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Ad hoc Social Media Management causes:

Wasted resources on ineffective social media channels.
Missed opportunities to capture customer insights.
Inconsistent communication to prospects and customers.
Insufficient employee guidance for acceptable social media usage.
Duplication of effort across business units.
Poorly defined roles and responsibilities.

Social Media Research & Tools

Workshop: Social Media

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Do-It-Yourself Implementation

The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.

Download Workshop Outline

Project Accelerator Workshop

You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.

Module 1: Setting Your Objectives for Social Media

The Purpose

Understand the major trends and benefits of developing a social media business plan.
Determine success of current social media efforts.
Establish department-level social media business objectives.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify areas for improvement within social media efforts.
A comprehensive, prioritized list of business objectives.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Harness the social media value proposition.

Current status assessment results

1.2

Assess current social media efforts.

List of capability gaps

1.3

Set social media objectives.

Business objective list

Included Resources

Setting Your Objectives for Social Media

Social Media Business Plan Template

Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool

Module 2: Leveraging Social Media for Marketing and Sales

The Purpose

Assess the social media maturity of sales and marketing.
Select social media channels for the sales and marketing groups.
Integrate social media into existing business processes.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify areas for improvement within social media efforts specific to marketing and sales.
A recommended list of social media services for sales and marketing based on customer demographics and organization goals.
A refined workflow map incorporating social media into marketing and sales business processes.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Build a social channel market coverage model.

Marketing and sales social media maturity assessment

2.2

Select social media channels for the sales and marketing groups.

Marketing and sales social media services recommendations

2.3

Use social media to sell to prospects and customers.

Sample marketing messages

2.4

Select social services to integrate with sales.

Sample sales messages

2.5

Embed social media into the sales process.

Social media workflow map

2.6

Capture market insights through social channels.

Included Resources

Leveraging Social Media for Marketing and Sales

Social Media Service Selection Tool

Module 3: Enable Customer Service Using Social Media

The Purpose

Assess the social media maturity of customer service.
Select social media channels for the customer service group.
Integrate social media into existing customer service processes.

Key Benefits Achieved

Identify areas for improvement within social media efforts specific to customer service.
A recommended list of social media services for customer service based on customer demographics and organization goals.
A refined workflow map incorporating social media into customer service business processes.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Execute customer service in a social world.

Customer service social media maturity assessment

3.2

Incorporate social media into customer initiated service.

Customer service social media services recommendations

3.3

Scan the social cloud for proactive service opportunities.

Common issue response problem

3.4

Help your customers help each other.

Watchword list
Social media workflow map
Rewards and recognition strategy

Included Resources

Enable Customer Service Using Social Media

Module 4: Technology Enablement for Your Social Media Strategy

The Purpose

Understand the benefits of deploying a social media management platform.
Assess your social analytics maturity.
Review social media management platform vendors.
Develop a social analytics plan to track and monitor success of social media.

Key Benefits Achieved

An evaluation of current social media analytics maturity.
A customized social media management platform vendor shortlist.
A robust list of social media KPI specific to marketing, sales, customer service, human resources, and public relations.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Making the case for a social media management platform.

Social media management platform vendor shortlist

4.2

Select a social media management platform vendor.

Social media management platform RFP

4.3

Develop a social analytics plan.

Social analytics maturity assessment
KPI list
Social analytics business plan

Included Resources

Technology Enablement for Your Social Media Strategy

Social Media Management Platform Vendor Shortlist and Detailed Feature Analysis Tool

Social Analytics Business Plan

Social Analytics Specialist

Module 5: Social Media Governance and Change Management

The Purpose

Establish a social media steering committee.
Identify implementation risks and create mitigation strategies.
Develop a stakeholder communication plan.
Identify when to revisit the social media strategy.

Key Benefits Achieved

Ensure IT and business units have appropriate representation on steering committee.
All roles affected by social media are identified and a plan to communicate change and train end-users is established.
Proactively identify risks and develop mitigation strategies and contingency plans.

Activities

Outputs

5.1

Put strong governance in place for social media.

Roles and responsibilities list

5.2

Mitigate the risks of social media.

Social media steering committee charter

5.3

Communicating change around social media initiatives.

Risk mitigation strategy
Communication plan
Training framework

Included Resources

Social Media Governance and Change Management

Social Analytics Specialist

Social Media Steering Committee Charter Template

Social Media Acceptable Use Policy

Blogging and Microblogging Guidelines Template

Social Media Representative

Social Media Manager

Social Media

A Workshop to Develop Your Strategy

Beyond practical research – workshops get you to results

Workshops: leverage best-practices research and get to action

Unlike other research firms, we believe it’s important to help our members implement improvements.
We offer a 40-hour workshop that allows you to make systematic improvements to your core processes.
Workshops are designed to help focus attention, create alignment, and ensure best practices are put to work at your organization.
Our workshops help you get to immediate impact and results and are tailored to your situation and needs.

Workshops: focused on you implementing improvements

The goal of each capability optimization workshop is to create tangible benefits and clear improvements as a direct result of the workshop.
Specific deliverables, goals, metrics, and outcomes are established for each workshop.
Successful workshops will leverage our years of analyst experience and written research to provide an engaging experience that focuses on implementing and getting to measurable results.
Each workshop begins by diagnosing the current state and then focuses on designing high-impact improvements based on best-practices research.
Three- and six-month follow-ups will occur to ensure benefit realization.

Cycle titled 'Capability Optimization Workshop' with steps 'Diagnose Current State', 'Right-Sizing Process', 'Process Design', 'Implementation Support', and 'Measuring Benefits'.

Info-Tech workshops provide the best practices and implementation support necessary to help an IT leader build a world-class IT operation.

Social media is ubiquitous with your customers: it is imperative to have an active and concerted presence on social!

Social media facilitates the creation and sharing of user-generated content.

Social media has rapidly displaced traditional e-channels as consumers’ preferred method of interacting with each other and with organizations.
Companies must fish where the fish are.
If your customers are social media savvy, having a strategy for leveraging these channels is imperative.
Social media channels should be used to complement and strengthen existing customer interaction channels.

A line of social media icons such as hashtags, hearts, and likes.

Social media by the numbers:

58.4% of the world’s population uses social media (Smart Insights, 2022).
By 2024, 6 out of every 10 people on the planet will be social media users – that means over 4.75 billion people will have a social network account (FinancesOnline, 2022).
Users spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media daily (Smart Insights, 2022).
The seven most popular social networks in the world (Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and TikTok) all have over 1 billion monthly active users (Statusbrew, 2021).
Millennials and Gen-Z are the most “digitally connected” generations. The average millennial and member of Gen-Z has 8.4 social media accounts (Backlinko, 2021).
77% of millennials and Gen-Z shop on social platforms (Forbes, 2021).
97% of marketers are using social media to reach their audiences (LYFE Marketing, 2019).

The social media concept model

An overview of the social media workshop

Module	Goals	Outcomes
Module 1: Setting Your Business Objectives for Social Media	Understand the business case for using social media across the organization Inventory your current social media efforts Gauge your current social media maturity Identify and prioritize top goals	Social Media Current State Assessment Rank-Ordered Social Media Objectives
Module 2: Leveraging Social Media for Marketing and Sales	Effectively map and embed social media into marketing and sales processes Apply best practices for each domain	Marketing Assessment and Social Media Business Plan Sales Assessment and Social Media Business Plan
Module 3: Enable Customer Service Using Social Media	Effectively map and embed social media into customer service processes to proactively serve your customer base Apply best practices for customer service	Customer Service Assessment and Social Business Plan Social Media Acceptable Use Policy for Service Reps
Module 4: Technology Enablement for Your Social Media Strategy	Select and deploy an SMM and/or social-enabled CRM platform Develop procedures for a world-class social analytics program	SMMP RFP and Demo Script Social Analytics Maturity Assessment
Module 5: Social Media Governance and Change Management	Create the right social media governance structures (e.g. the SM Steering Committee) Understand how to communicate change initiatives involving social media	Social Media Steering Committee Charter Social Media Usage Policies Change Management Plan

Module 1 – Setting your business objectives for social media

1.1 Harness the Social Media Value Proposition

Chart the rise of social for customer interaction
Understand the social technology landscape
Listen and engage through social media
Leverage the power of social influencers

1.2 Assess Current Social Media Efforts

Inventory current social media initiatives
Assess the current state for social usage
Place the organization on the maturity model

1.3 Set Social Media Objectives

Understand the goal-setting process
Set objectives for marketing, PR, sales, customer service, and human resources
Prioritize business objectives

Module 2 (Part 1) – Leveraging social media for marketing

2.1.1 Leverage Social Media for Marketing

Engage and listen to your customers
Build awareness and capture insights
Assess marketing’s maturity for social

2.1.2 Build a Social Channel Market Coverage Model

Set brand-level objectives and prioritize
Determine social-savvy target markets
Build the market coverage model

2.1.3 Optimize Your Brand Message for Social Media

Understand social media messaging
Tips for creating shareable messages
Optimize your message by segment

2.1.4 Capture Market Insights Through Social Channels

Use social media for marketing analytics
Craft product insight workflows with social
Leverage social media for public relations

Module 2 (Part 2) – Leveraging social media for sales

2.2.1 Use Social Media to Sell to Prospects and Customers

Review objectives for selling with social media
Leverage social media across the sales lifecycle
Assess sales’ maturity for social media

2.2.3 Embed Social Media Channels Into the Sales Process

Identify points to embed social media
Adapt messages for different decision makers

2.2.4 Capture Data Across the Customer Life Cycle

Use social analytics for sales enablement
Keep CRM data fresh using social media
Use social media to upsell DMs

Module 3 – Enable customer service using social media

3.1 Execute Customer Service in a Social World

Leverage social for different service types
Examine different use cases for social media
Gauge current service maturity for social media

3.2 Incorporate Social Media Into Customer-Initiated Service

Improve customer-initiated service
Build a response plan
Determine escalation policies and rules
Promote your customer-initiated social media service

3.3 Scan the Social Cloud for Proactive Service Opportunities

Take advantage of proactive service
Determine keywords and service coverage
Map proactive CS workflows
Train customer service reps on social media

3.4 Help Your Customers Help Each Other

Use peer-to-peer support to manage costs
Set your peer-to-peer use case scenarios
Rewards and recognition for peer-to-peer
Set a policy for CSKM

Module 4 – Technology enablement for social media

4.1 Making the Case for an SMMP

Understand the value of an SMMP
Integrate SMMP with your CRM
Select an SMMP deployment model

4.2 Select a Social Media Management Platform Vendor

Review vendor landscape
Review RFP template and vendor scoring tool
Complete vendor demonstration scripts

4.3 Develop a Social Analytics Business Plan

Assess your social analytics maturity
Select your social media KPIs
Complete the social analytics business plan

Module 5 – Govern social media and manage change efforts

5.1 Put Strong Governance in Place for Social Media

Identify and inventory role changes
Build a social media steering committee
Draft a steering committee charter

5.2 Mitigate the Risks of Social Media

Catalog social media risks to the organization
Conduct a social media threat assessment
Establish measures to mitigate high-priority social media threats
Determine end-user access policies

5.3 Communicating Change Around Social Media Initiatives

Understand the failure points for change management
Identify and nullify detractors
Develop a role-based training plan
Create a framework for ongoing communication

Social media workshop primary deliverable:

Develop a comprehensive social media business plan

Assess the internal and external landscape for opportunities and risks.
Determine which social media channels should be used by each department.
Identify any IT investments and ongoing costs associated with social media projects.
Establish roles and responsibilities as well as a governance framework.

Ensure maturity and readiness

Optimize social media channel mix

Create a social media governance framework

Stock image of a person in a suit giving a presentation with an easel.

Social media workshop core deliverables

Five key deliverables will be completed during the workshop:

1. Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool

Assess your current social media efforts
Examine social media maturity across marketing, sales, and customer service
Gauge your readiness to track social media analytics
Receive customized feedback for specific areas of improvement

2. Social Media Service Selection Tool

Identify the optimal social media services for marketing, sales, customer service, human resources, and public relations
Compare the social media services currently being used to the optimal services
Prioritize the top tools for your organization as a whole

3. Social Media Acceptable Use Policy

Use a prewritten social media acceptable use policy to outline appropriate social media behavior
Communicate the consequences for inappropriate behavior and policy violations

4. Social Analytics Business Plan

Establish metrics and targets to track social media success
Determine investments required to collect social media data

5. Social Media Job Descriptions

Use prewritten job descriptions for social media representative, manager, and analytics specialist positions

Social media workshop

Built on world-class research, experience, and standards

Team with over 30 years of experience
100-page research reports
Based on primary, secondary, and in-field research
More than six months of research
Over 40 in-depth activities and exercises

Stock image of a group of people standing in front of an activity board with sticky notes.

Tools & templates

Social Media Business Plan Template
Social Media Maturity Assessment
Social Media Service Selection Tool
Social Media Management Platform Vendor Shortlist Tool
Social Analytics Business Plan
Social Analytics Specialist Job Description
Social Media Steering Committee Charter Template
Social Media Acceptable Use Policy
Blogging and Microblogging Guidelines Template
Social Media Representative Job Description
Social Media Manager Job Description

Welcome to Info-Tech’s Social Media Workshop!

What’s in this section:

Introduction
Rules of engagement
Overview of structure for the week
Goals for the week
Kick-off exercise

Sections:

Introduction
Module 1: Social Media Objectives
Module 2: Marketing and Sales
Module 3: Customer Service
Module 4: Technology Enablement
Module 5: Governance and Change Management

Stock image of a handshake.

Introduction to the workshop

Many customer interactions are now taking place on social channels. An enterprise social media strategy must comprise IT and all business stakeholders, including marketing, sales, customer service, PR, and HR.

This Workshop Is Designed For:

IT leaders advising the business around social media – the value proposition, social media services, and the governance techniques.
Application managers responsible for providing technology enablement and management platforms for social media initiatives.
Leaders in the business interested in best practices for managing social media:
- Marketing and PR
- Sales
- Customer Service
- Human Resources

This Workshop Will Help You:

Understand the value proposition of using social channels for customer interaction across a variety of business domains.
Build specific social media programs for each business domain, including marketing, sales and customer service.
Align the efforts of IT and the business to form a cohesive, role-based social media program.
Leverage social analytics to capture better insights about your customers and markets.
Put the right mechanisms in place for ongoing governance of your social media initiatives.

Rules of engagement

And what to expect in this workshop:

This is an interactive workshop, and your input is critical to getting maximum benefit. However, this is not a free-for-all; certain rules of etiquette are still in force. While not as formal as a standard meeting, respect for others and a constructive attitude are still essential.

Confidentiality will be maintained – only consolidated views will be shared
Do not personalize disagreements. Criticizing the ideas of others is not permitted.
Be respectful. While shouting out ideas is acceptable, drowning out the ideas of others is not. If too many participants are speaking at once or an individual is not being effectively heard, then the Moderator will intervene to re-focus the discussion.
One member of the session will act as scribe for each sub-topic discussion. This duty should rotate through different individuals to allow fair participation in the discussions taking place.
Once all ideas have been tabled, a voting process will take place to determine which ideas require deeper discussion.

An overview of the social media workshop

Module	Goals	Outcomes
Module 1: Setting Your Business Objectives for Social Media	Understand the business case for using social media across the organization Inventory your current social media efforts Gauge your current social media maturity Identify and prioritize top goals	Social Media Current State Assessment Rank-Ordered Social Media Objectives
Module 2: Leveraging Social Media for Marketing and Sales	Effectively map and embed social media into marketing and sales processes Apply best practices for each domain	Marketing Assessment and Social Media Business Plan Sales Assessment and Social Media Business Plan
Module 3: Enable Customer Service Using Social Media	Effectively map and embed social media into customer service processes to proactively serve your customer base Apply best practices for customer service	Customer Service Assessment and Social Business Plan Social Media Acceptable Use Policy for Service Reps
Module 4: Technology Enablement for Your Social Media Strategy	Select and deploy an SMM and/or social-enabled CRM platform Develop procedures for a world-class social analytics program	SMMP RFP and Demo Script Social Analytics Maturity Assessment
Module 5: Social Media Governance and Change Management	Create the right social media governance structures (e.g. the SM Steering Committee) Understand how to communicate change initiatives involving social media	Social Media Steering Committee Charter Social Media Usage Policies Change Management Plan

Goals for the social media workshop

Confirm and agree upon the top goals that the team wants to achieve over the course of the week.

Workshop Goals	Priority
Identify and prioritize social media related targets.	High
Update job descriptions to align certain employees to specific social media related responsibilities.	Medium

Warm-up exercise:

20 minutes

What social media services do you use in your personal lives, and how do you use them?

Questions for the group

Which social media services do you use personally?
As a consumer, what do you like/dislike about these services?
Do any of your target markets also use these services?

Are there any interesting use cases?

E.g. someone in the room uses Pinterest to help with their off-hours venture as an event planner or uses Instagram to showcase pro photography.

Facebook	10	Primarily friend networking	Fun, good way to stay in touch	Irrelevant clutter	Yes, significantly
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
TikTok
Pinterest
Other(s)

Make Your Social Media Strategy Soar:
A Workshop for Optimizing Your Social Media Efforts

Module 1

Setting Your Business Objectives for Social Media

Module 1: Social Media Objectives		Module 2: Marketing and Sales		Module 3 Customer Service
	Module 4 Technology Enablement		Module 5 Governance and Change Management

What’s in this section?

Harness the value of social media
Listen and engage with prospects and customers using social channels
Gauge and understand your current social maturity
Leverage use cases for social media across different business processes and domains
Set your business objectives for the social strategy

Module overview:

1.0 Setting your business objectives for social media

1.1 Harness the Social Media Value Proposition

Chart the rise of social for customer interaction
Understand the social technology landscape
Listen and engage through social media
Leverage the power of social influencers

1.2 Assess Current Social Media Efforts

Inventory current social media initiatives
Assess the current state for social usage
Place the organization on the maturity model

1.3 Set Social Media Objectives

Understand the goal-setting process
Set objectives for marketing, PR, sales, customer service, and human resources
Prioritize business objectives

1.1 Harness the social media value proposition

Immediate outcomes of this section

After completing this section, you will understand:

Social media as a powerful channel for engaging with customers, from prospect to post-sales service
How to conceptualize the social media technology landscape
The two main tenets of social media: listening and engagement

Key benefits

Completing this section will allow you to:

Appreciate the meteoric rise of social media, and how it is now a fully viable channel for customer interaction
Discuss examples of organizations that have done well – and not so well – in using social media; learn from their successes as well as their failures

Timeline for this section

Activities	Key Outputs	Duration
Discussion of Social Media Use Cases	Lessons Learned	30 minutes
Social Network Analysis Exercise	Influencer Identification	Pre-Workshop
Channel Experiences to Date	Common Pain Points	20 minutes

Stock image of heart reacts as physical plastic chips.

1.1 Social media concept model

1.1 Social media is ubiquitous with your customers: it is imperative to have an active presence on social!

Social media facilitates the creation and sharing of user-generated content.

Social media has rapidly displaced traditional e-channels as consumers’ preferred method of interacting with each other and with organizations.
Companies must fish where the fish are.
If your customers are social media savvy, having a strategy for leveraging these channels is imperative.
Social media channels should be used to complement and strengthen existing customer interaction channels.

A line of social media icons such as hashtags, hearts, and likes.

Social media by the numbers:

58.4% of the world’s population uses social media (Smart Insights, 2022).
By 2024, 6 out of every 10 people on the planet will be social media users – that means over 4.75 billion people will have a social network account (FinancesOnline, 2022).
Users spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media daily (Smart Insights, 2022).
The seven most popular social networks in the world (Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and TikTok) all have over 1 billion monthly active users (Statusbrew, 2021).
Millennials and Gen-Z are the most “digitally connected” generations. The average millennial and member of Gen-Z has 8.4 social media accounts (Backlinko, 2021).
77% of millennials and Gen-Z shop on social platforms (Forbes, 2021).
97% of marketers are using social media to reach their audiences (LYFE Marketing, 2019).

1.1 For most organizations, social media shouldn’t be about “Should we do it?” It must be about “How do we do it?”

“Should we be using social media for customer interaction? Or is this just a fad I can ignore?”

2008

Arrow pointing right.

“Which departments should be using social media? How do we apply best practices?”

2022

Info-Tech Insight

Social media is constantly evolving. Companies need to consistently refine and optimize their social media strategies in order to fully capitalize on the latest trends and technologies.

1.1 Take a proactive approach to social channels and nurture positive conversations while managing negative ones

Social media is different from traditional channels insofar as the conversation can be initiated and sustained completely in your absence.
Consumers are talking about your industry, your competitors, and your company; that conversation will continue even if you’re not there to respond.
Choosing to ignore social channels is not a strategy.
Social media conversations may not be under your direct control, but they can be under your influence:
- If you want to know what people are saying about you, start listening.
- If you want to guide what people are saying about you, start engaging.

Stock image of a phone with overflowing likes and heart reacts.

1.1 Activity: Discussion of social media use case examples

30 minutes

Materials: Whiteboard, Markers

What are some positive social media conversations you’ve seen?
What are some negative social media conversations you’ve seen?
How did the power of social media impact the company and how did the company respond?

Example

Who was the company?	What was the social media conversation?	What was the impact?
Nestle	In 2021, Nestle launched their #HaveABite campaign, a promotion that asked fans online to weigh in about the “proper” way to eat a KitKat.	Within 48 hours of launching, this campaign reached 4.3 million organic views across TikTok and Instagram, a twitter poll on the topic earned over 70 thousand votes, and it gained national press.
McDonald’s	McDonald's tried to promote its brand and engage with customers through two promoted trends: #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories.	Unfortunately, Twitter users posted their horror stories at the fast-food chain using #mcdstories. In essence, McDonald's paid to promote a trend that showered the company in bad publicity.
...	...	... (Source: Wunderman Thompson)

1.1. From a technology standpoint, the social media landscape can be broken down into three overarching categories

Social media vendors can be categorized into three silos: social media services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), CRM suites with social media integration (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce Social Studio), and pure-play Social Media Management Platforms (e.g. Sprout Social, Sprinklr).

Social media services

CRMs with social features

Social media management platforms

1.1 Social media services can be conceptualized as fitting into several different buckets depending on their purpose

Social Networking: Use the “Friend-of-a-Friend” model for users to communicate with their personal networks. Users can share a wide variety of content with one another. Social networking sites include Facebook (focus on broad consumer base) and LinkedIn (focus on professionals).
Blogging and News Aggregators: Websites that allow users to upload text and media entries, typically displayed in reverse-chronological order. Prominent blogging services include Blogger and WordPress. Aggregators use social ranking schemes to sort content like news articles.
Micro-Blogging: Similar to blogging, with the exception that written content is limited to a set number of characters. Twitter, the most popular service, allows users to post messages of up to 280 characters.
Social Multimedia: Provide an easy way for users to upload and share multimedia content (e.g. pictures, video) with both their personal contacts as well as the wider community. YouTube and TikTok are both extremely popular for video sharing, while Instagram is popular for both video sharing and for sharing photos.

Logos of social media services organizaed into the buckets listed on the left.

1.1 Exploit both sides of the social media coin – listening and engagement – to get the most bang from your social media efforts

Listening: Seek First to Understand, Then be Understood

Learn to listen first
Pay attention to the who and why
Listen to what’s said about competitors, product improvements, marketing campaigns, etc.
Incorporate insights into business process

Customer Engagement: Interaction Breeds Affinity

Listening is important, but at some point, you also need to join the conversation.
Create a profile, respond to customer comments, share content – when you get engaged, they get engaged!

Multi-coloured speech bubbles.

1.1 Influencers are who you want to understand the most: the friend-of-a-friend model rapidly propagates their views

Use social network analysis to determine who has the most well-followed voice on various social media services. A single influencer can have disproportionate effect.

Influencers are those individuals on social networks who post often, have a large number of committed followers who put stock in their recommendations, and whose opinions are rapidly disseminated over friend-of-a-friend networks. Celebrities are a common example.
The value from influencer analysis can be particularly salient in sales: any sales manager would rather have a $10,000 account than a $1,000 account. But what if the former account is an unknown, while the latter is a key industry thought leader or influencer whose endorsement on friend-of-a-friend networks would drive new business?

Large ball of networks.

1.1 Activity: Use a social network analysis tool to create an influencer diagram for your own network and discuss the takeaways

Pre-workshop

We need a few volunteers to create an influencer diagram for their own network! For those with an active LinkedIn network, use Gephi to create your own social networking diagram. For the volunteers:

Where are the overlaps between your professional networks?
Who are the people who create these bridges? In your current organization, who are the influencers with high numbers of peer-to-peer connections?

Key Takeaways/Learnings:

E.g. three distinct networks
E.g. confluence between 12 individuals across networks
E.g. individuals at center more well-connected in each network
...
...

Networks depicted as constellations.

1.1 Activity: What key lessons have you learned with previous customer interaction channels? What’s relevant to social?

20 minutes

Materials: Whiteboard, Markers

Think about your rollout of previous customer interaction channels (up to and including any existing social efforts).
What were some of the key opportunities, challenges, and takeaways you encountered?

Example

Channel/Issue	Lesson Learned	Apply it to Social
Web 1.0/ Static Content	Though our Web 1.0 sites contained useful information, the information rarely changed. We didn’t have a sufficient strategy in place to ensure page content remained fresh.	Sites like wikis allow content creation and sharing among users: users themselves can help keep page content fresh.
Homepage/ Lack of Site Interactivity	Web 1.0 didn’t allow our visitors to impact or contribute to the website. We didn’t implement discussion forums for our original web presence.	Social share buttons can be added so that relevant content can be quickly and easily shared.
Homepage/ No Cross-Channel Links	Our Web 1.0 presence ignored the power of network effects, had little inter-site linking, and focused on creating a “read-only web.” Customers were unable to easily switch channels – for example, from a KB article to chat support.	We need to ensure our social media presence is well-integrated with all other interaction channels, rather than being a standalone effort.

1.2 Assess current social media efforts

Immediate outcomes of this section

After completing this section, you will understand:

How organizations move along the social media maturity curve.
Your organization’s current place on the maturity curve, based on an assessment of presently deployed social initiatives, as well as overall technology and management readiness.

Key benefits

Completing this section will allow you to:

Inventory your current social media efforts across all departments.
Assess your current state with respect to social media on a number of key performance indicators.
Determine whether your current maturity state is sufficient to pursue an expanded social media program.

Timeline for this section

Activities	Key Outputs	Duration
Inventory Social Media Efforts	Social Media Program List	20 minutes
Social Media Maturity Assessment	Current Status Assessment Results	30 minutes
Capability Gap Brainstorming	Capability Gap	20 minutes

Stock image of a phone in a pile of plastic chip heart reacts.

1.2 Understand where you fit on the social media maturity model to gauge the starting point for your organization

Organizations pass through stages of social media maturity: distributed, coordinated, and command center. As you move up the maturity scale, the business significance of the program increases. Where you fit on the model will determine your strategic priorities.

Y-axis 'Business Significance'.

Distributed Stage

Open source or low-cost solutions are implemented informally by individual depts. for specific projects.
Solutions are deployed to fulfill a particular function without an organizational vision. The danger of this stage is lack of consistent experience and wasted resources.

Coordinated Stage

More point solutions are implemented across the organization. There is a formal cross-departmental effort to integrate some point solutions.
Risks include failing to put together an effective steering committee and not including IT in the decision-making process.

Command Center Stage

There’s an enterprise-level steering committee with representation from all areas; execution of social programs is handled by a fully-resourced physical (or virtual) center.
Risks include improper resource allocation and lack of end-user training.

X-axis 'Maturity Stages'.

1.2 Activity: Inventory and discuss your current social media efforts across different departments and business units

20 minutes

Materials: Whiteboard

Before you can move to an objective assessment of your social media program’s maturity, we need to take an inventory of your current efforts across different departments (e.g. marketing, PR, sales, and customer service).

Example

Department	Social Media Initiative(s)	Current Status
E.g. Marketing	Branded Facebook page with updates and promotions	Stalled: insufficient resources
E.g. Sales	LinkedIn prospecting campaign for lead generation, qualification, and warm open	Active: however, new reps are poorly trained on LinkedIn prospect best practices
E.g. Customer Service	Twitter support initiative: mentions of our brand are paired with sentiment analysis to determine who is having problems and to reach out and offer support	Active: program has been highly successful to date
E.g. HR	Recruitment campaign through LinkedIn	Stalled: insufficient technology support for identifying leading candidates
E.g. Product Development	Defect tracking for future product iterations using social media	Partially active: Tracked, but no feedback loop present

1.2 Activity: Determine your organization’s social media maturity level with our Maturity Assessment Audit

30 minutes

Assessing where you fit on the social media maturity continuum is critical for setting the future direction of your social media program. We’ll work through a short tool that assesses the current state of your social media program, then discuss the results.

Info-Tech’s Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool will help you determine your company’s level of maturity and recommend steps to move to the next level or optimize the status quo of your current efforts.

Download this tool

Sample of Info-Tech’s Social Media Maturity Assessment Tool.

1.2 Brainstorm: Based on the maturity assessment, what capabilities do you need to develop?

20 minutes

Materials: Whiteboard

Based on the current state assessment, where are you doing well, and what are the top areas that you need to improve on? What capabilities can you develop to increase competency in key areas?

Example

Focus Area	Capability Assessment (opportunities, gaps, etc.)
E.g. Organizational alignment	Currently strong alignment; we have a permanent steering committee with responsibility for goal setting and execution oversight. Should get Sales more involved, though.
E.g. Technology enablement	Current technology enablement is sub-par. Departments are using TweetDeck ad hoc, but no formal management or analytics platform has currently been deployed.
E.g. Social media process execution	Good, but could be better. Customer service has well-defined capabilities in place for proactive response, but marketing has had a few misfires in terms of content strategy.
E.g. Personnel resources	Adequate; we have several people who are currently involved with managing social media initiatives, but as an add-on to their existing responsibilities, rather than a dedicated role.

1.3 Set business objectives for social media

Immediate outcomes of this section

After completing this section, you will understand:

The necessity of linking the social media strategy to concrete business objectives across marketing and PR, sales, customer service, and HR
Potential use scenarios, illustrated by case studies, across each of the major process domains

Key benefits

Completing this section will allow you to:

Determine what your social media objectives are going to be for marketing and PR, sales, customer service, and HR
Assess which objectives should be prioritized for the enterprise as a whole, and create a rank-ordered list of top objectives you will support using social channels

Timeline for this section

Activities	Key Outputs	Duration
Marketing/PR Discussion	Marketing Objectives	40 minutes
Sales Discussion	Sales Objectives	35 minutes
Customer Service Discussion	Customer Service Objectives	30 minutes
Human Resources Discussion	Human Resources Objectives	35 minutes
Rank-Ordering of Objectives	Final Business Objective List	30 minutes

Stock image of plastic chip heart reacts falling into a pile.

1.3 Put strategic forethought behind selecting your social media goals – or fall into one of the many pitfalls that awaits you!

Nearly 90% of organizations are leveraging social media. To unlock the full value of social media, it is integral to have put the necessary planning in place (ProcessMaker).

Prudent goal selection is the critical first stage of a social media strategy.

The enterprise use case for social media is rapidly growing in popularity.
Deciding to move into social media is easy – executing a world-class program that fully realizes your specific business goals is not.
Organizations must establish cross-functional governance structures and select the right objectives to pursue.
Don’t rush into a social media program; you need to be using social channels to support business objectives, no using “social for social’s sake.”

Pitfalls of poorly defined business objectives:

Lack of necessary coordination: Insufficient shared planning between departments leads to social media programs with inconsistent messaging.
Redundant effort: Unnecessary duplication of social media effort across departments and wasted opportunities for cost efficiencies.
Inadequate risk mitigation: Poorly trained end users who open social channels up as a malware vector.

1.3 Begin with the end in mind: What are the specific, measurable goals that you want to achieve using social media?

You need to understand how social media fits with your departments, priorities, and customer demographics, and establish a plan for using social channels to reach specific business objectives. Below are some considerations for determining social media goals.

Overall Business Objectives: What are your overarching objectives and relative priorities for customer interaction?
Departmental Involvement: Which departments are involved in the social media program? How are they (or how will they) be involved?
Customer Demographics: Who are your customers? What demographic, psychographic, and geographic criteria best describe your target market?

	Business Objectives – Social Media
Mktg.	Building a Positive Brand Image Increasing Mind Share Gaining Customer/Competitive Insights
Sales	Increasing Revenue Increasing Customer Acquisition Gaining Sales Insights
Service	Improving Customer Satisfaction Increasing Customer Retention Product Improvement
PR	Monitoring Public Mentions Broadcasting Company Information Understanding PR Trends
HR	Increasing Size of Applicant Pool Increasing Quality of Applicant Pool Boosting Recruiting Efficiency

1.3 Achieving marketing objectives with social media

Marketing and PR are the top business users for social channels. Social media can be used for marketing goals when customer segments overlap social media user bases.

Top business objectives to support with social

Building a positive brand image
Increasing mind share
Capturing customer insights
Monitoring public mentions
Broadcasting company information
Understanding PR trends

Diagram for achieving marketing ojectives with 'Customer Relationship Management' as the base, of the five previous categories 'Marketing' and 'PR' are highlighted attaching to 'Social Media'. Above that is 'Communication Channels' then 'Interaction Goals: Build a Positive Image, Increase Mind Share, Capture Insights', then a cloud with 'Customers'.

1.3 Case Study: Blendtec builds its brand image with a series of creative and engaging YouTube videos

Blendtec’s assortment of “Will it Blend?” videos have earned it an impressive social fan base, spreading word of mouth.

Other notable YouTube campaigns to check out include:

Multiple open YouTube videos.

1.3 Discussion: Marketing and PR case studies

Take 20 minutes to discuss the following:

What worked with this video? What made it popular?	...
What would you improve with this video?	...
What kind of similar campaign could your company do?	...

1.3 Activity: Brainstorm the top marketing and PR objectives that your organization hopes to improve using social media

20 minutes

Questions for the group

What are the top marketing objectives for your company? For example, is building initial awareness or driving repeat customers more important?
What are the corresponding social media goals for this business objective?
What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

Example

Marketing/PR Objectives	Social Media Goals	Goal Attainment Metrics
E.g. build a positive brand image	Create brand-specific social media pages to increase customer sentiment for individual brand extensions	Net increase in positive customer sentiment (i.e. as tracked by an SMMP)
E.g. increase customer mind share	Launch a viral video campaign showcasing product attributes to drive increased YT traffic	Net increase in unaided customer recall
E.g. monitor public mentions	Use a listening tool to flag all mentions of our brands or company on social	Increase in mentions with neutral or positive sentiment, decrease in mentions with negative sentiment
E.g. broadcasting company information	Create an interactive media room with embedded social share links	Increase in number of customer engagements with news releases

1.3 Achieving sales objectives with social media

Social media can be exploited for sales-related purposes when acquisition and account management processes are mapped to social media services, like LinkedIn.

Top business objectives to support with social

Increasing revenue per customer
Increasing lead conversion rate
Increasing customer acquisition
Decreasing cost per acquisition
Decreasing customer churn
Capturing sales insights

Diagram for achieving sales ojectives with 'Customer Relationship Management' as the base, of the five previous categories 'Sales' is highlighted attaching to 'Social Media'. Above that is 'Communication Channels' then 'Interaction Goals: Increasing Revenue, Customer Acquisition, Sales Insights', then a cloud with 'Customers'.

1.3 Case Study: Sales social case study

Direct sales organization Pampered Chef captures interest before sales.

1.3 Discussion: Sales case study

Spend 15 minutes discussing the Pampered Chef example.

What works with Pampered Chef’s Facebook presence?	...
What would you improve with the site? How could they gather more leads?	...
What best practices would you apply to your selling model?	...

1.3 Activity: Brainstorm the top sales objectives that your organization hopes to improve using social media

20 minutes

Questions for the group

What are the top sales objectives for your company?
What are the corresponding social media goals for this business objective?
What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

Example

Sales Objectives	Social Media Goals	Goal Attainment Metrics
E.g. increase revenue	Use professional social media services to track DMs who have moved and expand into new accounts	Increase in overall revenue or segment-specific revenue
E.g. increase customer acquisition	Embed sales-ready calls to action on our social properties that link directly to an e-commerce portal	Net increase in new account acquisition
E.g. decrease customer churn	Use social channels to contact repeat customers with targets deals/sales offers	Decrease in customer attrition rate
E.g. capture sales insights	Use analytics-coded links to track cart abandonment from social channels	Increase in number of customer engagements with news releases

1.3 Achieving customer service objectives with social media

Customer service has always been a reactive affair: a customer phones in, the company answers. But social media is forcing a rethink of this paradigm. Organizations can now use social media to serve customers quickly, effectively, and cost-efficiently.

Top business objectives to support with social

Improving customer satisfaction
Reduce time to resolve
Increasing customer retention
Increasing first contact resolution
Better product improvement

Diagram for achieving customer service ojectives with 'Customer Relationship Management' as the base, of the five previous categories 'Service' is highlighted attaching to 'Social Media'. Above that is 'Communication Channels' then 'Interaction Goals: Customer Satisfaction, Customer Retention, Product Improvement', then a cloud with 'Customers'.

1.3 Case Study 1:

Rogers Communications, Ltd.

Addressing customer complaints on Twitter gives Rogers a competitive edge in controlling their social media message.

INDUSTRY
Telecommunications

SOURCE
Rogers

Challenge

Reaching customer service representatives through traditional means, such as telephone, lacks the instant accessibility customers have come to expect, especially from the company that provide them with their internet services!

Negative customer comments on social media were left unaddressed, thus proliferating negative branding throughout the social cloud.

Solution

Rogers Communications, one of the largest telecoms in Canada, saw an opportunity to address customer complaints over Twitter with a team of customer service agents who actively listen for chatter and conversations about Rogers services, and then directly engage the customers who have addressable concerns and complaints, resulting in faster, better, proactive service and less negative chatter.

Results

Rogers has improved its customer service transparency, so that everyone can see a speedy resolution, and reduced the overall negative sentiment for its organization.

Customers can now use Rogers’ social media channels as a primary contact point to avoid long wait times on the phone, thus improving overall customer satisfaction and accessibility.

https://twitter.com/RogersHelps

1.3 Case Study 2: Xbox uses social media to address customer questions

Xbox invites customers to submit questions and concerns about their products publicly online to their dedicated support pages.

Xbox’s @XboxSupport Twitter account responds to customer questions and queries while making proactive announcements to users about maintenance related interruptions and delays, turning potential issues into world-class customer service.

Xbox has been so successful in providing effective customer service via @XboxSupport that they were awarded the Guinness World Record for being the “most responsive brand on Twitter”, responding to 5,000 customer questions in an average of only 2 minutes and 42 seconds (Unmetric).

Xbox also offers an Xbox Support Facebook page run by their Xbox MVPs and Xbox Ambassadors!

Social media screens for Xbox customer service.

1.3 Case Study 3: Social customer service gone wrong with British Airways

British Airways shows the danger of letting the customer conversation take place without you.

In 2013, disgruntled customer Hasan Syed used promoted tweets to complain about his experience using British Airways. Targeting British Airways customers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Hasan paid for his tweets that denounced the airline and their customer service to be promoted in both New York City and the United Kingdom.

Other Twitter users quickly began to support Hasan and share their own poor experiences with British Airways, escalating the situation. After 8 hours, British Airways finally responded to Hasan, telling him that their social feed is only open between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm GMT and that he can “DM” them for further assistance, but at that point, the damage was already done (Entrepreneur).

Screenshots of tweets about British Airways customer service.

Info-Tech Insight

With social media, immediacy response is paramount. If you don’t immediately address your users' questions and concerns, minor problems can snowball into major issues in a matter of hours, not days.

1.3 Discussion: Customer service case studies

Take five minutes to discuss in small groups, and five to discuss as a team.

How well do you think those customer experiences were managed?	...
How does social media change the way customer service is delivered?	...
What epic customer service wins and losses have you seen posted online?	...

1.3 Activity: Brainstorm the top customer service goals that your organization hopes to achieve using social media

20 minutes

Questions for the group

What are the top service objectives for your company?
What are the corresponding social media goals for this business objective?
What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

Example

Customer Service Objectives	Social Media Goals	Goal Attainment Metrics
E.g. improve customer satisfaction	Use social listening technologies to proactively reach out to customers experiencing technical issues before they have to call in	Number of interactions handled proactively vs. reactively over social media
E.g. improve customer retention	Offer dissatisfied customers retention deals via DM on social media services like Twitter	Decrease in customer turnover metrics
E.g. improve products and service processes	Capture information about recurring product problems or deficiencies in customer service processes and pass on to appropriate department for follow-up	Decrease in bugs/technical deficits in new product launches; decrease in customer complaints pertaining to service resolution processes

1.3 Achieving human resources objectives with social media

Social media is progressively replacing traditional recruitment methods, such as job boards and job fairs, as a way to find skilled employees. Turbocharge your talent pool by using social channels to find and engage with prospective employees.

Top business objectives to support with social

Increasing size of applicant pool
Decreasing time to fill vacancy
Increasing quality of applicant pool
Decreasing vacancies outstanding
Decreasing cost per hire

Diagram for achieving human resources ojectives with 'Customer Relationship Management' as the base, of the five previous categories 'HR' is highlighted attaching to 'Social Media'. Above that is 'Communication Channels' then 'Interaction Goals: Applicant Pool Size, Applicant Quality, Recruiting Efficiency', then a cloud with 'Customers'.

1.3 Case Study: Social media goals for HR and recruiting

Adidas has amped up its recruiting by tapping into social media talent pools via Facebook.

Adidas has drastically expanded its talent pool by expanding its social presence.

Its additional pages:

Info-Tech Insight

Over 84% of organizations are recruiting new talent via social media, with another 9% planning to do the same (Apollo Technical, 2022).

Screenshots of Adidas HR and recruiting profiles on various platforms.

1.3 Discussion: HR social case study

Take 15 minutes to discuss takeaways from the Adidas example.

What do you like about Adidas recruiting efforts?	...
What could Adidas have done better in its social media recruiting?	...
What use cases do you see internally for HR usage of social media?	...

1.3 Activity: Brainstorm the top human resource goals that your organization hopes to achieve using social media

20 minutes

Questions for the group

What are the top HR objectives for your company?
What are the corresponding social media goals for this business objective?
What are some of the metrics that could be used to determine if business and social media objectives are being attained?

Example

Human Resources Objectives	Social Media Goals	Goal Attainment Metrics
E.g. increase the size of the applicant pool	Use a dedicated Twitter feed (e.g. @OurCompanyJobs) to help spread the word about new openings	Increase in total number of applicants per vacancy
E.g. increase the quality of the applicant pool	Use targeted LinkedIn searches to proactively target and solicit introductions to high-quality candidates	Increase in number of employees who stay with the firm longer than [X] months
E.g. boost recruiting efficiency	Open a peer-network referral program on LinkedIn so that recruiters spend less time having to track down qualified candidates	Decreased recruiter hours invested per job opening

1.3 Activity: Prioritize your goals – which goals make the most sense for your organization?

30 minutes

Materials: Whiteboard

Based on the preceding case studies and discussion, now is the time to determine what your organization’s top social media objectives will be, the business unit(s) that these objectives will live under, and the rationale associated with each objective. Objectives should be rank-ordered by priority.

Example

Ranking	Business Objective and Social Media Goal	Department	Rationale
1	Build Brand Image – Deploy Facebook Pages for each brand	Marketing	We need to boost how top-of-mind we are on social and have the marketing collateral to back it up.
2	...	...	...
3	...	...	...
4	...	...	...
5	...	...	...

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Authors

Ben Dickie

Sean Burkett

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Search Code: 74221
Last Revised: October 3, 2022

TAGS:

analytics, marketing, communication, channel, social media maturity, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, pinterest, listening, social listening, customer service, LinkedIn, Twitter

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