that he’s a bigger deal because he’s at Ford. Ford knows they benefit from Scott’s hard won social graph. It’s mutual success. Scott believes that community managers and the like will be far less likely to change jobs due to this circumstance.
4. Everyone is replaceable. Would Ford hit a speed bump in social media if Scott left? Probably. But not for long. If one door closes, just build another door. Community manager types are like reporters for traditional media, in that their power is partially derived from the fact they represent the company. And the company can bestow that halo on a new person. Would Scott still be popular in social media even if he wasn’t at Ford? Sure. He was popular before he took the job. But, he’s more popular because he’s at Ford, definitely. And Ford could make someone else nearly as possible - hell maybe even more so - if they needed to.
Having a face on your brand is critical. Having that face be the same person forever would be great, but if it doesn’t happen, I don’t see it as a deal-breaker.
j
@Jay - thanks for the comment Jay. I appreciate it. I think Ford and Scott are doing a tremendous job and should be the poster-child of consumer facing social communication. I just want to give people a warning that these relationships could go sour. Not every company is going to find a Scott Monty, but it would be great if they could…
Thanks again for the comment and insights!
This is an important discussion - thanks for not just drinking the Kool-Aid and questioning the rationale of it, Paul.
Jay hit on many of the points I normally make. A bench is definitely important, and it’s something we’re working on at Ford. We took a 0-60 approach to social media (pardon the automotive reference) because we had to. But it’s not our long-term plan. It just isn’t sustainable, especially for a global company.
It’s not too much different than a CEO who’s well-known and respected by consumers (Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, etc.). There’s got to be a succession plan in place - not to mention there has to be an excellent product line that meets the brand promise that people come to expect from these leaders.
We’re definitely living in interesting times; while there are no absolutes right now, there are certainly issues that need to be considered. Thanks again for highlighting some of them.
Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company
@ScottMonty
[...] Social Media Champion or Lost Relationships | paul miser. paulmiser.com/social-media-champion-or-lost-relationships – view page – cached Are you putting too much in one person’s hand in social media? As we scour the interwebs to identify the best practices for social media for business, we see a lot of people saying that you need a social media champion that is either in charge of social communications in the company or leads the way for different individuals in the organization to adopt social media communications. Not a bad idea on the surface. It gives your brand that personal flair which is embraced by consumers and builds that trust and loyalty we’re looking for. The thought, “the more human personality you have on social media the better” reigns true throughout this time of strategy. After all we see this working well for Ford and @scottmonty on Twitter. — From the page [...]
@Scott - Thanks for the comment. It is great to hear your side of the discussion. It’s weird that Jay and I both wrote about the same thing today, but it is definitely a discussion that needs to continue as we move forward with social strategy and succession planning. I’m not 100% sure we actually know what we have here with social media capabilities, but we need to continue to question and drill down to ensure we are meeting and exceeding expectations with, not only our products and services, but also our communications. Thanks again Scott.