4 awesome tips for becoming a truly social business

Social media is not that new anymore and the concept of being a social business is now a reality for many. There are many advantages of being a social business, and your entire organisation can help communicate your message on behalf of your company and brand. Communication is not only part of the marketing department anymore, but a part of the whole organisation.

It’s a fact that your clients, customers, and prospects expect that they can communicate with your brand on the social web. It’s not a nice-to-have, but a must-have. How do you get everyone in your company on board to help you with your social media strategy and help transform it into a social business?

1. Get top management involved
To adopt social media across your organisation is really not something that can be achieved without the buy-in from your stakeholders. This can range from having an agreement with the department heads, who will need to understand how social media will meet their business needs, to having sign off from your executive team.

To make this easier for you, illustriate how your competitors are already using social media within their organisation. Show them how social media can be used for external communication like finding new prospects, recruitment, sharing product insights, and keeping your customers informed. You can also demonstrate social media monitoring and highlight all the missed opportunities on the social web. Another great way to showcase social media is to display how conversations can drive thought leadership throughout the company.

2. Structure a social media team
One of the biggest challenges for companies transforming into a social business is figuring out how to organise all the social media activity when it moves beyond an individual or a team. It’s often chaos figuring this out as everyone wants to be part of it, but think about it in a structured way. How are you going to turn the chaos into a structure that is co-ordinated?

Decide who is going to be active on social media and who will be the leaders in managing all the social media activity per department. Who will be expected to engage on the social web on a regular basis and at which level can they engage? Establish goals for each social team and set a couple of milestones to measure their success. You can also outline all the levels of communication that is part of the overall strategy and a plan for your responses.

3. Social media training
The proper ways and overall etiquette to engage on the social web may change over time. Make sure to have your team equipped with guidance on using the social web, the channels you are using and the best ways to communicate with your target audience.

How are you going to communicate with your target audience on the social web? Do the teams involved with social media know this? Guide the team on the proper way to talk to your customers, the tone you are using, and how they should respond.

Do they know what you want to achieve with your social media strategy? The way your HR department uses social media will be different to your marketing team. Have proper training sessions with your staff and explain what is required of them and their role with your campaign.

4. Never stop your campaign halfway
If you are already busy with a social media campaign in your marketing strategy, you most likely know that your team will need ongoing guidance on your plans throughout the campaign. Think of ways you can provide them with guidance on a regular basis to help the overall campaign and strategy you are running.

Provide them with ongoing training on the best ways to use social media and the channels you are using. Create an editorial calendar so that they always know what themes you are currently busy with. Also, using a WIKI such as IBM can also help where you publish articles and resources on the latest social media trends, news, how to’s, and resources.

With proper guidance, planning, and organisation, transforming your business into a social business can help you reach your goals and also provide better user experiences for your target audience.

Image: Jukka Zitting via Flickr.