When you start or plan to start a social media campaign, the first variable that you are facing is the team. You need to get the right set of people to get this challenging task done. If the team is done right,then half the task is done . Most companies grapple with the qualities to look for in the members of the team that they need for doing their Social Media campaign.
Social media isn’t something that can just be assigned to someone any more than you can just assign someone to be the homecoming king. Adding a social media to that junior public affairs officer’s job description isn’t suddenly going to make wonders happen. In fact it is a perfect recipe for disaster. This is why so many social media initiatives fail-not because of technology or policy, but because of people. We talk often about what department should lead social media, how to get leadership buy-in for social media, or what technology should be used, and while those are important discussions to have, you should be focused on identifying WHO should be leading the social media initiatives.
The best person right now might be X in Marketing, but what if X leaves the organization? Who leads the social media initiatives then? The answer isn’t necessarily X’s replacement. It might beY in HR. It might be that new guy over in community relations, or maybe it’s your webmaster. The point is that social media doesn’t fit nicely into just one job description. There’s a very real human element to it, and identifying the person, even if it is the right position is often the biggest determination in the success or failure of your social media initiatives
So what is that magic mix that can get the job done for you? I am going to tell you a few things that I have learned, more as guidelines and not hard and fast rules as such .Here they a:
In line with the Organization : Every member of your team needs to be a part of your organization in mind, they need to understand the full picture of the mission and the essence of your organization. Their interest should be in the mission and not just the financial angle of being in the team .
Understands all the aspects of Social Media : The members of the team should be people who know the real transformational power of social media and not a bunch of people with twitter and facebook ids.They should understand that it’s not about applying the same old processes to new tools. It’s about fundamentally transforming the way your organization interacts with the public, your customers and with each other.
Communicative by choice : The team has to be a set of people that enjoy being around and are good at driving conversations and keeping people engaged on a consistent basis. A group of snobs who are always running around with their head in the clouds will simply not cut it, their personality will be counter-productive online.That may end up hurting your brand more than helping it .
Not afraid to goof up : Let us admit it, not all ideas are good all the time, but what the team needs is a continuous flow of ideas, even if a majority of them get shot down by the customer or the higher management. You really cannot afford to have people who will retract into a shell the minute someone shoots down their idea, there should be no fear of failure, but the ability to take it and move on is the key
Team Players : They need to innately enjoy working in diverse teams and thrive on the thrills and pressures that this brings
Not Shift based people : The day long news cycle is dead and it is all full time and real time now, so if you have a team that believes in time shiftings and closes shop at 5:00 pm, your social media campaign is as good as dead, you need people who are willing to stretch it. By saying that, what I mean is, flexibility in schedules to suit needs is the key
Can rise above statistics : What you do not want is a team that spews out numbers at the touch of a button and churns out a ton of statistics which go way above the head of everyone else. What you want is a team that understands the expectations and deliverables and communicates in responsive and simple language. Corporate marketing speak, statistics, facts, and figures are good, but when was the last time you got inspired by a pie chart? Find people who can connect with their colleagues/customers/clients on a personal level
Now that I think about it, these are many of the same qualities that exist in any leader, right? So, what you need is a team full of people with great communicative skills and leadership skills .Once you have the team in place, the next step is to have roles and access control defined and then put them in the sea to see how they swim. Simplify360 can help you with really simplifying that with the best-in-class team management features that it offers in a very easy to use and intuitive interface.
