Social Media Etiquette: 12 Step Checklist

I love social media. I can connect with others and quickly find out what they're doing. But when I learned some people are now finding out about the death of friends via Facebook, I began to despise the impersonal nature of these online social tools.

The truth is, there’s simply a lack of etiquette many people possess when using social media. I recently had a discussion with Lisa Filpi Goeckler, who has a new social media endeavor with ON Food, a startup in Beverly Hills that partners with fitness professionals and real people offering all-in-one food solutions. Lisa shared a few stories with me, the first occurring a few months ago when she found out about her good friend and co-worker’s death on Facebook.

After seeing a mournful Facebook update from a friend, Goeckler was able to use Facebook to confirm her friend had died of a major heart attack. “I was not keen on the way I found out about the death,” she said. “It seemed so impersonal.”

A few months later, Goeckler found out–also through social media–that a relative of hers had breast cancer. Finding this out via social media–not a phone call–was a disconnected and impersonal way to find out such serious news, she says.

These stories made me reconsider how we use social media. These two incidences were huge life events that may not have been properly handled by being blasted through Facebook posts.

Social media is valuable, but we should teach etiquette to guide people on the best ways to use it. Goeckler says everyone should ask themselves the following 12 questions before posting:

1. Should I target a specific audience with this message?
2. Will anyone really care about this content besides me?
3. Will I offend anyone with this content? If so, who? Does it matter?
4. Is this appropriate for a social portal, or would it best be communicated another way?
5. How many times have I already posted something today? (More than three can be excessive.)
6. Did I spell check?
7. Will I be okay with absolutely anyone seeing this?
8. Is this post too vague? Will everyone understand what I’m saying?
9. Am I using this as an emotional dumping ground? If so, why? Is a different outlet better for these purposes?
10. Am I using too many abbreviations in this post and starting to sound like a teenager?
11. Is this reactive communication or is it well thought-out?
12. Is this really something I want to share, or is it just me venting?

Consider these questions before clicking “post.” You’ll be happy you double-checked before making a slip-up public to the world.

(Image courtesy fredcavazza, Flickr)

Ilya Pozin is a serial entrepreneur who founded Ciplex, a web marketing and creative agency, at age 17. Ciplex has been recognized with an Inc. 500|5000 for two consecutive years.

IBM Makes Social Media The Responsibility Of Every Employee

As a global technology leader focused on delivering forward-looking technology and solutions, IBM is no stranger to taking a unique approach in order to generate a stronger end result. To encourage discussion and foster a cultural affinity for social media across its vast network of 400,000 employees, countless partners, and global customer base, IBM made social engagement a key responsibility of every employee. Through a collaborative effort led by marketing, employees embraced social media to help get the word out about IBM solutions and events. The result was a measurable increase in awareness and tighter collaboration among IBM employees to better meet customer needs.


by Jeff Ernst

Talking Heads- Ten Principles for Social Media Marketing Success #2

Today it is the norm to communicate, consort and associate with each other over social networks – it’s almost weird not to.  So much so, that the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linkedin have become household names and collectively generate millions of dollars in revenue.  Many other businesses use social media and social networks to gain a competitive advantage in the world of business, which requires them to be up-to-date with the advancements and changes of technology that they are using. 

MeetTheBoss.tv has interviewed some of the most influential C-level executives within the industry including: Julian Persuad- MD of Google, Ken Mandell-VP Advertising Sales of Yahoo! and Ji Hee Nam-VP Digital Media MTV.   In this program these executives explain the difficulties of having to adapt constantly to an ever-changing sector and the advantages of being part of a new generation of business.

A very engaging interview from MeetTheBoss.tv on the new way in which marketing and brand organisations have to work with today’s technology and digitalisation.  Chuck Brymer, who was elected President & CEO of DDB Worldwide in 2006 gives his insight to the ever-advancing nature of marketing which runs parallel and works hand-in-hand with the new types of social networking and telecommunications.  In this interview he highlights the importance of keeping people engaged with the product and acknowledge their feedback and authorise their participation to improve it: “You no longer own that property.  It’s owned by your customers.”  Brymer explains, in this way brand managing is not invasive and is a 2-way dialogue solely between the customer and the company, B2C.

Learn from the experts, sign up and watch for FREE at MeetTheBoss.tv

Putting the 'Social' in Social Media

Paul Gillin of IDG recently surveyed 55 marketers, including many at b-to-b companies, about their satisfaction with social media tools. While the results aren't statistically valid, they yield some interesting insight on how the media landscape has changed. 

Respondents said that in 2006 their companies were using an average of less than one social media platform each. By last year, the average had swelled to more than eight. Equally interesting were the satisfaction ratings. Just two of the 55 respondents said they perceived the ROI on their social media investments to be negative, while 46 rated it somewhat or very positive.

There's both good and bad news in these trends. Businesses have clearly turned the corner in their adoption of social platforms, but the rush to join the party indicates that they may be reverting to the mass-market mentality that social marketing explicitly rejects.

The mindset of mass has been ingrained in the marketing conscience for a century. In a world in which the only efficient way to relay a message to a small number of people who cared was to bother a large number of others who didn't, big media was the only game in town.

Online media have flipped this equation. Success is now defined by the ability to establish meaningful conversations about very specific topics. Quality displaces quantity, and relationships replace messages. 

A lot of marketers are having a hard time grasping this because they spent so many years doing the opposite. They see new channels as a way to build another mass audience for the same old messages. They wear their Twitter follower count as a badge of honor. They miss the point. 

Social media are called social for a reason. They are a means to create relationships between individuals. Human resources professionals at Sodexo Worldwide have learned this. The big food service and facilities management company has all but discarded job boards in favor of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a variety of conversational tools. The reason: They found that initiating conversations with applicants before moving them into the recruitment funnel improved both recruiter efficiency and candidate enthusiasm. Along the way, the volume of applications jumped 25% in two years, while recruitment ad spending dropped $300,000. 

The new challenge for b-to-b marketers will be to exploit the potential of social media to create connections between all their employees and all their constituents. This will present enormous governance issues as we begin to “media-train” entire companies instead of just a few individuals. That's a topic for future columns. For now, the challenge is to discard the old economics of mass and embrace the value of one-to-one.

How To: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy

Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com.

Over the past few months, we’ve talked about whether you should have a social media policy and what should be included in that policy. It only seems logical to discuss the next step in the process, which is what to consider when implementing a social media strategy in your workplace.

Just having a policy isn’t good enough — you need a plan to put it in place. Here are five areas to discuss when implementing a social media strategy.

Determine Your Objective:
Luis Ramos, CEO of The Network, reminds us that creating a social media strategy is a complex exercise because “it includes not only looking inside the organization to establish appropriate practices, usage policies and content parameters, but it also includes looking outside the organization to determine the proper degree of engagement."

Figure out why you’re getting on the social media bandwagon and what you want to accomplish with it. This step is absolutely necessary if you plan to measure ROI or develop your own internal metrics tracking.

When General Motors put together their social media strategy, they had some specific objectives they wanted to accomplish. Christopher Barger, director of global social media at General Motors, outlined the following:

• Become more responsive to people/consumer audiences
• Incorporate audience/consumer feedback into your organization more quickly and effectively than has happened traditionally
• Make your brand a little more “human” to the outside world, and show people the smarts, personality and passion of the people behind your logo
• Increase awareness of the strength of your current product lineup, and provide perspective/accurate information about your company
  

The other benefit of defining objectives is that they can guide the timetable for implementation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an organization’s list of objectives and knew there was no way they could implement everything at once or in the timeframe they intended. Having well-defined objectives can assist in prioritization and creating the best way to phase-in a social media strategy.


Developing objectives and a timetable could also prompt a conversation about content management. Ramos suggests including in the strategy the position responsible for updating content as well as the update frequency. “Many organizations have grand plans of updating content on a regular basis only to quickly run out of topics, leaving content to become stale. As a best practice, a specific employee is typically assigned to create and manage the company’s social media pages, so he/she can respond to messages and questions within 24 hours.”

Find an Internal Evangelist:
This is a constant source of discussion right now on the Internet, but the bottom line is, some department needs to “own” social media. Lots of departments might be consulted when it comes to decision making, but ultimately someone has to be held accountable for the outcomes.



Which department ultimately gets the responsibility could be dependent upon the size of your organization and corporate culture. For example, Barger says social media at General Motors is “owned within the communications team, reporting up through the Vice President of Communications, who reports directly to the Chairman/CEO. Social media leadership has a seat at the communications leadership table and acts as an integral part of the larger corporate communications function.”


Smaller organizations might not have that amount of structure, so responsibility might simply fall to sales or marketing.

Another option to consider is using external resources (i.e. consultants) for certain aspects of the strategy and internal resources for the rest. Barger explains, “We use internal resources whenever possible; given that two of GM’s main goals are to become more responsive to the public and to incorporate insight back into the organization, these are things we can only effectively do if it is our team who are engaged. We use agency partners for monitoring/measurement, for identifying new opportunities and new influencers for us to reach out to, for video production, and for counsel on tactics/strategy.”

Consider Your Employees:
This is a biggie. Organizations need to understand their employees’ level of knowledge and interest. Offer training. And one noteworthy item for non-profits is to think about your volunteer base. Diane Gomez, public relations manager for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), mentions that not only is PRSA staff involved, but volunteers are as well. “This includes monitoring and interacting with members (and nonmembers) who reach out to us via these channels, and is in addition to pushing out information of interest to our members.”


In addition to posting GM’s social media policy, Barger explains several things the company did to convey the company’s approach. “We posted a 45-minute ‘Social Media 101’ interactive training course on the intranet that gives employees the basics on how/why/where to engage in social media. Additionally, we developed a ‘201’ level ‘train-the-trainer’ course that introduces more complete tools and tips. Those who’ve taken this course are authorized to train others within their departments on the basics of social media.

Finally, we have an internal blog, ‘Making Conversation,’ that focuses on sharing lessons we’re learning through social media outreach.” Though she’s the president of a smaller firm, Crystal Kendrick used a similar approach with The Voice of Your Customer. “Our employees are very social media savvy and understand how to technically use the sites. We discussed the spirit of the policy and reviewed examples of ineffective social media policies. Training for our employees focused on the strategic and professional applications of the social media sites. We use ‘key word rich’ content, approved messages and in some cases, scheduled time for posting.”



Gomez added they are encouraging staff to participate in social media on behalf of the organization. “We are looking to establish an overall strategy that departments will follow when deciding when and how to use social media.” I’ve found many companies developing job aids, such as flow charts or decision trees, to help employees determine when and how to respond to blogs and inquiries on other social networking sites.

Check Your Tech:
While most social media doesn’t need a huge technology investment, you should still take a look at the technology capabilities of your company and make sure the system can support the strategy.



As Ramos reminds us, this includes making sure social media applications aren’t hidden behind firewalls. “Before any social media components are engaged, there needs to be an understanding across the organization of the following:

• Who will have access to the sites?
• Are there any firewalls that would prevent access?
• What are the rules about time spent and content posted on the sites?

Listen First:
A lot can be learned by watching others. Don’t be afraid to ask questions on and offline so you can learn more.



Barger encourages companies to remember “that few ideas should be rejected out of hand; not everything is going to work, but in 95% of the cases, even if something doesn’t work there is value to be gained and lessons to be learned from the ‘failure.’ The only exceptions to this rule are efforts that would contradict the basic etiquette and/or rules of social media – transparency, openness, authenticity, and avoiding ‘pure traditional marketing’ plays, etc.”


According to Kendrick, “The first few weeks were a bit hectic.” Like GM, they began to share best practices among employees, identify expert users to follow and recommend connections. She notes, “We matched our target customers to the demographics of our connections and identified gaps in our networks. From there, we began to focus on making connections with persons in target companies, industries and geographic regions and joined groups and lists of industry groups to ensure that we maximized our exposure and business opportunities.”

Conclusion:
During 2010, more companies are expected to explore and engage in social media activities. While some might categorize using a social networking application as easy, that doesn’t mean developing a strategy is simple. Proper planning and execution is the key to integrating social media into your organization.



What are some other key factors in developing a social media strategy? Be sure to post your thoughts and ideas on this blog.

Goals vs. Objectives and Strategy

First, lets give a quick clarification of definitions. Goals are your general intentions, the big picture aims or you or your company.

Your objectives are the outcomes that represent achievement of that goal. Things you can actually observe. In order to be classified as an objective, you have to measure them. You need a way of defining whether you have or have not completed them successfully.

Strategies are the action plans you’ll execute to reach the objective. Tactics are the pieces and parts of the strategy:

• GOAL: To increase our company’s footprint through participation in social media.
• OBJECTIVES: Increase our blog subscribers by 15% in 6 months. Grow our LinkedIn connections by 250 members (a 25% increase) by the end of the year. Establish a Facebook Page with 500 fans within 6 months to 9 months
• STRATEGIES: Develop a strategy or set of strategies for each one. It is a roadmap for how you will get there.

So that is the set hierarchy. Set these rules in place for 2010 to increase your exposure to the world and build your social media portfolio.