A Wednesday post from Brian Solis drew some interesting conclusions about social media based on a May 2010 study by Digital Brand Expressions. His overarching theme? Social media is greater than the sum of its parts. Very true.
I want to focus on one particular statistic. The research found that only 29% of companies are introducing protocols and policies for the usage of social media by specific departments.
It isn’t a surprising statistic, but one that I think will change significantly in the years to come. Nothing against anybody with the job of Social Media Manager (or someone that works at a small business where there aren’t enough people to have specific departments), but the most effective way to make use of social media tools is to spread usage across multiple departments.
Social media shouldn’t be its own department. It is a tool that can be utilized to great benefit by the people in each facet of your business. Your customer service team will have very different goals from your marketing team, but those objectives can be met with assistance from a smart and specific social media strategy that uses the available platforms and technology.
So who is currently using social media the most?
Quoting statistics from the new study, Solis says: “As experience matures, social media extends and in many cases, ‘socializes’ each sector. At the moment however, a land grab is in full effect with marketing taking the lead as the area responsible for the creation and management of social media plans. In fact, 71% of respondents stated such with communications representing 29% , the executive team accounting for 16% and sales and IT tied with 10%.”
In an Econsultancy November 2009 report that asked the question about each companies’ specific labor division as a part of the whole, 35% of companies surveyed managed their social media resources under the digital marketing team, the PR/communications departments came in with 21% of respondents, while the customer service team represented only 2%. Of course the other options for answers were different, so it’s hard to draw any direct correlation in these two studies.
The big takeaway is this: Social media is here to stay and each company has the challenge of dividing up its resources in a way that makes sense for what it is trying to achieve.
As social media continues to morph over time, companies need to change as well. Nobody should expect one person (or even one team) to handle every single social media initiative in one company. The members of each department will bring their own expertise and experience to the table, so merge the existing tools with that knowledge base to come up with the best possible strategies for each department.
How is your company sharing its social media duties?
