1. The Social Media Strategist
Building A Successful Program From The Inside Out
Christopher Barger, SVP Global Social Media, Voce Connect
Awareness Networks
January 19, 2011

2. Death, Taxes, and…
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3. Social Media: The Reality
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4. Organizational Social Media:
A Common Mistake
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5. Organizational Social Media:
A Common Mistake
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6. Organizational Social Media:
“Lucky Seven” Essential Elements
• An Executive Champion
• Clear Lines of Authority
• A Social Media Evangelist
• Sensible Metrics & Measurement
• Partnership with Legal
• A Solid Social Media Policy
• Employee Education and
Training
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7. The Executive Champion
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8. The Executive Champion
• Has credible authority
• Can moderate disputes
• Can sell to the C-suite
• Can provide or raise budget
• Liaison between social & greater
strategy
• Strong relationship with social media
evangelist
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9. Establishing Consensus:
Who “Owns” Social Media?
Source: Flickr, “BrandonB”
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10. Lack of Clarity: Risks
“Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen,” John
• Inconsistent online Cherry
presence and brand
personality
– Audience confusion
• Internal turf wars drain
energy, attention and
resources
• Staff frustration and burnout
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11. Clear Lines of Authority:
Claims to Ownership
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12. Clear Lines of Authority
• “Lead” does not mean “exclusive”
• No other business strategy executes
independently; social shouldn‟t either
• Regular contact and collaboration is
necessary for success
• Guard actively against development of
“box-checking” mentality
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13. The Evangelist
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14. The Social Media Evangelist:
Internal Keys To The Role
• Not just a “social media rock star”
• More than just a community
manager
– Strategist with business focus
– Consensus and bridge builder internally
• Equally focused on – and adept at
– the internal aspect of the job
– Can delegate as opportunity to do so arises
• Has some experience or seasoning
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15. The Social Media Evangelist:
External Keys To The Role
• Actively involved in
social networks
• Comfortable showing some
personality
• Rents, doesn‟t own
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16. Dealbreakers: For The Business
• Overemphasis on personal brand
• No marketing or PR background
• Hasn‟t done homework
• Social media-speak
• Catch-phrases
• Unrelated titles/professional immaturity
• Hasn‟t delivered business results
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17. Dealbreakers: For The Candidate
• Lack of clarity in the organization
over “who owns social”
• No clear champion for social – or for
you
• Unclear or no commitment of
resources
• Failure to understand, accept or
commit to interaction
• Social media is pushed to the
kids‟ table
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18. ROI & Measurement
• Define “success” and know what you want
to see before you start
• Know your zero point
• Select the measurement tools that fit your
goals
• Numbers don‟t mean what you might think
they mean
– Up to 47% of Twitter accounts are abandoned
– 57% of Facebook users hide brand content in their
news feeds
• Grow your engagement as zealously (or
more so) as your reach Source: eMarketer
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19. Working With Legal: Why?
• Recognize that you have similar goals: the
company‟s best interests
• Recognize that “the right thing” in social
and the company‟s best interests aren‟t
always directly parallel
– Transparency is not a zero-sum game
• There is no longer anything such as “ask
forgiveness later”
• Opportunity to create your own legal
social media „experts‟
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20. What Legal Brings To The Table
• Understanding & informed
interpretation of FTC guidelines
• Knowledge & informed interpretation
of emerging case law
• Experienced eye for policy
development
• Rules and ToC for contests and
promotions
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21. Building Social Media Policies
• Why?
– Protects organization and employees
• Who?
– All functions that affect or are affected by social
• How?
– Sync with established business guidelines
– Compromise will be necessary
– Policy and “usage guide” are not the same thing
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22. Good Social Media Policies:
Common Elements
• A statement that employees are expected to follow
organizational ethics guidelines in the social web
• Reminders of individual responsibility and liability
• Reminder of the need for disclaimers that employees do not
speak for the organization
• Disclosure of affiliation with the organization when posting
• Respect for copyright and fair use laws
• Honoring the confidentiality of proprietary or internal
information
• Prohibitions on hate speech, ethnic slurs, etc.
• Privacy and discretion reminders
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23. Education and Training
• Tier 1: The Basics
– Review social media policy
– Familiarization with tools and platforms, uses
– Etiquette guide
– Resources for learning
– Points of contact within the organization
• Tier 2: Advanced for Regular Use
– Instruction on how to represent the brand
– Case studies
– Scenario planning and “war games”
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24. Education and Training
• Tier 3: Everyday Reps
– Outside speakers
– Conferences and influencer events
– Direct experience
• Doing the training
– Intranet modules
– Classroom instruction – both lecture and lab
– Ongoing education
• Lunch and learn/brown bag sessions
• Newsletters and emails
• Internal social communities (Yammer, SocialCast, etc.)
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25. “Immerse and Disperse”
• 15+ people did a stint on
social media team
• Served approximately one
year
• Moved on to other parts of
the business
• Result: 20+ “experts,”
dozens more at
intermediate level
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26. Working Smartly With Online Influencers
• Get over yourself
• Know & follow the FTC guidelines
• Do your homework
• Don‟t be a lounge lizard
• Be involved offline
• Be clear – about everything
• Use the right people from your brand
• Monitor and follow up
• Build your community of advocates
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27. Get over yourself
• Ditch the big brand hubris; they‟ve built
their audience without you.
• Relevance: make sure your pitch actually
fits the influencer‟s personality, audience,
usual subjects – not because you say so.
• Your executive‟s title doesn‟t mean
anything. In fact, no one knows who they
• are. all about you! Lead with their
It‟s not
interests and topics.
• Follow up. Every time.
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28. Social Media Crisis: (Stuff) Happens
• If you are active in social
media, something will go
wrong.
• The trick is not preventing
crisis, it is in how you
handle one when it
happens.
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29. Six To Fix:
The 6 Types of Social Media Crisis
• Individual generated
• Customer service #fail
• Campaign
• Social media #fail
• Organizational brain freeze
• Three Mile Island
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30. Crisis Response: Common Themes
• Keep your social team in the loop
• Apologies go a long way
• Speed is critical
• Don‟t delete criticism
• Your audience isn‟t just the critics
• Use the right tools
• Get caught learning from it
• Keep engaging and follow up
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31. The Book
 How to build an organizational social
media practice
 Available at stores, on Amazon.com,
on Kindle, and barnesandnoble.com
 Facebook.com/thesocialmediastrategis
t
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32. THANK YOU
christopher@voceconnect.com
Twitter: @cbarger