scribblings about earning trust & influence as a business on the social web

Social Media is not a checklist.

Posted by Bilal Jaffery on Jan 11th, 2011 in IBM, social enterprise, social media, web 2.0 | 4 comments

Reminder: Social is not a check list. It’s a conversation. It doesn’t stop at the last checkmark.

I shared this on our internal IBM social network and it caught lot of attention, positive attention. It irks me to see social media managed like a typical campaign. It is not a checklist, or items on a to-do-list. Yes, it needs a coordinated framework to be successful and it has to be implemented and executed in a manner where it properly exposes your organization in a positive manner. Don’t get me wrong, there has to be a strategy in place.

However, it is not a check list. It doesn’t stop.
Focus on the conversations, engagement and you will see positive ROI.
Formalized framework with informal, personalized and social front end is the perfect balance.

http://www.bilal.ca/ Bilal Jaffery

Gregg,

Exactly. The disconnected, siloed, non-coordinated efforts hinder the overall sentiment of the community more than improve upon it. Social media has to be utilized as an on-going conversation engine, not mish mash of different activities.

I am not a fan of most corporate social media efforts. Most enterprise social media will fail shortly, most analysts have predicted it already. The lack of engagement and one-way conversations aren’t helping at all either.

In my humble opinion, the checklist mentality is a self-serving tactic for an employee to show to his/her manager (who has no clue nor understanding) that they are working and doing something productive. The lack of ROI mapping and proper framework into a business strategy has allowed this to happen.

Sadly, it’s the same case with agencies who ‘consult’ and ‘assists’ with most social/digital campaigns and end up influencing the culture.

Thanks for the comment again. Appreciated.
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/ jaybaer

Nicely done. Checklists are inappropriate and unsuccessful. Social media is about the Opportunity Economy, not project plans. However, integrated frameworks that explain why you’re active in social, how you respond to opportunities, who responds, and how you measure success – are essential.

Sadly, in general practice there’s a lot more checklists than frameworks (at least today). Hoping that starts to change this year.
http://www.facebook.com/trevor.eisenman Trevor Eisenman

I agree. As far as I can see, the only way to effectively implement it is taking the time to really train as many people in a company as possible to use the different tools, and let them engage where they can, while consistently providing content through blogging. Then share the content through the natural, organic network your employees (or similar) are building through their existing network of connections.
http://www.bilal.ca/ Bilal Jaffery

Thank you. Don’t mind me If I quote you on “Opportunity Economy” in an upcoming project entitled, “EarnedWeb”.

Social Media is not a checklist.

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