Who Should Engage In Social Media For Your Company?
April 30, 2009 – 11:04 am | by Daryl TayResponses to my posts over the last couple of weeks have really got me thinking about this issue. I’d think it’s always nicer to have someone from the company who can react quickly without having to check back with the client about details, but this isn’t always possible, especially with large organisations.
From the Starhub post, it seemed like most people felt like their Twitter efforts were still a small, isolated part of customer service, poised to be properly established when the timing is right, and perhaps when more training is done.
The possible problem with leaving things to agencies, is that, as Jonathan points out, for better or worse, they are now representing your company. So when bad PR happens, your brand is automatically tainted as well. Arguably this can happen even if the person engaging is in-house, but if the communication plan is discussed properly internally and placed in the hands of someone who knows how to engage, the risk might be slightly reduced.
Finally, there’s the issue of the agency taking advantage of clients. At this moment while social media is the shiny new object, clients are going to need training for everything from monitoring to engagement, which is fine and good. But again there’s the extra unnecessary step of back and forth between agency and client, and as Liana points out in the comments, when someone from the organisation itself is responding, it’s easier to maintain the “feel” and “culture” of the organisation compared to if someone was responding on the organisation’s behalf.
To close, I guess at this point while everyone is still finding their footing in social media, it doesn’t really matter because mistakes are going to be made anyway. The important thing is to really bring those learning experiences into the DNA of the company, and begin to empower people in-house who will truly understand the organisation to be your spokespersons, rather than the agency professional who may be better at it, but ultimately is probably juggling three different accounts.
And one way to get this moving a little faster, is to get someone with some rudimentary knowledge of social media on board now, so that when your organisation is finally ready to take on the responsibility fully, you’ll at least have someone ready.
Tags: agency, bad pr, client, company dna, company representatives, culture of company, dna of the organisation, feel of company, rudimentary knowledge of social media, shiny new object, starhub on twitter, who should engage in social media
5 Responses to “Who Should Engage In Social Media For Your Company?”
By Walter on Apr 30, 2009 | Reply
Hey Daryl how are you doing? Long time no see and very glad that you are still active in social media! I have to agree with you on this one – in terms of representation it is probably better for somebody from the organisation to engage social media users than a hired hack. However, just being familiar with social media isn’t enough. You would want somebody with a positive reputation online, who can write in fairly decent sentences, and who is customer oriented to be your inhouse social media person. The last thing you want is a firebrand who ends up cursing your customers or starting a flamewar on Twitter!
By Jonathan Wong on May 5, 2009 | Reply
@Walter – I certainly agree with your assessment.
However, I’m just wondering how many candidates are there in Singapore that possess all of the qualities that you listed: a) familiar with social media, b) has a positive reputation online, c) is a decent writer, and d) is customer-oriented or comes from a PR or customer service background?
Maybe 100? 200 tops?
People like me who just “dabble” in social media certainly don’t qualify.
However, the corollary is this:
If this social media “thingy” really takes off in a hockey stick fashion in the next 12-24 months, the handful of those who do possess the qualities above are bound to make a lot of money. That is if they don’t mind being someone’s in-house expert instead of venturing out and forming their own social media consulting practice.
By Daryl Tay on May 7, 2009 | Reply
@Walter: Right of course! I’d assume those would be default critera for the hiree. I think there’s a lot to be said about writing well, doing whatever organisations have been doing so far. I don’t think doing just those things are going to carry them for the next 5-10 years, so it would be good to invest in them now…
@Jonathan Wong: Actually I think people who “dabble” are perfectly fine. The space changes so fast anyway! And I’m willing to bet people who “dabble” already have a good headstart on companies who are just sitting on their bottoms.
I think the fact that these people are scare resources makes it even more important for companies to get one now. Not necessarily to hammer out global social media plans, but at least to be poised when the wave hits and not scrambling for a lifejacket when it does.
By Derrick Koh on May 11, 2009 | Reply
Hey Daryl – hows it going? Good of you to expound on this topic. My take is that the brand reputation and ownership is ultimately the company’s, not the agency’s. So Lenovo tends to practice in-house led communications for the ‘last mile’. I am not averse to agencies providing logistic and some consultancy but my experience so far is that many agencies are themselves finding their own feet in the arena and even if they have social media savvy folks onboard, translating that into actual value-add services for clients that meet business objectives if another matter altogether.
I’d recommend that brands take matters into their own hands every now and again, understand what they want to achieve (realistically) and start to get their own hands dirty. I agree with the adage – ‘Social media costs little money but costs much time.’
By Daryl Tay on May 11, 2009 | Reply
@Derrick Koh: Good to hear a firsthand account from the client side! I have to agree with your view that in-house competency is definitely fast becoming (if not already has become) a strong requirement for organisations these days. Time of course, may not be on their side at the moment as many are looking at what’s right in front of them instead of what’s coming, and that’s why so many organisations (both clients and agencies) are currently struggling to stay afloat in the social media wave.