April 26, 2012

April 26, 2012April 26, 2012

SOCIAL MEDIA GOVERNANCE

Dr Kailas ChapatwalaDr Kailas Chapatwala

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What is Social Media?Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to

share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.

A few prominent examples of social media applications are: Wikipedia (reference), Facebook (social networking), MySpace (social networking), YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing),Fliker (photo sharing), Bado (London based Social Networking),LinkedIn (for the business community),Eons (for the 50+ community),Club Penguin (for kids)

Social networking services are primarily web-based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as status updates, chat, messaging, e- mail, video, games, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and more.

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Difference between Traditional Media and Social Media

Traditional Media (newspapers, television, radio, books, CDs) can't be changed.  

Social media is interactive.

Social media allows for real-time feedback.

Anybody can publish social media.

Social media is infinite with no limitations on length or quantity.

Social media is linkable and easily reused.

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Social Media is the future for information sharing

According to a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life

Project.

93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as

a venue for social interaction.

64% of online teens ages 12-17 have participated in one or more among a

wide range of content-creating activities on the Internet.

55% of online teens ages 12-17 have created a profile on a social

networking site such as facebook or MySpace.

39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online,, such as

artwork, photos, stories, or videos.

28% have created their own online journal or blog.

27% maintain their own personal webpage.

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What is Social Media Governance?

Social media governance is much more than just a policy.   Governance is much

more broader in scope than policy and has greater significance, especially for

larger companies.

While social media policy defines how our employees should engage via social

media channels, the governance model is a bundle of policies, guidelines,

processes, and educational resources to guide our employees to successfully

represent the company in social media activities.

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1.Social Media Policy:A social media policy is the foundation of any social media

governance model.

Its purpose is twofold:

To guide your employees and

To protect your organization and your customers from risk.

Facebook is on target to hit one billion users this year, and Twitter will soon have 500

million. Many of them are your employees, customers and competitors.

At a bare minimum your social media policy should include specific guidelines for each of

the top three platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

But though social media has become synonymous with that trio of powerhouses, the

landscape is vast, encompassing blogs, wikis, podcasts, video sharing, microbloging,

community forums and other tools.

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5 Components of a Social Media Governance Model

2. Training

Every employee is a PR person, and it only takes one rogue Tweet or Facebook post to

unravel your brand image.

This makes training an essential part of any governance model. Without the proper

resources to educate employees how to represent your organization on the social web, your

social media policy is useless.

3. Monitoring

Nokia recently installed a Mission Control style social media monitoring station of six LCD

screens in the lobby of its headquarters so that any employee can see in real time online

conversations around the brand.

This ambitious move underscores the importance of gathering and sharing information from

the social web to help shape your strategies.

Monitoring is a must for everything from shaping consumer sentiment about your brand to

heading off a potential PR crisis.

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Continued...

4. Crisis Management Plan

In 2009, Toyota launched the largest recall in the company’s history in response to

hundreds of reported cases of sticking accelerator pedals.

Rumors and panic spread across the web, and suddenly the brand, a model of automotive

safety for decades, was embroiled in a digital disaster with little foundation in social media

with which to combat it.

A PR crisis doesn’t have to be as dramatic as Toyota’s to be damaging. The Toyota recall

illustrates a common thread that runs through all PR crises: a slow response from the

organization exacerbates the crisis.

At its basic level, your crisis management plan should outline how to use your social media

channels to deliver a quick and appropriate response.

Toyota eventually turned to social media to repair its image, but its effort would have no

doubt been more effective if it could have been leveraged to diffuse the controversy before it

spiraled out of control.

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Continued...

5. Frequent Updates

The social media landscape is evolving at lightning speed, and your policies and best

practices should evolve right along with it.

Designate a social media governance team and a frequency for re-evaluating all elements

of your governance model to assure it's never outdated

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Continued...

Relevance of Social Media in Business Functions

(1) Use of Social Media by Functions :

Marketing and Sales is the main area where social media is used by organizations across organisations.

HR, CSR and Customer Services are the two other areas where social media appears to get a favorable response.

(2) Use of Social Media by industries :

IT and ITES companies are paving the way for usage of social media in human resources.

It is surprising to note that the retail sector which traditionally boasts of high usage of social media in marketing and sales lies low in human resources.

The manufacturing sector uses maximum amount of social media channels for marketing & sales and minimum in human resources.

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Social Media platforms can be used in four major HR areas:

1.Hiring: Organizations must be able to attract and retain the best, making hiring

such a critical process. The three sub-processes within this function are:

Sourcing

Pre-joining Engagement

Induction and Orientation

2. Collaboration and Communication: Four modes of collaboration or

communications commonly used, namely:

Organizational Communications

Virtual Meetings

Technical Discussions

Employee Recognition

Social Media in Human Resources

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3. Talent Management: The four are within this function:

Training

Leadership Development

Mentorship

Employee Engagement

4. Internal Branding: To showcasing capabilities of the organization, within the

organization. The three areas within this function:

Employer Branding

Employee Branding

Thought Leadership

Social Media in Human Resources

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Connect people that may not be reached otherwise, a new channel for

inclusiveness can be created.

 

Get the message out effectively and efficiently

Obtain buy-in from customers through interactive features

Increase effectiveness internally (tools can be used by government

employees)

Improve government as it gives new channels of communication to people

and groups who are not normally heard from during the discussion of issues

Provide new ways to discuss issues and create forums and focus groups.

Advantages of Social Media

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Despite social media making significant inroads into our lives, most organizations are

apprehensive about using it in business processes.

The nature of the challenges perceived and how they compared across verticals should

interest anyone keen to understand this area.

Data Security/Privacy

Organizational Maturity

Industry Maturity

Electronic Access

Employee Interest

Team to Manage/ Monitor

Deformity Content

Content which is not acceptable by law

Morphed content

Content Create negative Image

Various Rumour

Challenges for using Social Media

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There are not any journalistic standards applied to social media – government

needs to understand this and analyze content produced about it by external parties

or the press and determine the appropriate official response to make – if any

response is deemed necessary at all

Elected leaders, staff and the press may be tempted to relax standards when

using social media

Press can use social media content as fact – regardless of the source, again a

government needs to determine the appropriate response when this is done

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Continued..

There are time and resource costs to government that need to be recognized

when social media is used as a communication tool – just because it looks easy to

produce, using social media can be a burden in staff time and dollar resources

Social media tools can cause change in government, which may not always be

positive – including a feeling of direct access to decision makers and the pressure

for immediate action – government needs to recognize this and be ready to

address these issues

Social media can amplify the voice of special interest groups and make their

opinions appear to be the voice of the majority

Continued..

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Thank you

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