Am I a Social Media Martyr?

Published by Karen Snyder on

I am determined to show my company “the light.” I believe that it’s in our best interest to plan and strategize around a social media program. How do I balance that with needing a “quick win” to gain executive support of our program? Something that justifies my job title?

I met Steve Mann of SAP thanks to Gia Lyons. We scheduled a call (all using direct messaging on Twitter, it was cool). I was expecting to converse on the usual topics, like how many blogs SAP has, or the struggle to get legal on board.

Instead what I got was a revelation. Steve described the process he went through to set in motion a long-term Social Media strategy for SAP. He was asked “Why do we need a Social Media Program?” One big reason “There are already pockets of activity throughout the company, potentially incompatible technologies, cost to standardize.”

It’s time to stop looking for quick wins that “show the value of social media.” It’s time to take ownership and build a strategy for company for the long term (even if that’s only a year.) If I don’t act now to satisfy the needs of our stakeholders, the more advanced folks will move on and find their own resources. A year from now we’ll have a variety of tools and platforms that may be incompatible. I need to do research around what each stakeholder can benefit from social media. And that’s not just marketing and external communications, social media can add value for other stakeholders as well.

Here are the departments that could benefit from Social Media:

  • Customer Support
  • Internal Community
  • Product Innovation / Research Community
  • Human Resources / Recruiting
  • I think that Jeff Moriarty missed a title in his list of social media titles:
    The “Social Media Martyr: s/he who sacrifices job security for the greater good of the company.” : )