Last week, social media strategist Jeremiah Owyang and his team at Altimeter published their excellent report “Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally“.
They started by defining a social media crisis as: “A social media crisis is a crisis issue that arises in or is amplified by social media, and results in negative mainstream media coverage, a change in business process, or financial loss.” Quite a mouthful, but as good a definition as I’ve come across.
The research team group performed quantitative and qualitative analyses, using a combination of an online survey, interviews, briefings, and research on existing social business programs amongst 144 social business program managers (including 18 from what they term ‘Advanced’ companies) and analysed social media crises from Owyang’s infamous ‘punkd’ list.
The bad news? Inevitably, given the growth of social media from both consumer and a business sides, social media crises are on the rise, and most are preventable.
The good news? It seems that companies learn from their mistakes: in all of the 50 social media crises cases studied, some sort of change was seen at the involved companies, with 52% of social media crises resulting in significant change by the companies; 40% of crises resulting in a change (of some lesser magnitude) by the companies and 8% of crises impacted the short-term finances of companies. The main cause of crisis was found to be “the exposure of poor experience” – i.e. customers sewing their complaints into the fertile ground of social media. However, the runners up make interesting reading:
Common amongst companies who had suffered social media crises was a lack of internal education, professional staff and an adequate triage plan.
However, the report is all about how to close the door before the social media horse has bolted.
As such, the key take outs – for me – from the report were these:
Education, defining terms, building the guardrails.
Companies should develop not one, but four sets of social media governance:
a) Social Media Policy: This policy, intended for the corporation as a whole, should define how the corporation-at-large uses social media, as well as if and how employees can participate. For examples, refer to existing social media policies that are available online.
b) Disclosure/Ethics Policy: Created specifically for rank-and-file employees, this policy addresses issues around disclosure and confidentiality. Even if employees are not formally approved to publish on corporate accounts, they can still publish on their personal accounts, and represent the brand. For example, IBM articulates the importance of disclosure in its Social Computing Guidelines, providing a sample disclaimer that social media users can copy and use on their own social accounts.
c) Community Policy: Intended for customers and prospects, this policy protects social media communities from abuse, and guides customers towards a common objective. When crafting a community policy, focus on desired behaviors rather than creating a long list of behaviors you don’t want. This policy should be visible or linked to on all social media accounts.
d) Privacy Policy: Intended for customers who have privacy concerns, this policy defines how the company will use data gathered from social channels, and if and how it will be shared.
A written policy is not sufficient on its own – companies must establish a baseline process to reinforce and update the policy, as well as train incoming hires. Of ‘Advanced companies’, 13 out of 18 have such a process in place; for example, Intel’s Digital IQ program is often cited as a benchmark social media corporate training program. Initially, the program was used to raise awareness of Intel’s social media policy, and has since evolved into a certification program with over 60 online courses.
The team found that some companies limit social media access, using tools like Websense or other firewall technologies. However, the risk remains largely unmitigated, as employees can access social media on their mobile devices or at home. Thus, at a minimum, companies must educate employees on governance, including the company’s social media and disclosure/ethics policies outlined above.
From there, they should continue education for executives, social media practitioners, and business units – those who need more advanced training, for example, on business case, best practices, or success metrics. As an example, Intel has certified 2,500 Social Media Practitioners (SMPs) through its Social Media @ Intel program – a required 30-minute course for employees who engage with partners and customers on behalf of the company. (See the 30 minute course on YouTube).
The best social media employee education is not just a list of prohibitions: all 18 ‘Advanced companies’ allow rank-and-file employees to participate in social media as a representative of the brand: five after formal approval, seven within pre-defined guidelines, and six actively encourage participation. For example, IBM “made a strategic decision to embrace the blogosphere and to encourage IBMers to “participate” back in 2003. Coca-Cola allows employees to represent the brand after completing its Social Media Certification Program.
Ongoing education, training, knowledge sharing
Ongoing education program and best practice sharing fosters continued learning. Those who manage or deploy social media programs require a constant refresh to their skills, as the landscape changes rapidly. Across all companies surveyed, only one-third (34%) have such a program in place.
For examples of good practice in this area: Dell is widely known for its internal social media education program, called Social Media and Communities (SMaC) Talk. The “unconference” format allows members to help drive agenda, as well as teach and learn from each other. Between face-to-face events, Advanced companies supplement social media education by facilitating best practice sharing among practitioners via (for example) a self-serve social media intranet portal or a newsletter with program updates, best practices, and accomplishments.
Enterprise-wide response process
Companies are struggling to keep up with a growing volume of conversations – the study found that enterprise-class corporations already average 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. As workflow across the enterprise becomes more complicated, consistency and efficiency decrease, while risks increase. To ensure rapid response that is safe and coordinated, most Advanced companies established these enterprise-wide processes:
- A social media triage and workflow process distributed across the company. For example, a formalized social media response process at H&R Block guides associates through a needs assessment (“Compliment, Complaint, Tax Question, or Other Issues”) then provides the appropriate course of engagement. With such a process outlined, social media practitioners across the enterprise know when and how to respond to customers in social media. Not in Owyang’s report, but as an illustration, I love this well-known example from the RAF:
- A social media crisis response plan. An astonishing 56% of all companies surveyed lacked such a plan, even though three-quarters of crises could have been diminished or potentially averted.
- Monitoring: Companies should appoint a team that actively monitors social media channels during office hours and beyond. All involved should practice with “fire drills” that simulate real-life crises.
Form a social media Centre of Excellence, serving the whole company. Companies need a cross-functional dedicated team that serves the entire enterprise, or risk duplication of efforts, for instance, in education, measurement, and tool deployment. However, position the Centre of Excellence as a shared corporate resource for business units, rather than as a governing body that issues mandates. The ideal model is Hub and Spoke, where the Centre of Excellence actively support business units to deploy on their own.
Thanks to The Alterian Team for their thorough and interesting analysis, from which I’ve creamed only some of the worthwhile points from my point of view. For more, download the whole report from slideshare:
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