Getting your or your client's social media policy can be daunting. Follow these pragmatic steps to get you started. Clear, concise counsel will help you address policy setup, governance, business objectives, and what to do when crisis hits.
Given at the Social Media Strategies Summit in Las Vegas for GSMI on Feb 5th, 2013.
3. SAP Today
SAP Community and Social Media Performance
4M 16.5M 700K 6.2M 1.5B
Fans Video Views “SAP” Mentions Clicks Impressions
“SAP has quietly built a B2B social media juggernaut...”
–Drew Neisser, Fast Company
“SAP is a community superstar and one of the highest-scoring brands ...”
– Comblu, State of Online Branded Communities, Nov 2012
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4. SAP: Story of Growth
3M Members
1M
Members
Rebrand:
SCN
Launch
1M
Community:
Forum
SAP Posts
Developer
Network “Handle”
explosion
Core Team
Established
First Policy Regulation
Self-Regulated and Clean-up
Established
Presence
2003 2005 2007 2009 2012
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6. Know What To Do: Culture
Know Your Culture:
Are We Talkers, Or Listeners?
Are We Shy, Or Bombastic?
Are We About Finding Fault, Or Finding Solutions?
Are We Centrally Controlled, or Diverse?
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7. Know What To Do: Business Objectives
Where are you today?
Where are you going tomorrow? Operations
Sales and Service and
Marketing Support
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8. Are you spending time getting your brand on Second Life?
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10. Know What To Do: Set Expectations
Create A Sandbox For Your Employees
Tone
Acceptable
Personable
Conflict With Business
Approachable
Business Objectives
Speak Above Your
Branded
Bash Competitors
Level
Build Awareness of
Address issues
Knowledgeably
Value
Products
Rude
Combative
Individual Brand
Unacceptable
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11. Then Do It: Stakeholders and Communications
Who Gets Consulted
Communications:
Centrally, Visibly Located
Shareable
Public or Private (Hint: Encourage Public)
Where To Go For Help/Escalate
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13. “To err is human . . .
To really „f-up‟ takes a corporation.”
- Anonymous
14. No jokes – Just real life
If a tweet falls in the This move is “out of
The Un-apology
woods … fashion”
One of the world’s largest oil “There's no one who wants During violent protests in Egypt
companies (this time not BP), this over more than I do. I early in the year, fashion
didn‟t see the need for a would like my life back” – BP’s designer Kenneth Cole
Twitter account – so Tony Hayward personally tweeted . . .
Greenpeace created one for
them. "Millions are in uproar in
#Cairo. Rumor is they heard
For 6 weeks they broadcast to our new spring collection is
the world how this company was available online."
destroying the planet from the
“companies own” twitter handle.
Friends don‟t let friends drink and tweet . . .
“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f**king
drive,” the official Chrysler Twitter account tweeted in March. Oops!
An employee of the company's social-media agency had got confused about which account he was
logged into and while drinking one Friday night …
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15. FedEx – Which is more fun to watch?
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16. Impact of FedEx Response:
FedEx Stock Price: Nov 2011 – Mar 2012
Coverage
slows to a
Dec 21: Formal crawl
YouTube
Apology
Dec 19th: Video
hits YouTube
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17. Rules for Crisis Social Communications
Tone Direction
1. Be Humbled 5. Take Action
2. Be Real 6. Learn from Mistakes
3. Be Honest 7. Steps to Ensure . . .
4. Be Direct/Smart 8. Where to go for . . .
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18. Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment
Blog or Twitter Post
Discover Has someone discovered a blog post
about SAP? Is it a positive post?
N
Y “TROLLS”
Evaluate Is this site dedicated to bashing &
degrading others?
CONCUR N Y
MONITOR ONLY
A factual well cited “RAGER” Y Avoid responding / monitor for relevant info
response, which Is this post a rant, rage, joke, ridicule
may agree or or satirical?
N
disagree w/post, yet
is not negative
FIX THE FACTS
N “MISGUIDED”
Y Respond w/factual info directly
LET POST Are there erroneous facts in the post?
(see blog response considerations below)
STAND
N
No response
Y “UNHAPPY CUSTOMER”
RESTORATION
Y
Rectify the situation, respond and act upon
Is the post a result of a negative
a reasonable solution.
experience from stakeholder(s)
See blog response considerations below.
Respond N
FINAL EVALUATION
SHARE SUCCESS LET POST
Proactively share your
Base response on present
circumstances, influence and
N STAND Y
story & mission w/blog No response
prominence. Will you respond?
Y Y
SOURCING INFLUENCE
TIMELINESS TONE
Considerations TRANSPARENCY Cite your sources Focus on the most
Take time to create Respond in a tone
Disclose your SAP by including links, influential blogs
a good response – that reflects highly
Affiliation video, images, related to SAP
24 hours maximum on SAP
other references
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19. Proactive
1. Listen
2. Understand Social Influence
3. Build Communities
4. Humanize Your Brand